Reverse of the Curse: The Signet Ring Returns

Reversing the Curse: The Signet Ring Returns | HAGGAI 2:10–23

INTRO

Greetings, and welcome to — The Wisdom Crucible with Jakob McClain — where you and I engage in the ongoing practice of applying biblical thinking to deepen our understanding of biblical truth.

Many people assume God’s blessing is unlocked by ritual, by proximity to sacred things, or by participation in religious activity. But in Haggai 2, God dismantles that illusion.

In the first chapter, He confronted a people who had begun rebuilding the temple, but had not yet rebuilt their faith. They had returned to the land but they had not returned to holiness.

His message reveals a truth Israel had forgotten — and many believers still forget today: Holiness does not spread by secondary contact, but defilement does.

As we traverse this passage we will also see how God reverses an old curse — in the returning of the signet ring to the house of David. This is part 2 of my study through the book of Haggai the prophet.

THE HOOK

Before we dive in, consider your thoughts on the following: Does being near holy things make you holy? Does participation in church events impart righteousness? Does touching what belongs to God make your life acceptable to God?

Through Haggai, God forces the priests — and the people — to answer those questions with brutal clarity, and the response is not quite what some might expect.

THE PLAN

In this episode we walk through the final three movements of Haggai:

1. The Purity Syllogism (V10–14)
2. The Promise of Blessing (V15–19)
3. Zerubbabel the Signet of God (V20–23)

Along the way we’ll clarify the purity laws, covenant consequences, and the messianic promise included in this brief prophetic book.

SECTION 1: FROM DEFILED TO HOLY

Let’s begin with Haggai chapter 2, V10-19.

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’ ” The priests answered and said, “No.” Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD. Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.”

Now that we have the whole section fresh in mind, we’ll walk back through those lines verse-by-verse, beginning with V10.

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet.

Day 24, Month 9, still in the 2nd year of Darius. This tells us that it has been precisely 3 months since the work on the temple was resumed. It is at this point that God deems them ready to address a critical neglect of holiness — for the remnant of Israel then, for us now.

I’m going to spend a few minutes thoroughly discussing the next few verses because their internal logic anchors this passage, and prepares us for the punchline in V14. That said, listen to V11–12 again.

“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’ ” The priests answered and said, “No.”

God directs Haggai to draw the priests’ attention to a truth that they already knew, but were not applying to its necessary extent.

Touching a holy, or ceremonially clean, object to an unclean object indirectly, or by secondary contact, does not transfer holiness to the unclean. Holiness does not transfer by proximity, or indirect contact. It requires direct consecration. In other words, you don’t cause dirty plates to become clean by stacking them on clean plates.

This reflects a principle of the Law given through Moses — A truth that Israel was expected to uphold as God prepared them for the new covenant of Christ.

ASIDE: WHY LEVITICUS 6:27 DOES NOT CONTRADICT THIS

For a modern gentile, or non-Jewish reader, checking the OT texts on purity laws, this may seem at first glance to contradict Leviticus 6:27. Let me unveil this supposed contradiction. The following verse is referring to the holy meat of the sin offering.

Whatever touches its flesh shall be holy, and when any of its blood is splashed on a garment, you shall wash that on which it was splashed in a holy place.

Leviticus and Haggai use the same Hebrew verb form, yeeq-DASH, and the same root noun, qo-DESH, but they apply these terms to 2 different circumstances involving ritual holiness. The difference is not in the grammar, Rather, it’s in the scenario. Allow me to explain.

Both passages use the verb yeeq-DASH, which refers to restrictive-use holiness, to describe the state of the object that has been touched by the blood. This term means that something becomes holy such that it can only be used for official temple purposes — not that it possesses inherent moral purity, which is more precisely what Christians usually mean when referring to something as being holy.

To clarify: When something becomes restricted for sanctuary use, not to be used for common purposes anymore, it does not indicate inherent purity — a quality of something implying that it’s pleasing to God because it is perfect in and of itself. This kind of holiness never allows secondary transmission to another object.

Think of it this way: A holy object — something God Himself has set apart — touches Object A. Because Object A came into direct contact with something God ordained as holy, Object A becomes holy in a very specific sense: it is now restricted for sanctuary use, not common use. For example: If you touched a fork to a temple lampstand, it couldn’t be taken into a regular house for ordinary use.

