Why the Second Temple’s Glory Was Greater Than Solomon’s (Haggai 2:6–9)

The second temple’s greater glory was found in the presence and work of Christ, not in greater wealth or impressive construction. Haggai 2:6–9 points beyond the returning exiles’ disappointment toward God’s promise of glory and peace. This study follows that promise through the biblical history of the temple and Mount Moriah.

My mentor Barry Branaman once corrected my assumption that Herod had built a separate third temple. Herod expanded the existing second temple. That correction helped me see the connection between the house the exiles rebuilt and the temple Jesus later entered.

Count the temples for yourself and the confusion grows. Scripture points to a rebuilt temple during the tribulation, which would make four. Ezekiel gives the dimensions of a temple during the Millennium, which would make five. So how many temples are there? The answer, believe it or not, is one. Every one of them is the same house, on the same mountain, at the same address, and one Person keeps showing up there.

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There Has Always Been Only One Temple

Let me give you the scriptural support before I explain the significance. Look back a few verses in the passage we have been walking through:

Haggai 2:3 — “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?”

How many houses are mentioned in that verse? One. God does not ask, “Who saw the former temple, and how does it compare to this new one?” He does not ask them to hold the first temple up against the second. He asks how this house looks now, because in His reckoning there is only one house to look at.

The same thing happens at the end of the paragraph:

Haggai 2:9 — “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.”

God does not say the latter temple will be greater than the former temple. He says the latter glory of this house will be greater than its former glory. One building, two seasons of glory.

Why does God talk this way? Because it is one house on one mountain, and that mountain has a history. So when you think about the temple, do not think only about a building. Think about a location. God had that location in mind before Israel ever crossed the Jordan:

Deuteronomy 12:5 — “You shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there.”

Six times in that chapter God says the place. Not a place. He had one address picked out, We will visit it three times, because Christ visited it three times.

Jesus Appeared on Moriah to Abraham and Isaac

Genesis 22:1-2 — “After these things God tested Abraham… ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'”

We know what the test was: whether Abraham would give up his son. But notice that Abraham could have passed that test in his own backyard, and God would not allow it. Abraham was in Beersheba, and Moriah was fifty miles away. Three days of walking, with a boy and a bundle of firewood and a knife. God did not only choose a son. He chose a place.

If you write in your Bible, circle the word Moriah, draw a line, and write 2 Chronicles 3:1, which tells us Moriah is the mountain in Jerusalem where the temple was built.

Then, with the knife in the air, a voice interrupts:

Genesis 22:11-12 — “But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven… ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.'”

Read that slowly, because the pronouns are doing something remarkable. We would expect the angel to say, “You fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son from Him,” or “You fear Me, seeing you have not withheld your son from Me.” Instead He speaks about God and then identifies Himself as the One the sacrifice was being offered to. He does that because He is God. The Angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ, the Son of God before Bethlehem. That is why He appears all through the Old Testament and seems to vanish in the New. He did not vanish. He came as a Man.

The Ram in Isaac’s Place

Genesis 22:13 — “And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.”

Circle “instead of his son” and write two words in the margin: substitutionary atonement. It is one of the clearest pictures of it in the Old Testament. One died so the other could walk down the mountain alive.

Now watch what Abraham names the place:

Genesis 22:14 — “So Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The Lord will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.'”

At first that makes no sense. God had just provided the ram, so we would expect Abraham to call it “The Lord has provided.” Instead he uses the future tense, and four hundred years later, when Moses wrote it down, people were still saying it in the future tense: it shall be provided. Abraham was not looking back at the ram. He was looking ahead to something else God would provide on this mountain. He had already said so on the way up:

Genesis 22:8 — “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

God provided a ram that day, but Abraham was waiting on a lamb. And if you want to hear something astonishing, Abraham knew who that Lamb would be:

John 8:56 — “Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”

Rejoicing to see Christ’s day could mean nothing more than looking forward to the promises being fulfilled. But Jesus went further and said Abraham saw it. When? On this mountain, in a veiled and shadowy way, while he was raising a knife over his own son, Abraham glimpsed the true and greater reality: a Father who would give His Son on this same ground two thousand years later.

Jesus Appeared on Moriah with David

Move forward roughly a thousand years to the same address.

1 Chronicles 21:1 — “Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.”

We are not told exactly why the census was sinful. I suspect it was David trusting numbers instead of trusting the Lord, or claiming ownership of a people who belonged to God and not to him. Perhaps it was both. Whatever it was, it was sin, a plague fell, seventy thousand men died, and then the Angel of the Lord turned toward Jerusalem:

1 Chronicles 21:15 — “And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, ‘It is enough; now stay your hand.’ And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”

This is the same Angel from Genesis 22. The same Person, on the same mountain, a thousand years later. God told David that for the plague to stop he must build an altar on that threshing floor, so David bought it, built the altar, and offered sacrifices, and God answered him with fire from heaven. Fire falling on a sacrifice happens only a handful of times in all of Scripture, and every time it marks something enormous. Here it marks a location. God was signing His name on that piece of ground.

