Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.”
Zechariah 6:12-13 NIV
Building the Temple
Some Anglicans, Congregationalists, and Quakers worshipped in Newfoundland in the seventeenth century, and the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, St. John’s, Newfoundland, traces its history to 1699. A chaplain served the Anglican garrison at Annapolis Royal from 1710, which began the Anglican presence in Nova Scotia. With the British decision to build up a town around the garrison at Halifax, the Anglican church of St. Paul’s was built there in 1749, the oldest Protestant church building in Canada still in use.
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King David loved the Lord, and had a deep desire to honour Him by building the Jerusalem Temple. But God forbade David from doing so because he was a soldier, a man of war – he had shed much blood. Instead, God chose David’s son Solomon because His Temple would be a house of prayer for all nations. Solomon’s Temple, however, was never meant to be eternal – it was designed to point to another Temple that would be built – but not by human hands. The prophet saw what was coming and wrote this in Zechariah 6:12-13: “Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’” Zechariah was pointing to Jesus, of course, who would step into our world on the first Christmas and one day will come again to reign in glory.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley