The good old glory days

I’ve recently been spending a lot of time in the book of Haggai. What I’ve discovered there has been genuinely thrilling, I’ve been hugely encouraged by reading this apparently obscure Old Testament prophet from around the time when the Jews were rebuilding God’s temple after returning from exile.

However, here’s a sentence that sounds anything but encouraging. In fact it sounds downright depressing. Here are some words from Haggai 2:3, “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?”

That sentence comes to the Jews as they were attempting to rebuild the temple, which is what God had told them to do, and what are they told by God? “It’s a bit rubbish compared with the last one isn’t it?!” The temple was the place where God said he would live amongst his people, but compared with the previous model it wasn’t shaping up quite so well.

The New Testament equivalent of the temple is the church in union with Jesus Christ. Have a look at Ephesians chapters 2 and 3 to see where I got that from. So the church in Christ is the place where God promises to dwell.

Now then, here comes my point. How do you view the church? Often I hear people bemoaning the fact that the church is not what it used to be. They love church history, and they hold up today’s churches and compare them, unfavourably, with whatever period in church history they consider to have been the best. Dare I say that they get trapped in the past, and in the “glory” days?

What does God think of that attitude? Well, for all those of you who find that attitude about as helpful as a blamonche walking stick, let me say that at least in part God would probably agree with their assessment. Often the present day church does look a bit of a mess compared with the best from history. But I still don’t think it’s a helpful attitude to take.

By all means consider the best examples of the church from history, but don’t dwell on it to the point of despair in the present. Don’t do that because that’s not what God does with the Jews in the rest of Haggai 2. In the rest of Haggai 2 God tells the Jews that he dwells with them even in their rubbish looking temple. And he tells them just how glorious the temple will end up being at the end of history. That is the temple that consists of Jesus Christ and his people in union together, the glorious dwelling place of God that you are already a part of if you’ve trusted in Jesus Christ.

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