Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Okay, you guys can open to Haggai.
[00:00:06] So again, if you haven't quite nailed down where Haggai is, just use the table of contents. There's no shame in that.
[00:00:12] Haggai.
[00:00:14] There are two chapters and we're going to do the second of two chapters tonight and we're going to finish up the record of his prophecies and what Israel was doing at that time.
[00:00:29] You know, I find it interesting that nowadays this might not pertain to you. So you may have no idea about this, but nowadays most of the time that I sign my name, you know, my signature, it's an E signature. You guys know what an E signature is?
[00:00:47] It's basically just an easy way to forge a signature. You just like type it in. You just type down your name. You know, I know there are some where you can like write on your, like, phone screen, but a lot of times I just type it in, you know, for being paid, signing my lease, I'm just typing in my name.
[00:01:02] Where is the security in that? And I was thinking about this. This is not totally irrelevant because at the end of chapter two, we encounter this thing called a signet ring that kings would have. And this is like their version of a signature. But it was way better than an E signature. It made something official.
[00:01:19] It was. It was sure.
[00:01:20] It was far more certain and irrefutable than some he signature. And I think that's an important concept for us to remember is this importance of a signet ring as we will see one of the people in Haggai's day likened to such a ring.
[00:01:37] And it's important because this is the same sort of certainty that this kingly ring has as the same certainty that Christ's redemption has for his people.
[00:01:48] It is signed with his royal seal, his signet ring. And we will reflect on that today, tonight. Now, as I said last week, the phrase to encapsulate the book of Haggai, I highly recommend you remember this. I don't think I have it on your sheet, so you might have to write it is consider your ways that you may be pleasing to God. I give you these phrases when we study a book because I want you to remember something, some key word or phrase as you read through the Bible, you know, years down the line, you might open the book of Haggai again, I sure hope. And you might think, man, what was this about? You know, what's something. What's like a theme that I can remember? And I'm hoping that this one will be helpful. Consider your ways that you may be pleasing to God in Israel's history, just as a reminder of our context. They were exiled. That means they were taken from their place and they were forcibly put somewhere else. They were exiled because they were unfaithful to God for many generations. He judged them by sending foreign nations to kick them out of their own land.
[00:02:56] This exile, which included the destruction of the temple of the Lord, which was where God dwelled with his people and where they offered sacrifices to atone for their sins. To atone just means to cover, to find, to get redemption for their sin.
[00:03:14] Well now at this point in time, as we're reading Haggai, 50,000 Jews and their servants have come back from the exile. This is what we call the remnant. And they are here where they were there to rebuild the temple of the Lord. But if you remember, they got caught up, you know, making their homes beautiful and ornate and in the routines of day to day life. And suddenly their faith appeared to be dead. They were not being as faithful as you might expect. They were maybe well meaning, but they were neglecting the duty that the Lord had given them.
[00:03:52] But God through Haggai, called them to repentance and they repented, which was a wonderful thing to see, such immediate repentance and obedience from God's people and a model for us when we are confronted with our own sins. And they resumed their work.
[00:04:06] And now here we are in chapter two. Let's read chapter two.
[00:04:12] In the seventh month, on the 21st day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet.
[00:04:20] Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people. And say, who was left among you? Who saw this house in its former glory?
[00:04:35] How do you see it now?
[00:04:37] Is it not as nothing in your eyes yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
[00:04:48] Be strong all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work for I am with you, declares the Lord of Hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit remains in your midst. Fear not, for thus says the Lord of hosts. Yet once more in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in. And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord. Of Hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of Hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of Hosts. And and in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.
[00:05:36] On the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet. Thus says the Lord of Hosts.
[00:05:46] Ask the priests about the law.
[00:05:48] If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with the fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?
[00:05:58] The priests answered and said, no.
[00:06:01] Then Haggai said, if someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?
[00:06:10] The priests answered and said, it does become unclean.
[00:06:15] Then Haggai answered and said, so is it with this people and with this nation before me, declares the Lord. And so with every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean.
[00:06:26] Now then, consider. From this day onward before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of 20 measures, there were but 10. When one came to the wine vat to draw 50 measures, there were but 20.
[00:06:43] I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me to, declares the Lord. Consider, from this day onward, from the 24th day of the ninth month, since the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid. Consider, is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on, I will bless you.
[00:07:10] The word of the Lord came a second time to haggai on the 24th day of the month.
[00:07:16] Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots and their riders and the horses and their riders shall go down every one by the sword of his brother on that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of Hosts.
[00:07:55] Consider your ways that they may be pleasing to God. Now let's dive into this sermon. I hope to show you that the main idea of Haggai 2 is God will defeat all evil and establish his dwelling with his people through Christ in the spirit. I'll say that again.
[00:08:16] God will defeat all evil and establish his dwelling with his people through Christ and the spirits. God's promises to destroy the wicked nations is to be fulfilled. And Haggai's prophecy shows us how he will do this.
[00:08:35] God desires to dwell with his people.
[00:08:38] I've been saying that that is a repeated theme through all of the books we're going to study this semester. And his desire to dwell with his people will also be the great hope and pleasure of his people. They will delight in this. This will lead them to sing for joy.
[00:08:54] We will consider the former temple. You can think of that as the one before it was destroyed, that Solomon built.
[00:09:01] And we'll talk about all of its former glory. Then we'll look at the future temple. You see, the word ladder. Ladder just means later or future. The latter temple, we'll consider our sinful condition, the hope for fallen sinners. And finally, we'll consider the righteous and eternal king.
[00:09:19] So point number one, consider the former temple.
[00:09:23] We're going to be focusing on the first five verses when we consider the former temple.
[00:09:28] Now, I hope you've noticed in just a couple of chapters, this Haggai guy is kind of obsessed with dates, right?
[00:09:38] He keeps telling us the dates that he's saying all this. It's just two chapters and there's like all these dates. We don't. We don't encounter this. This often in very many places.
[00:09:47] Now, when an author takes the time to do something like this repeatedly includes so many dates, we should be willing to try to, you know, do the hard work of figuring out why this must be important. What are these dates corresponding to? You know, it's. It's definitely hard to do this in English. This isn't how we think. The months they had are not the same. So you see the ninth month, that doesn't necessarily, you know, that doesn't mean September.
[00:10:12] It's different. So it takes a little bit of work.
[00:10:15] Now I'm going to help. Thankfully, I had to have some help to figure this out. Now, during this period of the year when we first start this chapter, and the Jews would be celebrating something called the Feast of Booths. You guys ever heard of the Feast of Booths?
[00:10:31] Maybe.
[00:10:32] Probably not likely, though. That's okay. You shouldn't be ashamed if you haven't. But the Feast of Booths. Now, what is that?
[00:10:39] I know what you're thinking. It's not a time when they all went to their local 50s diner and sat in a booth and had pastrami on rye, though that would be a great holiday. And I would celebrate it.
[00:10:51] No, it's not that. See, the word booth in English, kind of we think of something totally different than they'd be thinking about. It'd be better understood. And some of you might have translations that say tent or tabernacle.
[00:11:02] Any of you have that Tent or tabernacle. That's the same meaning.
[00:11:07] So it's like the feast of tents.
[00:11:10] This time commemorated the period of Israel's history when they lived in the wilderness between Egypt and the promised Land, when they lived in tents or tabernacles or booths.
[00:11:22] And so because of this, the Lord instituted this feast or festival, holiday for them to live. They would actually come out of their homes and set up tents and they would live in them for a week all together in one place to remember how God had provided for the people in the wilderness during those many decades.
[00:11:41] So during this time, they were gathered in a common area. And as they're gathered, Haggai comes to the people. So he lists the governor, the high priest, but he also lists all of the remnant. They're all there to witness.
[00:11:54] And he reminds them of the former temple, which was destroyed roughly 70 years earlier.
[00:12:02] And so remember, think about that. 70 years earlier. So there were people in this gathering. And we know this from other accounts in the Old Testament that. That remembered that temple. They had seen it with their eyes. They remembered how beautiful and glorious the former temple was.
[00:12:18] And now they're looking at what they are building or have built, and it is lackluster. You know, Haggai says it has nothing to you in your eyes.
[00:12:28] I hope this doesn't bother anybody too much. I imagine maybe this is what it's like growing up today in a family that loves, loves the Dallas Cowboys, you know, the former glory, the early 90s, a Troy Aikman. It probably was amazing.
[00:12:45] I'm sure there's a future glory. I'm sure there is.
[00:12:50] Sorry, Katie.
[00:12:52] But this new temple, though it pales in comparison to the old one, is exactly what God wants them to do.
[00:12:59] The Lord encourages the people through Haggai. How does he do it? Well, he says three times, be strong. He addresses the governor. Be strong. The high priest. Be strong. All the people, be strong.
