Feast: Be Strong and Work
#FT23-07
David C. Grabbe
Given 06-Oct-23; 67 minutes
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transcript:
We have a cliché today that “history repeats itself.” However, an observation by Mark Twain may be more accurate. Mark Twain is quoted as saying, “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” In essence, events in the present will never be exactly the same as events in the past, but there can be strong similarities. This is why Solomon wrote that there is nothing new under the sun, even though new people are born and grow up and leave their unique marks on the world all the time. All these new people don’t do things in exactly the same way as those who preceded them. Their circumstances are not identical, but they do sound quite similar to circumstances that came before. That is, they rhyme.
Today we will look at a pivotal event in the history of Judah because our circumstances in the church rhyme with what happened then. We are living through a pivot point involving a massive demographic change in the church of God, as large and established generations pass away, and smaller and less-grounded generations come of age and influence. From the anecdotes I’ve heard, it seems that most, if not all, of the church of God groups are in a position where more laborers are needed. There are concerns about the spiritual state of the church because of the steady advance of the world’s influence, and questions about what the future holds when the Old Guard are gone. Yet as we will see, not only do our circumstances rhyme with a situation in ancient Judah, but God’s words to the nation back then speak to us in a very real way, nearly 2500 years later.
We will begin in the book of Ezra, if you would turn there:
Ezra 1:1-4 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus king of Persia:
All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.
God had prophesied through Jeremiah that the kingdom of Judah would be in captivity for 70 years, and then she would be brought back to the land (Jeremiah 25:12; 29:10). God also prophesied through Isaiah that He would raise up a ruler named Cyrus who would let the exiles go free (Isaiah 45:1-13).
So, God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to send the Jews back to Jerusalem to build another temple. To really grasp the significance of this, we must remember the centrality of the temple to the nation. The temple was their link to the great God, and it was how He chose to dwell with them. This was a unique circumstance—to have the Creator God dwelling with a nation. All the other nations just had dumb idols in their temples. But through the temple, and the tabernacle before it, Israel had the Creator dwelling with the nation.
The temple was the intersection, the meeting place, between God and His people. With all of its rites, its sacrifices, and its sanctified priesthood, the temple set the parameters for how God’s people should worship and otherwise interact with the holy God, the One who delivered them and blessed them in countless ways. Their only hope as a people was to have God watching over them, which meant worshipping Him as He specified, and this all revolved around the tabernacle or temple.
We can understand, then, why the destruction of the temple was a calamity. The nation was deprived of God’s presence in His dwelling place. With the destruction of the temple, it became undeniable that the nation’s relationship with God was on the rocks, as we would say. They could no longer pretend that everything was fine. God removed Himself from their midst, and He caused His place of meeting with them to be destroyed to lay bare the state of the relationship, and so they might be shocked into repentance.
As a parallel for us today, when we see the spiritual temple of God divided and scattered, we should likewise take stock of our relationship with God to see what He may be trying to get across to us. Something—or perhaps numerous things—caused the Head of the church to radically reorder and reorganize it in recent decades. We must learn the lessons of history if we want to avoid repeating the mistakes written in it.
There is an interesting detail that relates to this in Daniel’s prayer of repentance on the eve of Judah’s return from exile. Keep your place here, but please turn to Daniel 9:
Daniel 9:13-17 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly! “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.
In verse 17, Daniel beseeches God to cause His face to shine on His sanctuary, which was desolate because it was demolished and empty. But what stands out are verses 13-14, which say that Judah still had not repented of the sins that resulted in God’s cursing. And because the nation had not entreated God or sought to appease Him (by turning from her iniquities and giving heed to God’s truth), Daniel says that God had kept the disaster in mind. The conditions that brought about the scattering had not changed, and thus, the nation was still under God’s curse. Therefore, Daniel repented on behalf of the nation, and asked God to restore her, not because Judah had become righteous, but for His own sake.
