READINGS ON HAGGAI (2) (SUMMARY)
[p. 449] READINGS ON HAGGAI (2) (SUMMARY)
We might note at the beginning that the people are referred to as “ye people of the land” in verse 4. We should notice too the covenant and God’s Spirit in verse 5, and further it is in mind to see that things are actively in growth.
Five words come to Haggai from God, and each is short, each is effective and everything happens on its day. God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world.
Verse s: “The word ... and my Spirit, remain among you”. That is the word for the moment, they remain.
Ques Are we going to prove that the latter glory of the house is greater than the former?
JT I think so, because there is no end to it, and there is the millennium. The work is going forward and is being enlarged. God has mercifully saved us for forty years from a major division, and if we cling to Him He will preserve us.
Question as to “the Spirit was not yet”.
JT The Spirit of God was there from the beginning of Genesis, He existed from the outset, but the glorification of Christ was needed for His coming. The glorification of Christ affects everything in this dispensation.
Ques How is verse 9 to be worked out in view of what you said about the millennium?
JT The assembly as it comes down from God out of heaven is the greatest idea possible. There has never been anything like it before. It is not presented as going up, nor viewed as having gone into heaven.
These people are called the people of the land. They belong to heaven, typically. If we look into the second of Ephesians, verse 22, “A habitation of God in the Spirit”; this is the greatest thing we can come into. Think of the time God has taken to work it out! It took only six days in Genesis to work out the creation, but two thousand years this vessel has been in formation, with Christ in heaven and the Spirit here. If all these things in the Old Testament are types, we can see the magnitude of the assembly.
Ques Are all christians in the assembly?
JT We have to reckon what God can do. He will finish things up very quickly. We shall all be changed in an instant, what brevity!-”the twinkling of an eye”. What cannot God do?
Ques Are all christians to be there at that assembling moment?
JT Well, they will be, if they are real christians.
Ques What about christians in system, how are we to view them?
JT “Go up to the mountain and bring wood”. We are to go and find them and bring them.
Ques What about christians who do not have the Spirit? Do they get the Spirit in that brief moment?
JT Oh, I think so, but we have to speak abstractly.
Rem It is to be an “assembling” shout.
Verse 9: “In this place will I give peace”. That is in the land of Palestine, not in New York where there are two million Jews, but in the land.
Ques Is it possible for a believer to lose the Spirit?
JT No, I do not think so at all! That would be error. It might be so in the Old Testament, but not now. He has come down to seal us.
Ques When Jesus was here in the temple the glory was great, but now the Spirit being here, would that be just as great?
JT Of course it is-the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
[p. 451] Ques Is the assembly the custodian of all that God has down here?
JT No, I would say the Spirit is. The woman in Luke 15 gathers up everything, she leaves nothing out. “In which are hid all the treasures” refers to the assembly as a vessel, but the custodian is the Spirit, things are held by Him.
“They that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another” (Malachi 3: 16). Jehovah is saying that, but then the Spirit is Jehovah, the Spirit of Jehovah, so “they shall be mine” (verse 17) belongs to Him; not one shall fail to be there. Through the dark ages who took care of things? The Spirit did.
God’s house is the biggest thing one can think of. The Spirit is in it. It is a built thing. It involves the Spirit, and He makes us part of it. It has taken two thousand years to build, but God has done it.
Rem In whom (Christ) ye are built together for a habitation of God in Spirit; the whole Trinity is involved.
Ques Does “The tabernacle of God is with men” also include the Trinity?
JT Yes, I would say so.
The priests were challenged as to how they did things in the section from verse 10. Then in verse 19 the vegetation is spoken of; the principle of life is current. They have not brought forth, but they are bringing forth. Then Zerubbabel is taken up as a type of Christ and God is going to give him this wonderful place of a signet.
“Jehovah of hosts” is a very comprehensive expression. God uses it commonly. It is what is in His mind; He is saying, I have infinitely more than I need, and yet He is taking you up, He is so bent on the assembly.
The Spirit has given one line of thought ever since the revival, only that certain things have been clarified, such as the sonship of Christ and the place of the Holy Spirit.