Haggai 2

²⁰ The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, ²¹ “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, ²² 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. ²³ 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.”

The book of Haggai ends in a way that the modern reader might find surprising. It ends by focusing on the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel. In a certain sense, this is not surprising. After all, Zerubbabel is mentioned in the first verse of the book. However, he is mentioned alongside Haggai and Joshua. In fact, throughout this book, he is mentioned but always alongside Joshua the priest. This is the first time that Zerubbabel becomes the sole focus of a divine word. This makes Haggai 2:20-23 unique, but it is what is saidto Zerubbabel that makes it truly surprising.

Yes, what is said is surprising, but it is also very important…and relevant…and “perspective-giving” to the entire book. In fact, these final words to Zerubbabel help us understand with shocking clarity just what is happening in this book and in Israel’s returning to its temple construction.

Through Zerubbabel, God shows how He can give a new name to those with a bad name.

To understand the significance of what is said in these verses, we must first understand from whence Zerubbabel came. He did not have, to put it mildly, a good name. In fact, Zerubabbel’s grandfather, Coniah (or Jeconiah), was singled out as the particular object of God’s wrath in Jeremiah 22. Listen:

²⁴ “As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off ²⁵ and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. ²⁶ I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. ²⁷ But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.” ²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know?²⁹ O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! ³⁰ Thus says the Lord: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”

See in these verses the absolutely devastating consequences of God’s judgment against Coniah:

• Coniah was a signet ring that God tore off His hand.

• Coniah would be given to the Babylonians.

• Coniah and his mother would become exiles.

• Coniah would die in a foreign land without ever returning home.

• Coniah’s children would also enter exile.

• Coniah would be broken and despised among men.

• Coniah’s children would feel the full wrath of God.

• Coniah’s children would never sit on the throne of David.

This is what God said in Jeremiah 22 and this was Zerubbabel’s grandfather!This was his name! This was his lineage! This was his past! These were his people!

My grandfather, Leon Richardson, was a loved figure in my hometown of Sumter, South Carolina. He was a very kind man who pastored churches in the area, sold tombstones, and had lived in that town his whole life. He was such a pleasant man that everybody called him Rosie. As a boy I used to always smile whenever an adult, upon hearing my name, would say, “Are you Rosie’s grandson?”

It is a beautiful thing to inherit a loved name. It is a horrible thing to be saddled with a despised name.

I once pastored a church in a town in which there was a family that was infamous for being pugnacious. I will use a different name here, but they were known as “the fighting Johnsons.” And they were known by that name because they would…well…fight and get into scrapes and trouble and all of the kinds of things that make for a bad reputation. If you mentioned that name in that town you would get sad and knowing nods of exasperation at the alleged bad behavior to which the name pointed.

It is a terrible burden, having a bad name.

Zerubbabel was saddled with a name that had been condemned by God because of his grandfather’s unfaithfulness. Imagine the whispers among God’s people when they saw Zerubbabel. Imagine the stares. Imagine the feeling of despair. Imagine Zerubbabel’s long moments of contemplation at night, in the dark, and of his wondering how he could survive with that name, with that judgment, with that inheritance of shame.

God had said of Zerubbabel’s grandfather that he was a signet ring that God had cast off because of his disobedience. “In the ancient Near East,” the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary says, “a signet ring was an engraved stone bearing a mark that was unique to the individual. Such signets were used to sign contracts and/or legal documents or to emboss seals of scrolls, and they could be entrusted to a trusted servant.”[1]The IVP Bible Background Commentary further states:

The term “signet” probably refers to a seal, which could have been either a cylinder seal worn with a cord around the neck or a stamp seal embedded in a ring, which is referred to here. The former was very common in Mesopotamia, while the latter was used in Israel. Thousands of cylinder seals and stamp seals have been found in Mesopotamia and Syro-Palestine respectively. They were a sign of authority, identification, and ownership.[2]

Thus, in God calling Coniah a cast off signet ring, He was speaking of a fundamental break in their relationship, of the consequence of the justly deserved divine wrath that fell upon Coniah.

Coniah, Zerubbabel’s grandfather, was a cast off signet ring.

Now listen to what God says to Zerubbabel, Coniah’s grandson, in the closing words of this book:

²⁰ The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, ^21a “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah…

 ²³ 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.”

Did you see that? “I will take you…and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you…”

Warren Weirsbe says of these words:

            Zerubbabel’s ancestor, King Jehoichin (Coniah), had been rejected by God, but Zerubbabel was accepted by God…(Jer. 22:24, NKJV). God was reversing the judgment…[3]

Yes, even though God had said to Coniah that he was a cast off ring and that neither he nor his children would sit on David’s throne, here He is, turning to Coniah’s grandson, Zerubbabel, and choosing him for service, giving him a governorship, allowing him to lead the people back to Jerusalem, and allowing him to play an important part in the reconstruction of the temple.

The one who had a bad name is now given a good name. Why? Because our God is the God who delights in giving a new name to those who are ashamed and broken, to those who feel cast off, to those who have been saddled with the shame of the past.

Hear the good news of the gospel: you may feel like a cast off thing, a rejected thing, a judged thing, an unloved thing, and an object of wrath, but God in love and grace has moved toward you in Jesus Christ and He is saying, “Bring your shame. Bring your fear. Bring your brokenness. For I love you! I value you! I will give you a new name! You have worth! You are my son, my daughter, my child! I have picked you back up! I have restored you! I have a plan for you!”

