Haggai 2:6,7

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary

Short Summary
The discourse explores the prophecy of Haggai 2:6-7, emphasizing a divine shaking of the heavens, earth, sea, dry land, and all nations as symbolic upheavals in spiritual powers, civil governments, social activists, stable society, and the general population. It highlights historical and contemporary fulfillments of these shakings, including corruption in church systems, political instability, social unrest, and societal divisions, while offering encouragement that the “desire of all nations”—peace and restoration—will come with God’s kingdom. The speaker concludes with practical lessons urging self-examination, detachment from material concerns, acceptance of divine correction, and spiritual purity in preparation for the coming fulfillment.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse on Haggai 2:6-7

Theme Text and Its Relevance:
The discourse centers on Haggai 2:6-7:
*”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, and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with the glory saith the LORD of hosts.”*
This prophecy is seen as particularly relevant to contemporary times, forecasting upheavals and the coming of God’s glory.

Context of the Prophecy:
– Haggai prophesied about 15 years after the Israelites returned from Babylonian captivity (~520 B.C.), after Cyrus the Great’s decree in 536 B.C.
– The land was devastated; even Solomon’s temple lay in ruins, causing heartbreak to returning exiles.
– Haggai’s message was to prioritize rebuilding God’s temple over personal homes, rebuking the people for focusing on their own sealed (ceilinged) houses first.

Summary of Haggai 1:1-11:
– The people said the time was not right to rebuild the Lord’s house.
– God, through Haggai, challenged them: their prosperity was limited because they neglected His house.
– The repeated phrase “consider your ways” calls for self-examination and realignment of priorities.
– God withheld blessings (drought, poor harvests) to motivate them to rebuild the temple.

Haggai 2:4-5 Encouragement:
– God encouraged Zerubbabel, Joshua the high priest, and the people to be strong and to work, promising His presence “according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt.”
– This covenant reminder points to the Exodus event where God’s presence was accompanied by a shaking of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:18), a significant precedent for the prophecy.

Elements of the Prophecy (Haggai 2:6-7):
– God will shake five elements: heavens, earth, sea, dry land, and all nations.
– These are symbolic and represent:
Heavens: Powers of spiritual control, i.e., nominal church systems.
Earth: Powers of earthly control, i.e., civil governments.
Sea: Restless, turbulent activist elements of society.
Dry land: Stable societal segments (middle and upper classes, corporations).
All nations: Ordinary people not included in the above categories.

Biblical Insight (Hebrews 12:26-27):
– Paul references the shaking at Sinai and promises a “yet once more” shaking of both heaven and earth, confirming Haggai’s prophecy applies to the last days.
– This shaking implies turmoil, fear, and upheaval leading to the removal of “things which cannot be shaken.”

Symbolism Explained (Based on Pastor Russell’s Harvest Message):
– Heaven = ecclesiastical institutions, not God’s literal dwelling place.
– Earth = government powers.
– Sea = restless masses and activist groups.
– Dry land = stable, satisfied social segments protecting their interests.
– All nations = everyone else, common people.

Current and Recent Fulfillments of the Prophecy:

1. Shaking of the Heavens (Church Systems):
– Thunder symbolizes shaking of churches (Psalm 77:18, Revelation 14:2).
– Revelation 18:2-3 describes Babylon the Great’s fall, paralleling the shaking of nominal churches.
– Examples include scandals in Catholic and Protestant churches:
– Vatican bank controversies (1970s).
– Child sexual abuse revelations (Boston Globe Spotlight, 2002).
– Secretive conclaves and political machinations in the Vatican.
– Moral relativism and loss of righteous standards are rampant; e.g., the Pope’s statement “Who am I to judge?” on homosexuality.
– Rise and fall of televangelists and new “churches” often led by self-enriching individuals (Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, Paula White, L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology).
– These events show the heavens are being violently shaken, leading toward destruction.

2. Shaking of the Earth (Civil Governments):
– The major shaking began with World War I in 1914, ending centuries of stable monarchies.
– Since then, continuous wars, revolutions, unstable governments (e.g., Italy’s 69 governments since WWII), and failed states (e.g., Haiti, parts of Africa).
– Even stable democracies face polarization and fractures, with political parties demonizing each other instead of compromising.
– Like literal earthquakes causing fissures and undulations, civil governments are fracturing and destabilizing, with economic and political volatility.
– The speaker advises neutrality in conflicts, observing without taking sides.

