. In the paragraph I am quoting below, Charnock does a great job explaining how the fact of God being present everywhere should be a great comfort to us in our worship. He uses some Old Testament imagery that I want to explain first.
Paul teaches that the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
2 Corinthians 6:16The Holy Spirit dwells both within the Christian community (His Church) and within the individual believer. God is present everywhere, but God is present within the Christian in a special way. God is present within us in some of the same ways as He was present within Israel at first in the tabernacle and later in the temple. Charnock points out this truth, but he then extends the imagery by quoting the prophet Haggai.
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Haggai 2:3-5After Israel came back from the exile, they rebuilt the temple (see Ezra). This second temple must not have been as beautiful and as glorious as Solomon's temple. They were exiles, they were underfunded, under attack, and undermanned while they rebuilt the temple. They did not have the resources to build a great temple. The eldest members of the group remembered the former glory of the temple and were discouraged. However God through Haggai reminded them that His glory did not depend on the house where He chose to dwell. He told them be strong and remember His covenant with them: He will dwell among them. With this backdrop, here's the quote.
‘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? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
Stephen CharnockMost of us understand the doctrine of "Union with Christ." God through Christ abides within us. However, we struggle at times and we don't feel God is listening to our prayers. At those times, we should take heart in the teachings of Haggai. God told the returning exiles that it does not matter if you feel the temple is not good enough for Me. Be strong and do not fear because I will keep my covenant and remain in you. God reminds the returning exiles that His glory does not depend on them. In a like manner, according to First Corinthians, we are God's temple (1 Cor. 3:16). No matter how bad you think you are, if you have repented and have put your faith in Jesus Christ to save you from your sin, you have the Holy Spirit living within you. You may think you are a just a scrap heap of a temple, but God chooses to abide in you. God does not depend on you for His glory. God alone chooses how he manifests His glory to the world. Be strong and fear not for God is with you. Take comfort in the fact that his distance from you does not depend on your feelings. If you are a Christian, God is closer to you than your body is to your soul.
It is not the meanness of the place of worship can exclude him; the second temple was not so magnificent as the first, of Solomon's erecting; and the Jews seem to despond of so glorious a presence of God in the second, as they had in the first, because they thought it not so good for the entertainment of him that inhabits eternity; but God comforts them against this conceit again and again: Hag. ii. 8,4, 'Be strong, be strong, be strong, I am with you ;' the meanness of the place shall not hinder the grandeur of my presence. No matter what the room is, so it be the presence chamber of the King, wherein he will favour our suits, he can everywhere slide into our souls with a perpetual sweetness, since he is everywhere, and so intimate with every one that fears him. If we should see God on earth in his amiableness, as Moses did, should we not be encouraged by his presence, to present our requests to him, to echo out our praises of him? And have we not as great a ground now to do it, since he is as really present with us, as if he were visible to us? He is in the same room with us, as near to us as our souls to our bodies; not a word but he hears, not a motion but he sees, not a breath but he perceives; he is through all, he is in all. (The Existence and Attributes of God
No comments:
Post a Comment