Haggai and the Temple

A museum in Istanbul, Turkey, houses a stone slab from the second temple built in Jerusalem over 500 years before Jesus' time. The stone slab is a little over 1000km (or about 650 miles) from where it was once part of a stone fence. The purpose of the fence? To keep any foreigners (non-Jews) out of the temple. How do we know? Seven lines of Greek inscribed on the slab translate as: "Foreigners must not enter inside the balustrade or into the forecourt around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his ensuing death." The warning and penalty of death differ greatly from the welcome signs around many modern churches: "Welcome Home," "We're Glad You're Here."

I am teaching the book of Haggai at our church weekend, and in my research journey, I have crossed paths with pastors, scholars, and bloggers who seem to fall into the same thinking as those who erected the death threats in God's temple. The assumption is that God is worthy of worship, so He needs a temple, a physical place set apart for worshipping God. What we think about the temple is vital to how we welcome people into our churches (hospitality) and for our understanding of the book of Haggai.

The entire book of Haggai centers around the temple, or lack of a temple. After about 70 years of exile in Babylon, the Babylonia empire fell to the Persians. Under Persian rule, some of the exiled Jews began to return home and rebuild Jerusalem. Then, in 538 B.C., the resettled Jews, under new spiritual (Jeshua) and political leadership (Zerubbabel), got permission to rebuild the temple. It is not until two years later that work begins on the temple foundation. Then, three months later, Haggai begins a six-month ministry with a question. "The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: "Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins" (Haggai 1:3-4, CSB)? The people are building houses, clearing rubble, starting businesses, and caring for their families. Haggai turns the question into an application: "The Lord of Armies says this: "Think carefully about your ways. Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house; and I will be pleased with it and be glorified," says the Lord" (Haggai 1:7-8, CSB).

Jeshua and Zerubbabel lead people spiritually (Ezra 3:1) in remembering and worshipping God, but something is missing without the temple. We can easily miss asking, "Why is the temple important in God's redemptive plan?" N.T. Wright proposes the view that the temple is about tabernacling, or God actively dwelling here on Earth. But humanity's sinful rebellion distorted the Earth (Romans 8:19-22), and sin separates. But God's plan to redeem and restore His creation includes His temple and people. God's presence on Earth is a key part of His plan.

Throughout the biblical narrative, many considered the temple a place in God's presence. But the temple represents more than a place. The temple declares that God is the creator and ruler of everything. The temple announces that God is Holy and set apart from sin. The temple proclaims that only God can make a way for humanity to come back to Him. The temple also promises that God's redemptive plan culminates in God dealing with sin, redeeming his people (all humans who surrender to Him), and dwelling or living among His people (Revelation 21:3). The temple is more than a place for worship, the temple is the good news that God is present and at work redeeming people to Himself.

What about the stone slab? Since most of us are foreigners (not Jews), are we not allowed anywhere near God? The second chapter of Haggai in our Bibles contains Haggai's last three messages (one in October and two in December of the same year). First, Haggai encourages those rebuilding the temple because it's not as good as they remembered. God tells them, don't worry, this isn't the final temple— "The final glory of this house will be greater than the first," (Haggai 2:9, CSB). Then, through Haggai, God promises to transform defiled people into people God blesses. Finally, God uses Haggai to declare that God will turn the world upside down and that Messiah will reign. In the end, two redemptive themes erupt from Haggai: the temple is about God's presence and God's people.

But how do we fit into Haggai and the temple? The message of Haggai and the reality of the temple are part of God's grand redemptive story. In Jesus and the church, the themes of temple and people collide. The baton of the temple, or God with us, was passed to Jesus at the incarnation.

 "All right," Jesus replied. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." "What!" they exclaimed. "It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?" But when Jesus said "this temple," he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said" ( John 2:19-42, NLT).

Then the Holy Spirit takes God's dwelling with us one step further.

"Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, CSB).

As followers of Jesus, the church, we are God's dwelling place and the people who belong to Him.

Today, there is no stone fence keeping people from coming to God. Christ's followers carry the presence of God out of the temple into all the world (Matthew 28:19-20). We declare the holiness of God through our daily lives. We declare the kindness of God making us into His own people through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. And, unlike the stone slab recovered from the second temple, today, insiders and outsiders are invited to follow Jesus with the warm words, "Welcome Home."

How does the reality that God dwells in the world through you and His church impact how you prioritize your time and resources?

Who in your sphere of influence needs to hear about the kindness of God today?