Rebuilding by Faith
Ezra 3-4[1]
As preached at Rolling Hills Church on Sunday, Oct 14th, 2012
2:70-3:1 They rebuilt their homes.
70 Now the priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their towns, and all the rest of Israel in their towns.
1 When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem.
Re-established themselves in the city of the Name, and on the land Jehovah God had given them. First was to get back to the land God had placed them on, then to set about re-establishing the worship of Almighty God, "I AM that I AM". God had promised them the land when He had prophesied that they would be His people; the connection was firm; so it was the joyful labor of coming home to rebuild. But not just their own lives; that as never been enough. They were come to re-establish true worship of God!
3:2-7 They rebuilt the altar.
2 Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.
3 They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, burnt offerings morning and evening.
4 And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required,
5 and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the LORD, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the LORD.
6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.
7 So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
The people of God gathered to worship God together. Just as it is today, it was a glorious thing when God's people came together to worship Him the way He said to! Notice what is missing here; there was no town hall discussion to determine what needed to be done next. There was no discussion about what made sense, what might be expedient, or what might be the most pragmatic, successful approach to get the worship of God going again. They simply did what God's Word said to do. They now had a beautiful hold on the value and the sufficiency of God's Word[2].
Week one I asked this question in the overview: How did He restore Israel? He used godly, humble men who pored and prayed over the Word of God. Someone obviously had the Scriptures available before Ezra returned from Persia. Twice you read, "as it is written", referring to the law of Moses. Then there is a reference to David's teachings on praise, and Ps 118:1 is evidently quoted, 3:10-11. God's truth is always sufficient for God's people to follow in worshipping God.
So what was first? They re-established the sacrifice. That was what they first did when coming in to the land the first time (Deut 27:1-8), and it was what they were going to do now first of all in worship. Those sacrifices pointed ahead to the One Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, where we begin our worship – at the cross! We come often to the cross, the one sacrifice by which we are counted forgiven, and made righteous to enter to worship God. He is our altar, and any true recovery of Christian worship must start with Christ. This is our only approach to God, church; through the blood of Jesus, the "New and Living Way". Hebrews 10:19-20 "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,". So they diligently set about offering sacrifices to God both morning and evening, according to God's instruction through Moses.
3:8-13 They rebuilt the temple foundation.
8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the LORD.
9 And Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel.
11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel." And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.
12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,
13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
They had to start somewhere, and this is where it starts correctly; from the ground up. And they began with singing – and the same words they sang (1 and 2 Chronicles) when they brought the ark to the tabernacle in Jerusalem, then when they placed it in the temple built by Solomon. God is seen as good when His people worship Him in faith and obedience! But
It is a joyful day, and hope was strengthened by the first step in this temple's rebirth. Sacrifice, work, giving – all counted as privilege to those who now loved God. But it wasn't all joy. Did you hear about the old men weeping? They recalled the huge, incomparable glory of the former temple, and they knew what they had lost. They were in the pig-pen with the prodigal lamenting, "what have we done!", Praise, joy, and burdens calling people to weep and cry out to God. That can still be our worship! Folks, let us learn here; surely, surely we don't need to take all that we have – the cross of Christ, and that empty tomb, and that Holy Spirit's presence in us, and this good Bible, and the love we can enjoy in Christ – for granted! Let's move on…
4:1-5, 24 They were opposed and stopped. Verses 1-5 tell us the story of what happened.
1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel,
2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, "Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here."
3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them, "You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us."
4 Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build
5 and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
24 Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
then in verses 6-23 the writer tells about letters written in the future to Artaxerxes about the building of the wall. Perhaps he wanted us to know that opposition to the work of God's people lasted on and off for a century. So we move on to v 24, "Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia."
So they encountered opposition, and were halted in their work. First of all it came subtly; 'let us join you!'. Wisely they held that off. Then more direct attacks came from both Jews who had never left and from Samaritans, mixed by the Assyrian kings. It wasn't popular opinion that the worship of God be re-established in Jerusalem. Mark Dever points this out in his message on Ezra[3]: "Friend, if you're you are uncertain about the truths of Christianity, please hear these words of advice: do not try to determine what is true by what is popular." We're not Muslims who follow a conquistador; we follow a crucified and risen Savior who became the sacrifice necessary to save us from His own wrath. We understand the truth that in human hearts resides a hatred for God, and a natural rebellion to His Word. If we were to follow what's popular, well – that's what happened on the day Jesus was taken to the cross. Popular opinion cried, "Crucify Him!"
Church, let's consider this. Our worship begins with sacrifice; not ours, God's.
Our worship is in God's Word.
Our worship, if lost, must be rebuilt according to God's Words.
Are we taking our great privileges for granted?
Finally, when we seek Christ in this world, we are to expect opposition. Our own flesh, our world system, and our diligent enemy, the accuser of the brothers, Satan. But we hold to this good truth – Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
[1] All Scriptures, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (via E-Sword Software) © 2001 Crossway Publishing. All Rights Reserved. I paste them in red for distinction.
[2] [Beautifully pointed out by] Ironside, H. A. Ezra, Nehemiah, & Esther. United States, Loizeaux Brothers, 1905, 1913, 1914; 1941 combined edition
[3] Dever, Mark. Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament. Crossway Books, Wheaton, 2006.
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