The Coming Glory Of The Temple

In 520 BC, the prophet Haggai (Hag-eye) recorded four messages to the Jewish people of Jerusalem, eighteen years after their return from exile in Babylon (538 BC).

Haggai 2:3 seems to indicate that the prophet had seen Jerusalem in all her glory, before the destruction of the temple, and the exile in 586 BC…meaning Haggai was more than seventy years old by the time he delivered his prophecies.

From these facts, the picture of Haggai begins to come into focus.

* He was an older man looking back on the triumphs of his nation

* He was a prophet infused with a passionate desire to see his people rise up from the ashes of exile and reclaim their rightful place as God’s light to the nations.

Haggai’s prophecy came at a time when the people of Judah were extremely vulnerable.

* They had been dragged off into captivity by the Babylonians and humbled by it.

* Many of them had experienced the joy of returning to their Promised Land but as they tried to rebuild their temple, Ezra chapter four tells us, they became discouraged by opposition and the work ceased (vs. 24)

* Now, sixteen years later, (after they had gone through the Lord’s chastening for not finishing the job-Haggai 1:6, 9-11) the Jews were receptive to the message of rebuilding the Lord’s house.

The Prophet Haggai’s message from the Lord was plain and simple: It’s time to get back to the Lord’s work.

By the time we get to chapter two, we hear the second of Haggai’s three messages from the Lord.

Hag 2:3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

When Zerubbabel and Ezra attempted the first rebuilding of the temple, there were those still living who remembered Solomon's temple…the original temple…that Solomon built, with the best talent and spared no expense.

The book of Ezra reported that those who remember the temple in its former glory wailed so hard you couldn’t tell the difference between those who shouted for joy and those who wept. (Ezra 3:12-13)

Haggai encouraged the people in the second attempt at rebuilding the temple…yet there were those who took a fatalistic view of the project…still believing that they would never build a temple like Solomon’s. They had lost even the will to try.

Over the last three years we have seen an economic boom in the United States…

* The unemployment rate dropped to 3.6%, the lowest in five decades.

* Average hourly earnings had increased.

* Americans from every demographic were finding success in what has been called, “Trump’s economy”.

Now we see just the opposite. One news agency reported that April 2020 experienced “the biggest monthly decline since 1946.”

Just like in Haggai’s day, we have people who are old enough or sharp enough to have experienced the U.S.A. in her glory days.

Back in Haggai 2:3 God says to those who were old enough to have seen Jerusalem in her glory days: “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes”?

In other words, God, who knows all, is telling His people that He knew what they were thinking. He knew that they were comparing what was, with what is, and what might be.

Some of them had witnessed and experienced the grandeur of Solomon’s temple and now were ashamed of the pathetic building they were attempting to construct.

It was like downsizing from a BMW M5 to a Hyundai Accent.

What God’s people were forgetting is that anything they could build (whether Solomon’s temple or Zerubbabel’s temple) is not worthy of God.

Solomon recognized this in his dedication prayer of the first temple. He says in his prayer, “But who is able to build a temple for God, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him?” (2 Chronicles 2:6)

Haggai cautioned the people against comparing what they were attempting to do with what someone else did in the past…comparing what was to what it. Today, we need to be careful that we don’t fall into that same trap.

Perhaps we need to be asked a similar question as the Lord, through Haggai, asked His people:

“Who is left among you who saw this nation in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes”?

Our nation is in a mess.

* Many businesses have suffered first-quarter losses. Location closures

* Loss of customers

* Supply chain interruptions

* Production delays

* Workforce changes

* Loss of contracts

* Market value declines

Many are thinking that businesses that were started 10, 20, 40 years ago will not be the same as they used to be, so why even try to do anything about it?