Why the Second Temple’s Glory Was Greater Than Solomon’s (Haggai 2:6–9)

Years ago I told my mentor, Barry Branaman, that there were three temples. He disagreed with me, so I opened my study Bible and showed him the note: Solomon built the first, the returning exiles built the second, and Herod built the third. Barry shook his head and said Herod never built a third temple; he simply enlarged the one that was already standing. He was right, and that small correction opened up something I have never gotten over. It is the key to understanding why the second temple's glory was greater than the glory of Solomon's magnificent house, even though the men who built it wept when they saw what they had made. Count the temples for yourself and the confusion grows. Scripture points to a rebuilt temple during the tribulation, which would make four. Ezekiel gives the dimensions of a temple during the Millennium, which would make five. So how many temples are there? The answer, believe it or not, is one. Every one of them is the same house, on the same mountain, at the same address, and one Person keeps showing up there. https://youtu.be/0OB2hVKwUNQ Table of contentsThere Has Always Been Only One TempleJesus Appeared on Moriah to Abraham and IsaacThe Ram in Isaac's PlaceJesus Appeared on Moriah with DavidGod Will Shake Everything That Can Be Shaken"The Silver Is Mine, and the Gold Is Mine"The One Thing Missing When the Foundation Was LaidThe Desire of All Nations Would ComeWhy the Second Temple's Glory Was GreaterJesus Gives Peace on MoriahOne Mountain, One House, One Person There Has Always Been Only One Temple Let me give you the scriptural support before I explain the significance. Look back a few verses in the passage we have been walking through: Haggai 2:3 — "Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?" How many houses are mentioned in that verse? One. God does not ask, "Who saw the former temple, and how does it compare to this new one?" He does not ask them to hold the first temple up against the second. He asks how this house looks now, because in His reckoning there is only one house to look at. The same thing happens at the end of the paragraph: Haggai 2:9 — "The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts." God does not say the latter temple will be greater than the former temple. He says the latter glory of this house will be greater than its former glory. One building, two seasons of glory. Why does God talk this way? Because it is one house on one mountain, and that mountain has a history. So when you think about the temple, do not think only about a building. Think about a location. God had that location in mind before Israel ever crossed the Jordan: Deuteronomy 12:5 — "You shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there." Six times in that chapter God says the place. Not a place. He had one address picked out, and this morning we are going to visit it three times, because Christ visited it three times. Jesus Appeared on Moriah to Abraham and Isaac Genesis 22:1-2 — "After these things God tested Abraham... 'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'" We know what the test was: whether Abraham would give up his son. But notice that Abraham could have passed that test in his own backyard, and God would not allow it. Abraham was in Beersheba, and Moriah was fifty miles away. Three days of walking, with a boy and a bundle of firewood and a knife. God did not only choose a son. He chose a place. If you write in your Bible, circle the word Moriah, draw a line, and write 2 Chronicles 3:1, which tells us Moriah is the mountain in Jerusalem where the temple was built. Then, with the knife in the air, a voice interrupts: Genesis 22:11-12 — "But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven... 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.'" Read that slowly, because the pronouns are doing something remarkable. We would expect the angel to say, "You fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son from Him," or "You fear Me, seeing you have not withheld your son from Me." Instead He speaks about God and then identifies Himself as the One the sacrifice was being offered to. He does that because He is God. The Angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ, the Son of God before Bethlehem. That is why He appears all through the Old Testament and seems to vanish in the New. He did not vanish. He came as a Man. The Ram in Isaac's Place Genesis 22:13 — "And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ra