Earlier this week one of my kids cracked a joke and it was legitimately funny and it

hit both Camilla and I at the same time and it wasn't like a

oh kids kind of laughing that we did it was like the legitimate laughing because

it was super funny and I don't know if that kiddo has ever pulled that off before but you know where

this story is going when that happens and a kid makes joke work you know what

they're gonna do they're gonna go right back and keep pushing that button

again and again and again and again. And the kiddo did exactly that. And you don't want to tell

them like, oh, it was only funny the first couple of times and they don't understand the concept of endurance humor yet, just grinding that joke into the dust until it travels of the full joke arc from funny to miserably unfunny to funny again.

But I get it, they pushed the button with the joke and the joke hit and they liked the way that felt

and they just figured, well well you just push the button again

and then you should get the same exact result that you got the last time you push the button but

that wasn't how the thing works and we all understand that.

Likewise, when we look at the story of the temple in the Old Testament it makes that There was a button, they got pushed with the dedication of the tabernacle, it's the tent where they did sacrifices and where God dwelt among the Israelite people.

They pushed a button and God's spirit showed up.

And then they probably felt like, oh, well, now we got Solomon's temple built. And then they probably felt like oh and now we got Solomon's Temple

built and then they did a dedication and vastly metaphorically stretch speaking they

pushed the button again and the spirit of God showed up again none of this is to suggest that I think God just does whatever the people want or that that's what the text is

suggesting and I think you see where I'm going and so it makes sense then that

after that temple gets destroyed by Nebuchaneseer in the 500s

BC and then the Persians topple Nebuchanezer's descendants and the

Babylonians and now Cyrus the Great is in charge and Cyrus sends the people of Israel back to Jerusalem to

rebuild their temple and they do lay the foundations of the temple and they get started,

...