1 Chronicles 21:27 — “Then the Lord commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.”

Now set the two accounts side by side and follow the pattern:

• The same location: Moriah, in Jerusalem.
• The same Person: the Angel of the Lord.
• The same raised hand: Abraham’s over Isaac, the Angel’s over the city.
• The same voice from heaven: “Do not lay your hand on the boy,” and, “It is enough; now stay your hand.”
• The same rescue: a ram offered instead of Isaac, sacrifices offered instead of the people.

And this is where God chose to put His house:

1 Chronicles 22:1 — “Then David said, ‘Here shall be the house of the Lord God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel.'”

David could not build it, because of the blood he had shed, so his son Solomon did:

2 Chronicles 3:1 — “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”

That one verse ties the whole knot. Abraham’s mountain, David’s threshing floor, and Solomon’s temple all share an address. One mountain. One house. And for the next thousand years, every morning and evening sacrifice was offered on the exact spot where a father’s hand was stopped and an angel’s sword was sheathed. Which means the rubble those old men were weeping over in Haggai’s day was sitting on the holiest ground in redemptive history. And God was not finished with it.

God Will Shake Everything That Can Be Shaken

Now we can turn back to Haggai, where the returned exiles are standing in a half-built house with empty pockets, and everything above was the introduction:

Haggai 2:6 — “For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.”

“Yet once more” means there was a first time, and there was:

Exodus 19:18 — “…and the whole mountain trembled greatly.”

God came down at Sinai and one mountain shook. Now He says He will do it again, and this time not one mountain but the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land. Everything. The New Testament tells us plainly what that means, because it quotes this very verse:

Hebrews 12:26-27 — “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.”

The trembling at Sinai was a preview of God shaking loose everything men have built, and when the dust settles, what is left standing is what He built. That is a promise and a warning in the same sentence. Everything you can lose, you will lose. Your health is shakable. Your retirement account is shakable. Your reputation, your career, the building we meet in on Sunday mornings, all shakable. God is going to run the whole world through a sieve. So the question worth asking is not whether your life looks solid today, but how much of it is invested in what survives the shaking.

“The Silver Is Mine, and the Gold Is Mine”

Haggai 2:8 — “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.”

Why bring up money right here? Probably because they did not have any. Remember chapter one: failing harvests, wages disappearing into pockets with holes, a building project with no budget. These people were being asked to build a house for God with almost nothing, and they knew it. So God tells them where the funding actually comes from. He is not asking them to produce wealth. Every ounce of silver and gold on the planet already belongs to Him. He is only asking them to keep building.

The One Thing Missing When the Foundation Was Laid

Before we read the rest, we need to compare two worship services separated by seventy years. The first is the dedication of Solomon’s temple:

2 Chronicles 5:12-14 — “And all the Levitical singers, Asaph… arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters… ‘For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,’ the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.”

The second is the day the exiles laid the foundation of the house Haggai is preaching about:

Ezra 3:10-13 — “And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively… ‘For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.’ But many of the priests and Levites… old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping.”

Look at how nearly identical they are. Priests. Trumpets. Cymbals. The same family of singers, the sons of Asaph. The same order of service, taken from the same king. They even sang the same words. If you had a recording of both services, you could not tell them apart by sound.

But one thing was present at Solomon’s dedication and missing at this one, and it is the most significant thing of all. The cloud. The glory. You might reasonably object that the glory had not come because the building was not finished, but when you read Ezra 6 and the temple is complete, there is still no cloud. These people finished a house that God’s visible glory never entered. No wonder the old men wept.

The Desire of All Nations Would Come

So will this house ever have glory? Look at the verse we skipped:

Haggai 2:7 — “And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.”

If you have a study Bible, the introduction to Haggai probably includes a section on interpretive challenges, and this verse will be in it. The Hebrew word can be rendered treasures or desires. So God is either saying the treasures of the nations will come into this house, or that the Desire of All Nations will come into it, capitalized, because it is a name for the Messiah. That is the reading behind Handel’s Messiah, and behind Charles Wesley’s Christmas line, “Come, Desire of nations, come.”

John MacArthur put it this way: “It is preferable to see a reference here to the Messiah, a deliverer for whom all the nations ultimately long. Not only is this interpretation supported by the ancient rabbis and the early church, but also the mention of glory in the latter part of the verse suggests a personal reference to the Messiah.”

