"THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE"

November -- December, 1969Vol. 47, No. 6

[Harry Foster]

Reading: Habakkuk 2:2-4, 20; Zechariah 2:1-13.

Do you notice the similarity between the last verses of the second chapters of those two prophecies?

"But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him" (Habakkuk 2:20).

"Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for he is walked up out of his holy habitation" (Zechariah 2:13).

WHERE is the Lord? That is a most important question! Where is the Lord? Now, seventy years of history lie between these two prophecies, perhaps even more, because Habakkuk's prophecy was anticipating the end of the captivity. He had a vision; indeed, he had something so plainly set before his eyes that we hardly need to call it a vision. He lived in the midst of circumstances which can only be described under one word -- destruction. You know how he saw the falling to pieces of his land and of his people, and how that -- far from being comforted in the sense of any suggestion that that was just a temporary thing that would not go very far -- he was told by the Lord that the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, were to sweep like a flood over the whole land and destroy it. And you know how he finished his prophecy with those verses that we like to quote, that, though the fig tree shall not blossom nor fruit be in the vines, and everything is going wrong, yet we will still praise the Lord. We need to remember that, when Habakkuk said that, he was not talking about a remote contingency that might or might not happen, but that all these things were going to happen. 'This is happening before my eyes, but though it happen as a certain, sure, inevitable course of events, I will rejoice in the Lord!' Habakkuk was given a vision from God that there was that which was yet to be: "For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay."

We have read one of the chapters of this book of Zechariah which speaks to us of the partial and immediate fulfilment of that promise. The vision has come; the Lord is at work; glory, blessing and fruitfulness are to dwell in the land. There is restoration and so the picture is painted in rosy language. There are beautiful portions in this prophecy, speaking, of course, of something far more than Zechariah actually saw, but speaking, in the first place, of what the Lord was doing there, so that he, all those years afterwards, was living in [130/131] the fulfilment of the things that had been promised, and he, and those of his day, had ample reason to know that the Lord was in His holy temple. After all, in spite of the captivity, in spite of the destruction of Jerusalem, in spite of the long, dreary, terrible years of scattering and the apparent ending of all things, the Lord has returned and is working; things are happening and glory is back in the land. The people are there, and the house of the Lord is to be built, so he could say: 'It is all right! After all, the Lord is in His holy temple!' But the remarkable thing is that, years before that, with nothing to see, no sign of glory, everything seeming to contradict the promises of god, and surrounded by devastation and destruction, Habakkuk could say the same thing: 'It is all right! The Lord is in his holy temple!'

I trust that I shall be able to impart something of what has come to my own heart as to the need and the blessedness of maintaining the testimony here on earth that the Lord is in His temple and is supreme. As we have said, Habakkuk only saw destruction, Zechariah was seeing construction. When Zechariah saw things happening he could say: "The Lord is in his holy temple", and so could we and so could any man. But when Habakkuk saw nothing happening, but rather the reverse, he could still say: "The Lord is in his holy temple", and for seventy years at least, so far as Jerusalem and the people there were concerned, with no visible token and everything seeming to be contradictory, a strain was placed upon their faith as to whether after all the Lord was in His holy temple -- but He was! In the end it is proved that He was.

GOD IN THE WORK OF DESTRUCTION

And so we must believe that the Lord is just as much in His place of heavenly government during events of destruction as He is or will be during the subsequent events of construction. The nations were having it their own way, the Chaldeans were over-running everything, catching men in their nets and destroying the places that were sacred to the people of God, and there was no answer from heaven. The fig tree literally did cease to blossom, there was no longer any herd in the stall, and the whole possibility of tragedy that could be became true. What was happening? Had God withdrawn? God is in His holy temple, and even in the midst of all that was happening faith said: "Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord!" Although they did not know it, these men of flesh were, in a sense, bowing to the Lord in His holy temple. They were serving the purpose of God, and through all that period of the most terrible destruction He was in His holy temple: and faith looked forward to the day of which Zechariah now speaks, when that Lord in His holy temple (using a human figure of speech) would wake up out of His holy habitation and begin His work, begin to build things, to fashion them according to His own mind and have His will done. That did not mean that He had been asleep and indifferent during that whole time. The whole process of destruction that had been going on was under the eye and the hand of God. God was in His holy temple. There was nothing to see; in fact, everything contradicted it; but there was a day in the future when He would begin to build up that which was after His own mind, and that day would he possible because previously he had used the forces of destruction to prepare the way for Himself, and all through the time He had never for one moment relinquished His hold of things.



