Desire By Divestment

“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.” (Hag 2:7 AV)

The commentators are almost as confused as I but this phrase.  All nations will never desire the LORD Jesus Christ.  That is, if all nations are defined as all people.  This passage is clearly speaking of the second coming.  The problem with our understanding is the ‘all nations’ desiring the LORD.  This desire is prior to His return which is exactly the opposite of revealed prophecy.

In reading one scholar, there was greater understanding.  The word ‘desire’ is actually a plural noun.  It is suggested the nations have desires yet unspecified in a specific manner.  All they know is what they have now is not what they desire.  The second point to consider is the word says all nations.  Not all people.  All nations are all cultural groups.  Even if those who have these desires are in the vast minority, it is still all nations.  So, what might be happening here is there are desires which all cultural groups or nations will desire which only the LORD Jesus can fulfill.  And, there will be a small portion of all nations that will desire something far better than what the world and the devil have to offer.  This better desire is, the LORD Jesus Christ.

Herein is my application, though.  This desire cannot come unless there is a shaking first.  In prophecy, this shaking is the great tribulation.  There has to be a shaking of what we have come to desire to show us there is a far better desire.  There has to be a rooting out of that which we have come to want and enjoy to reveal there are greater things for which one may aspire.  There is a vacuum which only the LORD can fill.  What the world, and the saint, must realize is we will never be truly content unless the LORD Jesus Christ is our one and only!  He must be our desire or there will come more shaking!