[00:13:12] They are in between these realities. The former temple, which is beautiful, the one in front of them is as nothing. But there's something better. They're in between.
[00:13:21] Even today, we recognize that in a different way, we're between two realities. There's remaining sin in the world and evil. We see this day in and day out in our personal lives and in the news. There's brokenness in our lives and in our bodies.
[00:13:38] And if you truly trust Jesus Christ, you believe that he is coming again to restore the earth to its former glory and perfection.
[00:13:47] But until then, however long we must be here, we must be strong, as these people are called, to be strong and persevere.
[00:13:57] And there are numerous ways we could talk about how to be strong. You know, be faithful in the word, pray often.
[00:14:04] I personally think one of the best ways to help you be strong, to remain strong, is to be fully bought in with the local church.
[00:14:14] Why? Well, when you are weak, when you fall into sin and need to be restored, when you need help, there are brothers and sisters there to pick you up, to restore you, to identify sin in your heart, to encourage you, to pray for you, to provide for your practical needs. All of these things are in the church. This is why God gave us the church and expects all Christians to be a part of one.
[00:14:40] That is how God's grace works through God's people to make us stronger together.
[00:14:47] But. But that, you know, being strong is not the only thing he tells them. The Lord also promises his presence.
[00:14:52] The Lord promises his presence.
[00:14:55] He will not leave these people.
[00:14:58] In fact, he will come to Israel intimately, in the form of man, in the flesh. Just a few generations from this point.
[00:15:06] Jesus Christ in a future time from then, will, so to speak, set his tent among them. He will set up his booth on earth and dwell with his people. The Lord will be intimately close with them. And even this points to a future time when God dwells with his people for eternity.
[00:15:28] The Lord promises his presence, and the Lord reminds them of his covenant. The Lord reminds them of his covenant, specifically what we call the Mosaic covenant, the covenant with Israel that He did through Moses. Mo. Moses, Moses.
[00:15:45] If you've read Exodus and Leviticus, then eventually, you know, I'm sure you guys return to those often eventually you'll notice that there's a lot of details about the tabernacle and the temple, and there are a lot of details about sacrifices.
[00:16:04] This is not just, you know, extra superfluous detail.
[00:16:08] God was promising and making a way for his people to live with a holy God. They were sinful. God is perfect. But he desires to dwell with them. He is making a way. And again, this reminds us of Christ who will provide that way, who will take sinners through him to the presence of the holy God.
[00:16:32] This is what this covenant Reminds them of. This is why he's calling it to their mind. And finally, the Lord promises his Spirit. The Lord promises his Spirit.
[00:16:44] His Spirit is necessary for them to persevere in their work, to be strong, to do all of these things. They need the Spirit, just as the Spirit. He is necessary today for Christians to do the same, to persevere in the faith, to continue on, to be strong, to obey the Lord, to be faithful. We need God's Spirit.
[00:17:07] So as they remember this former time and the covenant, they must persevere and look to the future temple.
[00:17:18] So that brings us to our second point.
[00:17:21] Consider the latter temple.
[00:17:23] You can put future if that helps you. Consider the latter temple.
[00:17:28] The latter temple we see God talking about shaking the heavens and the earth. This made me think of a shake from Brahms. No, it's not that relevant.
[00:17:38] But think about a shake from Brahms with me for a minute.
[00:17:41] You put ice cream in there, right? What's ice cream?
[00:17:45] It's good.
[00:17:47] Yeah, it's good, right? Ice cream's good. What else they put in there? They put some milk in there. Milk. It's good, right? Milk's good.
[00:17:55] You could add Oreos, M and M's, Heath, those things.
[00:18:01] They're good.
[00:18:02] All those things are good. But when you put them together, something better is made. Something amazing is made.
[00:18:11] The future temple, in a similar. Not the same way, is better now. Yeah. Again, the future temple is not a shake. He's not shaking the temple. And the future temple is not necessarily what they're building now. The future or latter temple is Christ.
[00:18:31] We read last week from John 2, the Gospel of John, chapter 2. Jesus identifies Himself as the temple which would be destroyed and raised back up in three days.
[00:18:42] So as these tired, weary, discouraged people look upon the temple they're building, thinking about how amazing the last one was, God assures them that there is a future temple that is even better than that one. Their work is making a way for a better temple. This lackluster temple is making way for one that's better than the old one. He's telling, you know, have an eternal and a longer perspective, you know. And he doesn't make this temple by shaking. You know, that's not what the shaking part means. But God does say, I will shake all nations so that treasures of all nations shall come in.
[00:19:23] God is going to make creation new again.
[00:19:28] You know, this. This is what we should think of when he's saying, I will shake the nations. When we see that, we should think of creation. He talks about the heavens, the earth, the Sea, the dry land. This is creation imagery. This is not a coincidence. This is intentional by the Lord through Haggai to make us remember he's the God of creation. He can restore it again, and he will.
[00:19:53] He will do this through Christ. How do we know he'll do this through Christ? Jesus Christ will be filled with God's glory. So you see if you look in verse nine, the latter glory of this temple shall be greater. Jesus Christ will be filled, is filled with God's glory because he is himself. God, the Son. We see this affirmed, confirmed in the New Testament. John 1:14. John 1:14 says, the word which is Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son from the Father.
[00:20:32] This is God's glory in man. Jesus will be that glorious temple and is.
[00:20:40] We also see in verse nine, in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. Jesus Christ will bring peace.
[00:20:50] Isaiah 9:6 calls him the prince of peace.
[00:20:54] Ephesians 2:14 says, for he himself is our peace.
[00:20:59] Peace with God is made possible only through Christ.
[00:21:04] Again this week, I want you to look in the mirror. I want you to think about yourself, not anyone other than you.
[00:21:14] Like last week, is your faith dead? Is your relationship with God? At enmity?
[00:21:20] That's how we are born. We are born. James chapter four says, at enmity with God.
[00:21:26] Are you in a hostile relationship? Are you not close with God? You need peace from Christ to have that peaceful, reconciled relationship with the God of heaven.
[00:21:40] Are you propping up your faith by going to church and convincing yourself that you're all good because of some of the things you do?
[00:21:48] You know, if we were having a conversation, I said, how is your faith? Would you answer by saying, it's pretty good? Yeah, I've been reading my I do. I read my Bible and I do this and I do that, and I do that.
[00:22:00] That's not necessarily wrong, the wrong thing to think about.
[00:22:04] But I would challenge you to think of Christ and his works. Even before.
[00:22:10] Your faith is strong only because the object of your faith is strong only because the one in whom you believe is strong.
[00:22:17] You must love him first. Before we worry about getting all the things in our life in order to make us feel as if we are at peace with God, we want to actually be at peace with God.
[00:22:32] So that brings us naturally to our third point. Consider your condition.
[00:22:39] Here's where Haggai's prophecy turns into talking about holy meat.
[00:22:44] Maybe this is where we get the term holy cow. I don't know. I didn't do the study of it, but it made me think of it, so I had to say it. Now, the point of this dialogue between God and the priests is to show that holy meat doesn't make anything holy just by proximity or direct touch. You can't just touch the holy meat and become holy.
[00:23:05] But we see from the priests, you know they answer rightly when they say, no, that doesn't make you clean. But uncleanness can make other things unclean. They're right. Uncleanness could spread via touch.
[00:23:17] And that's what happens with these people. He says whatever they touch becomes unclean.
[00:23:24] Now why is God pointing this out?
[00:23:27] What's the point? Is this relevant? Why is he doing this?
[00:23:30] Because he doesn't want them to believe that having this touch temple and living near it will save them from their sins.
[00:23:38] Proximity to God's holiness is different from actually being holy, actually being godly. Living there and having it, it's not meant. The temple is not meant to be an idol that they worship and put their dependence in. That's not the point of it.
[00:23:57] Your church attendance doesn't save you. You know you can't become holy or righteous by religious osmosis.
[00:24:06] Other things that don't save you. Your holiness compared to other people doesn't save you.
[00:24:11] Your baptism doesn't save you.
[00:24:14] Praying of a prayer at a camp doesn't save you.
[00:24:19] Your effort to sin less, to read your Bible more, doesn't save you.
[00:24:24] A man named Ian Do Good says growing up in a Christian home and attending even a vibrant Christian church will not make anyone a Christian any more than spending time at a marina will make someone a yacht.
[00:24:39] I think he's right.
[00:24:41] If you don't fully give every inch of your life a full surrender of your heart, your complete faith in Christ out of love for him, then your sinfulness corrupts your works. The things you do, your church attendance, baptism, prayer or Bible reading, all of it is made unclean by your sinfulness. Unless you've trusted in Christ to forgive you.
[00:25:05] This is true for every single person.
[00:25:09] So consider your sinful condition.
