The Apocalypse in Haggai

Haggai prophesied about a century after Zephaniah; and was contemporary with Zechariah, and the rebuilding of the Temple after the return from Babylon. He stirred the people up to finish it. Zerub- babel, son of David, and ancestor of Joseph the husband of Mary, and of Mary and Jesus, was Governor of Judah under the Persians; and Joshua, the son of Josedech, high priest. These were “men of sign;” that is, men representative of One, who shall afterwards himself occupy, at one and the. same time, the position of Governor and High Priest of the nation. Zerubbabel and Joshua are so regarded both by Haggai and Zechariah. In reference to the apocalypse of the Holy One they typi­fied, Jehovah says in Haggai, “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry; and I will shake all nations, and that to be desired of all nations they shall come (’isa bahu, 3 p. plur.), and I will fill this house with glory. And this “yet once more,” says Paul, “signifieth the removing of those things which may be shaken as of things that are constituted, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” The heavens and earth shaken in the Babylonian desolation, were shaken “once more” in the Roman. But the time approaches when the heavens, earth, sea, and dry land of the Gentile world, are also to be convulsed. Therefore Jehovah commanded Haggai to speak to Zerubbabel, and say, “I will shake the heavens and the earth: and I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms, and 1 will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. In that day, saith Jehovah of armies, I will take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, son of Shealtiel, and will make thee as a signet; for I have chosen thee, saith Jehovah of armies”—ch. 2 : 6, 7, 21-23. Now as these things did not come to pass in the lifetime of Zerubbabel, he was either a representative of his descendant the Son of Mary who shall be the ensign; or he must be raised from the dead if it is to be personally accomplished in him. Whichever alternative may be accepted, this is certain, that Zerubbabel is to be a living man when the shaking of the nations predicted shall come to pass. The prophecy then, relates to our future, and will be found hereafter to have been in­corporated in some of the scenes of the Apocalypse.