3. Shaking of the Seas (Restless Activist Elements):
– Literal seas are shaken by storms or tsunamis; symbolically, the seas represent societal activists and troublemakers.
– Historical examples:
– Haymarket Riot (Chicago, 1886).
– Labor struggles, race riots (1918 Chicago), Black Lives Matter protests, January 6 Capitol riots.
– Economic tensions leading to workplace violence.
– The symbolic tsunami is coming—small initially but growing into great upheaval.
– Believers are warned to be watchful and prepared.

4. Shaking of the Dry Land (Stable Society Elements):
– Stable segments (middle/upper classes, corporations, banks) are currently divided by social fault lines (race, class, education, politics).
– Recent alliances among governments, banks, and oligarchs to protect their interests as unrest encroaches.
– Retreats from programs like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) reflect defensive posture.
– Despite efforts to hold firm, the dry land is being shaken and will continue to be.

5. Shaking of All Nations (Common People):
– Includes all individuals outside the previously mentioned groups—ordinary people living day-to-day.
– Luke 21:26 describes men’s hearts failing from fear of coming events.
– Hebrew word “goy” means “Gentile,” i.e., everyone not part of Israel or the symbolic groups.
– They will experience destruction of their old way of life, preparing hearts for the Kingdom.

The Good News in Haggai 2:7:
– “The desire of all nations shall come” refers to the coming Kingdom that will bring peace, prosperity, health, happiness, resurrection, and eternal life.
– The kingdom is described as a perfect earth without sin, suffering, or sorrow (Volume 1, page 192):
– Perfect harmony, love, benevolence, and health.
– Resurrected humanity in perfection.
– The phrase “I will fill this house with glory” initially applied literally to Zerubbabel’s rebuilt temple, but symbolically it applies to the Lord and His church as the spiritual temple (2 Corinthians 6:16-17; 1 Peter 2:5).
– The glory represents the completed church and kingdom.

Character Lessons and Exhortations:
Stay above the fray: Avoid engaging in worldly conflicts and partisan strife.
Avoid agitation: As Brother Russell wrote, agitators breed discontent without benefit; peace should be the aim.
Consider your ways: Prioritize spiritual pursuits over material concerns.
Four practical suggestions:
1. Self-examination: Confront personal weaknesses, seek forgiveness, and resolve to improve.
2. Touch lightly the things of this earth: Avoid excessive attachment to material possessions and earthly stability.
3. Accept God’s chastening: Recognize trials as loving corrections redirecting efforts toward spiritual goals.
4. Maintain purity: Keep oneself undefiled and separate from worldly temptations (Isaiah 52:11).
– The time is short (“yet once a little while”); faithfulness until the end is urged.

Closing Prayer:
– The speaker prays for faithfulness and God’s blessing as the prophecy unfolds.

—

Key Bible Verses Mentioned:
– Haggai 2:6-7
– Haggai 1:1-11
– Haggai 2:4-5
– Exodus 19:18
– Hebrews 12:26-27
– Psalm 77:18
– Revelation 14:2; 18:2-3
– Isaiah 28:17
– 2 Corinthians 6:16-17
– 1 Peter 2:5
– Isaiah 52:11
– Luke 21:26

—

Keywords & Concepts:
– Haggai prophecy
– Shaking of heavens, earth, sea, dry land, nations
– Symbolism of heavenly and earthly powers
– Nominal church systems scandals
– Civil government instability and wars
– Restless activist movements and societal unrest
– Stable societal elements under stress
– Common people’s suffering and hope
– Kingdom of God as ultimate desire
– Spiritual temple vs. literal temple
– Self-examination, detachment from materialism
– Acceptance of divine chastening
– Purity and separation from worldliness
– Faithfulness and preparation for God’s kingdom

Transcript

A convention theme text is particularly well chosen for the times we live in Haggai 2,6,7 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, and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with the glory saith the LORD of hosts. For an overview of our discourse, first we’ll look at the context of our theme text. Next we’ll examine the elements of the prophecy and their symbolic meanings. Then we’ll look at current and recent events for fulfillments of the prophecy, and lastly, we’ll draw some character lessons for us today in the exhortations of Haggai as we see the unfolding of God’s plans and purposes in real time.

According to the words of verses 6 and 7, Haggai lived and wrote his prophecy about 15 years after the return of Israel from their captivity in Babylon, and that return was made possible by the decree of Cyrus the Great of Persia in 536 B.C. the land lay in ruins as a result of the Babylonian conquest. Homes, villages and fields were destroyed by the invaders, and even the glorious temple built by Solomon was not spared. To look upon the remains of what was once the glory of the Israelite kingdom for hundreds of years must have broken the hearts of those now returning, especially those old enough to have seen the magnificent temple with their own eyes as young children before they were taken away to Babylon.

The book of Haggai is short, only two chapters. Let’s begin by reading Haggai 1, verses 1 to 11 in the second year of Darius the King, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the Prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jozadak the high priest, saying, thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, this people say, the time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses? And this temple, this house lie waste. Now therefore, thus saith the LORD of hosts, consider your ways.

Ye have so much and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink Ye clothe you, but there is none warm, and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts.

Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little, and when he brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why, saith the Lord of hosts, because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stained from her fruit.

And I called for a draught upon the land and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.

Remember that phrase, consider your ways, which appears twice in this passage. We’ll return to it at the end of our talk. Here God rebukes the returnees for not having their priorities right. They said, let’s rebuild our houses and our farms first, and then we’ll see what we can do for the temple. The word sealed in verse four means, as you probably guessed, the ceiling of a house.

Now, a simple house wouldn’t have a ceiling. It would have a roof, of course, and if you were inside the house and looked up, you’d see the rough and crude wood beams that supported the roof. To spend the time, effort and money to construct a ceiling with perhaps some decoration to cover the roof supports, was to add a bit of luxury and even extravagance to the house, which God, through haggai rebuked. Spend less time building fancy houses for yourselves and spend more time rebuilding my house was God’s message to the people.

So God stymied their efforts in the words of verse six. The remainder of the chapter of chapter one tells how God stirred the hearts of Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest, to undertake the more important work of rebuilding the temple, and the spirit of the people was stirred as well.

Haggai chapter two records how God encouraged the work and the workers, particularly in verses 4 and 5, Haggai 2, 4 and 5. Yet now be strong, oh Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jozadec the high priest, and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts, according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you. Fear ye not Here God says to the now refocused builders that he is with them and reminds them of a dramatic time in their history when he was with them before the time of the Exodus from Egypt. Now, God could have referenced any number of times he was with Israel and encouraged them, but he picks the Exodus from more than a thousand years earlier. Why the Exodus?

I think it was more for our benefit in our studies of the prophecy in our day than it was for Israel back then. Remember two events that happened at the time of the Exodus. One of them is mentioned in verse 5, the inauguration of the Law covenant. The second is mentioned in verse 6, which we read earlier. A shaking of the earth.

What happened in conjunction with the giving of the Law to Israel through Moses, Mount Sinai shook with smoke and fire. Exodus 19:18 and Mount Sinai was altogether out of smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. So there are two things at the time of the Exodus which God referenced to Israel at the time of the building of the second temple, the inauguration of the Law covenant and the shaking of Mount Sinai. Shaking smoke and fire. Shaking smoke and fire.

The inauguration of a covenant. I think you can see where I’m going with this, so let’s get there. In Haggai 26 we find these elements of his yet once it is a little while I will shake these five things. The heavens, the earth, the sea, the dry land, all nations the desire of all nations shall come, and lastly I will fill this house with glory.

Hebrews 12:26 give us gives us an important insight into the meaning of the phrase yet once lets read Hebrews 12:26 speaking of God at the time of the Exodus and then in Paul’s day, Whose voice then shook the earth? But now he hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. Notice the addition of the word more yet once more. Here Paul confirms Haggai’s prophecy as being applicable to the last days by adding the word more. There will be only one more shaking in addition to the shaking of Mount Sinai and Moses day.

