The Victor Gives Victory

"Some of the spoils won in battles they dedicated to maintain the house of the LORD."

1 Chronicles 26:27

One attribute of God's character is described in His name "Jehovah-Jireh:"  the LORD will provide.  God provided bountiful, rich land for His people whether they were employed in the fields or serving in the temple of God.  People were commanded to bring a tithe of their increase to the temple so priests and Levites who were not able to work the field or raise cattle could be sustained.  This passage also reveals spoil kings and fighters obtained from victories in battle was also brought to the house of the LORD.  It was the spoil from victory that provided the necessities to maintain the building.  It is an interesting thought, that victories and losses on the battlefield had a direct impact on temple maintenance.

As I mused over this fact, I thought about the various conditions which existed concerning the temple of God.  King Solomon built a gorgeous temple with gold, precious stones, and bronze that was razed to the ground by Nebuchadnezzar.  Even when it was later rebuilt, it did not have the same glory.  There were seasons when the doors were actually sealed shut and the inside was filled with so much rubbish no one could enter!  During the reign of some kings the book of the Law was read, and at other times it was misplaced for years!  Many factors went into the good or poor maintenance of the house of God:  wicked or righteous kings, the negligence or devotion of the high priest and Levites at the time, and sometimes the people were more preoccupied with their own houses and ceased to give.  Other times the giving was so abundant that the people were told to please stop!

My mind carried this thought another step further because the Bible teaches that Christians are now the temple of the Holy Spirit.  As it was true for the physical temple made with hands, so it is true for us spiritually:  how greatly can spiritual condition vary from person and person and season to season!  Though we have been given the victory through Jesus Christ, we need to personally appropriate and maintain the good condition of our hearts, minds, and lives.  Some seasons are filled with joy, strength, and courage.  But even after being delivered from our sins and embracing the victory affording in the person of Christ, we can become battle-weary, fearful, self-focused, and beaten down.  We can be the ones being spoiled!  We can be robbed of our joy and be deceived and influenced through the lies of Satan and our flesh.

Over time (and speaking for myself), this temple of the Holy Spirit can fall into physical and spiritual disarray.  We grow weary of cohabiting with Tobiah and his filth (Neh. 13:7), and try our best to ignore altars to idols set up in the most holy place.  We plug our ears at the annoying cries of the moneychangers and give up trying to clean up after all the animals the Pharisees are hawking.  Sometimes we are content to close up and bar the doors because we are so fed up with the cacophonous confusion!  But by God's grace, He gently reveals it is high time to make a whip purge the temple of the Holy Spirit by the authority and virtue of Christ's blood.  Because of the victory Christ has won, we are to be purified, sanctified, and consecrated wholly unto God again.

Were we unfaithful yesterday?  It matters not, long as we repent and are faithful from now on.  Love keeps no record of wrongs but rejoices in the truth without failing.  We are the temple of the Holy Spirit if we have repented and trusted in Christ.  The spoils Christ has won He gives to us that we might present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy, and acceptable unto God.  God will sustain us, but we also have a responsibility to maintain a life marked by holy, righteous, good works all to the glory of God, who has purchased us with His own blood (Acts 20:28).  Christ is victor, and freely grants us the spoils of victory:  He gives Himself according to the power of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 reads, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption--³¹ that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD."