The Pulpit Commentary — Haggai — Section 36

Vers. 6-9.-.The prophet's Messianic prophecy. In studying the Old Testament, it is deeply interesting to trace therein the ~a.dual development of the Messianic hope. Three distinct stages a.re observable. 1. From the promise made at the Fall (Gen. iii. 15) nntil the death of Moses. The indefinite promise respecting" the Seed of the woman" was ma.de more definite in the promise to Abraham (Gen. xii. 3), and was revealed still more explicitly in "the Prophet" who wa.s declared by Moses as at length to arise, and who should be Law-giver, Ruler, a.nd Deliverer (Deut. xviii. 15). 2. During the reigns of David and Solomon, the idea of the Kingship of the Messiah. was developed, and this Divine royalty wa.s the theme of the Messianic psalms. 3. From Isaiah to Malachi we have a yet further unfolding, the Incarnation and Passion of the world's Redeemer being declared (see Liddon's Bampton Lectures on 'Our Lord's Divinity,' lect. ii.). The mission of Haggai bad special reference to encouraging the temple-builders in their arduous toil ; but the verses now before ns (vers. 6-9) connect him with this development of the Messianic anticipation, since only in the light of the Christian age can the full significance of biij teaching as contained here be realized. J. CoNBIDEB WHAT THIS PBOPHEOY PROBABLY SUGGESTED TO THE JEWS OF THIS SEER'S OWN TIME. 1. Freedom from the yoke of servitude. These returned exiles were under the power of the Persian monarch; a.nd they would understand their seer (vere. 6, 7) to mean that political agitation11 wonld soon occur among the nations, a.n~ which their God wonld overrule to the effecting of their enfranchisement. 2. 'l'he temple they were rearing to become enriched with material wea.Hh. "And the desire of all nations shall come," etc. ( vers. 7, 8). " Chemdah signifies desire, then the object of desire, tha.t in which a man finds pleasure and joy, valuables. Chemdath haggiiyim is therefore the valuable possessions of the heathen, or, according to ver. 8, their gold and silver or their treasures and riches. The thought is the fqllowing: That shaking will be followed by this result, or produce this effect, that all the. valuable possessions of the heathen will come to fill the temple with glory " (Keil. and Delitzsch, on 'The Minor Prophets,' vol. ii. 193, 194). 3. A time of settled peace and prosperity (ver. 9). This restricted apprehension of the meaning underlying the wophet's words would cheer the hearts of the builders and impel them to ren.ewed endeavour. IJ. CoNSIDEB THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THIB PROPHECY DURING THE LATEB JEWISH AGE. We know that the national convulsions hinted at in the prophecy did arise-that Persia was subdued by Greece; that Greece was shaken into fragments at the death of Alexander ; and that the Eastern world became the prey of Rome; and we know also that whilst these conflicts were going on the Jews,rospered, and material wealth flowed into their temple, the heathen, with the decay o their systems, coming and consecrating their possessions to the Lord of hosts. Nor were tokens wanting OH, 11, 1-23.J THE BOOK OF HAGGAI. 35