November 16

Haggai 2
We drove by the house to see what it looked like. My brother and I had not been there since January 1962. It was now May 1973. Eleven years had passed. I was 6 when we moved. I had just turned 18. What in my memory had loomed as a gigantic house now appeared small and unimpressive. It probably had around 800—1,000 square feet on the first floor and less on the second floor. It did have a full unfinished basement. My memories were much larger than the reality. It was kind of disappointing.
The old men of Zerubbabel’s party wept when the foundation of the temple was laid because it did not meet up to the memory of the glory of the previous temple. They did not have the silver and gold needed to adorn this smaller one as the former one was adorned. What is the use in trying if you can’t do it well? They slipped into neutral for 18 years. God asks them, “Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?”
Do we do the same thing? Perhaps we experienced a time in the past, when we were enjoying the blessing of God in the building of His temple, the church. (See yesterday’s meditation. I am not talking about a physical building.) Something went wrong, the blessing of God seemed to be removed. The glory of the former is greater than the glory of now. Discouragement sets in. The church shifts into neutral. But God calls us to answer His questions. He instructs us to cease thinking about former glory and fix our eyes on Him and obey Him. The principle is that if we will bring our lives into line with His instruction, then He will use us to build a living temple suitable to fill with His glory. It matters not how much silver and gold we have because He owns it all. He supplies what is needed. He instructs us to, “Be strong, all you people . . .and work; for I am with you.” But it is very important to work His work, not the work of the memory of our past. It is a work that must be done in holiness for the unclean will defile the clean, but clean does not clean the unclean. Personal and corporate holiness is a requirement. So we put away the unclean and receive His cleansing. We place ourselves in a blessable position. Mark Barnard calls it a blessing point.
Many times we live in the past trying to recreate the former times. But the Lord wants to fill His temple with His glory and He wants to build it through us in new and fresh ways. For when He does it in the new way, everyone recognizes it as His work. But there are old principles that He never changes. He does not use an unclean vessel, and He chooses to use people completely consecrated to Him who want only His glory to be seen. Henry Varley, a British revivalist, once said to D.L. Moody, “Moody, the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him.” Years later Mood told Mr. Varley:
Those were the words sent to my soul, through you, from the Living God. As I crossed the wide Atlantic, the boards of the deck of the vessel were engraved with them, and when I reached Chicago, the very paving stones seemed marked with ‘Moody, the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him.’ Under the power of those words I have come back to England, and I felt that I must not let more time pass until I let you know how God had used your words to my inmost soul.
When Zerubbabel and Joshua rallied the people to repent and return to the Lord, to receive His cleansing, to once again begin the work of building the temple, they placed themselves at a blessing point. They were at a point that God wanted to bless them because He could then display His glory and not have it obscured by them. Oh Lord, help me, help us to place ourselves in a blessing point to receive Your cleansing so that we might be empowered to do the work which You have called us to do, so that You may display Your glory for the world to see! Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john