Closer to God, Part 5 - We are the Temple

2 Chronicles 7v15-16

3^rd February 2017

Last week we looked at God's amazing promise that:

2 Chronicles 7v14
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

We studied the four elements of the response God requires from us if our land is to be healed: humility, prayer, seeking God's face, and repentance. If we will fully comply, then God will hear from heaven. He will forgive our sin, and He will heal our land. May God grant us hearts to obey His holy word, believe His promise, and do what He says.

The next think God says is:

2 Chronicles 7v15-16
Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

Of course, this promise originally referred to the temple that King Solomon built in Jerusalem, nearly 1,000 years before Jesus was born. But that temple was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC during the time the people of Judah were being taken into exile in Babylon. In 538 BC some of the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem and began rebuilding the city and the temple. The new temple was completed in 516 BC. but it was never as impressive as the original. This second temple was severely damaged during the invasion of Judea by Pompey the Great in 66 BC. but was rebuilt and improved by Herod the Great, and was truly magnificent by the time Jesus entered it after his triumphal entry in 30 AD, which we celebrate as Palm Sunday. It lasted just 40 more years, and was utterly destroyed by the Roman army during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

There is no need to build another stone temple, because the New Testament temple of God is the church (1 Corinthians 3v16). And the church is us. We are a temple made of living stones (1 Peter 2v5). And, like all Old Testament prophecies about God's people, this prophecy is inherited by the church. God promises to be attentive to our prayers, if we will obey Him in these 4 things: be humble, pray, seek God's face and turn from our wicked ways.

• Is there any pride still in your heart? Kneel before God, submit totally to Him and to the Holy Bible.
• Do you pray frequently? Resolve to make prayer a genuine priority - not a theoretical priority - from now until the day you die.
• Are your prayer times little more than shopping lists? Take time out from all the things you do, turn off the television, be still before God, rest in His presence, listen for his voice, seek His face. Set aside at least one period of at least one hour, once a week to seek God's face.
• Is there any sin still harboured in your life or in your heart? Give it up, be free of it, enjoy right relationship with God and with other people.

God says that He chose and consecrated the temple - now the church - so that [His] Name may be there for ever. He promised that [His] eyes and [His] heart will always be there. But that promise depends on our obedience. The Israelites turned away from God and, as a result, the glory of God departed from the first temple (Ezekiel 10 and 11). We don't know if the glory of God ever came back to the second temple, but we know from Acts 2 that the glory of God is in His New Testament temple, the church.

When the first temple was inaugurated in Solomon's time, fire came down from heaven... and the glory of the Lord filled the temple (2 Chronicles 7v1). Similarly, on the Day of Pentecost in 30 AD, when the church was praying together a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit... (Acts 2v2-4).

How full of God's glory is the church today? Has the glory departed? Or has it just dimmed? Or does the glory of the Lord shine as brightly as ever? How about your church? How about mine? God wants to fill His temple with His glory again. He's waiting for a people who will obey Him in these things. He's waiting to heal our land.

Let's read these words again:

2 Chronicles 7v14-16
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

God wants us to live closer to Him. I pray that we will.