Haggai 2:6

"For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations; and the precious things of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith Jehovah of hosts."

"I will shake the heavens ... earth ... sea ... and dry land ..." We hold these words to be unequivocally a reference to the final Judgment that shall close the age of probation for the human race. Some have interpreted the passage to mean that God would topple powers, governments, institutions, and social systems; but that is what he promised to do in Haggai 2:7 (the very next verse), where he declared, "And I will shake all nations!" Two very different events are in view. The first is the final advent of Christ in the final judgment. The second, "the shaking of all nations" is the kind of upheaval among governments and societies that some suppose is meant by the first series of expressions. This is a most important distinction. It should be observed that in the first event prophesied here, "the heavens" also are to be shaken. One wonders what "earthly powers" could be meant by that! This is mentioned first and is the principal feature of the whole passage, as indicated by the quotation and emphasis upon it by the inspired writer of Hebrews who wrote:

"Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but the heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain (Hebrews 12:26,27)."

Thus, the inspired New Testament confirms our understanding of this passage in Haggai as a reference to eternal judgment and the cosmic disturbances that shall mark the onset of that event. F. F. Bruce also received this interpretation of it:

"When, in accordance with the divine promise, this cosmic convulsion takes place, when (in Dryden's words)

The last and dreadful hour

This crumbling pageant shall devour - the whole material universe will be shaken to pieces, and the only things to survive will be those that are unshakable."[7]

"Yet once more ..." raises the question of what was the first occasion of God's shaking the earth and the heavens, etc.? Keil construed this as a reference to Sinai and the earthquake that marked the giving of the Law to Moses. "It is a reference to the shaking of the world at the descent of Jehovah upon Sinai to establish the giving of the covenant to Israel."[8] This is quite obviously the same construction that the author of Hebrews placed upon the passage. Note also the deduction in Hebrews to the effect that the second "shaking" is to be infinitely more violent than the first, even to the extent of removing the material things that are shaken. Keil also agreed fully with this:

"The approaching shaking of the world will be much more violent; it will affect the heaven and the earth in all their parts, the sea and the solid ground, and also the nations. The visible creation of the whole world will be altered."[9]

"In a little while ..." These words are a problem for some. Does not this indicate that all of Haggai's prophecy is to take place at some near date in the future from the time he wrote? No indeed. The reference is to the manner of God's looking upon "time." An identical expression was used in Revelation 6:11 to indicate the total period of human probation. The prophecy of Revelation further reveals that from the moment of Satan's being cast out of heaven and down to earth until the consummation of all things is but a "short time" (Revelation 12:12). Thus, Haggai's "little while" is the same as John's "little time," and "short time." In the cosmic view, it will indeed be but a short time until God concludes the affairs of men.

Before leaving Haggai 2:6, it is appropriate to notice that when God speaks of the redemption of men, it is always done in prospect of Final Judgment and God's execution of his wrath upon rebellious humanity. Why is that? God's salvation always means salvation from that final wrath, the survival of the redeemed through the event of that terminal catastrophe, and their endowment with eternal life and glory; hence the dramatic reference to the Judgment here.

"And I will shake all nations ..." This beginning of Haggai 2:7 is not necessarily to be understood as a part of the prophecy of the Last Day, although, of course, the nations of men will indeed be "shaken up" by the events of that terminal Assize, when "all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him ... and cry for the rocks and the mountains to hide them." As is characteristic of practically all of the prophecies of the Final Judgment, this one also mingles revelations with it that would appear to have their primary fulfillment in the kingdom of Christ, which is the Church. The latter part of Haggai 2:7 is apparently just such a revelation.

"The precious things of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory ..." To limit this to the Final Judgment would apply the words to the Holy City coming down out of heaven into which the kings of the earth shall bring their treasure (Revelation 21:21). Regardless of that ultimate fulfillment, there were many lesser and more immediate fulfillments of this part of the promise. Not only did the kings of the earth aid the Jews in the building of their Second Temple, but in the days of Herod the Great, that monarch did indeed spend the vast resources of his whole kingdom in the most costly and extravagant decorations of it. And then, looking beyond that, in the days of the spread of Christianity all over the world, the kingly riches that were lavished upon worship of Christ in his holy church truly stagger the imagination. But the glory of God's Temple (the Church) in this current dispensation does not consist of material wealth or elaborate meeting houses and costly decorations, the presence of Christ himself in the midst of his people ... THERE is the true glory of God's temple. This, of course, is the royal badge of the Church's glory: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of you" (Matthew 18:20). Therefore, we apply Haggai 2:7 to God's true temple, the Church of Jesus Christ. The fact of Haggai's apparent mingling of the two events is no problem at all. The final Judgment itself is part of this dispensation just like the Church, both of them standing in the prophecies of events of the "last days." The fusion of the gospel age and the Judgment is common in Biblical prophecy.

"The shaking of the nations ..." Before leaving Haggai 2:7, it must be pointed out that the "shaking of nations" is going on continually. There has hardly been a generation of men upon the earth that did not witness the rise and fall of human kingdoms; and according to Christ this is a situation that will not change (Matthew 24:6-9). The Red Horse of the Apocalypse did not make a foray into the earth and then go back to heaven! He still rides upon our unhappy planet. The seventh head of the great Scarlet Beast shall be succeeded by a period of the "ten horns," the multitude of kingdoms that shall eventually hate all religion.