SUMMARY
Haggai reassures the people who remember the glory of the First Temple that the LORD will “shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land” and will bring the treasure of the nations to Jerusalem to make the Second TempleThe Jerusalem temple, unlike the tabernacle, was a permanent structure, although (like the tabernacle) it was a place of worship and religious activity. On one occasion Jesus felt such activity was unacceptable and, as reported in all four Gospels, drove from the temple those engaged... more glorious than the first.
ANALYSIS
The First Temple in Jerusalem, built by King Solomon, was made of stones and cedar and overlaid with gold (1 Kings 7). There were those in Jerusalem in Haggai’s time who remembered Solomon’s temple, and they were apparently dismayed by the relative modesty of the Second Temple. In answer, Haggai prophesies that the LORD will “shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land” and “all the nations,” so that the treasure of the nations will come to Jerusalem and adorn the Second Temple. The prophet is recalling the despoiling of Egypt during the Exodus (Gen 15:14; Exodus 3:21-22; Exodus 12:36). The Israelites and the mixed multitude with them donated a portion of this wealth of nations to build the tabernacleThe tabernacle, a word meaning "tent," was a portable worship place for the Hebrew people after they left Egypt. It was said to contain the ark of the covenant. The plans for the tabernacle are dictated by God in Exodus 26. and many of the ritual objects used in the First Temple (Exodus 35:20-36:7). In the same way, the Second Temple would be endowed by foreign wealth. But this rebuilt temple will be even more glorious than the First Temple.
God sought to reassure the post-exilic community of the continuity of the divine presence from ancient times. The prophet proclaims that the word that God spoke to the generation that emerged from Egypt, that God would live among them, still stands, and that God’s Spirit will remain with the returned exiles, just as the Spirit lived among their ancestors (v5).
Part of Haggai 2:6 is quoted in Hebrews 12:26 to refer to the coming of God’s heavenly kingdom.
