FBC Morning Light (9/14/2024)

Good Saturday morning people of faith. This weekend's reading is in Zechariah chapters 1 through 6 as well as Haggai chapter 2.

We will be focusing on Haggai chapter 2 and just to give you a little background,

Haggai chapter 1, the people have returned to the land from their exile in Babylon and they have built homes for themselves and things are going okay -ish, but the

Lord gives them the challenge to rebuild the temple and they have started in chapter 2 to rebuild the temple.

In verse 3 of chapter 2 there is a question that is asked, who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory?

Now it's in ruins right now, but it's former glory. This is the temple of Solomon that he's talking about here and the exile was around 70 years, so it's possible that there would have been some of the people, some of the older men and women who were alive to have seen the

Solomon's temple, the original temple. All right, so yes, they have seen what a glorious temple the

Solomon's temple once was. Verse 6 says, but for thus says the

Lord of hosts, once more, it is a little while, I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land, and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the desire of all nations, and I will fill this temple with glory, says the

Lord of hosts. All right, so to fill this temple with the Lord of glory, or to fill the temple with glory, think back to the book of Ezekiel, and in the book of Ezekiel we see the

Spirit of God leaving the temple and seeing, starting with looking at the idolatrous practices that were happening in the temple itself, and then in the courtyard outside of the temple, the idolatry, idolatrous practices, and then at the gate and throughout the city and in the mountains, and it's like the

Holy Spirit was just kind of leaving and turning around every once in a while to see if anybody noticed, and there never was anyone that noticed that the

Holy Spirit had left the temple, the glory had left the temple, like in 1st

Samuel, when the Ark of the Covenant was taken, on the day it was taken,

Eli's grandson was born, and what name was given to his grandson? His name was called

Ichabod, the glory has departed. These people have, this handful of people have seen the glorious temple, but they have not seen the glory that filled that temple.

Picking this back up in verse 8, the silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the

Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the

Lord of Hosts, and in this place I will give peace, says the

Lord of Hosts. Now, this temple that at the time this was stated was still basically in ruins, and he's talking about how the glory that's going to be here, well, first of all,

God owns all the gold, God owns all the silver, right? And so he says he's gonna make this even more glorious than the previous temple, and you might think that that means an outward appearance, but pay close attention when it says, desire of all nations, right?

It says, and they shall come to the desire of all nations, and pay close attention when it says, and in this place

I will give peace, and we have to fast forward about 500 years from the time of this writing to the time when the desire of all nations would enter the temple and bring as himself the

Prince of Peace. This is prophesying the coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ, and his presence in the temple will give that temple far greater glory than that temple could ever experience through silver or gold or any ornate decorations, but the

Creator of all will set foot in this temple.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for sending your

Son to walk on this earth, to be the

Prince of Peace and the desire of nations. May we bend the knee to that desire of all nations and to the

Prince of Peace as he is our Lord and our Creator, and it is in that Lord and Creator's name,

Jesus, that we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.