Haggai 1:8

Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 8^th & 9^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Not all the prophets before Haggai’s time approved of the first temple built by Solomon, and as early as David’s time, Nathan expressed his disapproval in advance (2 Samuel 7:4-7), only to be matched by the later concerns of Isaiah which evaluated the worship of Israel as superficial and the temple as a “den of robbers” (Isaiah 1:10-17; 7:1-15, 66:1).

Ezekiel found idolatry in the temple (chapter 8), and God promised to remove it (24:15-24). How could all of these messengers of God’s Word be so against the temple, and then Haggai be so passionately for its restoration?

The kind of temple Haggai looked for was to be different from its predecessor. Indeed, worship was already being conducted at the site of the original temple, even before a new building was erected. There is something called sacred space, a specially designated place where God is present. Through the temple, God becomes present and personal and concrete — the tangible sign of His presence among His people. According to Deuteronomy, God chose to make Jerusalem the place where “his name might dwell” in the midst of His people (12:11). Even after the famous “Ark of the Covenant” was lost to the Babylonian armies, never to be spoken of again (see Jeremiah 3:16), God remained connected with His people as they went off into exile. Ezekiel witnessed God’s dramatic departure from the temple (11:22-25).

However, though God can be present without symbols, He regularly appointed them as reminders of Himself. Followers of Jesus speak often of the cross and celebrate the sacrament with bread and wine. More importantly, they confess that Jesus is the “word become flesh, living among us” (John 1:14). “The God of the Bible localizes himself.”  [BN, 10]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm