Building the Temple

DAILY BYTE

When I was in primary school, my older brother and I were friends with another boy and girl the same ages. We used to play outside for hours on end until one day, we decided we needed a clubhouse. So, we hauled things and built shelves and made desks, and moved out the old, smelly port-a-loo, making that shack our castle. And to accomplish these tasks my brother gave us all roles. We even had official, laminated business cards. He – was the president. His friend was the Vice-president. My friend was the Treasurer. And I, was the Janitor...

We’ve been talking about building and working this week, so I hope you’ve been thinking about the jobs you have been given and have chosen both inside and outside the church – some of them more glamorous than others. But we’re not just talking about the specific occupation that we get paid for. We’re talking about the purpose behind all our actions. Haggai didn’t just want the people to build a temple building – he called them to build the place where God dwelled – a place that embodied hope, life, prosperity and peace.

Our chief aim in life is not to become workaholics. Our chief aim in church is not to become busybodies, involved in every activity, but we can’t remember why. Our chief aim is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. So, if you are an accountant, a stay-at-home-mom, a domestic worker, a politician, a builder - every occupation and life has at its heart the torn down rubble and the building up of a temple. And you can choose whether or not you want to build it. The challenges of building each temple are slightly different.

Your occupation may require you to act in ways that you feel are ungodly. Perhaps part of building the temple of God within and around you is acknowledging unethical behavior, actively fighting against it and the powers that enable it.

Or, if you do work that seems mundane or without meaning, maybe God is asking you to open your eyes to his presence around you so that jobs like spray-painting lemons and cleaning toilets become less about their initial lack of glamour and more about the lives of the people you work with and the lives of those who eat the lemons and use the loos.

Perhaps neither of those situations apply, and your job brings great joy to you and glory to God! If so, give thanks for that today!

Perhaps you don’t have a job at all, and maybe, for all of us, the dirt and rubble in our life does not have to do with a job, but it comes from feeling like life lacks spiritual depth or growth. So, perhaps for us, building God’s temple means taking up a spiritual discipline – like writing in a prayer journal, fasting something you feel like you can’t live without, planting vegetables, spending more quality time with your family, reconciling with someone, taking time out to serve others and help build their temples, too, or joining a fellowship group that can keep you accountable to such disciplines.

These are not the occupational curses of being human. They are the deep blessings of God for our lives because when we work to build God’s temple within ourselves and in the world, God says he will “shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land – shake all the nations so that the treasure of all nations shall come.” And that doesn’t necessarily mean he will make you very rich – which is what most people and many churches seem to think is the meaning of God’s prosperity and the proper reward for hard work. When God shakes the nations and shakes up our lives, we may not get showered with gold, but nothing ever remains the same. Nothing can remain the status quo when we acknowledge that every part of our lives and the temples we build belong to God. And through God’s true work, all are given prosperity and peace. The word that the scriptures use at the end of this passage is Shalom – which means a thriving for the whole community.

Haggai is considered by many to be the only successful prophet because the people actually listened to him! They heard his message of hope, and they rebuilt the temple into a hub of administrative, economic, and religious life, empowering the work of God in the world at that time. And so, be unafraid to build God’s temple within your own life and work. Take what you pray about here today and work to act on it.

FOCUS TEXT

Haggai 2:6-2:9

For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give SHALOM, says the Lord of hosts.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Rebuilding God, remind us again of your presence, but also shake us up so that we will be unafraid and empowered to do the things you ask us to. Help us to be doers of Your word and not hearers only, working in ways that bring life to ourselves and to Your whole world. Amen.