Rebuilding the Temple Part I

I had another experience of God talking to me two nights ago.

(No, not like that:  no flashing lights, no voices, no visions. It does not work that way in real life for most of us).

I was pondering the substance of what I wrote about here, about how I see to be making a lack of progress in so many parts of my life.  As I thought and thought, lying there, suddenly the 1st Chapter of Haggai leaped into my mind

The Book of Haggai (if you have perhaps forgotten your minor prophets) is one of the shortest books in the Bible.  It was written by the prophet Haggai (convenient, no?) over the space of 4 months in 520 B.C.  It was written with the intent of spurring the returned Jewish exiles to complete the rebuilding of the second Temple.

Why do I feel like this was something other than an early morning synaptic rush?  Because the words of the first chapter, which I have struggling to memorize, suddenly leaped to mind with perfect clarity and recall.  At least for me, this is how God speaks - through His word, where often a passage or sentence comes to mind at precisely the moment it was needed.

And what does God say to the Israelites?

"Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Consider your ways'.
You have sown much, and bring in little;
you eat, but you are not full;
you drink, but no-one is filled with drink;
you clothe yourselves, but no-one is warm;
and he that earns wages, earns wages to put into bag with holes" (Haggai 1: 5-6)

"You looked for much and indeed, it came to little., and when you brought it home, I blew it away."  (Haggai 1:9a)  

This all began to sound very familiar to me.

Why?  Why was the Lord saying these things to the Israelites?"

"This people says, 'The time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built'". (Haggai 1:2b)

"Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and this temple to lie in ruin?" (Haggai 1:5)

"You looked for much and indeed, it came to little, and when you brought it home, I blew it away.  Why, says the Lord of hosts.  Because of My house that is in ruins while every one of you runs to his own house." (Haggai 1:9).

The people had become more concerned with their own lives (as demonstrated in the concern for their houses) than they were about the Lord and his will and glory (as demonstrated in the lack of concern for the rebuilding of the Lord's temple, where the Lord was worshipped and glorified). 

The result?  The effects are listed in verse 6 and 9a above - but God made it more explicit:

"Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.  For I called for drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the work of your hands." (Haggai 1:10-11)

The thing to note (beyond the effects, which are specific) is who was responsible for all of this.  It was not nature.  It was not a random series of events.  It was God acting specifically in the lives of His people, acting in a way to bring them back to the things that really mattered rather what they thought mattered.

The question that came through my mind as these words came through my mind was "What? What is the temple of God in my life that has not been rebuilt?"  It is easy enough to make the connection in the Old Testament but what does it say to me today?  Is it certain that the things I am experiencing in my life at the moment are the results of things similar to the Israelites of Haggai's day?  I'd be arrogant to think so much of myself as to say yes.  But is is possible that the same could be true?  Absolutely.

But what is the "temple of God" - the place where God was worshipped and glorified by the Jews - in my own life?