[00:25:13] Point number four.
[00:25:15] Also consider your hope we're not left without hope.
[00:25:21] This sinful condition.
[00:25:23] In verses 15 through 19, if you remember from reading, God recounts all of the toils and difficulties that they've endured.
[00:25:32] They were poor, they were low on resources.
[00:25:36] In chapter one, God tells them that he struck them with famine because of their sin.
[00:25:40] He caused this.
[00:25:42] They've endured much because there is sin in the world, but God Promises.
[00:25:46] At the end of verse 19, you remember what he promises. He says, but from this day on I will bless you.
[00:25:53] I will bless you. He promises to bless them.
[00:25:57] And we should know that they aren't blessed by becoming wealthy or by having perfect lives that you know, nothing bad ever happens to them. They continue to endure such difficulties and we can relate to this. You might be a Christian and still battle fiercely difficulties in your life.
[00:26:21] I just want you guys to know that faithfulness is not tied to material prosperity. That's a wicked lie.
[00:26:29] Such false teachers are promoting this teaching. They've placed their hope in prosperity and an easy life.
[00:26:35] But faith in an easy life, faith in prosperity does not save you from your sins. It does not give you peace with God, doesn't reconcile you to God.
[00:26:47] If you trust in Jesus, you expect a difficult life and have a great, glorious and certain hope of a blessed future, a blessed eternity. Something far better than this vapor and mist of a life. Something lasting that cannot be snatched away from the Father's hand. Something if you have faith in his Son, this blessing comes through him. Christ.
[00:27:14] That's what God is promising to them. He's constantly pointing them forward to what would come in just 400 years from this point.
[00:27:24] Christ the King. And so point five, consider the King.
[00:27:29] This chapter has, if you notice you may not have has three what we call or oracles. You can think of these as different prophecies or speeches that he gave three oracles in verses starting in verse 1, 10 and 20.
[00:27:42] So and this third one actually came on the same day. If you look closely, you can see on the same day as the second one.
[00:27:49] But did you also notice the audience changed each time the oracle one is to everyone, you know, the governor, the high priest and the people. Oracle 2 is kind of seems to be to everyone, but the priests are singled out specifically.
[00:28:06] And now in this third oracle, Zerubbabel, the governor is singled out and addressed, whereas the last oracle dealt with those priestly issues like cleanness and uncleanness. This one is royal, it's kingly, it's a royal oracle.
[00:28:24] Now that might be a little interesting because Robable's a governor. I don't think our governor is royal. He's not.
[00:28:31] So it doesn't appear to be royal. But let's learn a little bit about who this Zerubbabel. Very fun name who he is.
[00:28:38] Matthew 1 includes a genealogy. Genealogies are so important, aren't they guys? They're just the best.
[00:28:45] There's a genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 and in it we read and David was the father of Solomon. And it goes on from Solomon to Rehoboam, Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotha, Mahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amos, Josiah and Jeconiah.
[00:29:01] And then in verse 12 we read and after the exile to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud and Abiyud the father of Eliakim and Eliakim the father of Azor and Azor the father of Zadok and Zadok the father of Achim and Achim the father of Eliad and Eleud the father of Eleazar and Eleazar the father of Matthan and Mathon the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ, Zerubbabel Israel. He's a direct descendant of King David and a direct ancestor of Jesus Christ.
[00:29:45] Friends, we don't just say Jesus is king because it's a cool slogan or it sounds cool. We say it because he was born a king and he remains a king over all the world for all of eternity.
[00:29:59] So when you read a passage like this, that's future looking. We must keep in mind that these promises, they're not necessarily being fulfilled directly for Zerubbabel's life.
[00:30:11] He's not going to have this signet ring, he's not going to have the crown on his head.
[00:30:16] It's for his descendant Jesus Christ, fulfilled through his bloodline that God preserved.
[00:30:24] Now to look closer at this promise, we see again, the Lord promises to shake the heavens and the earth, to overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and the chariots and their riders.
[00:30:39] Now these words again are more phrases that if we think about our Bibles, might remind us of something in the past.
[00:30:46] It should remind us of earlier parts of scripture. Specifically Genesis 19:25 speaks of the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, wicked cities.
[00:30:57] Exodus 15, Moses song speaks of the chariots and the riders being destroyed by the Red Sea.
[00:31:06] So in a way similar to how God has judged the wicked and delivered his people in the past, he's showing that he plans to deliver them in a similar but far superior way in the future.