As it says in verse 2, 70 years had passed since Judah’s downfall. That’s the lower span of a human life. There were still some Jews alive who had been around when the nation went into captivity, but probably not many. There were relatively few who were directly involved in what caused God to send the nation into exile. Most of those directly guilty had already died. Even so, the consequences were continuing to affect the nation. God says that He will visit the iniquity of the fathers to the children to the third and fourth generations of those who don’t love Him. God does not hold the children guilty, but the effects of the sins of previous generations can continue unless there is a repudiation and God shows mercy.
Now, let’s think about these principles in relation to the church. The church of God has been scattered. Scattering is a curse that God promises in response to the condition of His people. That is very clear in Scripture (Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 4:27; 28:64; 30:3; I Kings 14:15; Psalm 44:11; 92:9; Jeremiah 9:16). An exception to that was the Jerusalem church in the first century. It, too, was scattered, not because of sin, but through persecution because they were making an effective witness through faithfulness. What happened to the WCG was not like that at all. It crumbled from within, and spiritual rot was exposed, even though it appeared strong on the outside with a large income, and a very impressive media presence, and increasing numbers.
Jeremiah 18:15-17 gives a basic cause for scattering, which is that God scatters when His people forget Him. He is a jealous God, and righteously so. When something else takes the central place in the lives of His people, He scatters to help His people to remember Him, and to focus on what is truly important by taking away what is less important.
Idolatry within the church today is not of the obvious type that ancient Israel committed. It comes in different forms now. One is that church groups and leaders can become more of a focus of God’s people than God Himself. This would rhyme with what happened in Judah, where the temple became an idol. The physical building was held in higher regard than God. You can find this in Jeremiah 7. The temple became their sense of security, their place of safety. The people assumed they would be protected because God’s sanctuary was in their midst, even as they practiced things completely contrary to God. The nation cherished the building but ignored the Holy One in it. So, God destroyed what had become an idol.
Similarly, we can unintentionally elevate a church organization or its leaders above God. They can become more of a focus than God, which is idolatry. There are plenty of anecdotes that point to that happening within the WCG. An overwhelming emphasis was put on the church and its work. We had prophecy all figured out, and our hope was in being on good terms with the organization that would warn us when it was time to flee. However, many were never effectively taught about coming to know God, even though that relationship is salvation. Eventually, some realized that their hope and security MUST be in God rather than an organization. But it is significant to me that when a choice had to be made, the majority of the ministry and membership chose loyalty to an organization over loyalty to the truth, and thus, loyalty to God Himself. The day of testing declared what they valued. The faith of many was shaken because their faith had been in the wrong thing.
Today there are multiple church of God organizations. If we are honest—which we should be—we cannot objectively claim that God is clearly favoring one exclusively over the others. He blesses one group in one way and another group somewhat differently. The members and ministers in each group all possess strengths and weaknesses. No group has all the gifts and none of the problems. If we are willing to humble ourselves and follow this through, the inescapable conclusion is that God is not focused on one corporate organization exclusively.
An increasing number of brethren have become convicted of the truth that the church of God is a spiritual organism that is not defined by a corporation, and they are quite willing to fellowship with and work with other brethren in various ways. So, progress has been made in overcoming that form of idolatry. Even so, it is still common for an organization to be esteemed higher than the indwelling of God Himself in those in another organization, and thus, the Christ’s Body is still not being properly discerned in places.
We will consider another form of modern idolatry later. But we must remember that God is unchanging, and the law of cause and effect continues to work. If what was amiss in recent church history is not corrected, we can expect God to keep His response in mind, as Daniel said. In this regard, it is still an unpopular view that God would scatter the church. But if we cannot grasp that basic principle, there cannot be restoration.
Thinking that God would intervene in such a way is uncomfortable, but we must not allow our discomfort to limit God or His sovereignty over His church in our minds. God’s actions do not always match our assumptions, because His thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours. He sees the past, present, and future with a clarity we cannot fathom.
Because it seems out of character for God to be involved with disunity, many have concluded that Satan scattered the church. Assigning blame to Satan or to false ministers can provide a measure of comfort, for if Satan were the prime mover, we would all just be victims. It wouldn’t be our fault. Yet it is God who promises and claims scattering in Scripture. To whatever degree Satan was involved, God was holding his leash.
