A Call to Participate in God's Triumph

If God's promises are sure, why does nothing look like it yet?

Zerubbabel is a governor of a small province with no throne, no crown, and no army, and the promise comes to him anyway. Judah had watched the empire swallow everything and still had to decide whether to take God at his word. Faith here is not against reason but against sight.

Yahweh’s word came the second time to Haggai in the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, ‘I will shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother. In that day, says Yahweh of Armies, I will take you, Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ says Yahweh, ‘and will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.”

Haggai 2:20–23

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

…while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

Against hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

Romans 4:18–21

Did God really mean it when he promised David a forever throne?

The exile looked like God tearing up his covenant with David, and the psalmist says as much out loud. Haggai's last oracle answers that question by putting the signet ring back on a Davidic son, a link in the chain that runs to Jesus in Matthew's genealogy.

In that day, says Yahweh of Armies, I will take you, Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ says Yahweh, ‘and will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.”

Haggai 2:23

Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.”’”

2 Samuel 7:16

But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed. You have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust.

Psalms 89:38–39

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.”

Luke 1:32–33

What happens to the powers that set themselves against God?

Haggai piles up exodus language, Sodom language, and battlefield language to say that every rival throne comes down. Judah had felt what Babylon and Persia could do, and God tells them the empires are the temporary thing.

“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, ‘I will shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother.

Haggai 2:21–22

Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come again on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it. Yahweh overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. The waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh’s army that went in after them into the sea. There remained not so much as one of them.

Exodus 14:26–28

Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

Genesis 19:24–25

Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying, “Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath: “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”

Psalms 2:1–6

“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty be left to another people; but it will break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

Daniel 2:44

Why is God taking so long to finish what he started?

The temple took five years of slow, unglamorous work, and only a fraction of the exiles came back to do it. The sermon points out that God has never been in a hurry, and that the genealogies themselves show a God who works across generations rather than in a season.

Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says Yahweh. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ says Yahweh, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ says Yahweh of Armies. This is the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and my Spirit lived among you. ‘Don’t be afraid.’

Haggai 2:4–5

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,…

Galatians 4:4

For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

Hebrews 10:36

Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

James 5:7–8

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58

How do I keep serving when I cannot see that any of it is making a difference?

Zerubbabel fades out of the story; we never learn what became of him. The people he led kept laying stone for five years with no machinery and no guarantees. Haggai's answer is that God's promised future is what fuels present obedience, not the other way around.

Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says Yahweh. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ says Yahweh, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.

Haggai 2:4

The sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei. The sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah; and Shelomith was their sister;…

1 Chronicles 3:19

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13–14