Thru the Bible

Guest (Male): Hard times, we all face them. And maybe you feel like you're standing between a rock and a hard place. Welcome to Thru the Bible, where today we're going to learn that even in difficult places, we can stand in the love of God. In this study, we'll see that God's love sometimes includes a bit of hammering and chiseling—all part of his work, though, to shape us into the image of Jesus.

So be encouraged; God is at work in your life. Now, in our five-year journey through the whole Word of God, we've arrived at Haggai chapter two. But before we jump in, here's another of Dr. McGee's special introductions on the judgments found in Scripture.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: We've come today to the judgment of the Gentile nations. Now, this is something that was quite evident in the book of Daniel. The people of Israel at that time were in captivity, and Daniel was given the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and then he himself had the dream. God confirmed it to him because he was concerned.

It was an image that Nebuchadnezzar saw because he understood a great deal about idolatry. He gave to Daniel the inner characteristics of the nations and they were that of wild beasts. There was, first of all, a lion, and then we end up with a beast that's nondescript and that's the kingdom that's yet to come. It is the putting together of the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire never died. It lives today in Europe in all the nations that are there, and there'll come one who will put that back together again. Now, God judged even at that time those nations, and he said something that to me is one of the most unusual things that the Lord's ever said to us. And it's in Daniel 4:17.

He says, "This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men." That's an unusual thing for God to say, but that's what he said.

And so there is coming a judgment of nations. The Lord Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, in verse 31, he says, "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left."

Now, there's a great deal today of discussion about this passage of Scripture, whether he's talking about the corporate nation or whether the individuals in the nation. I'm not about to get interested in that. Regardless of what it is, it's nations that are brought before him, and the nations are to be judged. It is something that the Old Testament had made very clear—that God was going to judge the Gentiles.

We're told in Isaiah 60, verse 3: "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." And then in chapter 61, he says, "But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves."

So all the way through here, we see the judgment of Gentiles, and here it is mentioned. Now, the strange thing about it to me is they are judged on an unusual issue, and that is their relation to Israel. And they didn't know about it. They say, "Well, when did I see you hungry? And when did I see you thirsty? I don't remember doing that."

And the question would naturally arise and can well be asked: What matter, what issue is of such great world importance that it can determine the destiny of nations, and yet the nations don't know anything about that? Well, here it is. It is their relationship to the nation Israel. And no nation today recognizes God's going to judge them on that kind of basis, and yet he is. And that's the basis on which he will judge Gentile nations.

This is a tremendous thing, and it is something that I have to admit is just not considered very much today. But when God chose these people, he said at the very beginning, in Deuteronomy 7:6, "Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." And there it is in black and white.

And that's the thing that God says—that he intends to judge the nations of the world. And that takes place at the end of the Great Tribulation when he comes to set up his kingdom here upon this earth. A judgment of nations, those that shall enter the kingdom.

Guest (Male): Let's commit this time to the Lord. Thank you for your word, Heavenly Father. Thank you for your promises that it'll never return void, but it'll accomplish your purpose in this world and in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's turn to Haggai 2 as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now today, we come to the fifth verse of the second chapter of Haggai. And you will recall that the people were greatly disturbed, that is, the people who had seen the first temple. They saw this second temple and it didn't seem to be very impressive and there was no comparison. And God encouraged them. Remember he said to them, "Be strong and work."

And then he said, "I'm with you." And now in verse 5, he continues along this same line. He says, "According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear not." In other words, though the Shekinah glory had departed during the time of the first temple—and we suggested last time it might be during the reign of Manasseh—that is, the last days of that old temple.

It was just nothing in the world but a very ornate building that was deserted of the presence of God. Now God says to them, "My spirit is still with you." Though this new building may not be impressive, my spirit is among you, I should say, or with you; it doesn't make any difference how you translate it here. "My spirit remaineth among you: fear not."