A brief survey of the letters to the seven churches reveals God’s willingness to disrupt and even severely chasten His church when it goes astray. God embodies love, unity, and peace, but how He demonstrates those attributes may challenge our concepts of them. The God of peace promises one church that He will remove their lampstand if they do not repent and do the first works. If their lampstand is removed, they no longer have or give light. They are in the dark, no longer representing Jesus Christ. In this regard, it is sobering to consider whether perhaps God removed the lampstand of the WCG. The lights went out, and that organization is no longer shining.
The God of unity promises another church to fight against some with the sword of His mouth, if there isn’t repentance. That’s a very unsettling thought. The God of love promises another church great tribulation, which may include prolonged sickness and the death of children, if there isn’t repentance. He promises to come against another church as undetected as a thief, and for those who do not repent, it seems to me that He implies He will blot their names out of the Book of Life. Mere scattering is a mild rebuke compared to that. And finally, Jesus promises one church that He will vomit them out of His mouth if there isn’t repentance, which sounds a great deal like scattering. These are all warnings to His chosen people. God is working toward complete peace and unity, but they must be on His terms, and He uses course corrections to bring them about.
Thus, we should think twice before concluding that God wouldn’t do something, especially when He says that He will. What changes under the New Covenant is our nature, not God’s. His nature is constant. He left us a record of how He responded in the past, so we have an idea of what to expect if conditions today rhyme with conditions in history.
So, returning to what Daniel mentions in his prayer, the nation was so out of tune with God that even though it had undergone a great chastening, and it should have been obvious that something was wrong, the nation still had not sought God’s favor by turning from their iniquities and seeking truth, so that the breach could be healed. And this was written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Please turn back to the book of Ezra. After Cyrus issued the decree that the Jews should return and build another temple, about 42,000 Jews returned to the Promised Land and got started. We will pick up the story in Ezra 3:
Ezra 3:10-13 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD: “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever toward Israel.” Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off.
The laying of the foundation caused both rejoicing as well as mourning. It gave renewed hope for the nation, especially for the younger generation, but there was also great sadness for the ones who had seen the first temple. They compared physical things with physical, and it demoralized them because the new temple seemed insignificant compared to what they remembered of Solomon’s temple. But God was listening, because God is always listening, and He answers their shortsightedness through Haggai, as we will see.
We will continue the story in Ezra 4:
Ezra 4:4-5 Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
After the foundation was laid, the Jews encountered opposition. The “people of the land” here were those who had been brought in by the Assyrians, including especially those who came to be known as the Samaritans. The opposition here was a primary reason the Samaritans were despised by the Jews. It turned into an ongoing grudge the Jews wouldn’t let go of, and it was still simmering some 400 years later when the Messiah came.
The Samaritans caused problems by reporting on the Jews to subsequent Persian kings, causing the Persian kings to view the Jews in Judea with suspicion. As you can read down in verse 23, the commander of the Persian army went to Jerusalem and stopped the work on the temple by force of arms. Thus, work was halted until the reign of Darius, 15 years later.
The returning Jews yielded to the Persian authorities in stopping the work on the temple. On one hand, it appears they didn’t have any choice because the Persian army was breathing down their necks. But on the other hand, it was Almighty God who instigated the rebuilding in the first place, which shows that He wanted it carried out. It seems that the Jews gave up too easily.
I am not saying they should have taken up arms against the Persians, only that it appears they were not of the same mind as God. It was easier to be resigned to the human mandate than to fervently seek God and beseech Him to open the way for them to carry out the task He had given to them. God had already turned the hearts of kings according to His will, even pagan kings like Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews had those stories. What’s missing from the record here is any asking, seeking, or knocking by the Jews and their leaders to be able to do God’s will.
So, let’s see what God thought of the Jews’ resignation. Please turn to Haggai 1:
Haggai 1:1-11 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, “Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.”’” Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this t to lie in ruins?” Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways! “You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.” Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the LORD. “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”
This prophecy came about 15 years after the foundation had been completed, and what we find is that God is waiting on the people. He castigates the people and the leadership for their complacency, and tells them they have been laboring under a curse. By all indication, His will remained constant throughout, even though He also allowed opposition.
The unchanging God had already expressed His will regarding the temple, yet the people did not have hearts to work with Him to get it done. The account gives the impression that the people put down their tools pretty easily when it came to building God’s house, but picked up their tools readily when it came to working on their own.
God points out that even though the people were very busy, not much was being produced. There was not quite enough food, water, or clothing. Their money didn’t go far enough. What little was harvested was blown away before it could be used. God had called for a drought on all the labor of their hands because they weren’t laboring for the right thing.
The paneled houses can stand for much more than physical dwelling places. One's house can be representative of one's concerns, activities, family, wealth, and sense of security. One’s house can stand for all the things under one’s authority. The people were more focused on their own concerns than on restoring the sanctuary and the worship of God. They had more regard for their individual realms than for the dwelling place of God.
This gives us something else to consider—a second form of idolatry. The first, if you remember, was allowing a church organization or its leaders to be elevated above God. Here Haggai shows another form of idolatry, which we could call mammon, or materialism, or the cares of this world. God may still be acknowledged, but what really fills one’s mind in this form of idolatry are the things of one’s physical life—one’s job, one’s position, one’s circumstances, whether in striving to better them or in lamenting them. There are many aspects of our lives that are not wrong, but if they mean more to us than the things of God do, then we have allowed idolatry to creep in.
We are all familiar with the Parable of the Sower. The seeds that fell among thorns in that story rhyme with what was happening with the Jews under Zerubbabel and Joshua. Jesus explains that “he who received [the] seed [meaning, the word of God] among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). Mark’s account adds, “the desires for other things”—meaning, things other than the word of God and what it encompasses. Luke says, “Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity” (Luke 8:14). This choking isn’t limited just to when we first hear God’s word, but can happen throughout the life of anyone who has received the word of God.
In this parable, then, the danger arises from the cares of this world, the pleasures of life, desires that overshadow God’s word, and being deceived by riches—and one does not have to have riches to be deceived by them. The result of these thorns is that fruitfulness is limited or even non-existent. The word is planted, but the expected fruit is not produced. The rare and priceless opportunity is choked out.
Similarly, the Jews received the word of God regarding the temple via Cyrus, but they allowed the command to languish. Their priorities hobbled their fruitfulness. What they put their time and energy into, while not evil itself, demonstrated that they really did not value God. There was no urgency to have God dwell in their midst. They were content to let that rare opportunity become choked out. And so, God cursed what they put their hands to. No matter how much they worked, nothing substantial was produced because their priorities were misaligned.
Here in Haggai 1, we left off in verse 11. To summarize what came next, verses 12-15 show that God’s word through Haggai accomplished what He sent it forth to do. In verse 13, the people and leaders were assured that God was with them. Their spirits were stirred up, and they came together and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God.
We will keep going to chapter 2, which begins another prophecy:
Haggai 2:1-9 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying: “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying: ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the LORD; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the LORD, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’ “For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.”
The book of Haggai is unique in that it records the date on which Haggai received each prophetic message from God. The prophecy we saw in Haggai 1 was given on the 1st day of the 6th month, which is in late summer. It took about 3 ½ weeks for God’s words to have their effect and for everyone to be stirred up to come work on the temple. This prophecy (in Haggai 2) came less than a month after that work had begun. And, significantly, this prophecy was given on the 21st day of the 7th month. That is today’s date on the Hebrew calendar—Tishri 21, the last day of Tabernacles. So, this is a fitting prophecy for today.
Remember from Ezra 3 that many of the older Jews wept and wailed when the foundation was laid because they compared it to Solomon’s temple. Well, God was listening, and He answers them here. God says that in the eyes of those who had seen Solomon’s temple, this temple was as nothing. It did not have the exquisite craftsmanship of Solomon’s architects and builders, nor did it have anywhere close to the volume of precious metals that had been set aside and dedicated by King David. God acknowledges this disparity, and yet He is also entirely unconcerned about it, which should teach us something.