The children of Israel were scattered to the four winds. There was a terrible captivity in the land of the north, but Zechariah discloses the fact that this was not something that Nebuchadnezzar did. God did this. "I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven" (Zechariah 2:6). God is in His holy temple! As those poor people marched away into captivity, weighed down by their sad circumstances and hopeless future, and not less weighed down by the knowledge that it was the just retribution of their failure and unfaithfulness that brought this about, God was still in His holy temple, and the marvel of it was that, in spite of all their unfaithfulness, His hand was upon them and the purpose of good concerning them was still in His heart. 'I scattered you', He says. 'I led you away into captivity'; and then He says a remarkable thing concerning these who are among the nations being spoiled: "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye" (Zechariah 2:8). They were a failing, unfaithful, rebellious people, upon whom the hand of God had come very heavily because of their sin, but concerning them, away in captivity, it was just as true: God was still in His holy temple.

That does not just mean that God exists, but that He, in the fullness of His love and purpose and power, is controlling things for His own glory. So great is His love that, through all the darkness of the seventy years of captivity, through the apparent hopelessness and lack of any prospect of brightness, when they might have been cast down to the depths and felt: 'Well, God is in His holy temple, but that is a God far off and finished with us because of our sins', through all that dark period it was still true that he that touched them touched the apple of His eye. In all their afflictions, God was afflicted. It was [131/132] hurting God as much as it was hurting them. He was still in His holy temple.

I am sure that a good deal of the atmosphere that surrounds the book of Habakkuk is right up to date and true concerning us and the Church today, and that the destruction that we see in the world at present is something of the same kind of thing that he faced. And I am sure I speak the truth when I say that in personal lives there are often such periods when it seems that everything is going to pieces. If the Lord were doing great things in a manifest way, saving men and gathering them together in companies, even though under persecution, yet manifesting His presence and power, it would be very easy to say: 'The Lord is in His holy temple. Look what is happening!' But when none of those things is happening, but rather the reverse, what are we going to say? Well, Habakkuk will tell us still to say: "The Lord is in his holy temple!" And so with our own individual lives, when things are moving and the Lord is doing something with us and for us, and all kinds of things are happening which are expressed in these chapters of Zechariah, we are full of confidence. It is all right! The Lord is in His holy temple, and if the devil and all his legions are against us, well, it is all right, for the Lord is in His holy temple. He is doing something and building something.

GOD IN THE WORK OF CONSTRUCTION

Ah, but that building work that the Lord was able to do after all those years was something that resulted from a period of destruction, and it may be that to make a clearance and a way for Himself to fashion that which is after His own heart, the Lord may have to lead us through a period which is comparable to that of which Habakkuk speaks, when the only signs are signs of desolation, signs of loss and signs of failure. What are we going to do then? Habakkuk says: 'I will rejoice in the Lord! I cannot rejoice in what He is doing for me. I cannot rejoice in what I am doing for the Lord, for it seems that I am doing nothing, but I will rejoice in the Lord. He is still in His holy temple!' And the inference of that is that God knows what He is doing. 'I do not know what He is doing, but I do know that, if faith will abide firm, if the righteous one will live by faith, there will come a day when I shall be able to say: "The Lord is waked up out of His holy temple. The Lord is doing things, for the time has come for Him to build!" When that time comes, well, then, everything will be fitted according to His working.' Surely the need is for this assurance as to where God is! Not just that: "God's in His heaven, all's right with the world", but that He is in charge of every circumstance. In all the power of Divine love and purpose concerning His people, He is still in His holy temple.

Then there is the added thought that the Lord's activities in this way -- destruction in order to build -- are always activities that have in view a larger and a better thing than was before. Do you believe that? Will you believe it for your own personal life, for your assembly, for the Church? We have seen a good deal of what Habakkuk saw -- scattering, breaking up, loss of power and loss of prospect. By faith we must say: 'No! This is not just an accident. This is but a phase of Divine activity. Things have not got out of hand, for God is in His holy temple!' Can faith go on to say: 'The end of this is going to be something better!'?

