There is a reoccurring theme that runs through the Word of
God from Genesis to Revelation. It has its roots in the story of Abraham.
It has its fruition in the visions of John. It is the essence of all
things spiritual, the hope of all things physical. It is the real story of
the Bible.
Abraham was given a promise that of him a great nation would be made. In
him all families of the earth would be blessed. He was also told to leave
his country, his family, and his father’s house and go into a land of
which God would give to his descendants. Abraham was seventy-five years
old, when God entered into this covenant with him.
For 100 years Abraham journeyed through the land with no place to call
home. He died at the age of 175. He did not see his descendants inherit
the land that God promised to him. He did not experience the joy of seeing
all the nations of the earth being blessed because of him. As for as the
specifics of the covenant being fulfilled in his lifetime, they were not.
If he lived his life in anticipation for the physical realities of the
covenant, his life was a miserable failure.
Yet, his life was not a failure. He was blessed of God in his lifetime. He
lived the days of his life and "died in a good old age, an old man,
and full of years." He live his life enjoying the blessings of God
because he did not get trapped into the expectations of future glories. He
was looking for a city, not made with hands, and found it in his
relationship with God in his physical body. The specific promises of the
covenant would come but they were not the essence of his life.
God spoke to Moses and said, "Speak unto the children of Israel, that
they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his
heart ye shall take my offering . . . And let them make me a sanctuary;
that I may dwell among them . . . According to all that I shew thee, after
the pattern of the tabernacle." After giving Moses further
instructions concerning the things of the scared place, God said,
"And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed
thee in the mount."
The writer of Hebrews stated that the pattern of which Moses build his
tabernacle was a scared place "which the Lord pitched, and not
man." Christ, the greater High Priest, did "not [enter] into the
holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." The
writer of Hebrews added, "But Christ being come an high priest of
good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this building." Although God told
Moses that the movable tabernacle he was to build, which later became the
more permanent temple, was only a physical copy of a more glorious
spiritual reality, the copy became more important to Israel than the real
thing.
If the two thousand years history of the Children of Israel had to wait
until the physical temple could be build, rebuild, and rebuild again
before the presence of God would live among them, then most of them live
their lives in the misery of the absent of the Lord from their presence.
Generation after generation lived the days of their lives longing for the
future glory but experiencing the present hell. Trapped in being born at
the wrong time in the wrong place, they could not experience the glory of
the blessings of the covenant. Although God is no respecter of person,
shows no partiality, it seems only the people of the generation of
the final hour will enjoy all that God has promised.
Unlike Abraham, with their eyes upon the expectation of future glory, too
many believers miss the reality of experiencing the glory of the good life
now in their present circumstances. This is the story of the prophet
Haggai. A remnant of the people had finally been allowed to return home to
Jerusalem from the captivity of Babylon. The prophecy of Haggai contains
four messages he preached to the people. He called them to rebuild the
Temple, to remain faithful to God’s promise, to be holy and enjoy God’s
provisions, and to keep their hope set on the coming of the Messiah and
the establishment of His kingdom.
They would rebuild the temple, although it fell far short of the glory of
the first temple. They did not live to see the Messiah and the
establishment of His kingdom. Would they be like Abraham and still enjoy
the blessings of the covenant? Or, would they fail to live in the promises
that had been given to them?
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