And then the desire of all nations will come. You’ll recall in the final discourse of the day yesterday, Brother Walter Schroeder called our attention to the next verse, Hebrews 12:27, which we won’t read, but it speaks of the things which cannot be shaken, which things will remain into the kingdom.

The meaning of that phrase, it is a little while, has evolved over the years. In the original Hebrew it meant a short time quickly. Today the meaning has changed and it sometimes means an indefinite, perhaps longer time, like when Kathy asks me when I’m going to do that job she told me about, and I say, in a little while. The word shake is Strong’s number 7493, and it means to undulate as the earth, sky, and so forth, particularly through fear, and this word is translated make, afraid, move, shake, quake, and tremble.

The meaning of shake here is trouble, turmoil and in Four of the Five Shaken Things Destruction from our study of symbolic prophecy throughout the Bible, we’ve come to understand the meaning of the five things that are shaken. In Haggai chapter 2, I’ll list the symbolic meanings of the five things, but notice how the first four are connected in pairs of contrasting opposites. Heaven and Earth, Sea and dry land on page 318 of volume one, Pastor Russell gives us a guide to understanding symbolic prophecy. He says, throughout the Scriptures, earth, when used symbolically, represent society. Mountains represent kingdoms.

Heavens, the powers of spiritual control, seize the restless, turbulent, dissatisfied masses of the world. Fire represents the destruction of whatever is burned. Tares, dross, the earth, social organizations, or whatever it may be.

So using this guide and other writings in the Harvest Message, we can identify these symbols as follows. Heaven the powers of spiritual control, specifically the nominal church systems. On reprint page 5161 we read not the heavens of God’s residence, but the ecclesiastical heavens, the church institutions. Earth the powers of earthly control Civil governments the contrasting opposite of the heavens the powers of spiritual control the restless, turbulent, dissatisfied masses of mankind and their activist organizations who often resort to violence and illegal actions to advance their agendas. Dry land the contrasting opposite of seas the stable segments of society satisfied with the way things are, which in our day includes the middle and upper classes and their organizations, corporations, banks, and so forth.

The fifth and last thing to be shaken is all nations. It has no contrasting opposite like the previous four, because it includes everyone else not part of the heavens. Earth, seas and dry land. These are the common, ordinary, everyday people who muddle through each day, bearing up under their burdens for them and their families and loved ones. They’re not rich or powerful.

Not. Nor are they protesting in the streets in support of one cause or another. They are just ordinary people waiting and hoping for better times, and their desire will come. More about that later. But now let’s look at each of the five things shaken in the light of current and recent events and see if we can identify the fulfillment of their symbolic shaking.

First, the heavens the nominal church systems how have the nominal church systems been shaken? Well, when literal heavens shake. We usually think of thunder, which gives us a clue that when the symbolic heavens are shaken, symbolic thunder, thunder will be involved. Let’s read two scriptures talking about the same time period as Haggai’s prophecy. First, Psalm 77:18 the voice of thy thunder was in heaven.

Next Revelation 14:2 and I heard a great voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder, and what did that voice of Thunder declare? Revelation 18:2 and 3 and he cried mightily with a strong voice saying Babylon. That is the symbolic heavens of Haggi. I 26 the nominal church Systems Catholic and Protestant Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.

It has become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit in a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

We know from our studies of the harvest parallels that this declaration went forth in the year 1878, and we don’t have to look very far in the history of the world and the church systems to find example after example of the fulfillment of these two prophecies in Haggai and Revelation. Here is a short list and I’m sure you could find many more. In the 1970s, a scandal involving the Vatican bank was brought to light, and although no Vatican clergy or officials were ever convicted of a crime, since then the secretive financial dealings of the Catholic Church have been under increasing public scrutiny. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, child sexual abuse in Catholic and Protestant churches was rampant, but hidden behind cover ups. In 2002, the now famous Spotlight article in the Boston Globe newspaper exposed the enormous scale of of the evil that had gone on for decades.

Other exposes quickly followed, resulting in criminal prosecution of guilty priests and civil lawsuits against the churches themselves, followed by multimillion dollar settlements designed to keep the perpetrators and the details of their actions from being revealed in court proceedings.

