The origin of this oracle comes from the post-exilic time of the Jews; seemingly miraculously they had been liberated from Babylonian exile by the munificence of the Persian conqueror Cyrus, and sent to rebuild the Holy City Jerusalem and the Temple. It was the unaided work of the Holy Spirit that had sent them home, not any feat of arms as in the first possession of Palestine under Joshua. They returned, not as triumphant heroes, but as humble stragglers, rather like the dried bones brought back to life that Ezekiel had seen in his vision some time earlier (Ezek. 37.1-14). To be sure, even the first occupation of the land had been carried out under the protective power of the Holy Spirit, but then the people were to take full charge over the country. In the second they remained subject to stronger nations, a situation destined to continue until our own time, and only after the unbearable savagery of the Holocaust.

And so the Jews returned under their governor Zerubbabel and the High Priest Joshua, to rebuild the Temple and restore national unity with all the moral integrity this implied. Despite opposition from the local tribes, who tried to undermine the authority of the Jews, the work proceeded and the second Temple, restored by Herod, was to stand until AD 70; indeed, Jesus himself valued it and taught within its precincts. The final work of restoration of national integrity was fulfilled about seventy years later by Nehemiah, under whom the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt, and Ezra, who brought the people to a mature understanding of Judaism.

The work begun by Zerubbabel seemed small by contrast with the magnificent temple that had once adorned Jerusalem, and the people too of little significance by contrast with the stronger nations around them; but they were the nucleus around which a religion was to form that has not only stood against the ravages of time but has also been the focus of development of Christianity and Islam. The debt owed by world civilization to the twin witness of ancient Israel and ancient Greece, both very small nations in terms of the world's size, is incalculable; at their best they have represented respectively moral decency and intellectual brilliance.

And so we too learn that God has a place for us, unimportant as we may seem when we unwisely compare ourselves with other, apparently more illustrious, people in our vicinity. Even if we lack the divine spark of the acknowledged geniuses of the world, we each have a flavour all of our own: a unique personality able to give something precious to others provided we can get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit inspire us with a higher calling to personal excellence. In the glorious account of Isaiah's call to ministry (Isa. 6.1-9), after he has been divinely cleansed of sin, God asks who he should send, and Isaiah answers, "Here I am; send me." Most of us are called to work far less spectacular than that of God's prophet, just as not every Jew who returned from Babylonian exile was of the stature of Zerubbabel, Joshua the High Priest, or the attendant prophets Haggai and Zechariah. But each person in the new dispensation played his or her own part in the rebuilding of the Temple and the restoration of national unity.

The Temple, like all other human institutions, was of limited duration, but the faith, courage and dedication of those involved in its erection and the renewal of a vanquished people persists in the psychic atmosphere, and has inspired countless humans of later times to get on with God's particular business in their own lives. We are indeed all parts of the one body of humanity, and when we move beyond concern for personal glory, the Holy Spirit can initiate works of honour and glory with and through us.

Fill me, Lord, with such an abundance of your Spirit that I may be lifted beyond all personal limitation of thought and emotion to do the work which you would desire of me.