Whose voice then shook the earth (see Exodus 19:18, "The whole mount quaked greatly," though there the LXX. has λαός instead of ὄρος: but of. 5:1-31., "The earth trembled," and Psalms 114:7, "Tremble, thou earth," etc., with reference to the phenomena at Sinai; also Habakkuk 3:6, Habakkuk 3:10): but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. The prophecy referred to is Haggai 2:6, Haggai 2:7, "Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts." Again, Haggai 2:21, "I will shake the heavens and the earth" (cf. Isaiah 2:19, Isaiah 2:21). The prophecy was uttered with reference to the second temple, the glory of which was to be greater than the glory of the first, in that it should be the scene of the LORD's final revelation of himself to his people. Its first fulfillment is rightly seen in Christ's first coming (cf. Habakkuk 2:9, "And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts;" and Ma Habakkuk 3:1, "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple"). But the language used points evidently, even in itself, to a further fulfillment; nor do readers need to be reminded here of the pregnant and far-reaching sense of all Messianic prophecy. "Illustre est testimonium Is. Newtoni ad Dan. p. 91: vixque in omni V.T. aliquod de Christo extat vaticinium, quod non, aliquatenus saltem, secundum ejus ad-ventum respiciat" (Bengel). The ultimate reference is what is seen dimly afar off in so many of the prophetic visions—the final dissolution of the whole present order of things, to be succeeded by the kingdom of eternal righteousness (cf. Psalms 102:25, etc). By the heaven that is to be shaken in that great day is meant, of course, not the eternal abode of God, but that which is created and visible ( τῶν πεποιημένων, verse 27). This final shaking is set against the local and typical shaking of Mount Sinai in two points of contrast—its extending to the whole creation, and its being once for all ( ἔτι ἅπαξ); and from the latter expression the removing of the things thus finally shaken is in the next verse inferred. This inference, though not following necessarily from the expression itself, is involved in the general drift of Haggai's prophecy, taken in connection with other cognate ones, in which an entirely new and heavenly order is pictured as rising over the ruins of the old, let as have grace (or, thankfulness; the usual meaning of ἔχειν χάριν is "to be thankful," or "to give thanks," as in Luke 17:9; 1 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 1:3), whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire. This last verse is from Deuteronomy 4:24, where the Israelites are being warned of the danger of forgetting the covenant of the LORD their God. The LORD's nature is not changed: he is still a consuming fire against evil, as he declared himself from Sinai; and if We scorn the present dispensation of grace, the day of judgment will still be to us a day of terror (cf. supra, Hebrews 10:26, etc).
HOMILETICS