Probably the most secretive proceedings of the Catholic Church is the Conclave, the meeting of cardinals to elect a new Pope. There are no public accounts of the process, but whispers of political machinations and manipulative deal making abound, and just to put the spotlight on current events, if you’ve been following the health troubles of the current Pope, I actually thought we’d probably be hearing about a conclave this very day. Now, all of these revelations remind me of the text in Isaiah 28:17, Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

But beyond all the crime, corruption, and political machinations that mark the nominal church systems today is the simple fact that the churches no longer even pretend to hold up the standard of God’s righteousness as a way of life. The ten commandments are more like guidelines or suggestions. Moral relativism is the current thinking of today. The Bible, by contrast, says all unrighteousness is sin. But the pope recently said, when pressed on the subject of homosexuality, who am I to judge?

I recall hearing an interview with a Catholic woman who was asked if all the scandals shaking her church had shaken her faith. She replied, I haven’t lost my faith in God, but I have lost my faith in my church, and at that moment, I could smell the smoke of a tear burning.

One more shaking of the nominal systems is worth mentioning. For hundreds of years, there were only a handful of what we would call mainstream churches. There were the Methodists, the Baptist, the Presbyterians, and a few more in addition to the Catholic church. But in the last 50 or so years, many new churches have sprung up, often the creation of one person looking to enrich him or herself. Some of them began ministries that were broadcast on cable tv, giving rise to the term televangelists.

Several of them have been the subject of financial controversies or even investigated for fraud and corruption. Here are some of those who have been so investigated. Kenneth Copeland, who bought himself a $200,000 Lamborghini. That’s a car, in case you never heard the term. Joel Osteen, who purchased a sports stadium and fills it every week with his followers.

He has a reported net worth of $50 million, and Paula White, who was appointed last month as senior advisor to the newly created White House office of Faith. She was once investigated for financial improprieties, and then there’s the most notorious one of them all, L. Ron Hubbard, who began his career as a prolific writer of science fiction fantasy fantasy novels and moved on to found the church so called of Scientology.

L. Ron Hubbard famously said, you don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion, and so he did. Under Hubbard’s successor, the Church of Scientology, has been subject to repeated scandals and investigations.

Many of these phony, fabricated churches have fallen into scandal and disrepute not too many years after their founding, and so we see clearly with our own eyes the heavens have been and are being shaken violently, and the shaking will result in their destruction.

The second thing shaken is the earth. The ruling powers of established civil governments in contrast with the ruling powers of the established church systems. The heavens. How have the civil governments been shaken? Of course, as we look back in history, the greatest shaking of the world’s civil governments took place in the year 1914.

For centuries prior to World War I, stable monarchies ruled most of Western civilization. But when the Gentile times ended and World War I began, the earth shook, and ever since, wars and rumors of wars have continued. We could recite a list of conflict after conflict during the last hundred or so years. But I think there is another fulfillment of this element of Haggai’s prophecy, the shaking of the earth in addition to the last hundred years of war after war, when the literal earth.

Shakespeare, we call that an earthquake.

Now, science says earthquakes happen when the tectonic plates or pieces of the earth’s crust and upper mantle bump into each other or rub against each other, causing fissures or cracks in the earth’s crust. That’s the end of the scientific mumbo jumbo. But the important part of this literal shaking, as it relates to the symbolic shaking of Hagi 26, is the cracks or fissures that form on the surface of the earth during an earthquake. What might symbolic cracks or fractures in the earth represent in the context of the shaking of civil governments? Well, over the past 50 years or so, and even more in the last few decades, governments around the world have become fractured, weakened, and less and less able to govern.

After the monarchies prior to 1914 were toppled by revolutions, the governments of many nations became an unstable succession of republics, democracies, dictatorships, coalitions, and back again, one after another. One example is Italy, which has had 69 governments since World War II. It must be true, because I read it on the Internet. Even worse than a rapid succession of ineffective government is what sociologists call a failed state, a country with no government capable of providing the basic services and security that are the responsibility of all functioning governments. Examples include Haiti and several countries in Africa where roving gangs of armed thugs terrorize the common people who are just trying to live their lives one day at a time.

