How Glorious

Sometimes it’s a good thing that somebody else is in charge. Even if it’s only the Bible reading guide I use.

I read Zechariah recently and I’ll have to confess that I can’t remember the last time I read this book of the Old Testament. I know I have read it in the past because I have read through the Bible several times. But not lately – which could mean the last 10 to 15 years – and had no inclination to do so on my own.

In any case, I read it. And I found something there that delighted me.

This minor prophet was writing/speaking to the people who had come back to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon with the intention of rebuilding the temple. But things got in the way.

So they became discouraged and distracted from their first intention.

So God told Zechariah to remind them.

And they listened and set to work.

It turned out they had started on the foundation when they first came back from captivity. But it didn’t match the grandeur of the former temple. Nothing they could build was going to be able to match the temple Solomon built. That may have contributed to their wandering away from the job.

It would have discouraged me. For most of my life I have operated on the premise that it was better not to try if I didn’t think I could do something really well, well enough to garner some praise and maybe even a little glory.

Of course, some things you have to do anyway. Most things. And I did the things before me to do, but I was seldom really proud of my work. I wanted it to be better. Better, obviously, than I could do.

Zechariah had some good news for those temple builders. And for me.

He said it didn’t matter if their temple wasn’t going to be the ultimate in temples. It only mattered if they were obedient and did the best they could.

Because that would please God. And then He would come and be there. And His glory would be seen in and through it!

Of course. The glory always comes from God. And when He asks me to do something, what He is looking for is obedience, not perfection.

Not a new thing, just new to me at a time when I must have needed it.

Maybe I have believed a lie. Like Eve. Maybe I will believe other lies in days to come. But I won’t have to continue forever believing them. He has ways of providing opportunities to discover Truth.

And for now, I know this one thing better than I did before.