Haggai 2:23

In that day, saith the Lord of hosts,.... When all these kingdoms, and their thrones and strength, are destroyed; which shows that what follows cannot be understood literally of Zerubbabel, who lived

And again the word of the LORD came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying, God's promise through Zerubbabel to Israel of safety in the coming commotions. Verse 20.

In that day; during those days of troubles, wars, and destruction, and particularly towards the end of them. I will take thee; advance, honour, defend, and own. O Zerubbabel: personally understood it respecteth the beginning of those days. Politically understood, it refers to all those times in which God promiseth he would, and indeed did, preserve, guide, and honour such governors of his people, who were as Zerubbabel was; somewhat of which promise and performance you may observe in the times succeeding unto, and through, the Maccabees’ times. Typically this refers to Christ, and the setting up of is kingdom, shadowed out by the government of Zerubbabel. My servant: the style changed seems to point to him who was God’ s most beloved servant, 52:13. The son of Shealtiel, who was one of the progenitors of the Messiah, . Will make thee as a signet: which is very highly valued, carefully kept, and used to confirm and ratify gifts, edicts, and patents, . So shall the antitypical Zerubbabel, the Messiah, be advanced, loved, and inviolably preserved King, and supreme over his church, for he is the chosen One, the beloved One, in whom God was well pleased, as the Chaldee paraphrast, and .

Haggai 2:23 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.Ver. 23. I will take thee, O Zerubbabel] That is, O Christ, of whom Zerubbabel was both a father and a figure, Luke 3:27 Zechariah 4:10 "I will take thee," that is, I will advance and exalt thee. See this expounded and applied by that great apostle, Philippians 2:5-12. And will make thee as a signet] That is, I will highly esteem thee, inviolably keep thee, and entirely love thee, Son 8:6 Jeremiah 22:24, and all my people in thee, and for thee, Isaiah 49:16. For I have chosen thee] As Isaiah 42:1. Quoniam in te mihi complacui, saith the Chaldee. For in thee I am well pleased, as Matthew 3:17. See the note there. Saith the Lord of hosts] This is three different times set down in this one verse, for our greater assurance and confirmation of our faith. I shall close up all with that observation of divines, that all the prophets (except Jonah and Nahum) expressly end in some prophecy concerning Christ. He being their mark at which all of them chiefly aimed. Indeed, he is both mark and matter of both Old and New Testament. And therefore if we profit in teaching, hearing, reading, we must have the eye of our mind turned toward Christ, as the faces of the cherubims were toward the mercy-seat. Do this, if ever you will do well.

(23) Signet.—On the figure of the signet-ring applied to one on whom confidence and affection are bestowed, see Son 8:6; Jeremiah 22:24.

Verse 23. In that day, saith the Lord] Some think, says this same learned writer, that Zerubbabel is put here for his people and posterity: but it may well be said that the commotions foretold began in the rebellion of Babylon, which Darius besieged and took; and exercised great cruelties upon its inhabitants. - Herod. lib. iii., sec. 220. Justin. i. 10. Prideaux places this event in the fifth year of Darius; others with more probability, in the eighth year. Compare Zechariah 2:9. And will make thee as a signet] I will exalt thee to high dignity, power, and trust, of which the seal was the instrument or sign in those days. Thou shalt be under my peculiar care, and shalt be to me very precious. See Jeremiah 22:24; Cant. Son 8:6; and see the notes on these two places. For I have chosen thee] He had an important and difficult work to do, and it was necessary that he should be assured of God's especial care and protection during the whole. ON the three last verses of this prophecy a sensible and pious correspondent sends me the following illustration, which I cheerfully insert. Though in many respects different from that given above, yet I believe that the kingdom of Christ is particularly designed in this prophecy. "I think there is an apparent difficulty in this passage, because the wars of the Persians and Babylonians were not so interesting to the rising commonwealth of the Jews as many subsequent events of less note in the world, but which were more directly levelled at their own national prosperity; and yet neither the one nor the other could be termed 'a shaking of the heavens and the earth, and an overthrow of the throne of kingdoms.' "I know not if the following view may be admitted as an explanation of this difficult passage. I take 'the shaking of the heavens and earth' here (as in Haggai 2:6) to have a more distant and comprehensive meaning than can belong to Zerubbabel's time, or to his immediate posterity; and that it extends not only to the overthrow of kingdoms then existing, but of the future great monarchies of the world; and not excepting even the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of the Jews themselves. For I take 'the heavens,' in the prophetic language, uniformly to denote the true Church, and never the superstitions and idols of the nations. "What, then, are we to understand by the promise made to Zerubbabel, 'I will make thee as a signet?' In the first place, the restitution of the religious and civil polity of the people of Israel, conformably to the promises afterwards given in the four first chapters of Zechariah.

23. will I take thee] In such expressions as this (comp. Deuteronomy 4:20; 2 Kings 14:21; 2 Kings 23:30) the word “take” simply introduces the following action. It has not therefore the sense which some have here given it, “I will take thee into my care and protection.” as a signet] This promise is referred to by the writer of the Book Ecclesiasticus, in his panegyric of the “famous men” of his nation: “How shall we magnify Zorobabel? even he was as a signet on the right hand,” ch. Sir 49:11. Among the Orientals great honour and importance attached to signets or seals. They were often “engraved stones pierced through their length and hung by a string or chain from the arm or neck, or set in rings for the finger” (Son 8:6; Jeremiah 22:24). “The custom prevalent among the Babylonians of carrying seals is mentioned by Herodotus i. 195 … and the signet ring is noticed as an ordinary part of a man’s equipment in the case of Judah (Genesis 38:18), who probably, like many modern Arabs, wore it suspended by a string (rendered ‘bracelets’ in E. V.) from his neck or arm.” Dict. of Bible, Art. Seal. I have chosen thee] “With these words the Messianic promise made to David was transferred to Zerubbabel and his family among David’s descendants, and would be fulfilled in his person in just the same way as the promise given to David, that God would make him the highest among the kings of the earth (Psalms 89:27). The fulfilment culminates in Jesus Christ, the son of David, and descendant of Zerubbabel (Matthew 1:12; Luke 3:27), in whom Zerubbabel was made the signetring of Jehovah. Jesus Christ has raised up the kingdom of His father David again, and of His kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:32-33). Even though it may appear oppressed and deeply humiliated for the time by the power of the kingdoms of the heathen, it will never be crushed and destroyed, but will break in pieces all these kingdoms, and destroy them, and will itself endure for ever (Daniel 2:44; Hebrews 12:28; 1 Corinthians 15:24).” Keil ad loc. Clark’s Theological Library.

I will make thee as a signet - God reverses to Zerubbabel the sentence on Jeconiah for his impiety.

THE OF , 20-23.The fourth utterance of Haggai is Messianic in character; it promises the exaltation of Zerubbabel, the prince of David’s house.