Even within relatively stable governments like our own, fractures have appeared and are getting wider. Governing in a democracy was always the art of compromise. That notion, and indeed the guiding principle of our own government, has been shaken and largely broken by the recent divisions leading to extreme polarization of political parties. Compromise with the other party has been replaced by demonizing the other party. Each side says we are the true champions of democracy.

The other side is a dictatorship that weaponizes government. The tyranny of the majority is in full force and is creating fractures and shaking the earth.

There are two things literal earthquakes do. One is to create cracks or fissures in the earth crust, as we’ve just talked about. The other is to undulate the ground. Remember the definition of the word to shake? Undulate means to shake the earth up and down and in a literal application.

Such shaking in literal earthquakes destroys roads and bridges, reduces homes to rubble, and I don’t need to tell you of how the civil governments of today have been undulating themselves, doing it to themselves over the past few months. Everyone is talking about on and off again tariffs, price increases, on and off again job losses, and the up and down financial market. The earth is indeed undulating. The shaking is getting worse and worse and will get worser, resulting in the destruction of the civil governments of the entire world, including here in our country.

My final comment on the shaking of the governments is one you’ve heard many times before in recent years. We should observe the conflict, but don’t take sides in the conflict. There is no right side for us to identify with or support. Stay uninvolved. I’ll talk about that more later when we get to our character lessons from Haggai’s prophecy.

Our third element, shaken, is the seas. Now we considered how literal heavens are shaken by thunder and how literal earth is shaken by earthquakes. What causes literal seas to be shaken by tempestuous waves? Two things, most commonly strong winds, as in a storm or hurricane, and less frequently an earthquake on the sea floor, which produces a tsunami. So what then, is the symbolic meaning of the restless seas and their causes?

We said earlier that the shaken seas symbolize the restless activist elements of society, some of whom, with good and noble intentions, try to improve the lot of their fellow man, but often with harmful results. Also included in these restless activist elements of society are the troublemakers, the bad actors, as they are called today, who simply want to indulge their mindless propensities for violence and destruction once again. We can go back in time some 150 years to begin our long list of examples of violent activism in the name of improving society. I grew up in Chicago, which has the dubious distinction of being the birthplace of activist violence. In the late 1800s, many oppressed workers began to protest and call for better pay and better working conditions.

On May 4, 1886, at one such protest rally in The Haymarket of Chicago. The police were sent to disperse the crowd. Someone threw a bomb into the cordon of policemen, killing seven of them as well as a few bystanders, and so the Haymarket riot found its place in the annals of the struggles between labor and capital. Brother Russell wrote extensively about this struggle between the haves and the have nots in volume four.

Fast forward over the next 150 years, marked by what seems to be an unbroken string of tension between the 1% and the 99%, between labor and capital, often marked by violence as a means of getting attention. Since then, we would add to the list race riots dating back to, once again, my Hometown, Chicago in 1918, on up to the Black Lives Matter movement of recent years. Political tensions in the January 6 riots, immigration issues and the deportation of migrants. Economic tensions in the struggles of so many to earn a living and pay their bills, sometimes resulting in workplace shootings. All these and more are the restless seas.

I said before that not only winds on the water produce turbulent waves, but also earthquakes on the sea floor which produce tsunamis. A tsunami is also a wave which is small in the deep, open ocean when it is first created, perhaps only a foot or two in height, an almost unnoticeable indication of the strong force below which created it. But as that small wave travels toward land, sometimes several hundreds of miles away, the water becomes shallower and shallower, pushing this small wave of water upward toward the surface and increasing its height to tens of feet when it eventually strikes the beach, producing an incredible destruction that we have seen in the video footage of the news reports. Brethren, the symbolic tsunami is coming. Be watchful, be prepared.

The fourth element of Haggai’s prophecy to be shaken is the dry land, which symbolizes the stable elements of society who are satisfied that the way things are, which in our day includes the middle and upper classes and their organizations, corporations, banks, trusts, and so forth. These people have had it good for many decades and even centuries. But even stable, peaceful people are divided today along many fault lines. Rich versus poor, white versus non white, educated versus blue collar, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. The waves of unrest of the C classes is crashing like a tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake on the beaches of the dry land and causing fear even in the previously calm and stable segments of society.