Now this, of course, reveals to us the difference between the Old Testament and New Testament as to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He was among the people in that day; he is in believers today. He certainly changed position. That is one of the wonderful benefits of the believer in Christ. If they had no reason to fear, certainly the child of God should not fear.

Now, he continues on in verse 6, "For thus saith the Lord 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." Now verse 7, "And 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." Now, I think that first of all, we need to recognize that what God is doing here is getting their minds and hearts and eyes off of that which is local, that which is very limited, and get their eyes fixed on God's program for these people—that is, out yonder in the future, extending all the way into the millennium.

And that is very important to see, because it's so easy for us to get the wrong perspective of the Christian life. We get our nose pressed right up to the window of the present, and we don't see anything else. As someone has put it, you can put a dime over your eye and blot out the sun. Well, that dime is like the present. It blots out God's plan and purpose for our lives. Don't be discouraged because present circumstances and present things are not working out for you. Recognize that for the child of God, all things work together for good—that is, a good that's off yonder in the distance.

Now, he says here he intends to shake the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. In other words, God intends to move in judgment. And we're going to see before we finish this little book, he's moving forward and speaking of the Great Tribulation, which is the Day of the Lord, and the coming of Christ to the earth, which is part of the Day of the Lord, and the setting up of the millennial temple.

Now, actually what you have here is something I think very important for us to see. And he says, "I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." Now, the way that the Lord looked at it was that there was first Solomon's temple, there was Zerubbabel's temple. And then Zerubbabel's temple was torn down by Herod. And then there was built the temple that was called Herod's temple. And Herod's temple was part of the second temple, by the way.

Now into that temple came the Lord Jesus Christ. And may I say that the glory was there, although in human flesh. Then after that, the temple was destroyed even before it was finished in 70 AD by Titus. Now on that spot, there's been built no temple from that day to this. Actually, on that spot is the Mosque of Omar today. And I tell you, the Islamic world would never permit that to be removed because that's either the second or the third holiest spot in the world of Islam.

Muhammadanism pays a great deal of attention to that spot there. But there will be built later the temple that we designate the Great Tribulation temple. And then after that, there will be a millennial temple that will be built there. Now when God looks at it, he sees only one house. It's a series of houses, but he looks at it as one house, one temple.

And therefore he says the day is coming when this house will be filled with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. And he's going to shake all nations. I tell you today, it's very difficult to believe they could be more shaken than they have been in the past, well, in this century, for that matter. This century was practically ushered in by the First World War. That was rather world-shaking. And then there've been quite a few earth-shaking events since then.

A worldwide depression, World War II, and then since then there have been such tremendous things that have happened, including the oil situation, the energy shortage. It's really shaken all nations, but that's nothing that is in my judgment compared to the shaking that is coming in the future. And God says, "I'm going to fill this house with glory."

And I believe that the Shekinah glory will come with Christ when he returns to the earth. I believe that is the interpretation of his statement in the Olivet Discourse when he says, "Then shall be seen the sign of the Son of man in heaven." And then immediately after that, in the next verse, he speaks of the glory of the Lord. Well, I think that it will again be seen there in the temple.

We call it the Great Tribulation temple, but I want to tell you, when he comes and occupies that, it won't be a Great Tribulation temple that's in rebellion against him with an image that's put in it of the Antichrist, but himself will be present there. Now, he says, "And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come." Now, the commentators from the very beginning, in fact the early church fathers, they interpreted the desire of all nations to be Christ.

Well, very frankly, that disturbed me when I began as a young preacher because, to tell the truth, I never could think that Christ is the desire of all nations. Now, I recognize that there are those that look to the coming of Christ, and they try to say it's the longing of all nations for a deliverer. Well, that may be true—that the world would like a deliverer. But who are they going to accept when he comes? It'll be Antichrist.

Antichrist is the world's messiah, the world's savior, and they will accept him when he comes. I do not think that there's any desire for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I think this passage makes it very clear what he's talking about. I think if we just keep reading—and that is the difficulty, I think, in interpretation today. It's so easy to lift a verse of Scripture out of its context and actually make it mean the contrary of what is really spoken of.

