There’s No Place like Home
“The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”” (Haggai 2:9, ESV)
Dorothy’s simple but profound mantra in the Wizard of Oz is resonant as she clicks the heels of her ruby red slippers and wakes in a warm bed, aunt and uncle smiling down at her. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 Solomon tells us that God has stamped in our hearts a sense of eternity, that is, a longing for what is permanent. The book of Hebrews speaks of the ultimate rest we find in Christ. In other words we are all longing for home. We believe there is no place like it, but unlike Dorothy, we can’t click the backs of our shoes, no matter how fancy, and transport there.
The minor prophet Haggai (bet you didn’t see that one coming) has something to say about this. He enters the scene about 15 years after the Israelites returned from their captivity in Persia to their homes in Jerusalem. They were gone 70 years, many had never seen the home of their parents and grandparents. In Ezra 1 they return with one goal in mind: rebuild the house of the Lord. After getting a good start, they realize this project is going to involve an overwhelming amount of work that will culminate in an underwhelming result. Ezra 3:11-12 recounts the people’s reaction as they gather to celebrate the completion of the foundation for the new temple,
“And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice…”
Realizing this temple will not be as great as the first temple, they weep. The project loses steam. Other people groups start to oppose the endeavor. Now, with a lack of energy and challenges beginning to mount, they even lose the blessing of Cyrus, King of Persia, who had once been moved by God to ratify the program.
Now instead of building the house of the Lord. The people get lost in their own home improvement projects. And the word of God comes to his people through Haggai, ““Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD...Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
It is easy to lose sight of our true home. I am not sure there is a passage in scripture that convicts harder for a 38 year old husband and father reviewing the housing market and trying not to get anxious about buying a home and planting a church at the same time. But what about our culture in general? How much concern do Christians often place on their own home building, renovating, decorating, and expanding, while kicking the can down the road on building up the house of our Lord.
I don’t mean that we have to stop all renovation projects, or that everyone should downsize and give the extra money to the church, but we need to remember what time it is. Is it a time to dwell in our own houses when we have a home in Christ and a promised place he is preparing for us? Is it a time to saturate our lives in building up our own comfort while claiming our lives are hidden in Christ, who is the true, more expansive, and greater temple in which we are and will be housed for all eternity.
Earthly homes are wonderful. But if our souls are riveted to the beautiful things of God but not to God himself, then we will also be affixed to many sorrows. Let this prayer of Augustine, then also be ours:
“Turn us again, O Lord God of Hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. For whithersoever the soul of man turns itself, unless towards Thee, it is affixed to sorrows, yea, though it is affixed to beauteous things without Thee and without itself.” The Confessions of St. Augustin, Book IV
Haggai 2:9 promises that the latter glory of the temple will be greater than the former. Its not talking about the temple rebuilt by the exiles or renovated and improved upon by Herod the Great. It’s talking about Christ. He is the temple, the meeting place of God and man, who was destroyed for our rebellion, and rebuilt for the delight and glory of God and for our enjoyment of Him forevermore. Let us abide in Him and let us build on His foundation, that is the church.
