A Word for the Rebuilders - The Desired of the Nations

What is desired by all nations will come. Haggai 2:7 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/hag.2.7.NIVUK

This is a very strange phrase. It is used only once in the whole Bible. What makes it even more unusual is that at the time Haggai prophesied, the Jews were far from at peace with their own neighbours and had been under the thumb of a foreign power for more than seventy years. Other than even the idea that these nations could possibly want the same thing, how could their single desire come to Jerusalem? Some believe this to be the New Jerusalem in Revelation (Revelation 21:9-27). Although the nations bring the New Jerusalem their splendour, there is little to indicate that they desire it or anticipate its coming. I prefer another interpretation. I believe that the one desired by the nations is Jesus Himself. He is one whom the great multitude from every tribe, nation, language and culture will worship (Revelation 7:9-17). He not only came, but actually entered the temple Haggai and his contemporaries were building. But why is Jesus the desired by the nations? This is something we need to reflect on. For generations, we've believed that Europeans, and to some degree Americans too, have been hardened to the Gospel. That may be true (2 Corinthians 4:4). But maybe we have been part of the problem. Maybe they have been desiring something of Jesus that we have not been offering. Allow me to illustrate this. I once walked into a department store that struggled to sell clothes. It took me seconds to see why. It was a roasting hot day. I crossed the threshold to pick up some food from their supermarket. What do you think was their most prominent piece of clothing, closest to the entrance, that they were using to draw people inside? Woollen cardigans. Really. Now I don't work in retail, but even I can see that this was a massive lost opportunity. Why not entice people into your store with shorts, t-shirts or other summer wear? Or fans? Air conditioning units? Ice boxes? But cardigans? Jesus is the desired by nations. If the nations don't want Him from us, then clearly He is not the problem. But what do they desire from Him? Do we know? Do we know the needs of our own neighbourhood? Community? Colleagues? Town? A Romanian friend of mine understood this perfectly. He lived in a poor city. He was a painter and decorator who had seen the dreadful conditions people were living in and it moved him. He went to the mayor and asked how he could help. The mayor told him that the needs of his town were overwhelming and even he, as mayor, was limited in what he could do. So my friend asked for the names and addresses of the neediest five families. He went to see them, assessed their needs and then used contacts overseas to get finances and goods for them. Often it was something simple, like a cooker, or a window repair, or food. Where goods were required, he asked the families to come to church to receive them. His project was so successful that it was not only highly regarded by the mayor, but it was doubling in size every year. And people were becoming believers because they saw the Desired by Nations in him. Don't get taken in by the excuse that our nations are hardened to the Gospel. This cataclysm, this dreadful foreshock, has hit them with such force that they will be more open than ever. This crisis has caused a mental health time-bomb that no nation has the resources to diffuse. And we have the answer. We have the One Desired by Nations: one who brings certainty, love, peace, joy, assurance. What about frustration? There is no doubt at all that there are a lot of frustrated people out there. The protests and demands all around us are evidence of this. Did you realise that the salvation brought by Jesus is the ultimate answer for this frustration (Romans 8:18-21)? That everything we demand so vociferously is satisfied in Him? That ultimately the angst and anger expressed in popular music and culture since creation finds its fulfilment in Jesus Christ? Do you see? Christ is the Desired by Nations because He is the answer! But could it be that we have retreated so far from the world around us that we've forgotten the question? All we have to do is find the way to make people realise that their desires and aspirations are met in Jesus. That they thirst, but thirst for Him (Isaiah 55:1-7; John 6:35). We have a golden opportunity in front of us. The world has a ton of questions. We have the answer to all of them: Jesus. If we reach out and show His love like my friend in Romania, they will realise that Jesus is the One they desire and will come to Him. Outreach doesn't need to be complicated. It's just finding those who know they have something missing in their lives and pointing them to Jesus. It's one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. The only difference is that now, due to Coronavirus, we are surrounded by many more beggars. So will you do it, friend? Will you share Christ with them? Having seen that the shaking of the nations is taking place, even it is a foreshock, and that Jesus is the Desired by Nations, in my next blog we will move onto Haggai's third stage, GLORY FOR THE NATIONS.