After acknowledging the seeming inferiority of the second temple, God tells the leadership and the people to be strong. Notice that He says it three times—to the governor, to the high priest, and to the people. And He tells them all to work. No matter who they were or what their position, He says, be strong and work, because He is with them. That was His message on that 7th day of the Feast, and it is a message we can take to heart as well.
Keep in mind that all this rhymes with working on the spiritual temple. We need to be careful, though, not to limit the application of the temple metaphor just to a church organization, and we will look at that more later. Nevertheless, our minds tend to think of organizations first these days, so let’s follow that application through.
Let’s consider what some might call the glory of the Worldwide Church of God. Before the scattering, the WCG had upwards of 140,000 members, approximately 80,000-90,000 of whom were baptized. It had eight million subscribers to The Plain Truth magazine, and radio and television programs that blanketed the globe. It had its own television studio and publishing department to handle all its media. It had full-time ministers in nearly every corner of the world, and an active youth program. It had a four-year college, spread across three stunning campuses, complete with multiple gardens, fountains, streams, paths, and ponds. It had an international cultural foundation and archaeological projects in the Middle East. It had the Ambassador Auditorium, which was a world-class facility that hosted acclaimed performers. That church had influence and no small measure of fame.
Now, there have been attempts to recreate as much of that as possible, but after decades of striving and burning through contributions, it simply hasn’t happened. The organizations today are as nothing compared to the previous organization in terms of size and influence and physical glory. But when we apply God’s words here, we can understand that God is unconcerned by all the outward indicators. This really isn’t a useful comparison, and it also indicates a material focus.
What’s more, even as the majesty of Solomon’s temple did not keep the nation on track, or keep it from falling away from God, so also none of the physical trappings of the WCG could sustain people spiritually. I am not suggesting that those things I mentioned were wrong, just that they couldn’t keep the church from imploding because those things cannot give spiritual strength. In fact, they may become distractions, or perhaps even an idol of sorts, as happened with the physical temple. We must look higher.
Verse 5 here is a reassurance to the Jews, and it is likewise significant to the church today. God reminds them of His covenant, a thousand years before, and assures them that His Spirit remained among them, and thus, they should not fear. This reassurance was needed because the nation had been decimated and exiled. Lamentations 2:7 records that, during the destruction, the Lord spurned His altar and abandoned His sanctuary. Seventy years later, a small remnant had returned, but it was now suffering sustained opposition. Those must have been pretty confusing times. It could be easy to think that God had left them, and it would be natural to just throw up their hands and make what they could of their lives.
As another rhyme, when the church was scattered, some concluded either that God had left it, or perhaps had never been involved in the first place. Yet the more mature understand that the presence of challenges and even chastening doesn’t mean God is absent. It only means that we need to redouble our efforts to be of the same mind as God. He hasn’t left the church. The danger is that individuals within the church would leave Him. And so, God says to be strong, and to work, because He is with us.
In verses 7-9, God explains what matters, and it isn’t the silver or gold. He could have supplied the second temple with just as much as the first, but He didn’t. What matters is that God says that He would fill the temple with glory, and that the glory would be greater than Solomon’s temple. The real glory isn’t found in silver or gold or anything material, like campuses or media programs or subscribers. Those things are fine, but they cannot compare to God’s presence or to God’s outworking.
This prophecy, then, points to the coming of the Messiah. Solomon’s temple had the shekinah, the cloud of glory that was extraordinary and yet inaccessible to all but the high priest. But Zerubbabel’s temple eventually had God in the flesh, teaching daily in the temple and showing His people how to live. They beheld the glory of the only-begotten Son of God up close. He was not in the Holy of Holies, but where everyone could see and hear.
There are indicators of a dual fulfillment with Christ’s second coming as well because of the mention of the shaking of heaven and earth and all nations. That seems to coincide with the events of the Sixth Seal, shortly before Christ’s return. But there is still another rhyme. There is a spiritual application of God filling His temple with glory that we will start to look at next. There is a hint of it in John 7 when Jesus spoke of living water, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, also on this last day of the Feast. God’s Spirit is what causes glory in human beings.
