Working On the Temple

They had returned to their home land after being away for many years. The Babylonians had taken them captive. Jerusalem had been destroyed. The walls around the city had been torn down, and the temple had been burned to the ground. The first thing the people of Israel did after they returned home was to rebuild the walls, and  begin constructing a new temple. Some of the people remembered what the previous temple was like. It was glorious, and they hoped to have that same glory restored to the new one.

After they had been working on the temple a while they began facing opposition. They became discouraged. What they had built so far looked nothing like the grand temple that had been destroyed. There seemed to be no glory in what they had done. Soon the people gave up and stopped construction on God’s house. Instead they built nice houses for themselves. This did not please God. Through the prophet Haggai God said, “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. Now each of you is busy with your own house.”

Could it be that today Christians are busy with their own houses? Rather than working on the temple of God we have become distracted with ourselves, our desires, our needs, and are spending most of our time building up our own house. Each of us is a spiritual temple of God. We are His dwelling place. It is our task to build up the temple of God providing a glorious place where he is welcomed, adored, and worshipped.

Haggai declared these encouraging words of God. “Be strong all you people of the land, ‘declares the Lord, and work. For I am with you ,’ declares the Lord Almighty...And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.”  When we heed these words we will not be discouraged. We will not become distracted with our own selfish desires. We will not give up, and the temple that we are building within our souls will be filled with God’s glory for all the world to see.