May 15, 2002

Reading: Haggai 1:1-11

 

“Thus says the LORD of Hosts: ‘Consider your ways!’”

 

The Temple of God lay in ruins, and the concern of the people was to build houses for themselves. The result was, “The heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit” (10). The purpose for the Temple, God’s house, was that God “may take pleasure in it and be glorified” (8). Everything the people did resulted in very little being accomplished – their hunger and thirst were never satisfied; their clothes did not keep them warm, and the pocket they put their money in had a hole in it! (6). This is a description also of the “life” of many Christians. It doesn’t matter what we do, our spiritual life is a struggle and little goes right. God’s advice to His people through Haggai was, “Consider your ways.” This is still His advice for us today. If the promises recorded in the Bible are not a reality in our life, perhaps we should consider our ways. Are we more concerned about our own welfare than God’s? Who has priority in our life?

Paul tells us, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Cor 3:16, also, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 1 Cor 6:19. God no longer dwells in a temple made from wood, He dwells in you and I. We are now His temple. Can we honestly say that God takes pleasure in us and is glorified in us? That is still His purpose – “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” 1 Cor 6:20.

God gave specific instructions to His people, “Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple,” Hag 1:8. He was specific about the building material for the physical temple, and He is specific about the materials for His spiritual temple. “Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,” 1 Cor 3:12 – these are optional materials. However, it is only those that are not destroyed by fire that remain and bring glory to God.

How can we build up the temple of God? How can I build and strengthen the structure that is me? What do gold, silver and precious stones represent? In what can God take pleasure and be glorified in?

God takes pleasure in the faithfulness of His people. “The just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him" Heb 10:38.

God also takes pleasure when we worship Him and give Him thanks: “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” Heb 13:15-16. The Bible specifically states that He took no pleasure in the old sacrifices – “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” Heb 10:8. (I question the wisdom of those who teach the old sacrificial system will be restored in the millennium!)

The prayers of His people give God pleasure. The Bible speaks of them as “incense” or sweet perfume to Him. “Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice” Ps 141:2 (Rev 5:8).

Faithfulness, worship and prayer are some of the materials that can be classified as gold, silver and precious stones. May our lives continually bring pleasure to Him who loves us with an everlasting love.