The result is a coming together of these elements of society to protect themselves and hold onto the wealth and material advantage they have enjoyed for so long in our country. In just the past few months, we have seen unusual alliances between governments, banks and businesses and the individuals that own those businesses, the oligarchs, as they are sometimes called. The shifting winds of politics and public sentiment have caused both government and businesses to halt programs like like Diversity, equity and Inclusion. Abbreviated DEI from their plans and policies, Public statements and actions by the likes of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and others have people wondering the restless seas are encroaching upon the dry land, and so the dry land retreats and tries to defend itself and put up barriers against the torrent which is coming.

But the tsunami of unrest and violence will not be stopped. The dry land is and will continue to be shaken the fifth and last element of Haggai’s prophecy is the shaking of all nations, which includes everyone else not part of the heavens, earth, sea and dry land. These are the common everyday people, the rest of mankind, who are just trying to live their lives one stressful day at a time. They are worried, scared men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. For the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Luke 21:26 the Hebrew word translated nations in Haggai 27 is goy. If you have any Jewish friends who speak a little Yiddish, you know that goy means gentile. Everyone who is not a Jew, everyone else.

As a sort of humorous aside, Yiddish is a language that tickles the tongue. The words and sounds are so delicious. A manly man is a mensch, a hapless loser is a schlemiel, a gentile woman is a shiksa, and so forth. So the thought of goy in this verse is that everyone else not included in the heavens, earth, sea, and dry land will not escape the shaking. They too will experience the personal destruction of their old way of life in the preparation of their hearts to receive and embrace the new way of life under the Kingdom arrangement when their desire has come, well, all of Haggai2.6 is the bad news.

So now let’s talk about the good news. The last two phrases of our convention theme text Haggai2.7 present the good news and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The desire of all nations shall come. What do ordinary good people over all the earth want? Peace, prosperity, health, happiness, and dozens of other good ideals.

We could list the beauty of the kingdom. The desire that they have and will come is that it will provide all of those ideals and wants chief among them the resurrection of the dead and eternal life. If obedient to the kingdom arrangement I can’t help but think of the familiar word picture of the Kingdom from volume one, page 192. I’ll read it. Close your eyes for a moment to the scenes of misery and woe, degradation and sorrow that yet prevail on account of sin.

And picture before your mental vision the glory of the perfect earth, not a stain of sin, Mars, the harmony and peace of a perfect society. Not a bitter thought, not an unkind look or word. Love welling up from every heart meets a kindred response in every other heart, and benevolence marks every act. Their sickness shall be no more, not an ache, nor a pain, nor any evidence of decay, not even the fear of such things. Think of all the pictures of comparative health and beauty, of human form and feature that you have ever seen, and know that perfect humanity will be of still surpassing loveliness.

The inward purity and mental and moral perfection will stamp and glorify every radiant countenance, such will earth’s society be, and weeping bereaved ones will have their tears all wiped away, when thus they recognize the resurrection work complete, that is the desire of all nations. You know, it has often been said that if you ask someone to describe what they imagine heaven to be like, they describe the perfect earth that we know will come in the kingdom.

The last element of the prophecy in Haggai 27 is, and I will fill this house with glory. This house, of course, refers to, on a literal level, the literal temple that God was encouraging the people, under the leadership of Zerubbabel, to rebuild. If they would build it, he would honor it with the glory of his presence, and it literally came to pass that the literal temple was rebuilt and dedicated and used as the meeting place between God and the nation of Israel, only to be destroyed again during the time of the Romans in the year 70 A.D. but more important to our study today than this literal temple is the symbolic application of this phrase, and I will fill this house with glory.

The symbolic temple in this prophecy is our Lord and his church. I’ll read just two scriptures. The first one is Second Corinthians 6, 16 and 17, which speaks of the importance of keeping ourselves pure, holy, and separate from the world, and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.

And I will receive you. Our second scripture, First Peter 2, 5, speaks of individual members of the church class as individual stones. During the construction phase of this symbolic temple. Ye also as lively or living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The King James Version says to offer up spiritual sacrifices.