I will draw your attention to two things before we move on to the New Testament. The first is in the next book, in Zechariah, whose prophecies come just after Haggai’s and overlap slightly. They are part of the same context of God stirring things up to get the nation to restore the true worship. Zechariah 4:6 contains the well-known statement, “’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.” Man’s efforts, while required, are not what really make things happen. Physical ability, power, or even an army cannot force some things to happen. Real effectiveness comes by God, through His Spirit.
Carnal man wants to force things, to steamroll people, and even to go to war. God wasn’t asking for that then, and He is not asking for that now. He was and is asking for hearts and hands willing to work, and His Spirit then causes the accomplishment of extraordinary things—things that are humanly impossible. Even Christ said that it was the Father in Him that did all the miracles. God’s Spirit is the all-important factor in any endeavor.
The second thing is found here in Haggai 2:10-14, where God says that everything the people put their hands to is defiled because the people are defiled. Defilement can be passed on to others, like a virus, but holiness cannot. God requires holiness when it comes to His house, and this carries through to the spiritual temple.
As we continue to apply all these principles, think back to where we began. We are living through a demographic change that is affecting and will continue to affect the work of the whole church. This is a generality, and certainly does not apply everywhere, but from the anecdotes I’ve heard, it could be said there are a lot of spectators but not a lot of laborers. Maybe it feels like the time isn’t right to work on God’s house, especially because we each have our own houses to be concerned with. Perhaps we are waiting on God, or waiting on somebody else.
Certainly, there are times when we must wait on God. But there are other times when God waits on us. Working on the spiritual temple is one of those times because He has already expressed His will. The New Testament writers describe the spiritual temple as something that each individual is involved with, and there is always work we can do, as we will see.
There are several ways we can think of the spiritual temple. Ultimately, the spiritual temple is the whole church because the church fits within Christ, who fulfilled the purpose of the temple. We must keep this in mind to avoid the organizational idolatry we considered earlier. Even so, God has seen fit to provide groups or flocks under pastors or shepherds where we can learn and grow. They can be a great source of comfort, encouragement, and edification—just not the highest source. Nevertheless, serving in an organization is one way we can work on the temple.
So, if you can write or speak or encourage or even just pray for others, it is time to work on the temple. If you have benefited from the transcripts on the website, please consider giving back to the transcribing effort so others can benefit, too. If you can sing or play an instrument, or if you have technical or audio/visual aptitudes, all those things are needed as well. And the list goes on. But before you bombard Richard with questions of what you can do to help, please take this matter to God first. Only God knows how it should all fit together, and what gifts He has given or will give. He knows how He wants each one of us to serve so we don’t collide with someone else, or inadvertently try to fill the place of service that God has given to another. God is not looking for might or power in us. He is looking for willing hearts, and then He will work through us as we cooperate with Him and yield to His will.
Now, maybe your circumstances are such that you have concluded there is not much you can contribute to an organization, aside from maybe raising godly seed or even just prayer. Quite a few are in that situation, and I’m not going to send you on any sort of guilt trip. Regardless of whether you have many opportunities or few to serve in an organization, there is still another application of working on the temple that is even more important. Please turn to Ephesians 2:
Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Like the physical temple, in the spiritual temple, the focus is on God—on glorifying God, on worshipping God in spirit and truth, and on holiness. The New Testament temple analogy encapsulates our relationship with God. The physical temple was the dwelling place of God, and that applies to the church now. That’s the glory of this temple—not silver or gold or numbers. The indwelling of God is far greater in value and significance than those things. And we know from other places that the Father and the Son dwell in us individually. We are each a temple. We are each a dwelling place of God. This means that regardless of our circumstances, we have our own temple to work on, and it is always time to work on it.
These verses picture individuals as stones that make up the larger temple, and this analogy gives us something to work on. It says the stones are being “fitted together.” It pictures the stones being placed, side by side, and stacked smoothly, not forced into place.