There is a young man, though I do not know quite who he is, with a measuring line. I know that in other prophecies the measuring line represents the Lord Himself taking note and putting His own standard beside things, but the thought that seems to me to be given here is that this young man was rather precipitate in wanting to measure things. It brings to my own heart the thought of the old folk who wept because the old temple was so much more glorious than the new one. This young man is anxious to know what the size of Jerusalem is going to be. 'It used to be a very strong city, but let me measure it and see what it is now!' And the angel says: 'Just a minute, young man! Jerusalem is going to be inhabited as a place which has expanded beyond its walls. It is going to be so large, so expansive, so full of people, yes, and so strong, that your little measuring line will not touch that which is to be afterward!' God's "afterward" is always something bigger than it was before. As to the walls, they were measured in the past. Now the walls shall be the Lord Himself "a wall of fire" -- and you cannot measure fire. This is something beyond measure, something bigger, something in the power of resurrection, something after a different order from what ever was before. The Lord will be the walls, "a wall of fire round about"! The inhabitants shall be without number, multitudes of men and camels. Solomon's temple was a fine one, but is it possible for the preciousness, the beauty, the glory, to be any better? "I will be the glory in the midst of her." Do you catch the thought? God's permission of destruction, and that long period of barrenness which seems to be endless, until Zechariah is forced to cry out and ask: 'Lord, after seventy years, is it not time to begin to move?', has not been without usefulness for the end in the purpose of God, and the end as it shall [132/133] be is something far more beautiful and wonderful, and far bigger than ever was before. He is the Lord of resurrection, a new order of things, new glory. "I will be a wall of fire round about and I will be the glory in the midst" -- God is waking up out of His holy habitation.

It takes real faith, tried faith, almost desperate faith to wait for God to wake up out of His holy habitation. When the Lord said to Habakkuk: "The just shall live by faith", Habakkuk took up his position: 'God is in His holy temple, and whatever happens, I will trust and rejoice in Him!' I do not know whether he lived during those seventy years, but he was embarked on a very difficult course and he had to wait and wait. But what a reward for those who waited! 'The vision will not delay; it will surely come.' And if you read asking whether it was worth waiting for -- well, read the chapters of Zechariah! Yes, blessed be His Name, it was! "God is in his holy temple."

A FAITH MATTER

There is something more to say in conclusion, and it is this. This matter of God dwelling in the midst of His people is for us a matter of faith, and a matter about which we must be quite settled. We must be sure that God is in His holy temple, not merely in the sense of being in heaven and far above all, but in the midst of His people. I know that this diverges somewhat from what I have been saying, because there was a sense in which the vision was only completed when God came down to dwell in the midst of His people, but the secret of the whole book is the Lord Himself dwelling in the midst. For us these two visions overlap in a sense. The vision has already been realized for us, and God has already done His work and does dwell in the midst and that becomes for us a matter of real faith. I have been struck by the fact that in Old Testament days and in New Testament days the conduct of the Lord's people was governed, not by the thought that if they behaved in certain ways the Lord would come and dwell with them, but rather that, because the Lord was in their midst, they must act accordingly. 'God is in the midst. Therefore I must do certain things in a certain way.'

But when I take up the New Testament and turn to a church such as that at Corinth, where there are all kinds of disorders, I expect the Apostle to take this line: 'Well, you are a poor lot of believers! Do you think the Lord is coming to meet with you? Put your house in order and then the Lord might come and be in your midst!' I do not find him talking like that, but rather, in spite of what he has to deplore in their midst, not only being himself convinced that since they are the Lord's the Lord is among them, but trying to get them to see it. If only they can see it and know it spiritually, he believes that will solve all their problems. Take, for instance, 2 Corinthians 6:16: "Ye are the temple of the living God." He does not say: 'You ought to be the temple of the living God, and you may be, given certain circumstances.' No: "Yeare the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Now he goes on to say: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate." The first letter is altogether taken up with exhortations to change behaviour, attitude and conduct, and this fact is stated as something to be apprehended, to be laid hold of: 'God is in the midst, and many of your problems will be solved if, in the power of the Spirit, you could believe that.' If, in the depth of heart consciousness and conviction, for personal life and for assembly life when we are gathered together, faith would lay hold of this fact: 'The Lord is in the midst!', many problems would be solved.

Well, I have sought as the Lord has, I trust, enabled me, just to bring this little emphasis to you: God is in His holy temple. Sometimes that means there needs to be a work of destruction, but He is just as much in His holy temple and He loves us just as much, and we are just as much the apple of His eye. But faith may wait expectantly for a time of construction when God wakes out of His temple. What a blessed day that is! What blessings have come to our lives, what blessings shall we yet know, and what blessings, in the mercy of God, shall God's people know, when He is a wall of fire round about and He is the glory in the midst! - H . F. [133/134]
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