[00:31:20] It will be through Jesus that the nations and kingdoms will once and for all be destroyed to make way for his eternal kingdom of people from all nations.
[00:31:33] The Jews should watch the descendants of Zerubbabel closely. And some indeed do. They should hear this prophecy and know that something is coming from him. They know his ancestry. It's not that far removed. And they should know that something is coming from him. This theme of a promised sea starts in Genesis 3 and is continually picked back up through the Bible. And we see it here even at the age of end of the Old Testament, heading into Jesus's lifetime.
[00:32:05] Now, I also want us to know how God is the one to initiate all of this. He says, I will do these things. So every act of judgment and gift of blessing comes from the Lord's sovereign, powerful hand. And if we think that, you know, we have power to bless ourselves, we're mistaken. This is not true, students. We do not bless ourselves, but God blesses us through Christ.
[00:32:32] So you must worship him and put your faith in him alone.
[00:32:38] Now, finally, I want us to look at verse 23.
[00:32:42] See at the beginning of this verse these words. On that day, on that day, when you see these words or some variation of them, you should think future. Think return of Christ, which is still future.
[00:32:59] This is. That's what these words are usually referring to.
[00:33:03] Zerubbabel is a restoration of the Davidic kingly line that leads to Christ.
[00:33:09] And this is something amazing that God did to spare this line.
[00:33:14] You know, the nation of Israel, long time before this, it split. There was an Israel and then a Judah. Judah was, was the proper nation with the Davidic kingly line. Israel did not. And in their history, you actually will see that Israel's kingly line dies off, I think at least twice, including at the end when they're exiled.
[00:33:36] But God preserves the line of David in Judah, even through the exile, though at one point very closely, only. Only one descendant lives from a generation. He preserves them so that Christ can come through them. This kingly eternal line from David is kept by God's faithfulness.
[00:33:58] And so we see that in this way, Zerubbabel is chosen by God. He did not thrust himself into this position. I mean, he's kind of just lucky to be here. He was in exile and now he's just like a governor. He's lucky for this. But God is put him here, he has put him there. And he is then likened to what I talked about at the beginning, a signet ring, you know. This again was the king's stamp of approval.
[00:34:26] Jeremiah prophesied long before all of this.
[00:34:29] And he says, or the Lord says through him, as I live, declares the Lord, though Kenaih, the son of Jehoiakim, the King of Judah, wear the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off.
[00:34:44] And this is what happened in the exile. The signet ring was in a way torn off. Lord cast it aside. The crown was taken from Judah and cast aside and taken by a foreign wicked nation.
[00:34:56] But now this signet ring will be put back on. The crown will return to Israel and it will be Christ who wears the crown who has the kingly signet ring and stamps his approval on God's works. The restoration of God's people is made final and perfect and complete and official through his life, death and resurrection. The life, death and resurrection of King Jesus.
[00:35:26] And even today in heaven, King Jesus wears this ring.
[00:35:30] Not in a literal way, but he wears this authority. Now how does this affect you? It's easy for us to forget in our normal lives that there is a king in heaven on the throne and he rules even today.
[00:35:45] If you trust in him, he officially and finally declares you righteous.
[00:35:51] And no one can change that status.
[00:35:55] And if you are in Christ, then you can boldly approach God in prayer. Have you ever thought that's why we pray in Jesus name?
[00:36:04] It is his signet ring stamp of approval on your prayers before the Father as he and his spirit intercede on your behalf.
[00:36:13] So look to King Jesus by faith.
[00:36:15] Consider how he is the perfect and final temple, the perfect and final dwelling place of God with his people. Through him only can you approach the holy and righteous God.
[00:36:27] Though we are born sinners and unclean, we can do this through Christ, but we can't do this through mere nearness to the temple. Religious osmosis. You cannot approach God by coming to church or cleaning up your life or by sinning less. You must be found in Christ by faith.
[00:36:47] So consider the hope that there is through King Jesus, the sure and final hope. And remember, God will defeat all evil and establish his dwelling with his people through Christ and the Spirit. Now what a wonderful truth. And remember that Wahagai declares, let's consider our ways.
[00:37:06] Your ways must be motivated and carried along by your faith in Christ alone. Let's pray.
[00:37:13] Father, thank you for your word and your son Jesus, that through faith in him we can dwell with you again one day in eternity.
[00:37:22] We praise you for this fact. May it lead us to sing and shout for joy. And we pray all this in your Son's name. Amen.