However, if Object A then touches Object B, Object B does not become holy. Why? Because Object A’s holiness is by association — not by God’s direct consecration. Thus, ritual holiness can move one step, but never two.

If holiness was indefinitely transmissible then everything in the world would already be holy because everything has touched something which has touched something else, and so on such that holiness would have spread to everything in the world.

That wouldn’t logically follow the argument in scripture, and it is defeated by the definition of holiness, which means to be set apart for the LORD — because if we call everything in our fallen world ‘holy’, then nothing is holy, or we have no idea what holiness is because the world is full of unholy things. Only what God directly consecrates can make something else holy. Nothing downstream can spread it further.

To conclude summarily: Ritual restriction spreads; sanctifying holiness does not. Thus, the priests answered rightly: Holiness does not transfer indefinitely — but uncleanness does.

How I’ve explained this is similar to how it’s explained by Jacob Milgrom, Gordon J. Wenham, and Jay Sklar, who are themselves teachers well-known for their work on the Levitical system of ritual holiness.

Next question from Haggai: C2 V13.

Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.”

This is straight out of Numbers 19:11, which says, “whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean”. The law may be about temple purity practices, but it reflects a timeless moral principle: Uncleanness spreads. Corruption propagates. Sin contaminates.

If you continually court temptation, don’t be surprised when your life bears the marks of defilement. In V14, God applies the following judgement to the nation:

Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.”

The people are unclean — and their uncleanness contaminates their offerings. This is the conclusion of the 2 premises from the prior 2 verses.

V12-14 form a syllogism, which is a particular type of logical argument formed by 2 minor premises, or propositions, leading to one major premise, or conclusion. Here’s the syllogism that God is presenting:

• Holiness is not transmissible by indirect contact.
• Uncleanness is transmissible by indirect contact.
• Therefore, the people’s uncleanness spreads to their works and offerings.

As was discussed thoroughly in part 1 of this study through the book of Haggai, the peoples’ priorities were out of order. They were unclean because they were not setting themselves apart for the LORD their God.

A heart not set aside for God is not made holy simply by proximity to an altar. It’s made holy when sacrificed on the altar — when laid down in surrender to God. Every step you take towards God is meaningless if in the end you walk away having left nothing behind — if your heart never reaches the cross and is never given up to Christ.

God makes this quite clear in Isaiah 1:11-17. Listen to what He says:

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

In V11-14, God lists a number of ritual practices that He Himself had ordained — burnt offerings, assemblies, feasts — yet now He says that He has had enough. He does not delight in their offerings and their solemn assemblies. He cannot bear to suffer the feasts that He appointed to them, because of iniquity — evil done in vain — and their hands, “full of blood.”

These are strong words of accusation. Yet, God does not leave them without hope. He offers them a way to improve their condition — to rectify their defilement:

• First, He says, “wash yourselves; make yourselves clean”
• Next, He says, “remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes” God sees all things — so the only way for Him not to see evil in your deeds is for there to be none. “Cease to do evil.”
• Finally, God says, “learn to do good” It’s not good enough to be an innocent bystander — Although it might seem neutral, not doing good is itself evil, because God has commanded that we actively seek to do good; “seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”

Leave your heart, your iniquity, and your mortality on the altar of the cross, and be reborn for eternity — so that your work before God will no longer be in vain, but holy.

Back to Haggai, V15–17.

Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD.

The opening statement seems rather reminiscent of C1 V5 and 7. Consider your ways.

God posed a rather pointed question: Before you resumed obedience to me, how did you fair? How fruitful were your efforts? He then answers the question: When you came for 20 measures there was only 10, when you came for 50 there was only 20. When you worked by and for yourself you made dimes on the dollar.

Even beyond hindering their productivity, He sent blight, mildew, and hail on what they did manage to produce. Yet, He never let it destroy them because He knew the moment they would return to Him.

In V17 God reveals the purpose of hardship discipline: He hindered their efforts to draw their attention to Him, which shouldn’t have been necessary because He is the Almighty offering salvation for eternity, but people are hard-headed.

Imagine waving your arms and yelling to get someone’s attention before they walk into oncoming traffic, but they’ve decided to put on headphones and duck their eyes to their smartphone. In trying to save their life you throw whatever’s in your hands at them, If that doesn’t work, you might even tackle them to ground to keep them from walking into the oncoming traffic. It may result in scrapes and bruises, but at least they weren’t tackled by a car. That’s what God was doing for them.

I wonder how often God has applied such tactics to the US. I wonder how often God has applied such tactics to me.

There’s a car down the street with tinted windows riding low to the ground with spikes on the tires just waiting for you to step out into the road. Don’t become roadkill. Keep your ears open, and your eyes up, and walk with God.

As I demonstrated through discussing Deuteronomy 28 in part 1 of my study through Haggai, the hardship that Israel as a people was facing was covenantal discipline, not random circumstance.

To clarify a misunderstanding of how the covenant worked, let me explain why this applies to the people corporately, or as a community, but not for each individual member of the community. God’s OT covenant with Israel was with the community of Israel, and the instructions were given to the people as a whole, with communal discipline laid out for them — prophecies of what would happen when they disobeyed.

An error that some people make when reading about communal blessings and discipline is what’s known as the ecological fallacy, which is to take a truth regarding a population and apply it to individual subgroups or people within that population.

This fallacy can appear in a biblical interpretation when someone takes: a national rebuke meant for Israel, a judgment applied to a specified group, a promise made to the Church, or a collective covenant consequence and assumes it automatically applies to: an individual person, a subgroup, or a modern believer.

Group truth does not equal individual truth, because there are always outliers — those that are going against the trend, those who are running into the darkness as others follow the light, or those running to Jesus, while others are running to idols.

Read the Bible like it’s about a real God and real people in real history. Acknowledge that there was likely never a single moment in time where every single Israelite was simultaneously following all of God’s commands or actively breaking a command.

Yet, there were times when the omniscient, or all-knowing, God commended Israel for its obedience, such as Joshua C22 V2, which says,

You have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.

Do you really think that God meant that every single person was being perfectly faithful all of the time? No. Was God confused, mistaken, or deceitful? No.

He was speaking of a group the way that we do in real life — in statistics when we talk about the average condition of a variable — in this case, obedience. It’s generally considered fair to describe a population by its common traits without the expectation of taking all day to qualify that assessment by describing every individual deviation from the norm — every person who is more or less obedient than the average.

In Haggai’s time, the people were coming out of a season of discipline due to their corporate disobedience. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t a few individuals that He blessed for a greater degree of obedience, but if we’re honest, we don’t really have any reason to call God unfair for punishing whole populations anyway because we are all sinners, doomed by our own poor choices, apart from the redemptive love of Christ.

There may have been a few people genuinely trying to honor God, but the people as a whole had not been practicing obedience, so the covenant discipline was required to redirect their attention to God.

It is easy to blame the governors and priests — the senators and presidents — for the failings of society. That said, recall that earlier in this scripture, God didn’t just address the governor and the priest — He also addressed the entire public; including the common folk. Remember that when you’re sitting at home pointing fingers at government and church officials while not working to be part of the solution.

On to V18–19.

Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.

From before the foundation of the temple was laid, through the decade of inattention to the house of God, until now, the people’s work has been in vain.

Deuteronomy 28:2 – “All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

It had been 3 months since the work on the temple was resumed and the barns were still barren. However, God promises that the fruit of their obedience will be plentiful.

Haggai 2:19 – “From this day on, I will bless you.”

Blessing begins with obedience, not completion. Restoration begins with repentance, not results. They were still working; still building; still surrounded by ruins. But God declares: The curse is lifted. The blessing begins now.

By reading this passage in its greater context, you can clearly see that this promise is a corporate covenantal blessing, not a source of prosperity theology promising individual wealth to anyone. God is not a genie whom you can force to grant your wishes by following a ritual protocol. He wrote the rules, and He leaves no room for loopholes.

Abundance is promised in the new creation, but for now we are to be content with sustenance, as sometimes that is as much as we may have.

Job 14:1 says, “man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.” Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Practice patience for eternity. The wait time is not long.

SECTION V — ZERUBBABEL THE SIGNET

Now, for the final section of Haggai: C2 V20–23

The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”

Let’s return to V20. On the 24th, the same day as the previous oracle, another word comes. This time, God addresses Zerubbabel personally.

V21–22: God will shake the heavens and the earth, overthrow earthly thrones, destroy human strength, and conquer armies. This language echoes the Day of the LORD, such as is referenced in 2 Peter 3:10 and described in further detail in the book of Revelation.