This may sound like it applies to our relationships within the church, and indeed it does, but it applies first to our relationship with God, and I’ll tell you why. If it were a matter of fitting only two stones together, there could be some compromise for the sake of getting along without the stones having to be altered much. But the only way to make many stones fit together is to give each stone uniform edges and square corners. Every side must be straight up and down, and the tops and bottoms must be perfectly level. Stones fit together when the places they meet are exactly the same. In other words, they fit when they conform to a common standard. It is the only way the whole building will be plumb and level and strong.
So, to fit together as God’s house, we must use Christ as our standard of what is upright and what is level. Our edges must match Him. The more we do this, the more we will fit together with the other stones that are also aligning themselves to the Chief Cornerstone. Thus, unity in the house of God is a byproduct of our individual unity with Jesus Christ.
Please turn with me to II Corinthians 6:
II Corinthians 6:14-18 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people." Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." 'I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty."
II Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
The quotation in verse 17 is drawn from Isaiah 52:11, which says, “Touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her [meaning Babylon or the world], be clean, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.” However, as a spiritual priesthood, we do not just bear the vessels of the LORD; we are the vessels of the LORD, which raises the standard even higher.
A major part of making a house that God will be pleased to dwell in is perfecting holiness and cleansing our lives of the things that are in opposition to Him. This goes far beyond things like unclean meats and pagan holidays. Perfecting holiness gets into the thoughts that we entertain, and the entertainments that feed our thoughts. It involves changing attitudes that repel God, and eliminating words and ideas that defile. Our goal is to make a habitation of our minds and our lives that God is pleased to dwell in, one that is welcoming to Him because it is in alignment with Him.
These verses highlight the need to evaluate every area of our lives. We must consider what we let in and are in agreement with. We must choose between our priceless calling and what we have been called from. This is how we become temples filled with His glory. Yet being a temple requires a separation from what is unclean.
Back in Haggai 2, God says that the people were unclean, and thus, what they were offering was unclean. But God has given us a cleansing that He has not yet given to Israel and Judah. He had to make us clean, or else we would not be fit dwelling-places for Him. Yet even with that cleansing, we have standing orders here not to get anywhere near idolatry, and not to become unequally yoked, and to be separate from the ways of the world, and to continually cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles our body or mind. Those things may cause God to reject what we offer to Him, not just in holy day offerings, but in the offerings of our lives, which is what He is really after. And as Haggai teaches, uncleanness is transferable, so if we become spiritually defiled, we can spread that to others. If we are entangled with the world or become unequally yoked, the effects will spread to others.
We are instructed to perfect the initial holiness that was bestowed on us, and to do so in the fear of God. Now, cleansing, holiness, the fear of God, and separation from the world are all large topics, far too large to get into now. I will only draw your attention to what is at stake if we neglect these things: We risk alienating God. That didn’t seem to bother the Jews, but it should be of great concern to us. So, I encourage you to study into these things because they determine what sort of dwelling place we make for God, and consequently, His activity in our lives. As the parable teaches, the cares of this world make us unfruitful. We cannot serve God and mammon, nor will we see God without pursuing holiness.
It is worth noting that all of those elements—cleansing, holiness, the fear of God, and separation from the world—are disparaged and scoffed at in the present culture. The culture readily accepts and promotes what is unclean, profane, casual, and irreverent. If we pursue holiness, we will face opposition to our work on the temple from those around us. We will find, like the returning Jews, that it is easier to put off that work until a more convenient time. But like with the Jews, putting off that work will indicate to God that we are more interested in our own houses than in His dwelling with us. History continues to rhyme.
Please turn to I Corinthians 3:
I Corinthians 3:9-15 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Paul says he laid the foundation, meaning he taught it to the Corinthians, and he goes on to say that the foundation is Jesus Christ. This does not mean that we can toss out, say, James or Ezekiel, thinking that if Jesus didn’t say something, then it is unimportant. Remember what we saw in Ephesians 2, that the apostles and prophets form the foundation as well, with Jesus serving as the Chief Cornerstone that keeps the foundation from moving. He is the anchor, and He is the object of the writings of the apostles and prophets.
So, the foundation has been laid. This rhymes with the state of the Jews in Haggai, where their next step was to build. For us as well, the next step is to build on that foundation.
