Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

Today, we are only going to read 4 verses in our extended reading, a short, quick read but full of information about God's plan for the last days. This prophecy is one of defeat for the Gentiles and deliverance for the Jews.

In the last days after the Rapture of the Church, when the Lord takes us, who are Christians, up to be with Him in "His Father's house", there will be a major time of judgment upon the earth.

God has several purposes for this time known as the "Tribulation Period". One purpose is to bring the Jewish people to the reality that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah and will be their Savior.

Now we come to the prophecy of Haggai. This Jewish prophet ministered to the Jewish people after the Babylonian Captivity, a ministry that would be manifested by his exhorting the returning Jews to get beyond their own needs and to the task of rebuilding the temple - the permanent dwelling place for the Lord, a permanent worship center.

With the last 4 verses of Haggai's prophecy, the Lord promises to "shake the heavens and the earth", verse 21. The Lord will use the seven years of judgment on this earth to not only evangelize the Jewish people but to also "overthrow the throne of kingdoms and destroy the strength of the kingdoms", the kingdoms of the heathen, the Gentile world powers.

Notice also in verse 22 that the "riders of the chariots and the horses", a military terminology, the Lord will bring them down. This is a prophecy of the defeat of the Gentile world powers as foretold by another ancient Jewish prophet, Daniel.

Jesus also mentioned this defeat in His Olivet Discourse as recorded in Luke 21. The phrase in Luke 21:24, "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled", is the same prophecy revealing that God will defeat the Antichrist, the dictator of the Gentile world powers in the end times and bring an end to the Gentile world leaders controlling the Jews and Jerusalem.

The Jews will be "God's chosen", verse 23, in the city He chose to dwell among His people, Jerusalem, forever. Thus saith the "Lord of Hosts". Today, the Gentiles control the world. One day soon, Jesus, "King of the Jews", will fulfill the promise of Haggai.