Again, we see multiple prophetic horizons, including: Near fulfillment: the upheavals under Darius, Persia, and Greece. Intermediate fulfillment: the judgment of kingdoms during the coming of Christ. And Ultimate fulfillment: the final collapse of all other kingdoms in the establishment of the eternal kingdom. God is the one doing the shaking, and only His kingdom will not be shaken.

It’s also important to understand what God is not saying here. He’s not saying that every next geopolitical upheaval is signaling Christ’s return. He’s not saying that Christians should wage war and conquer the world. He is going to conquer the world — not for satiating bloodlust, but for righteous rebirth — in His timing, by His methods. Be ready for it any day, and prepared to wait for any day.

Listen to V23.

On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.

“I will… make you like a signet ring.”

Have you considered what it means that God made Zerubbabel to be like a signet ring? A signet it is no mere ornament on the hand. It has a distinct purpose: to bear the king’s crest — the seal of legitimate authority, and divine approval.

To say that someone is a signet ring is to say they bear the promise of the king Himself, which makes what God did through the prophet Jeremiah quite striking. Let me show you the connection to Jeremiah C22 V24-26.

As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die.

God acknowledges the seal of authority on the house of David, then presiding with Jehoiachin, the grandfather of Zerubbabel. God stripped this signet from Jehoiachin, who from then on was called Coniah, which is a shortened form of his name that drops the prefix referring to Yahweh.

This serves as a prophetic rebuke from God through the prophet Jeremiah, symbolically mirroring the removal of the signet of authority and approval of God from this disobedient king. God gave Coniah and his disobedient flock over to Babylon, where the remnant of Israel that Haggai is speaking to has recently returned from.

God cursed Coniah for his refusal to obey, and blessed Zerubbabel for his willingness to obey. As you see in Haggai 2:23, God’s signet was returned to David’s line in preparation for the arrival of Jesus in Bethlehem when God bestowed it to the grandson of Coniah, Zerubbabel — who, despite not serving as a king, helped Joshua and the prophets lead the people back to a lifestyle of obedience to God.

The Davidic line is not abandoned. The curse on Coniah is reversed, and God affirms the plan that He laid out for them in generations prior.

This is a reminder that even though God’s people are constantly backpedaling into rebellion against Him, God will remain faithful to His covenant with them and produce the promised messiah from the line of David — the savior we know as Jesus Christ. The signet returns. The promise stands. The throne awaits the Son of David.

REFLECTIVE PREACHING

Holiness does not cling to us by accident. It does not settle on our souls as we listen to a preacher speak. It does not seep into our spirits while we stand next to sacred objects.

Holiness is found in complete submission to the will of God — in giving your soul to Him — in setting your heart aside for Him. As with Israel under the temple traditions, until you give Him your submission — until you’re washed by the blood of Christ — everything you touch will bear the fingerprints of your uncleanness.

God will not flatter you. He tells us plainly that our best works are as filthy rags compared to His holiness — yet in the same breath, He offers you redemption through the cross and life in the resurrection.

Remember that in Haggai C1 V13 God affirmed His covenant with Israel: “I am with you, declares the LORD.” Not after years of toil. Not after the work is finished. Not after the temple gleams. From the moment you submit in obedience, I am with you.

All of this directs our gaze to Zerubbabel’s greater Son, the true signet, the king whose holiness does not fade, and whose blessing depends not on our work, but on His grace.

This is the merciful grace of God: He meets us in our ruins with an outstretched hand not wanting that any should perish. God invites you into His presence to be made holy so that you can partake in perfection — eternal worshipful life in His final temple — the reborn creation that He will usher in.

That may be all for Haggai, for now, but that’s not all that God has to say to you, so keep your ears and eyes open and attuned to The Word.

OUTRO

Studying and applying the Word of God always blesses and refreshes me. I hope the way I’ve presented Scripture in this message encourages meaningful dialogue and sharper understanding.

If you’re interested in further studies and discussions centered on the transformative truths of the Holy Bible, you can follow this podcast or search for The Wisdom Crucible on YouTube for video recordings.

Media metrics may drive the algorithms, but the Word of God is what drives me — and that’s what I hope to pass on.

May the Lord bless you— and continually refine your heart through His Word.