I believe it is Christ, the Desire of All Nations. Which means that when God promises to fill this house with glory, He is not promising another cloud. He is promising a Person.

Why the Second Temple’s Glory Was Greater

Haggai 2:9a — “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.”

Sit with how astonishing that is. Old men were weeping because they were certain this house could never measure up to Solomon’s, and God looked at those same men and told them the glory of what they were building would be greater. Greater than gold-covered walls. Greater than the cloud that filled the Most Holy Place. How?

In your Bible, circle “the latter glory,” draw a line, and write John 1:14.

John 1:14 — “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”

God said He would fill the rebuilt temple with glory, and He did it, not with a cloud but with a Man. Solomon’s temple was filled with gold. This smaller, plainer, poorer house was filled with Christ. There is no comparison. The Old Testament even closes with the promise:

Malachi 3:1 — “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

I may be wrong, but I suspect the people read that and pictured a cloud returning. I doubt many of them imagined God would become a man and walk in through the gate. But that is exactly what happened, and Scripture gives us the moment:

Luke 2:26-30 — “And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple… he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation.'”

Notice the bookends on this house. In Ezra 3, old men stood inside it and wept over what their eyes saw, because they remembered the former glory. In Luke 2, an old man stood inside the same house and blessed God for what his eyes saw, because he was holding the latter glory in his arms. And standing in that very building, Jesus said what no cloud could have said:

Matthew 12:6 — “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.”

Jesus Gives Peace on Moriah

Haggai 2:9b — “And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.”

God does not say He will give peace someday. He does not say He will give peace somewhere. He says in this place. On this mountain. This is the address where God hands out peace. Circle that phrase and write Colossians 1:20 beside it:

Colossians 1:20 — “And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

The peace never came from the building. It came from the blood, spilled on that ridge, by the Man who was greater than the building. And here is where the whole mountain finally makes sense. Walk back through it one more time and watch what changes.

Two thousand years earlier on this mountain, a father raised a knife over his son, and a voice from heaven stopped him: “Do not lay your hand on the boy.” A thousand years after that, on this mountain, an angel raised a sword over a city, and a voice from heaven stopped him: “It is enough; now stay your hand.” Twice on Moriah, God stopped the hand.

Then the Son of God walked out of that temple, up the same ridge, and laid down on a Roman cross on the same ground. And this time no voice said, “Do not lay your hand on this Boy.” No voice said, “It is enough.”

Romans 8:32 — “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all…”

Abraham was spared his son. God was not. And there was no ram caught in a thicket that morning, because this time He was the ram. As for the sword, Zechariah, who was preaching alongside Haggai to these very same people, tells us where it finally landed:

Zechariah 13:7 — “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me… Strike the shepherd…”

On the threshing floor, God told the sword to go back into its sheath. At Calvary, God called it back out, and it did not fall on the city. It fell on His Son. Now Abraham’s name for this place finally makes sense. He called it “The Lord will provide,” and for two thousand years that mountain carried a promise that had never been paid. Every morning and every evening a lamb died there, and every one of them said the same thing: not this one, not yet, it shall be provided. Until a Friday afternoon, when the Lamb God had promised was finally on the mountain and said three words that closed out two thousand years of waiting:

John 19:30 — “It is finished.”

One Mountain, One House, One Person

So let me answer the question we started with. How many temples are there? One. One mountain, one house, one address, and one Person who kept showing up there, stopping a father’s hand, sheathing an angel’s sword, and finally walking in as a Man so He could walk back out and die.

That is how God could look a group of weeping old men in the eye and tell them their pathetic little house would hold more glory than Solomon’s. The glory was never in the gold. Solomon covered the Most Holy Place with six hundred talents of gold, and the glory eventually left it. This house had nothing on its walls, and the glory walked in through its gates.

Which brings me to the most important thing I can say. Those old men were weeping over the wrong thing. They were measuring stone against stone, with no idea Who was coming to stand in the room. Do not miss Him the way they nearly did, and do not miss Him the way the disciples nearly did six centuries later, standing in that same courtyard admiring the masonry while the glory of God stood beside them in a body.

Romans 5:1 — “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Not peace as a feeling. Peace with God: the war over, the sword sheathed for good, because it already fell on Someone else. If you have never come to Christ and received that peace, do not put it off another day. It was purchased two thousand years ago on the mount of the Lord, at the exact address where Abraham said it would be provided.

Continue the Haggai series with Haggai 2:10–14 and why religious activity cannot make us holy. The passage shows why cleansing cannot be transferred through religious service and must come from Christ.

Questions for Reflection

• Why was greater wealth not the ultimate explanation of the temple’s promised glory?
• How do the connections with Christ deepen your understanding of Haggai’s promise?
• How does the peace Jesus gives differ from confidence in outward strength?

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