"The desire of ALL nations" Hag 2:6-7

"The desire of ALL nations" Hag 2:6-7

"For thus saith the LORD of hosts; 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."

The Lord Jesus, the Savior, is The Desire of All Nations!

Let us look first at several highlights in this verse:

First, God is telling us he will intervene in human history. Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, will shake heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the dry land, and the nations.

What God is going to do, will be known; what he did is knowable to all people.

And note, it is a one time event, "once." This is neither the beginning of a succession of future events; nor one in an already ongoing line of events. God is going to do one thing, once. This is it, don't miss it!

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these the last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;" Heb 1:1-2

Second, this Desire of All Nations, is a person who will come. At the time Haggai lived (520 BC), this person had not yet come. Haggai is telling of a future coming.

Third, the Jews thought God only intended to save them, they were God's people, but God says, the nations; this person will save people from all nations.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Joh 3:16 

We key in on the word "loved," but for the Jews, the word "world," would have been a shocker to hear!

"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;" Rev 5:9 

Four, this person would come via the Jewish Sacrificial System, "I will fill this house with glory;" referring to the Temple. This tells us, that at the time of Haggai, the Old Testament time period, the Temple did not have its final, full glory. The work of the Mosaic Animal Sacrificial System, was to point to this person who would come, the Lord Jesus. That it a key point of the book of Hebrews: The Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament System. The Old Testament system was God's system, but its time was over, and now the new is coming:

"Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Joh 4:21-24

Five, there is only ONE who person who is The Desire of All Nations! All religions do not lead to God. Jesus claimed to be the exclusive way to God.

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Joh 14:6 

That is either true, or Jesus is a lying lunatic!

Now to the point I want to focus on, he is called The Desire of ALL Nations. How can it be that the Lord Jesus is the desire of all nations, meaning both the Jews and the non-Jewish nations. The Jews rejected him and the non-Jewish nations never heard anything of God, both the pagan nations back then, and the billions today who have never heard of Jesus.

We will look at five (5) reasons why he is the desire of all nations:

1) God, the Eternally Self-Existing Being, made Mankind, male and female, one of each, as recorded in Gen 1 - 2; we all come from them. So God being one being, and making all Mankind from one person, Adam, we all want to go back to the same place/person: God.

In traditional animistic religions, each people group has their own origin story, and each has their own idea of what happens after death; but since Mankind is really one, there is only one who is the desire of ALL of us.

And we are all stuck in the same situation, we all share the same fate. Adam and Eve sinned, and died, both spiritually, and physical too, and that death passed on to us. Rom 5 teaches us that one man sinned, and that sin nature passed to all people; and how do we know that? Because all people die, even babies in the womb, who have not committed specific acts of sin, die; they suffer the penalty, so we therefore know the death of Adam, has passed to them.

All people having the same ancestor, Adam, and all suffering under same problem, a spiritually dead nature, and the attendant death, will all want the same remedy. We all want to be saved. It is a universal problem for all Mankind, each and every one of us.

God made us all. We have one common ancestor. We all suffer from his death. We all want the same thing: salvation; and that by the same savior, who is called the desire of all nations.

2) God has put into the heart of all people an understanding that there is an eternity, an existence after our bodies die.

"He hath set the world/eternity in their heart," Ecc 3:11 

The word "world" is the Strong's H5956, which means: "properly concealed, that is, the vanishing point; generally time out of mind (past or future), that is, (practically) eternity;"

We intuitively know that there is an eternity; it is hard-wired, by God, into our being as people; we know that what we see, is not all there is! That is why people try to connect with "what is out there," whether by religion, by New-Age practices, by meditation, etc.

I am not saying that all religions get us to God, absolutely not! In fact this verse clearly teaches the opposite! For all people, there is only one way to God: I will shake the nations, and the desire of all nations will come; a single person. This is an un-popular idea today, for in our day people say, "every road leads to God," and "who are you to say I am wrong," and "all religions are the same." Yes, there is only one self-existing, eternal God, who has no beginning and nor end, who made everything out of nothing, simply by speaking everything into existence, even matter and energy, BUT all religions do not lead to him. The religions of the world actually hold mutually exclusive thoughts about how to get to God, and mutually contradictory ideas of who God is, so how can they all be right? How can they all be talking about the same person, and going to the same place? They cannot!

All I am saying under this point, is that all people know there is a God, and an Eternity to follow.

It comes out all over place, consider the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow!"

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then oh why can't I?

If happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow
Why oh why can't I?

Is that not eternity set in the heart of man!? Doesn't that resonate with you?

3) The witness of creation.

God also gave Mankind a witness to himself in the cosmos, the creation, the external world which we see, so that we are without excuse.

"Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:" Rom 1:19-20

This too was done to prompt people to seek after God, by giving them a clear display that he exists. "God hath shewed them." "Are clearly seen." "Being understood."

God says the creation, his creation, what he created, clearly shows us that he exists. If you are an atheistic, you say, I know there is no God, but you cannot know it, because you cannot simultaneously be in all parts of the Universe at the same time, and you cannot see, what is invisible, but God has showed you in his creation, that he exists. You can tell us, I know there is no God, but you will not tell him that.

