Work continues to progress on the new arena being built in our city. Now it has a name. It cost a homegrown bank over seven million dollars to purchase the right to have its name connected to the building for the next twenty-five years or so. The bank's name, in its familiar colors and style, is now boldly displayed on the main entry side of the structure. It is not unattractive at all, but $7,500,000 is a lot of money! You really have to pay if you want a place named for you!
In contrast, King Solomon built the Temple specifically to honor God's name. "I am planning to build a Temple to honor the name of the Lord my God, just as he had instructed my father, David. For the Lord told him, ‘Your son, whom I will place on your throne, will build the Temple to honor my name.’ " (I Kings 5:5 NLT) Solomon did not design the beautiful and costly place of worship and then sell the naming rights. It was named for God, as it were, because it was built for the express purpose of honoring Him.
In a generation or two, the arena will likely be re-named to acknowledge someone else's civic contribution or financial underwriting. Another name will hang on the front of the building, the bank's millions long forgotten. Or maybe disgruntled tax-payers who have been the ones footing the bill will have their way and it will be named the People's Arena or something like that!
Not so for the house of the Lord. When the Temple was finished and dedicated, the Lord said, “I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart." (I Kings 9:3 NLT) While Solomon's temple no longer exists, it was merely a "shadow" anyway, as was the tabernacle before it. "They [the priests] serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: 'Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.' ” (Hebrews 8:5 NLT) That is how it can be said that the Temple will honor the name of God forever. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John, the apostle writes, "The main street of the City was pure gold, translucent as glass. But there was no sign of a Temple, for the Lord God—the Sovereign-Strong—and the Lamb are the Temple. The City doesn't need sun or moon for light. God's Glory is its light, the Lamb its lamp!" (Revelation 21:22, 23 MSG)
What a glorious place will eternally honor the name of our God!
MaryMartha
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved. Scripture marked MSG is taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
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