And I'm going to read it all together now. Verses 7 and 8, I'm reading: "And 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. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts." All right, what is the desire of all nations? Well, it's silver and gold. That's the desire of all nations.

And many nations have had to go off of the gold standard, and the minute that they did, it rocked the economic situation and foundation of the entire world when that takes place. Why? Because there is still a desire for gold and silver. Now when the first temple was built, anywhere from five million to twenty million dollars of precious metals and gold and jewels was in that temple.

It was very valuable. And it would look, if you read the historical record in Kings and Chronicles, as if Solomon cornered the gold market of that day. And instead of having all the gold in wherever it is today—I think it's slipped out of the cave up here in Kentucky and it's probably scattered around, maybe Russia has part of it, I don't know—but we don't seem to have too much of it. But that's the desire of all nations.

Now Solomon had that, and that was used in decorating the first temple. Now that has all been taken away. You remember the ambassadors of Babylon came up in Hezekiah's reign, and they were shown around. And believe me, they made a note of that. And when they got back, they told Nebuchadnezzar where all the gold was. It was up there and Hezekiah had most of it. So that was the reason that this man Nebuchadnezzar was anxious to make a visit up there. It enabled him to get the gold, and it was moved then to Babylon.

Now when they rebuilt the temple, Zerubbabel's temple as this one is called, there was no gold to put on it and no silver on it. And that was the thing that some of these people were complaining about. You remember many of them that had seen the first temple, they wept because in contrast, this temple didn't seem to be very much; in fact, it was nothing as compared to the other. Someone has written a lovely little poem on this, and I think probably this is the proper place to pass it on to you.

Because you remember when they put it up that feast day, the people began to shout, the young did, but the old folk had seen the first temple and they began to weep, you see. Now, here is the poem: "Mid blended shouts of joy and grief were laid the stones whereon the exiles' hopes were based. Then foes conspired, the king's courage retraced, his throne against the enterprise arrayed. And now self-seeking apathy invade all hearts. The pulse grows faint, the will unbraced."

"They rear their houses, let God's house lie waste. So heaven from dew and earth from fruit are stayed. There comes swift messenger from higher court, with rugged message of divine import. Your ways consider; be ye strong and build. With greater glory shall this house be filled. He touched their conscience, and their spirit stirred, to nerve their hands for work, their loins regird."

And so these people, you see, are told that there's to be a greater glory than that of silver and of gold. And God says in the last days, you can be sure of one thing: that the temple will be redecorated in a very wonderful way. Because he says, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts."

Now, I want to change several things here that we might understand. First of all, the silver and gold is mine, saith the Lord, and there'll be plenty of it to adorn God's house. And I think the millennial temple is going to be a thing of beauty, by the way, quite remarkable. And what he's saying here, it's not the glory of this latter house, but he says the latter glory of this house. Which means the series of houses he looks at as one, and that millennial temple, the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former.

It'll be greater than Solomon's even, and certainly greater than the one that they were building. And in this place, that is in that temple area, God says, "Will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." Now let me put it like this: in that temple area—and I've never been to Jerusalem that I didn't go to the temple area, although I've seen it nearly a dozen times—I still like to go there.

Do you know why? That will accomplish what the United Nations in New York's been trying to do, and the League of Nations tried to do. That's going to bring peace on the earth. When Jesus Christ comes to this earth, his feet will touch the Mount of Olives, and when he enters that temple area, then peace is coming to this earth, for he is the Prince of Peace. And that's the peace that he will bring at that time.

Now, the peace that he's talking of here means finally that. I think it could mean because when he came the first time, he came to bring peace to men of goodwill—that is, men who are rightly related to God. They know their sins are forgiven. And as Paul put it in Romans 5:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And then there is a peace for the Christian's heart today, a peace that passeth all understanding. And he came the first time to bring that kind of peace. But my friend, he's coming to bring world peace, the kind of peace that this world wants and needs.