Habakkuk 2:20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. The conception is partly Christian and partly pagan, partly true and partly false. We find it in the religions of ancient Greece and Rome. For every god there must be a temple or shrine, where that god would be sure to hear the prayers of his suppliants. Even in the purer worship of Israel the same idea prevails, God making His dwelling in the tabernacle, and especially in the awful holy of holies. To the unspiritual the thought would be narrow and misleading. It behoves us to take heed lest the very aids to worship should shut in our thought of God, and make it small and mean. The common idea that God is to be found especially in some building sacred to Him is right, after all. No idea can be universal in which there is not something good. While God is alike everywhere, practically to us He is most present where the soul can most feel Him. We know the power of association. True, God can be found everywhere; and worshipped anywhere. The place, the forms, the times of worship are things of comparatively small importance. Vain are all efforts, and vain all gifts, if we depend upon a place to draw near to God. The temple is holy, not because it has been made so by the skill of man, but because the Lord is in it. No less holy should be the home of every Christian. But Paul teaches that God is especially to be found in man. in man we find in Christ. The real temple, where God most certainly dwells, is man himself. Only as we reverence man, then, can we worship God. Because of the life and work and death of the Son of Man, who was also Son of God, every man is to know himself a son of God. Does not this make all life sacred? What principles ought to guide us in worship? 1. That all men are brothers. 2. That we come hither seekers for truth. We are to ask, not what do others believe, what is it politic to believe, what did former generations believe, — but what is truth? What is God's revelation of Himself to-day? (Walcott Fay.) Parallel Verses KJV: But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.WEB: But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!" |
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