Haggai is easy, with the great sermon series we’re hearing through our pastor! Also, yesterday’s reading in Ezra gave us the context for the book, so I don’t need to do that.
We read in Ezra yesterday that the rebuilt temple got extremely mixed reviews from the people: some wept for joy because the temple was built “so that God could take pleasure in it and be honored”; others wept because it was so inferior to the previous temple. Imagine yourself in Zerubbabel and Joshua’s shoes: how would that make you feel about the work you had led? I personally wouldn’t feel very good about it, because I want to do better than “It’s better than nothing.” God offered them reassurance that their effort would one day, at God’s working, yield a more glorious temple than Solomon’s temple.
That temple was a marvel that had drawn people from far-off lands to see it. No one could fail to notice how glorious of a temple it was. Further, recall that when the newly-built Solomon’s temple was dedicated, God’s glory filled it so that the priests couldn’t do their work. (I Kings 8:10-11) This rebuilt temple was nothing compared to the fine architecture and craftsmanship of the first temple. There was no record of God’s glory filling the rebuilt temple as it had the first one, and the Tabernacle before it. Zerubbabel and Joshua had to take in on faith that this temple’s glory would be greater than that of the first.
God’s promise of a greater glory filling this temple was fulfilled when Jesus walked into it. That greater glory was not visible to those who witnessed Jesus’ presence, but it was a fact in the eyes of the one who knows the true value of glory.
Like that temple, we may not think the work we’re doing for God is very glorious. The truth is, without Him in it, it may not be. But with Him in it, we probably can’t imagine the glory in our work. It may not be evident to us, either, but our goal should be that God “take pleasure in it and be honored.”