Tag: God’s temple

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Galatians Devotionals

Pleased

Christ revealed in me

But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles… (Galatians 1:15-16)

“God was pleased to reveal his Son in me.”

Those are amazing words.

Why would God choose to reveal his Son in me?

Paul must have wondered that.

He had been a blasphemer, a violent man who had persecuted Christ’s church. (1 Timothy 1:13)

God could have chosen “better” people to reveal his Son to the Gentiles, but he chose Paul.

More, he was pleased to do so.

That gives me hope.

God has called all of us to be his temple, his priests in whom he reveals himself to the world.

But when I look at myself, I can see so many flaws, so many “cracks” in the wall. Can you relate?

God could choose so much better people to be his temple, his priest in whom he reveals himself.

Yet God does not just choose to reveal himself in me and you, he delights to do so.

That’s an awesome thought.

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1 Kings Devotionals

Where God puts his name

Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king; he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put his name.

Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. (1 Kings 14:21)

When Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, God told him he would put his name there forever. (1 Kings 9:3)

But some time later, Solomon brought another name into the city where God had put his name: “Naamah.”

She was one of the many wives that he took who helped lead Solomon into idol worship. (1 Kings 11:1-4)

And apparently she helped lead her son Rehoboam down that same path.

The author goes out of his way twice to say name her and to give her Ammonite origins. (1 Kings 14:21, 31)

God has put his name on us. We are now his temple.

What other names, what influences, are we bringing into God’s temple?

What books do we read? What do we watch on the internet or on TV? What podcasts do we listen to? What music do we listen to?

Some things are clearly negative, and we should avoid them at all costs.

Some things are neutral and are okay in moderation.

Some things are good, strengthening our faith and drawing us nearer to God. Is that what you are bringing into God’s temple every day?

How are the things you’re bringing into your temple every day shaping your attitudes, your worldview, and your faith?

Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

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1 Kings Devotionals

A mind-blowing truth

But will God indeed live on earth?
Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you,
much less this temple I have built. (1 Kings 8:27)

I was just meditating on those words this morning. The heavens cannot contain God. Yet by his grace, God chose to enter Solomon’s temple and fill it with his glory. (10-11).

Hundreds of years later, God came and actually lived on this earth as a man, dwelling among us.

Jesus himself was the temple of God on earth, and all of God’s fullness, all his glory dwelt in him. (John 1:14, 2:20; Colossians 1:19)

But now, we are God’s temple.

The heavens can’t contain God, and yet he chooses to dwell in individual human hearts, in all who put their faith in Jesus. (John 14:23; Ephesians 3:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Because we are his temple, God has his eyes on us day and night, moment to moment, day to day, watching over us and hearing all our prayers and petitions.

And he says of us, “My name will be there.” (1 Kings 8:28-29)

Father, will you indeed live on earth?
Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you.

How is it that you would choose to dwell in me
Watching over me and hearing me
And calling me your own?

Your love is truly amazing.

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Psalms

When God dwells within us

Psalms

Psalm 48 was probably written after an attack was made upon Jerusalem.  And it praises the greatness of God who protected her.

It exults,

Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.  (Psalm 48:1)

After praising the beauty of Zion in Jerusalem, it says,

God is in her citadels;
he has shown himself to be her fortress.

When the kings joined forces,
when they advanced together,
they saw her and were astounded;
they fled in terror.  (3-5)

The psalmist then sings,

As we have heard,
so we have seen in the city of the Lord Almighty,
in the city of our God:  God makes her secure forever. (8)

What can we get from this?

Just as God watched over and protected the city he made his dwelling in, he watches over and protects us.

For God no longer lives in a temple within a city, he lives within human hearts.

And though our Enemy may rise up to attack us, God will make us secure if we’ll just put our trust in him.

So in times of trouble, let us not live in fear, but rather “meditate on his unfailing love.”  (9)

In his eyes, we are his beautiful dwelling place and his joy, not to mention his precious children, and he will not fail to defend us.

And when we see his deliverance, let us not forget to thank him for his goodness, remembering always that,

This God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guide even to the end.  (14)

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Haggai

Where our true glory comes from

Contemplating the Lord

I’ve mentioned before in the book of Ezra that some of the older generation that had seen Solomon’s temple wept when they saw the foundations of the new temple that was being built.

And here, we see some of the same feelings rising up from that generation when the work was restarted. So Haggai speaks to them saying,

‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?

But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest.

Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.

‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’ (Haggai 2:3–5)

In other words, “Don’t get discouraged by how this temple compares with the one Solomon built. And don’t get discouraged by all the opposition you’re facing. Get to work and build the temple, for I am with you.

“I was with you when I promised to bring you out of Egypt and my promises never change. I am the same God that brought you here and my Spirit still remains among you.”

Then he said,

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.

I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord Almighty.

“The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” declares the Lord Almighty.

“The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” says the Lord Almighty.

“And in this place I will grant peace,” declares the Lord Almighty. (Haggai 2:6–9)

Here we see another prophecy of the Messiah to come. Before his coming, there was a shaking of the nations, with one empire rising after another.

And then Jesus came, the desired of all nations, and he filled that house with his presence and glory. God in human flesh was in that temple preaching and performing miracles.

As we look at this passage, I think we see a mistaken way of thinking in these older Jews. They merely looked at the outside of the temple, of the materials it was built from, and thought that the temple’s glory came from these things.

But the glory of Solomon’s temple, beautiful as it was, did not come from the gold or silver or any of the things it was built from. Its glory came from the presence of God dwelling inside of it.

And as beautiful as it was compared to the second temple that was built in Ezra’s time, it never had the privilege of housing God in human flesh.

When Jesus stepped into the second temple, it received greater glory than Solomon’s temple ever did.

It’s the same with us. You may look at your life and think that you are nothing compared to the other “beautiful temples of God.”

Others may be more physically beautiful or handsome.

Others may be more talented or gifted.

But your glory does not come from how you look or what gifts you may have. Your glory comes from Jesus living inside of you.

So don’t look around comparing yourself to others. And don’t get discouraged by the people that would keep you from following God.

Be strong. Do the work that God has called you to do.

The same God that brought you out of slavery to Satan’s kingdom is with you now and he’ll never leave you.

And each day he will transform you into the glorious temple he created you to be.

As Paul wrote,

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Categories
Ezekiel

A true temple, a true people

Ezekiel

One of the things that I learned way back in Sunday school was, “The church is not a building.  It’s people.”

That’s true, but not quite complete.  The church is a people whose hearts belong to God.

Unfortunately, Israel’s heart did not belong to God, despite being, “God’s people.”

They had turned their backs on him, worshiping idols, even going so far at times to put idols in God’s temple itself.

In the end, God had enough.  He left the temple.

That’s what this passage is all about.  From the time Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, God’s presence rested there (2 Chronicles 5:14).

This is not to say, of course, that it was really his house, for as Solomon said,

The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you.  How much less this temple I have built!  (2 Chronicles 6:18).

But Solomon’s prayer was that God’s eyes and ears would be open to the place that had been built for His name (2 Chronicles 6:20-42).

The temple that Solomon had built was glorious.  But now, because of Israel’s sin and unfaithfulness towards God, the temple’s true Glory, had departed.

We see Israel’s stubbornness of heart in the next chapter, where 25 of the leaders of Israel kept insisting that nothing bad was going to happen to the city.

God rebuked them, and as a sign, slew one of them right then and there.

At which point, Ezekiel cried out,

“Ah, Sovereign Lord! Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel?”  (Ezekiel 11:13)

To which God basically answered, “No I will not.  I’m still with those who have been taken captive in Babylon.”

The ones remaining in Jerusalem had said of them,

They are far away from the Lord; this land was given to us as our possession.  (Ezekiel 11:15)

It’s possible here that the people who had been taken captive were the ones who had heeded Jeremiah’s advice to surrender to the Babylonians (Jeremiah 27:17).

As a result, the people who had remained considered them as traitors, rejected by the Lord who had given Israel their land.

But it wasn’t those who had stubbornly stayed despite Jeremiah’s warning that were God’s people.  It was those who had left.  And God said of them,

Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.

Therefore say:  ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’  (Ezekiel 11:16-17)

He then went on to say,

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  They will be my people, and I will be their God.  (19-20)

What is a true temple?  It’s not a building.  Who are truly God’s people?

It’s not people who simply go to church or have Christian parents.

God’s temple and God people are those within whom God dwells.  They are those to whom God has given a soft heart, and a heart to follow him.

May we all have hearts like that.

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

Getting our temples cleaned up

King Joash and priests

Joash, under the tutelage of Jehoiada the priest, got off to a good start. 

One thing he wanted to do early in his reign was to restore the temple. 

The temple had been damaged, probably during the reign of Ahaziah.

Apparently at his mother’s urging, he along with his brothers had broken into the temple and used some of the sacred objects for Baal worship (2 Chronicles 24:7).

And so Joash gave orders that it be repaired to the priests. 

But for reasons that go unexplained, the priest kept putting it off and never got around to doing it. 

Joash got pretty upset when he found out about it, and he confronted Jehoiada saying,

Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the Lord and by the assembly of Israel for the tent of the covenant law?  (2 Chronicles 24:6).

As a result, the work got started.

Not only did they rebuild the temple, but they also were able to make some new articles for the temple as well, presumably to replace the ones that his father and uncles had taken for Baal worship.

As I look at this passage, I wonder, “Do we pay enough attention to the temple of the Lord.” 

I’m not talking about a building.  Rather, I’m talking about the temple of our bodies.  We are called the temple of Christ because Christ dwells within us.

What spiritual damage has been done to our lives, because of sin? 

Are we letting sin remain there?  Or are we cleaning it out so that we might be holy vessels for God?

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in serving God and doing things for him, that we forget that God is first and foremost interested in us as people. 

He’s not so interested in what we can do for him.  Rather, he is interested in us. 

And he wants his temple to be cleaned up, restored, and made holy unto him.

I’m not saying that we need to be perfectly cleaned up in order to serve God. 

What I am saying is that we shouldn’t leave the temple derelict because we are too wrapped up in doing “God’s work.”

God’s work is primarily in us first, and only after that, does he turn his attention to what he can do through us.

May we be temples that are clean, holy, and without blemish.