Rebuilding the Temple

“You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. “ (Haggai 1:9 ESV)

I thank God for Bible reading plans that get me into areas I might not otherwise ever consider looking at. The reading this morning was the first chapter of the prophet Haggai. I know I have read this before but for some reason today it really struck me as an important message for me personally and for us as Christians in the modern world.

We must first understand the reading in its historical context. The Jewish nation had made a covenant with Yahweh at Mount Sinai. The covenant was a legal agreement in which Yahweh promised to bless and prosper Israel if they kept the stipulations of the covenant. The stipulations were embodied in the Mosaic law but I think it is important that the law, though incredibly complex and in some ways unintelligible to us, was intended to make Israel the beacon of God’s love, compassion, and justice. That meant that rather than giving into the temptations of the world as had all of the other peoples of the Earth, Israel was to remain absolutely true to God alone, demonstrating in their lives the attributes of the one true God, and thus drawing all peoples to Him as God had promised Abraham (Gen. 26:4). Thus, even though the law was complex, its foundation was both simple and profound: it was the love of God.

For the next several centuries the Israelites ignored, violated, and eventually forgot the covenant they had made with God and instead became indistinguishable from the pagan nations surrounding them. In spite of the fact that prophet after prophet came to warn them they were incapable of obedience. Finally the City of Jerusalem was sacked, the temple destroyed, and the Jewish people were dragged into exile in Babylon. Seventy years later the Babylonian Empire was defeated by the Persians and the Jews were allowed to return to Israel to rebuild the temple. Common Jewish thought after the return from exile attributed their national calamity to their infidelity to the covenant.

Haggai is one of the post-exilic prophets. When the exiles from Babylon returned to Jerusalem from exile their immediate task was to rebuild the city, including the walls and the temple. But the rebuilding was beset by so many difficulties that the effort was quickly abandoned as the exiles set about attempting to rebuild their own lives in the promised land. It is in this context that Haggai addresses the people. They were attempting to rebuild their lives but were having a tough go of it. Haggai tells them the reason: they were living for themselves rather than for God. He pointed out to them that they could not expect to prosper under those conditions; that the blessings of God are experienced only in devotion to Him. In the case of the people of Haggai’s time that meant dedicating themselves to rebuilding the temple.

Listen to what Haggai tells the people:

Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. (Haggai 1:5-6 ESV)

Does this not sound eerily familiar? Is not this in fact the condition in which we find ourselves and our society? Are we not constantly grasping after more and more material possessions, sensual experiences, and social acceptance to try to fill an unfathomable emptiness? What is the basic cause of this futility? It is, as God told the returning exiles through the prophet Haggai, that we are devoted to building our own house rather than God’s.

In the New Testament age we consider the Temple not as a building in Jerusalem but rather as our own selves (1 Cor. 3:16). How does one devote oneself to rebuilding that temple? Not by our own efforts, but by surrender to Jesus. Just as the Old Testament Israelites were only able to prosper by devoting themselves to God, so we are only able to prosper by devotion to Jesus, by doing his work, by living his life. Not that we are blessed because of our works, but that by surrender to him we allow him to work through us. Ask him earnestly to use you as an instrument of his love, and you will find yourself both blessed and a blessing.