“‘On that day,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

Haggai 2:23

The book of Haggai winds down dramatically with promise after promise from God, first of supernatural intervention: “I will shake…I will overturn…(I will) shatter…I will overthrow” (2:21-22). But when, wonders Zerubbabel—when?

 And God says, “On that day.”

Zerubbabel was about to experience that day in the renewal of God’s covenant with Israel. The promise is clear: “I will take you…I will make you...for I have chosen you.” But Zerubbabel was a mere shadow pointing to the ultimate, the best, the One yet to come—Jesus! On that day Messiah would dwell with man, and ultimately die for man.

But then, on that day in the future, when the trumpet shall blow and the Lord come down and the dead and alive in Christ are caught up together in the clouds to meet Him in the air…so we will be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). 

Nancy P

*J. Alec. Motyer, The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical&Expositional Commentary, p.1000.

All Scripture quotations are from the NIV 1973, 1978, 1984, unless otherwise noted.