Advent 4
Dear friends in Christ. With Christmas so near, we are certainly well prepared or in the midst of “getting ready for Christmas,” hanging with care the final stockings. More importantly, have we used this Advent season rightly as a time to prepare the heart by examining thought word and deed in the light of God’s holy Law, recognizing our sin and that it has earned us nothing but God’s wrath and damnation, so that we now all the more long for Jesus, our Savior from sin so that hearing the Christmas Gospel:[Lk. 2.11] There is born for you this day a Savior…Christ the Lord, we welcome it with a joyful and fervent heart and hold it ever so firmly.
This preparation and longing for that announcement is the heart of Advent and is nicely caught in the hymn Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emmanuel. This hymn from 15th Century France is based on the so-called “O Antiphons” which come to us from the 12th Century. An antiphon is a verse that comes before a song or psalm. The O Antiphons are ancient verses used in the evening services the week before Christmas. They are addressed to our Savior and reflect a joyful anticipation of His advent. They express the Christian’s longing for Christ to come, that longing for the Christmas proclamation that our Savior has come. Each of the O Antiphons invites our Savior to come, using names or images that He deserves to be called by. One of the O Antiphons is based on our Old Testament text from Haggai. It calls Jesus “The Desire of the Nations.” As we examine our text, we will see that as Jesus, the Desire of the Nations comes, His coming rocks the universe but His coming brings peace.
1. Our text: "For thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Once more (it is a little while) I am shaking heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations.’” Once more—in a little while—the Lord tells these OT saints that He will rock the world. That right away raises the question: Since the Lord will “once more” shake the heaven, earth, sea and dry land, when did He do it before? Certainly a time when the Lord came and shook things up was at Mt. Sinai when He descended to give the people the Law. We read of that time [Ex. 19.16]: Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there thunderings and lightenings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. When God descended to give the people the Law, He descended in power. He came to act—to give His people the Law and to bring them into a relationship with Him.
When we read in our text that once more the Lord will come—and when He comes, He comes to act—we should not be surprised that His coming will rock the world; after all, it is God Himself who is coming. When Jesus came that first Christmas, it was the very God Himself who was coming. Shouldn’t we expect great shaking of the heaven and earth, the sea and dry land like what happened at Sinai when He came to give the Law? Certainly—Christmas is about God coming to act for us. But what are our images of Christmas—silent night when all is calm; Bethlehem lying still while silent stars go by. But Jesus’ coming, the coming of the very God Himself that first Christmas did shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land, but in a different way than at Sinai. At Sinai, He came in full glory and might and the people recognized they, being sinners, were in the presence of the holy God and so they trembled in fear and dread. But when Jesus came that first Christmas, He came as the friend of sinners and concealed His true divine majesty under the cloak of His humanity; He came to act but to call sinners to Himself, not to be in dread of Him.
Yet what happened that first Christmas did shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land, but in a different way. At His birth the heavens were shook as they were peeled back, so to speak, to allow the shepherds a glimpse into heaven to see the angel and the angelic host praising God—including the Son in the manger: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!
The earth was shook as all the natural laws were suspended: the virgin not only conceived but the virgin give birth and still retained her virgin honor pure. Jesus was conceived contrary to all laws of nature—the Holy Spirit came upon the virgin Mary, cleansed and purified from her the flesh that Jesus would take on so that Jesus would be free from the stain and taint of sin. During delivery the laws of nature were suspended allowing Jesus to be born while Mary retaining her virginity[#95.3]: Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child Of the Virgin undefiled.
The sea and the dry ground were shook, too with Christ’s birth. The dry ground shook as the shepherds ran on that dry ground to see the newborn Child and as they went and told others what they had seen and heard; the dry ground shook as the wise men traveled on it; later it shook as others and finally as the apostles and all Christians go on it to make known Christ’s name. The sea shook in the same way as the apostles and all missionaries traveled on it to bring the saving message of Christ throughout the world. By spreading His saving word and blessings throughout the world, setting people free from sin, death, devil and hell Jesus is acting mightily rocking and freeing the world Satan has in his clutches.
What happened in Bethlehem that first Christmas still sends shockwaves. The coming of Christ, the coming of the very God Himself was the greatest upheaval in history—the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, became true man to save the world from sin, to rescue it from sin, death, devil and hell. Wherever Christ is, wherever Christ is proclaimed, there is strife and discord. The devil and his allies set themselves up against and array themselves in battle formation against Christ, His word and work, His Church and Christian. These are still the shockwaves of that first Christmas; and they will continue on until the Last Day until all that oppose our Lord and His kingdom are shaken and finally broken into pieces.