But that word spiritual is not in the oldest manuscripts and is likely spurious, so I omitted it. Note the two phases of the literal temple Zerubbabel built at the urging of Haggai, there was the building or construction phase, and there was the glorious phase. At the completion of the construction phase, when, as God said in Hagai 27, I will fill this house with glory, symbolically the glory of the completed church and the glory of the fully established kingdom when the construction work is complete.

Well, my time is almost up. So now I get to the best part, the most important part, the character lessons for us at Haggai’s prophecy. We’ve stimulated your minds and now I want to strengthen your hearts. My first piece of advice is I mentioned it before. Stay above the fray.

Don’t wade into the restless seas and take sides in the conflict, and like how brother Russell expressed it in volume six, page 607, some, we believe, have gone to an extreme in denouncing present institutions in a manner that the Lord and the apostles neither commanded nor sanctioned nor illustrated in their words and conduct. Simply making people discontented with their present conditions and surroundings is most unwise. On the contrary, the influence the spirit, the disposition of the new creation should always be toward peace, and if we cannot commend present institutions highly, neither need we specially condemn them.

The agitation of these matters in advance will be not only unavailing, but worse, disadvantageous, injurious both to the agitator and the agitated, breeding discontent amongst the children of this world. There will be found plenty of agitators when the Lord’s time shall come for these questions to be agitated. Meantime, all the members of the new creation will display wisdom in avoiding such questions as tend to strife and discontent. I’ve always liked to use the phrase when confronted with someone wanting to discuss how bad things are in the world. The world needs the kingdom.

And if they ask me what I’m talking about when I see kingdom, I’m glad to tell them now. Also along a different line, recall the phrase that Haggai in chapter one that I mentioned before said. It appears twice in that chapter. Consider your ways in the context Haggai was reminding the Israelites of their priorities. Go and build your necessary shelter and fields quickly without a lot of elaborate decoration, but then devote yourselves to the spiritual pursuit of building God’s house, the temple.

Take care of your earthly responsibilities, but quickly dispense of them and then move on to your spiritual opportunities, and so with that as a starting point, I’d like to close with four suggestions from our examination of Haggai’s prophecy as to how we can consider our ways and benefit with the resulting spiritual growth, and some of these I’ve already mentioned in scriptures that I read previously.

Number one is self examination. As the phrase consider your way suggests. Self examination is uncomfortable because we must force ourselves to behold our flesh and its weaknesses, the spots on our robe of justification, and we wish those weaknesses and spots weren’t there, and Satan will try to magnify them in our eyes. But only by confronting our failings, seeking the Lord’s promised forgiveness and resolve to do better, will the battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil, be won.

Number two is the same as Haggai’s exhortation to the Israelites Touch lightly the things of this earth, our material possessions, and I struggle with this as I grow older and desire less commotion and more stability in my life, my earthly life. When things go wrong with the house or the car or my plans for a smooth and uneventful day are upset, I regrettably sometimes get upset and have to remind myself of God’s overruling providences when the car won’t start or the water heater is leaking. There’s an old saying, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. Touch lightly the things of this earth, its possessions, and its obligations.

Number three comes from verses in Haggai 1, 6, 11, which told how the Lord impeded the Israelites efforts to build and plant their own possessions by withholding the abundance of crops they might otherwise have enjoyed. The lesson for us is to accept the Lord’s chastenings as being given in love, as being given in love and designed not to hurt or even punish, but to redirect our efforts into more spiritually profitable paths. What child is he whom the Father chasteneth not? Number four comes from the verses in Haggai chapter two, following our convention theme text Haggai 2, 10, 14, which we didn’t read before and won’t take the time to read now. But in those verses, the last verses of Haggai Chapter 2, Haggai exhorts the people engaged in the work of building the temple to be clean, pure, undefiled we who are engaged in the work of building the spiritual temple, must likewise keep ourselves clean from the many temptations of the world in these last days, when evil is waxing worse and worse.

As Isaiah 52:11 puts it, Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence Touch no unclean thing go ye out in the midst of her but be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.

It is yet only a little while until the fulfillment of all things. May we be faithful to the end, and may the Lord add His blessing.

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