I talk to people all of the time who feel cursed, who feel alone, who feel cast off. I talk to people all of the time who seem to be ashamed of their name, of their past, of their family, of that thing that everybody whispers about, of that thing that everybody knows about. Dear friend, hear me: you are not defined by your past; you are defined by how you are loved…and you are loved!You are loved so much that God gave His only begotten Son to lay down His life for you!

Through Zerubbabel, God shows how He can give an eternal home to a hopeless people.

And this leads us to our final point, and, indeed, to the book of Haggai’s greatest point. Through Zerubbabel, God shows how He can give an eternal home to a hopeless people.

²⁰ The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, ²¹ “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, ²² 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. ²³ 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.”

The book ends with words that can only be described as “eschatological” or “pertaining to final things.” It ends with a prophetic note. The imagery is profoundly eschatological:

• “shake the heavens and the earth”

• “overthrow the throne of kingdoms”

• “destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations”

• “overthrow the chariots and their riders”

• “On that day…”

This is language and imagery that points to end times events. “That day” clearly involves Zerubbabel but goes beyond him as well.

We must understand two things about Zerubbabel: (1) by being chosen by God and being picked up as a signet ring, Zerubbabel represented the effective reestablishment of David’s line and (2) the promises made to Zerubbabel are clearly made to him as a typeand figure. That is, God is saying something to Zerubbabel in his particular and important moment of historical significance that went far beyond both him and his moment. To put it yet another way, it would be best to see Zerubbabel as a comma, not a period, as a door, not a final destination.

To the first point, Verhoef argues that “the vivid figure of the signet ring attested to the renewed election of the Davidic line, represented by Zerubbabel, the person in whom God had again invested the authority, promised to David and his dynasty. Thus, the historical governor of Judah is elevated to fulfill his God-appointed destiny within the context of the coming and imminent future dispensation.”[4]Bryan Beyer writes that “Zerubbabel’s connection with the line of David may have fueled messianic hopes in Judah.”[5]

This is so! Zerubbabel represented in his person and in his restoration the coming of a leader and a restoration compared to which he and his time were only a foreshadowing, a type. Warren Weirsbe summarizes it nicely when he writes:

            Zerubbabel’s ancestor, King Jehoichin (Coniah), had been rejected by God, but Zerubbabel was accepted by God…(Jer. 22:24, NKJV). God was reversing the judgment and renewing His promise that the Davidic line would not die out but would one day give the world a Savior.[6]

We know that Zerubbabel was a figure of the coming Savior for two reasons. First, Zerubbabel virtually disappears from the scene after Haggai’s references to him and, secondly, when his name does appear again, it is in two passages that are most telling. Here they are:

Matthew 1

¹² And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel,and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³ and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud…¹⁶ and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Luke 3

²³ Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, ^24a the son of Matthat, the son of Levi…²⁷ the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri

Zerubbabel is mentioned near the beginning of the first and third gospels and he is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Meaning, the restoration of Zerubbabel represented the restoration of the line through which Jesus would come: David’s line. God’s picking Zerubbabel back up as a signet ring meant that His Son could now be born as had been prophesied, in the lineage of David.

The implications of this are staggering! It means that the building of the temple is not the main point of the book of Haggai. And it means that the restoration of Zerubbabel is not the main point of the book of Haggai.

It means that Jesus is the point of the book of Haggai! It means that Jesus is the greater temple to whom the restored temple pointed. It means that Jesus is the greater King to whom the restored governor pointed.

Suddenly we understand: the call to rebuild the temple was a call for God’s people to enter into the bigger story of God’s plan of salvation. Their little part was part of God’s rescue mission for humanity. God will indeed shake the heavens and the earth. God will indeed bring the throne of the nations down. God will indeed set all things right. And He will do so through Jesus…and Jesus would come through the line of David, at least in so far as His earthly flesh was concerned.

Are you frustrated? Do you feel hopeless? Can you not understand what God is calling you to, what God is doing in your life? Then dare to trust! When you trust in Jesus Christ you enter a story that is bigger than you and you get to play a part in a story that is truly bigger than its parts!

That rubble at your feet is part of a great and grand drama of salvation! Pick up a stone and put it on top of another! Get back to what matters most! God is moving in the world! God has a plan! God knows exactly what God is doing!

God wants to use you!

“But,” you say, “all I have is this rubble, the rubble of my life.” Then bring that to God! Bring all of it! Bring it and say, “God, this is all I have: my own failures and my own rubble. But I now give it all to you. I trust in you. I believe in Jesus Christ. I trust in Jesus my temple, in Jesus my King, in Jesus, Lord of all.”

Yes, bring that to Him. Bring it, and watch Him work!

It is time to get back to what matters most!

 

[1]Kenneth Hoglund, “Haggai.” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Gen. Ed., John H. Walton. Old Testament, Vol. 5 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), p.199.

[2]John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p.798.

[3]Warren Wiersbe, Be Heroic. (Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries, 1997), p.80.

[4]Pieter A. Verhoef, The Books of Haggai and Malachi.The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987), p.147.

[5]Bryan E. Beyer, “Zerubbabel.” The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Ed. in Chief, David Noel Freedman. Vol. 6, Si-Z (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1992), 1085-1086.

[6]Warren Wiersbe, Be Heroic. (Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries, 1997), p.80.