I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     Haggai was called to prophecy after the people of Judah returned from the Babylonian Exile. Haggai confronts the returned exiles over the fact that they had built luxurious homes for themselves but had not rebuilt the Temple. He points out that their labor is not producing as much as they had anticipated. He goes on to tell them that even what they get, both in harvests and in money, does not last as long as they expected. All of this he tells them is a result of them putting their own desires ahead of God. Rather than waiting until they are financially where they want to be before they start spending their resources on God, they need to put God first. This is an important lesson for all of us. There is a discipline that comes from putting God first that makes everything else we do more productive.
     I just started a new job after being laid off for a month. I will take listen to the message of Haggai and put God first. I will not wait until I have paid all my bills back to where they would be if I had not gotten laid off. I will put God first and trust Him to provide for everything else.

     John’s vision continues with Him seeing the Temple in Jerusalem. He is told that Gentiles will control the city of Jerusalem and the Temple courtyard, interfering with people worshiping God anywhere but within the Temple itself. During this time, God will raise up two prophets to prophesy to the entire world. Anyone who attempts to interfere with them during their ministry will die by fire which comes out of their mouths. They will have the power to prevent it from raining during their ministry and the power to produce other signs that they speak the word of God. At the end of the time which God has appointed them to preach, the “beast” will arise from the Abyss, overpower them, and kill them. For three and a half days their bodies will remain lying out in public view where the people of the world will gloat and celebrate their deaths. At the end of the three and a half days, God will raise them from the dead, striking terror into the hearts of all who witness it. The two prophets will then be called up to heaven by God. As they rise up to heaven an earthquake will destroy a tenth of Jerusalem.
     Following this, the seventh angel will sound the seventh trumpet. At that point the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of God and Christ will begin His eternal reign over all of it. The Temple of heaven, of which the Temple on earth is but a copy, will be opened and all will be able to see the Ark of God’s covenant within it. At that moment there will be another terrible earthquake and a hailstorm over the whole earth.
     As I read the beginning of this a thought came to me. Since the view of the New Testament is that the Temple of God is composed of the bodies of believers, is John’s vision of Gentiles trampling over the outer courts and the city of Jerusalem a metaphor for our society telling us that we should only worship God in the privacy of our own thoughts and not allow our religious beliefs to enter into the public square of discourse?

     This psalm so wonderfully sums up our relationship with God. He knows everything about us, even things we do not know about ourselves. He knows our every action and every thought. He will go before me to show me the way and follow behind me to guard me from attack. There is no place that I could get away from God’s presence. Wherever I find myself, God will be there and able to see me in full detail. No matter what circumstances I find myself in, God is willing and able to guide me. God saw me before I was even born, while I was yet a zygote in my mother’s womb, even then He knew the plans He had for my life. I will seek His counsel and request that He show me anything in my life which offends Him. I request that He put His Spirit upon me and lead me along the path He desires for me.

     There are those who can never be satisfied no matter how much we give. Let us recognize that we will never be able to give enough to satisfy all of the needs of the world. We can kill ourselves trying to care for the needy and there will still be more need. Let us not be disheartened because we are unable to satisfy all of the needs in the world.