Haggai

and Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

Then he quotes Haggai 2.6. Look at this.

Let's just back up so we hear all of what he says here.

Verse 1 and 6 is going to be the key of where we're going to be in because that's what he's quoting.

On the 21st day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through Haggai, the prophet, saying, Speak to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtel, governor of Judah, and Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and also the remnant of the people.

Ask them, who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not appear to you like nothing in comparison? But now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord.

Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord.

What a blessing it is for us to partake of the sacrament each week! The sacrament also prepares us to make and keep temple covenants.

We can draw insight about the importance and blessings of the temple covenants as we read the account of Prophet Haggai in the Old Testament.

The Lord had commanded the Israelites to rebuild the temple, but they did not make it a priority.

Displeased with them, the Lord said, Consider your ways.

This temple was the most magnificent building which the world ever saw.

Yet the Lord had declared by the prophet Haggai concerning the second temple, The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former.

I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.

After the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, it was rebuilt about 500 years before the birth of Christ, by a people who from a lifelong captivity had returned to a wasted and almost deserted country.

The ark, the mercy seat, and the tables of the testimony were not to be found therein.

No voice sounded from heaven to make known to the inquiring priest the will of Jehovah.

For centuries the Jews had vainly endeavored to show wherein the promise of God given by Haggai had been fulfilled, yet pride and unbelief blinded their minds to the true meaning of the prophet's words.

The second temple was not honored with the cloud of Jehovah's glory, but with the living presence of one in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily, who was God himself manifest in the flesh.

So when I got back from the Middle East and from Rome, and I'm realizing, you know, the prophet Haggai said from the very beginning, the silver is mine, the gold is mine.

And I've watched empires now journey from Jerusalem, 70 AD, boom, dispersed and destroyed, then restored again in 1948, right? Watched Rome walking in the ruins.

It was kind of sobering to see just the ruins of this once mighty civilization, but Christianity is a global force that's come up.

I want you to know God's going to be shaking the earth, bless also the heaven.

If you want to go to the quote, it goes to Haggai, Haggai the prophet.

And what Haggai says is God's going to shake the earth and the heaven and the nations.

That means earth will be shaken when the heavenlies get shaken.

And who's getting shaken in heaven? Well, it's interesting because it says here that once more denoting the removing of those things which can be shaken as of creative things that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Our next sermon is entitled God is the Measure of Glory.

upon the first reading that we heard today taken from the book of the prophet Haggai.

Haggai was a prophet raised during the time of the exile of the Israelites, thus in Old Testament times.

The Israelites were placed into exile a remnant, to be more correct, a remnant of Israelites was placed in exile, taken into exile, because of their infidelity, because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord.

The Lord entered into a covenant with his chosen people.

Why? Because he had a greater plan, and the Savior of the world was to come through that line.

It's God's goodness that he preserves any of us, for we all have been unfaithful to a greater or lesser degree.

So this prophet Haggai was raised up by God during the time of exile, and what is it that he was commended by God to do? He was to tell the Israelites, time to go back.

Plenty of people suffered.

What makes him the Messiah? Well, we understand from Daniel, Haggai, and Malachi, those combined witnesses.

We won't get into it in depth here because we've done a whole lot of videos and written a lot on it.

From those books that the Messiah had to come before the second temple was destroyed.

The best overall translation that gets more meaning right is probably messages of the divine word.

The prophets Haggai and Malachi were called Mahalik.

I can see the K. Elohim.

So the distinctions between Malachi, Elohim, and Yehovah are often blurred in Scripture.