The core premise of Naturalistic Evolution is that everything came from nothing. They cannot answer the simply question: Where did the initial Matter and Energy come from? But the bible tells us it came from God, when he spoke it all into existence:

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Heb 11:3 

In Gen 1, when God spoke "light" into existence, saying, "let there be light," that is not just visible light, it is the entire electro-magnetic spectrum: that is when God infused the cosmos with its energy; that is where the initial energy came from, from God himself. Note, first God made Matter, then he infused it with Energy.

We are to look around, and simply admit the obvious: someone made all this, and acknowledging that, we are to seek after him, so we can know him.

Listen to what Paul says to the great Greek philosophers of his day:

"For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;   That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." Act 17:23-29

But Paul goes beyond just asserting that God exists, etc etc, he tell them God not hiding from us, he wants us to find him!

People see the creation around, and intuitively know that God exists, but they suppress that knowledge. That understanding is poking its head up in their hearts and minds, but they pushed it back down, they deny it, and so what does God do? He gives them up to illicit sexual behavior. Sexual sins are not the reason why God will judge us, they are the judgment that God is inflicting upon us. Read the rest of Rom 1. We are responsible to learn from creation, that there is in fact a creator.

4) The Law of God written on the hearts of all men.

"For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)" Rom 2:14-15

While Rom 2 is a bit confusing, the point here is clear, even gentiles, non-Jews, who knew nothing of the Ten Commandments in their written form as God gave them to Moses, did in fact know them because God had written them on their hearts. He as the creator of all Mankind, wrote his law on each of our hearts. We have the instruction manual! The tribal group among whom we live and work, know stealing is wrong, lying is wrong, coveting is wrong, murder is wrong, dishonoring parents is wrong, and adultery is wrong.

How is it that they know these things are wrong? God their creator wrote them on their hearts; on the moral DNA of their being. He made them, they are his, are responsible to him, and so he in mercy wrote his laws on their heart. A main purpose of the Ten Commandments is to define sin, and convince people that as individuals, they are sinners, and then stir up in them a desire to have the problem of sin and guilt fixed.

5) People want to be right with God.

When we first moved into the tribal area where we live and work, and I began teaching them from the bible, I asked if they thought they were good people or bad people; they said they were bad. That was a surprise, because Americans, would say they were good people. So I asked, why they said they were bad people? Listen to their profoundly simple answer, they said, we do bad things! They compared their actions, to the inner standard of God's law written on their hearts, and they knew they were doing wrong! I then asked them why they did bad, but all the could say, was that they were bad inside, broken, not right, meaning, they felt the effects of Adam's sin, that their hearts were bad, but they had no idea how this had come to pass. They have no traditional story of a creator God, and they obviously did not know Gen 3, the account of Satan tempting Adam and Eve, all they knew was that something was wrong, they were sick. One man said to me, Ray ever other mission group tells us about washing, about wearing good cloths, about not eating pig, but you are telling us about our hearts!

The gospel message, the good news about Jesus Christ, the medicine that cures this "sickness," this "spiritual death" that reigns in people, is that God so loved the world, the cosmos, HIS cosmos, that he sent his son, that whosoever believes in him will have eternal life. It has nothing to do with the externals, as Jesus said, washing the outside of the cup, it is about washing the inside. (Mat 23:25; Luk 11:39)

To sum up, this one who is The Desire of All Nations, is the fountain of life, to deliver us from death!

"For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." Psa 36:9

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." Joh 1:1-4

"That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Joh 1:9 

"And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Joh 1:16-18

Do you want light and life and truth and love? Go to the Fountain Head!

I highly recommend John Flavel's book "The Fountain of Life," sub-titled: "A display of Christ in his essential and mediatorial glory."

When God sent Jesus into the world, his kingdom shook the whole world. Jesus' kingdom is the rock cut out of the mountain without hands, which destroys all earthly kingdoms and will never end.

"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces." Dan 2:34 

"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." Dan 2:44-45

Read the poem, "One Solitary Life" By Rev. James Allan Francis. No one else has had the impact on the world as Jesus Christ, a 1st century Jewish carpenter, who was crucified!

God has put these things our hearts; we all have an understanding that there is more to "everything" than what we see. People know that, you know that, and in some way you are groping around, trying to find him.

"That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel (grope) after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:" Act 17:27 

The good news is: he wants to be found! He wants you to find him. He is not hiding: "he be not far from every one of us"

He has put in our hearts an understanding that he exists, a creation to show us he exists, his law written on your heart telling you you have a problem, and the bible telling you how to find him.

My story, the very short version: a high school friend gave me a bible in October 1974. I started reading it, and in September 1975, God saved me.

Get a bible, and start reading. Start with the New Testament, the gospels, and as you read, pray, and ask the Lord to open your eyes that you might see. He is the one whom you have been seeking all along! He is not only the desire of all the nations, he is your true desire.

6 December 2025