Not only does this shaking of the first Christmas affect the created world, but in grace the Lord with the first Christmas shakes people, us, the nations. Our text: and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations. The true shaking, rocking of the world, with that first Christmas was not physical but spiritual. With the coming of Christ, one is not/ cannot be neutral, as Jesus Himself tells us [Mt. 12.30]: He who is not with Me is against Me. With the shockwave of that first Christmas coming to us—our Savior is born—we are shaken. It means that I cannot save myself; it means that I cannot earn heaven by what I do; it means that for my sin I earn and deserve God’s eternal wrath and punishment. That is Law! And that shakes us spiritually—everything is not right between me and God. By shaking us with His Law, God taking away from us everything that we comfort ourselves with—our works, our feeling good about ourselves, our complacency, etc.—and we sinners are left before the judgment throne of the holy God staring at an eternity in hell. That’s the Lord shaking us and all people; that’s not just meant for the unbelievers but God’s shaking us with His Law is also meant for us Christians until our dying breath; that’s why Advent.
2. Dear Christian, take heart from our text! And I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations. The purpose of God shaking us with His Law, the purpose of the shockwave of Christmas—that we need a Savior from sin—is to lead us to come to that Savior. Look at the name/ title that Christ is here given by the Lord in our text: the Desire of All Nations. When we are crushed by the recognition of our sins, that things are not right between us and God and eternal death and damnation await us, our desire is to be saved, rescued from that. Our heart longs for the One who can deliver us from sin, death, devil and hell. That’s why Jesus is the Desire of All Nations—all people. By the Spirit’s work, when all people hear of this Savior from sin, hear that the Savior they need and desire has come, they come to Him in faith. The Holy Spirit uses the Christmas proclamation: there is born for you this day a Savior…Christ the Lord, to work faith and to believe that Jesus, who was born that day in Bethlehem truly is the Savior, the One they are desiring and trusting in Him to save them from sin. That’s you and me, dear Christian! Jesus is the one we truly desire; and through the word, the Holy Spirit has worked that certainty that Jesus is the One we truly need. Now in faith we come to Him, the Desire of All Nations.
Now notice what the Lord says next in our text: and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this house with glory. What’s this house that the Lord will fill with glory? Could it be the Temple that Haggai is encouraging the people to finish? Perhaps, but the next verse of the prophecy tells us: 'The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,' says the LORD of hosts. It seems that the glory of the house is not anything outward, anything like gold or silver, which mean nothing to the Lord; but He will fill this house with glory. It’s best to understand this house to refer to Desire of All Nations. And they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this house with glory.
This is Christmas! Jesus is the Desire of All Nations. He is true man, born of the virgin Mary. But He is also true God—remember His coming is the coming of God which rocks the universe. This house, then, refers to Jesus’ human nature—He is true man. This house, Christ’s human nature, is filled with a different glory; it’s not adorned with silver and gold, but His human nature is filled with the glory of God. In other words, Jesus, the Desire of All Nations is both true man, born of the virgin Mary—this house; and also true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity-glory.
The Lord then continues in our text: The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former. The glory of this latter house, the glory of Jesus, the God-Man, is greater than the glory of Solomon’s temple which was filled with gold and silver and in which sacrifices took place to teach the people of the coming Savior and His sacrifice. Jesus, the Desire of All Nations, is the true Temple filled with glory as He comes, presents Himself and serves.
Jesus, the Desire of All Nations, called Himself, His body, this true Temple. After driving out all the sellers and corruption from the temple and being called on the carpet for it by the Jews [Jn. 2.19]: Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Later on He says of Himself [Mt. 12.6]: But I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.
Jesus is the Desire of All Nations because His body is greater than the Temple. In the temple of His body He offered Himself to God as the sacrifice for the sins of the world; in the temple of His body He reconciled the whole sinful human race with God; in the temple of His body He brought us forgiveness of sin and peace. Precisely here, in this Temple of Christ’s body, offered to God, we have the fulfillment of our text: 'And in this place I will give peace,' says the LORD of hosts. That’s why Jesus is the Desire of All Nations—He gives us what we truly need: peace, reconciliation and forgiveness with God. In Him and by Him we have everything we truly need and desire. Let us all the more fervently pray: Come, Desire Of All Nations, Come to us with Your gifts and blessings. INJ Amen.