Summary: The prophecy of Haggai 2:1-9 pertains to natural and spiritual Israel.
Discussion: Haggai 2:3 (NKJV), “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now?” This verse is saying that some Jews were still alive who had seen the former (Solomon’s) Temple. Those remaining had to be at least seventy years old as they were taken into captivity by Babylon 70 years ago.
Haggai 2:6-7, 9 (NKJV), 6 “For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; 7 and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. … 9 ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.”
Haggai is writing about the time of trouble, Armageddon, or the end times. The Apostle Paul explains these scriptures in Hebrews 12:26-28 (RSV), 26 “His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.’ 27 “This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe’”.
In Haggai 2:9, the latter glory (after Armageddon) of the house (temple) is referring to the glorious spiritual temple of the Lord. Faithful Christians are “…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:20-22 (NKJV).
In Christ’s kingdom on earth, Jesus and His bride will be the spiritual rulers and the faithful believers from the Old Testament will be the human representatives. As Isaiah 2:2-3 reads, “…in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established…and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go…, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion (heavenly Jerusalem) shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem (natural Jerusalem).”
