By the Way

On This One Will I Look

Rising from fields and forests in northeast Cambodia, the great complex of Angkor is unique in the world. Serving as the capital, both civil and religious, of the Khmer Empire, it thrived from the early ninth century to the late 14th century. It was the largest preindustrial city in the world, sprawling across more than a hundred square miles.

Of late, 2 million tourists a year view its 1,000 temples, especially Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. The steep climb to the pinnacle of the mountainlike Hindu-Buddhist temple is breathtaking, both literally and figuratively. Long stone galleries at its base boast exquisitely carved bas-reliefs of Hindu deities.

My wife and I spent three days among these monuments to past glory, and we saw only a small portion.

Dotting the world, impressive edifices honor religious traditions. I’ve had the chance to see several: St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres Cathedral in France, the Shwedagon Pagoda in Mandalay, the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed in Moscow, and the oldest of them all, the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza.

The list goes on. All these are meant to inspire awe, a feeling of contact with the divine, and they have and do for millions among the faiths represented.

This is more important

However, the Bible states that the Creator Himself is not impressed by such constructions.

He announced through Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,’ says the Lord. ‘But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word’” (Isaiah 66:1-2).

The construction of a grand temple does not guarantee God’s favor. He finds more important what happens in the humble hearts and repentant minds of His servants, rather than physical structures, be they ever so impressive.

Outside or inside?

The God of the Bible did allow temples to be built for His worship, but He also allowed them to be destroyed when the hearts of His people turned away from Him. Seventy years after Solomon’s great temple was looted and destroyed, God inspired the construction of a less impressive one.

Yet God announced that this physically inferior temple would be more glorious than the first: “‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Haggai 2:9).

How could this be? Because Jesus, God in the flesh, would walk and teach within, showing the way of peace, through the indwelling of His guiding Spirit.

It is helpful for us to remember that in God’s eyes, what is happening spiritually in His servants, often unnoticed by others, is much more important than any architecture or liturgy.

“On this one will I look . . .”!

—Joel Meeker @JoelMeeker