Each day Devotional • October 26
A Studying from Haggai 1:1-2:9
1 Within the second yr of King Darius, within the sixth month, on the primary day of the month, the phrase of the Lord got here by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the excessive priest: 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: These folks say the time has not but come to rebuild the Lord’s home. 3 Then the phrase of the Lord got here by the prophet Haggai, saying: 4 Is it a time for you yourselves to reside in your panelled homes, whereas this home lies in ruins? 5 Now subsequently, thus says the Lord of hosts: Take into account how you have got fared. 6 You might have sown a lot, and harvested little; you eat, however you by no means have sufficient; you drink, however you by no means have your fill; you dress yourselves, however nobody is heat; and also you that earn wages earn wages to place them right into a bag with holes.
7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Take into account how you have got fared. 8 Go as much as the hills and produce wooden and construct the home, in order that I could have the benefit of it and be honored, says the Lord. 9 You might have appeared for a lot, and, lo, it got here to little; and whenever you introduced it residence, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. As a result of my home lies in ruins, whereas all of you hurry off to your personal homes. 10 Due to this fact the heavens above you have got withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I’ve known as for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the brand new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and animals, and on all their labors.
12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the excessive priest, with all of the remnant of the folks, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the phrases of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had despatched him; and the folks feared the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the folks with the Lord’s message, saying, I’m with you, says the Lord. 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the excessive priest, and the spirit of all of the remnant of the folks; they usually got here and labored on the home of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, within the sixth month.
Within the second yr of King Darius, 1 within the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the phrase of the Lord got here by the prophet Haggai, saying: 2 Converse now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the excessive priest, and to the remnant of the folks, and say, 3 Who’s left amongst you that noticed this home in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? 4 But now take braveness, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take braveness, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the excessive priest; take braveness, all you folks of the land, says the Lord; work, for I’m with you, says the Lord of hosts.
Meditation
“The church is what’s left after the constructing burns down.” When a beloved constructing has been destroyed by fireplace, flood, or wind, these phrases deliver comfort. “You’re the physique of Christ,” St. Paul says emphatically, “and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:27). We are the church, not the constructing. “The Most Excessive doesn’t dwell in homes made with human fingers” (Acts 7:48), St. Stephen tells the Sanhedrin — within the shadow of King Herod’s splendid Temple, a dangerously subversive assertion that helped to get him stoned to loss of life.
And but, when the folks of Judah returned to Jerusalem after their years of exile in Babylon, God needed to remind them of what’s actually necessary: Rebuild the Temple. Construct a constructing. You’ve obtained your priorities all incorrect, God says. “Is it a time for you yourselves to reside in your paneled homes, whereas this home lies in ruins? … Go up into the hills and produce wooden and construct the home, in order that I could have the benefit of it and be honored, says the Lord” (1:4, 8).
There’s a each/and right here. We will encounter God in every single place. We don’t want a constructing. He’s as shut as our hearts or on the face of our neighbor. On the similar time, Haggai is true. We’re “wired” for specificity. Christians instinctively hunt down sacred areas. We go on pilgrimage to a spot, not a mind-set. One thing occurs after we enter a gorgeous church constructing and pray earlier than the Blessed Sacrament, one thing that may’t be duplicated within the forest or on the seashore. And most profoundly, when God determined to come across us, he did so in particular person, at a selected place and time, in a visual, touchable human physique (1 John 1:1). “The Phrase grew to become flesh and lived amongst us” (John 1:14). The Bible presents us with a God who’s grand sufficient to be in every single place without delay, and humble sufficient to make himself recognized in a spot of prayer, in a bit of Bread, and in Jesus our Brother and our Lord.
The Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little II was bishop of Northern Indiana for 16 years after serving parishes in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Joaquin. He’s the creator of three books; most not too long ago: The Coronary heart of a Chief: St. Paul as Mentor, Mannequin, and Encourager (2020).
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Each day Devotional Cycle of Prayer
At present we pray for:
The Church in Wales
St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church, Ridgewood, New Jersey
