Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St. Matthew Chapters I to VIIIMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St. Matthew Chapters I to VIII
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible -- Commentaries; Bible. Ezekiel -- Commentaries; Bible. Matthew I-VIII -- Commentaries; Bible. Minor Prophets -- Commentaries
Then, dear brethren! amid all the anarchic chaos of this day, when old
institutions are crumbling or crashing into decay, when the whole
civilised world seems slowly and painfully parting from its old
moorings, and like some unwieldy raft, is creaking and straining at its
chains as it feels the impulse of the swift current that is bearing it
to an unknown sea, when venerable names cease to have power, when old
truths are flouted as antiquated, and the new ones seem so long in
making their appearance, when a perfect Babel of voices stuns us, and on
every side are pretenders to the throne which they fancy vacant, let us
joyfully welcome all change, and hopefully anticipate the future.
Lifting our eyes from the world, let us fix them on the likeness of a
throne above the firmament that is above the cherubs, and rejoice since
there we behold 'the likeness as the appearance of a man upon it.'
'Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee.'
III. Our text still further reminds us that the Priest-King of men
builds among men the Temple of God.
The Prophet and his companions had become familiar in their captivity
with the gigantic palaces and temples which Assyrian and Babylonian
monarchs had a passion for rearing. They had learned to regard the king
as equally magnified by his conquests and by his buildings. Zechariah
foretells that the true King shall rear a temple more lasting than
Solomon's, more magnificent than those which towered on their
marble-faced platforms over the Chaldean plain.
Christ is Himself the true Temple of God. Whatsoever that shadowed
Christ is or gives. In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead. 'The
glory' which once dwelt between the cherubim, 'tabernacled among us' in
His flesh. As the place of sacrifice, as the place where men meet God,
as the seat of revelation of the divine will, the true tabernacle which
the Lord hath pitched is the Manhood of our Lord.
Christ builds the temple. By faith, the individual soul becomes the
abode of God, and into our desecrated spirits there comes the King of
Glory. 'Know ye not that ye are the temples of God?' By faith, the whole
body of believing men 'are builded together for an habitation of God
through the Spirit.'
Christ builds this temple because He is the Temple. By His incarnation
and work, He makes our communion with God and God's dwelling in us
possible. By His death and sacrifice He draws men to Himself, and blends
them in a living unity. By the gift of His Spirit and His life, He
hallows their wills, and makes them partakers of His own likeness; so
that 'coming to Him, we also are built up a spiritual house.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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