Haggai 1:5-7
‘Thus says the LORD…: “Consider your ways! You have sown much, but bring in little! You eat, but you do not have enough! You drink, but you are not filled!… You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm! And he who earns wages, earns wages to put it into a bag with holes!… (Yet) I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this House with glory! The glory of this latter House, shall be greater than…the former!” Haggai 1:5f & 2:7-9.
Calvin comments: “We may hence..see, how kindly God has provided for His Church…. ‘Now therefore,’ thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Consider your ways!’…. If the authority of God or a regard for Him is of no importance among you — at least consider how God deals with you!’… How comes it, that you are famished — that both Heaven and Earth deny food to you? Besides, though
you consume much food — it still does not satisfy you! In a word, how is it — that all things fade away and vanish in your hands? How is this? You cannot otherwise account for it, but that God is displeased with you!…. He says that they had ‘sown much’ — and that ‘small was the produce’…. They ‘ate’ — and were ‘not satisfied’…. They ‘drank’ — but had not their ‘thirst quenched’…. They ‘clothed themselves’ — but were ‘not warmed’….
“God…does punish men in these two ways. Either by withdrawing His blessings, by rendering the Earth arid and the Heavens dry. Or by making the abundant produce unsatisfying and even useless…. When therefore fruit, and whatever the earth produces for the necessities of man, give no support — God proves…by an outstretched arm that He is an Avenger!… He says…’he who gains wages, gains them for a perforated bag!’…. The vengeance of God could not only be seen in the sterility of the earth and in the very hunger of men who by eating were not satisfied. But also in their work! For they wearied themselves much without any profit — as even the money cast into the bag disappeared! Hence He says — even your work is in vain! It was indeed a most manifest proof of God’s wrath, when their money — though laid up — yet vanished away…. Whether they did eat or abstained from food, they were hungry. And when they diligently laboured and gathered wages, their wages vanished as though they cast them into a perforated bag!….
“(But) He would arrest the attention of all mortals…. ‘Come,’ He says, ‘shall all nations!…. I will shake all nations, and they shall come!’… There will indeed be a wonderful conversion — when the nations which previously despised God and regarded true religion and piety with the utmost hatred, shall habituate themselves to the ruling power of God….
“He afterward adds, ‘The Desire of all nations (shall come)!’…. He says of Christ, ‘Come shall the Desire of all nations — and I will fill this House with glory!’ … Christ was the expectation of the whole world…. The nations would come, bringing with them all their riches, so that they might offer themselves and all their possessions as a sacrifice to God…. The glory of the second Temple would be greater than that of the first…. The time would come…when the Lord would fill that House with glory…, when Christ would bring with Him all fullness of glory!”
Consider! The glory of God’s new House (the Church), shall be greater than the former!
