With fields lying waste, with their scant store of provisions rapidly failing, and surrounded as they were by unfriendly peoples, the Israelites nevertheless moved forward by faith in response to the call of God’s messengers, and labored diligently to restore the ruined temple. It was a work requiring firm reliance upon God. As the people endeavored to do their part, and sought for a renewal of God’s grace in heart and life, message after message was given them through Haggai and Zechariah, with assurances that their faith would be richly rewarded and that the word of God concerning the future glory of the temple whose walls they were rearing would not fail. In this very building would appear, in the fullness of time, the Desire of all nations as the Teacher and Saviour of mankind.
(PK 577.1)
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Thus the builders were not left to struggle alone; “with them were the prophets of God helping them;”(Ezra 5:2) and the Lord of hosts Himself had declared, “Be strong, ... and work: for I am with you.”Haggai 2:4.
(PK 577.2)
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With heartfelt repentance and a willingness to advance by faith, came the promise of temporal prosperity. “From this day,” the Lord declared, “will I bless you.”Haggai 2:19.
(PK 577.3)
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To Zerubbabel their leader—he who, through all the years since their return from Babylon, had been so sorely tried—was given a most precious message. The day was coming, the Lord declared, when all the enemies of His chosen people would be cast down. “In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, My servant, ... and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee.”Haggai 2:23. Now the governor of Israel could see the meaning of the providence that had led him through discouragement and perplexity; he could discern God’s purpose in it all.
(PK 577.4)
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And yet this was the building concerning which the Lord had declared by the prophet Haggai: “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former.”“I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.”Haggai 2:9, 7. For centuries learned men have endeavored to show wherein the promise of God, given to Haggai, has been fulfilled; yet in the advent of Jesus of Nazareth, the Desire of all nations, who by His personal presence hallowed the precincts of the temple, many have steadfastly refused to see any special significance. Pride and unbelief have blinded their minds to the true meaning of the prophet’s words.
(PK 597.1)
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The second temple was honored, not with the cloud of Jehovah’s glory, but with the presence of the One in whom dwelt “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) —God Himself “manifest in the flesh.”1 Timothy 3:16. In being honored with the personal presence of Christ during His earthly ministry, and in this alone, did the second temple exceed the first in glory. The “Desire of all nations”(Haggai 2:7) had indeed come to His temple, when the Man of Nazareth taught and healed in the sacred courts.
(PK 597.2)
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