A Word for the Rebuilders - Glory for the Nations

"I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord Almighty. “The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” declares the Lord Almighty. “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” says the Lord Almighty. Haggai 2:7‭-‬9 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/hag.2.7-9.NIVUK

These words would have given tremendous encouragement to the builders of the Temple. And there can be no doubt that they needed it. Discouraged from outside of their people by continued virulent opposition to a Jewish revival, and from inside by those who remembered the previous Temple and mourned its loss all over again (Haggai 2:3; Ezra 3:12-13), theirs was a heavy task. However, humanly speaking, this new Temple was not the same as the old one. The grandeur of the previous Temple was well known, and its riches incalculable (1 Kings 7:15-47). Even with the resources of Babylon, the world's great superpower at the time, they could not re-build it to its previous physical glory. Although God promises the resources for the rebuild, as He does now, the new Temple would not be the same as the old one. There is also no record of the miraculous signs that happened when the previous Temple was inaugurated (1 Kings 8:10-13) happening again when the new one was opened. So how could the glory of this Temple be greater than the previous Temple? The Messiah would visit it. The One Desired by Nations would appear there. That's what makes it more glorious. This prophecy is about Jesus the Messiah, the Saviour, coming to this plainer Temple. Which He did. But He did so in events that are so normal and mundane that they were missed by the Jewish people around Him. He came so His earthly parents to meet their sacrificial duties (Luke 2:22-40), as a boy during Passover (Luke 2:41-50), and many times as a teacher. He even cleared this very Temple of those who were out to make a fast buck from worshippers (Matthew 21:12-13). Jesus had a very interesting attitude to the Temple. He worshipped there, yes. He clearly cared for it. But at the same time, He was not taken in by some of the incorrect attitudes towards it, even shown by the Jewish leaders (Matthew 23:16-24) or even His disciples (Mark 13:1-2). You see, the huge problem the Jews had, and to a degree still have, is that they are fixated on the building and not on the God for whom it was dedicated as act of worship. They completely forget what Solomon prayed when the Temple was dedicated: ‘But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple that I have built! 2 Chronicles 6:18 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/2ch.6.18.NIVUK

The Temple itself was an act of worship, not designed to be worshipped. Neither was it supposed to distract from God or contain Him. God was supposed to be the focal point of their worship and spirituality and identity. Not the Temple. In fact, during Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman, He makes quite an audacious claim: ‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’ John 4:21‭-‬24 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.4.21-24.NIVUK

In other words, true worshippers, those who really seek the Glory of God, will not be fixated on a building at all, regardless of who built it, and will instead seek to worship Him in spirit and truth wherever they are. Worship will no longer be building-centred. The Coronavirus crisis has thrown us out of our buildings. Instead of the Exile, we have the Great Eviction. The trappings and rituals of worship have all gone and our services have moved online. I completely disagree with anyone who says that this is an infringement on our rights to freedom of religion. No-one is denying us the right to worship. We just can't do it together. We worship God in spirit and truth and glorify Him from our homes. But what about when this is over? Despite our reluctance to use communications technology (I know someone who used to believe that the internet was the mark of the beast and refuses to own a smartphone) we have to admit that it has been a lifeline for us. We have not given up meeting together (Hebrews 10:24-25) but have found creative ways to keep doing it, by text message, video calls, streams and instant messaging. In essence, the prophecy of Isaiah has come true. The Lord has created streams in the wasteland. The Lord has done a new thing (Isaiah 43:18‭-‬19).

And some of these streams have been in HD! But here's the thing. If God is doing a new thing now, dare we complain about our situation? Dare we say that the old days were better (Ecclesiastes 7:10)? Dare we go back to the way things were before as soon as possible? Doesn't God say we should forget the former things? My sister was given a fantastic birthday present when she was younger. She was a huge fan of the soap opera 'Neighbours' when she was a kid. We were subjected to it every day at dinner time. One of the stars happened to be participating in a stage show close to our town and my uncle arranged for my sister to meet him. You can imagine the excitement. She went with my uncle to a cafe to meet the soap opera actor and came back in a rage. She stormed into our apartment, slammed the door of her bedroom and wouldn't come out. "What's up with her?" I asked my parents. "He was wearing odd socks!" Came the furious shriek from my sister's bedroom. Do you see the point? She should have been happy to meet this man. But she allowed his clothing to distract her. In fact, do you know what she said afterwards? "He should have at least made an effort for me. He couldn't even be bothered to dress properly. How disrespectful!" Ouch! But is this not the way we often approach God? Do we define what we believe is respectful and try to get others to conform and do the same thing? Do we set the standard on what we believe brings God glory and cause trouble for those who don't meet it? If this is the truth, then I have a tough question we need to answer: to what extent does what I believe brings God glory match my personal tastes? From my experience of church worship patterns, I'm afraid this may often be closer than we might want to admit. The shaking of the nations has been highly disruptive - which is its purpose. It has disrupted our worship patterns and our ways of doing things. That is no bad thing. It has made us focus less on the "bells and smells" of our worship and more on what it means for us; less on the outward proclamation, more on whether we are doing it in spirit and truth. You see, the outward wrapping is irrelevant. What matters is that we meet with God and experience His glory. This means that the way we do things can and does change. Meeting virtually is different and challenging for all of us, but it also brings incredible opportunities for the church. Before the pandemic, one guy had even set up a virtual church that people attended using avatars online. You might scoff, but for people with chronic physical or psychological ailments his church is a lifeline, as virtual church has been now for those who can't get out. We have an enormous opportunity to reach out to those who cannot be physically present, to allow them to interact with and participate in church worship and meetings. Our outreach can touch the other side of the globe and bless people thousands of miles away at the touch of a button. Never before has it been so easy for us to reach the ends of the earth with the Gospel and fulfil the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). We just have to do things differently than before. Are we sure we want to confine all this to a building again? Do we really want to miss this opportunity? Is there really no way to expand the virtual, online ministry while regaining the physical gathering of the Body of Christ? So we have seen that God is shaking the nations, that Jesus is the desire of all nations, that God's purpose is for us to experience and to show His glory to all nations, regardless of our circumstances. The last thing Haggai talks about here is PEACE TO ALL NATIONS, which we will meditate on in my next blog.