Now, remember the parable of the two builders. Jesus says, “whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Building on the right foundation is likened to hearing Christ’s words and doing them. Christ’s words include the words inspired by Him, such as to the apostles’ and the prophets’. Doing those words—living by those words—is how we build on the foundation. Our building of the spiritual temple is directly tied to living by what God has revealed. It means to take the teachings and example of Christ, plus the apostles’ and the prophets’, and use all that to build a house, a life, that God is pleased to dwell in. That was the glory of Christ—it was how He lived. He always did the things that pleased the Father, and the Father was in Him.
In verse 10, Paul says to “take heed” or “be careful” how we build, because what we do with God’s words in our lives will be tested. The implication is that if we are haphazard in our approach to building this habitation for God, our works will be burned up. The day of testing will reveal what we have done with what we have been given.
Notice also in verse 10 that the command to “take heed” or “be careful” how one builds is individual. Building is an individual effort. It cannot be done for us. Paul uses the terms “anyone” and “each one” six times in this passage, showing the emphasis on the individual. While teachers have an added responsibility in how they expound upon the foundation, this says that each one of us must build, just as Christ’s parable of the two builders applies to each of us.
This reiterates that there are not spectators when it comes to building the temple. We are being fitted together collectively, but the instruction begins with us as individuals, because we can only fit together to the degree that our edges and corners individually resemble the Chief Cornerstone. We cannot wait for somebody else. If we have an understanding of God’s word, then we have the responsibility to put it into practice in our lives, and thus work on our own temple.
This shows that building the spiritual temple is not limited to serving a church organization. We can work on our own dwelling places for God regardless of whether we have the gifts that are typically associated with serving in an organization, or even whether we are part of a congregation. We can always apply ourselves to doing the word of God, and especially in those areas of cleansing, holiness, the fear of God, and separation from the world. Those are how our lives become places He feels welcome, desired and glorified.
In fact, these activities lay the required groundwork for service in an organization or congregation. Remember that things are accomplished by God’s Spirit. Working on our temple draws us closer to God, enabling us to serve as He intends because He supplies the need. But first things must come first.
Continuing on with verse 16:
I Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
There is more here than appears on the surface. To begin, the Greek word translated “defiles” is the same Greek word translated “destroy” later in the verse. Everywhere else, this word is translated as “corrupt,” which seems to fit better here as well. The Greek word means, “to destroy by corrupting” or “to bring into a worse state.”
The warning here is not that if we have an impure thought or a bad lifestyle choice, God will destroy us. Certainly, those are things we must guard against, but they are not what is really in view in this context. The warning here is about corrupting the spiritual temple, which is more serious than defiling. Defilement can be cleansed, but corruption does damage. The primary application here seems to be corrupting the teachings of Christ, because that directly relates to the earlier warning about being careful how we build.
However, just because we do not serve as a minister or other teacher doesn’t mean we can let ourselves off the hook. The fact is, each one of us is a teacher because each one of us sets an example for others, whether for our spouse, our children, or our brethren. If our example—through how we apply or don’t apply God’s words—undermines or skews the foundation that others are building on, we have corrupted the temple. How we conduct ourselves as representatives of God can affect how others build on the foundation because our example will influence theirs. It can even affect whether they will be able to build. That is, if our example is so contrary to the God we represent that it causes them to doubt God, we have corrupted that spiritual temple. So, there is a serious admonition here, both to protect against corrupting our own dwelling place for God, but also not to corrupt or inhibit or derail the building in another person’s life.
While there might not be much we can do about the overall state of the church, we can ensure that our own temple of God does not lie in ruins. Unlike the people in Haggai’s day, we should understand that it is always time for God’s house to be built. It is our individual and continual responsibility to work on making our lives a fitting place for God to dwell through hearing and doing His word. Even when there is opposition and the Adversary tries to withstand us, it is God’s will that His house be built, so He can be glorified. And because it is His will, He is always ready to help us do our part in the building. The question is whether we have the heart to work with God on this most significant of projects.
And so, as God said through Haggai on Tishri 21, the last day of the Feast some 2,500 years ago, Be strong and work, because God is with us.
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