Ezra 3

Thank God He gives us difficult things to do!” said Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest. The first time I read that statement, I shook my head in disagreement, but I was young and inexperienced then, and it seemed smarter to do the easy things that made me look successful. However, I’ve lived long enough to understand the wisdom of Chambers’ statement. I’ve learned that when God tells us to do difficult things, it’s because He wants us to grow. Unlike modern-day press agents and spin doctors, God doesn’t manufacture synthetic heroes; He grows the real thing. “The hero was a big man,” wrote Daniel Boorstin; “the celebrity is a big name.”

In God’s Hall of Heroes are the names of nearly 50,000 Jews who in 538 BC left captivity in Babylon for responsibility in Jerusalem. God had called them back home to do a difficult job: to rebuild the temple and the city and restore the Jewish community in their own land. This noble venture involved a four months’ journey plus a great deal of faith, courage, and sacrifice; and even after they arrived in the Holy City, life didn’t get any easier. But as you read the inspired record, you can see the providential leading of the Lord from start to finish; and “if God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).

You see God’s providence at work in three key events.

Ezra wrote nothing about the long trip (900 miles) or what the Jews experienced during those four difficult months. It reminds us of Moses’ description of Abraham and Sarah’s journey to Canaan: “and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came” (Gen. 12:5). “It is a strange narrative of a journey,” said Alexander Maclaren, “which omits the journey altogether … and notes but its beginning and its end. Are these not the main points in every life, its direction and its attainment?”

Investing in the work (Ezra 2:68–70). This was undoubtedly a thank offering to the Lord for giving them a safe journey. The people gave their offerings willingly and according to their ability, which is the way God’s people are supposed to give today (2 Cor. 8:8–15; 9:6–15). According to Nehemiah 7:70–72, both the tribal leaders and Zerubbabel the governor gave generously, and the common people followed their good example.

Setting up the altar (Ezra 3:1–3). The seventh month would be Tishri, our September–October, a month very sacred to the Jews (Lev. 23:23–44). It opened with the Feast of Trumpets; the day of Atonement was on the tenth day; and from the fifteenth to the twenty-first days, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. But the first thing Joshua the high priest did was restore the altar so he could offer sacrifices for the people. The people were afraid of the strong nations around them who resented the return of the Jews, and they wanted to be sure they were pleasing to the Lord. Again, we see a parallel with Abraham, who built an altar when he first came into the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:7). This is an Old Testament picture of Matthew 6:33.

Joshua also restored the various sacrifices commanded by the law, which would include a burnt offering each morning and evening and extra offerings for special days. It wasn’t necessary to wait until the temple was completed before offering sacrifices to God. As long as there was a sanctified altar and a qualified priest, sacrifices could be given to the Lord. After all, it’s not the external furnishings but what’s in the heart that concerns God the most (1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 51:16–17; Hos. 6:6; Mark 12:28–34).

Laying the foundation (Ezra 3:7–13). The work didn’t begin until the second month of the next year, which means they spent nearly seven months gathering materials and preparing to build. It was in the second month that Solomon started building the original temple (1 Kings 6:1), and he gathered his materials in much the same way (Ezra 3:7; 1 Kings 5:6–12). Joshua and Zerubbabel were in charge of the project, assisted by the Levites. “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” asked David (Ps. 11:3), and there’s only one answer: lay the foundations again! That’s what spiritual revival is all about, getting back to the foundations of the Christian life and making sure they’re solid: repentance, confession, prayer, the Word of God, obedience, and faith.

Note the emphasis on unity. The people gathered together (Ezra 3:1); the workers stood together (v. 9); the Levites sang together (v. 11); and all the while, the people were working together to get the foundation laid. Their tasks were varied, but they all had one goal before them: to glorify the Lord by rebuilding His temple. This is what Paul had in mind when he wrote “make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” (Phil. 2:2).

Following the example of David, when he brought up the ark to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 16), and Solomon, when he dedicated the temple (2 Chron. 7:1–3), the priests and Levites sang praise to the Lord, accompanied by trumpets and cymbals; and the people responded with a great shout that was heard afar off. (See Ps. 47:1; 106:1; 107:1; 118:1–4; 135:3; 136; and 145:1–11.) The people united their hearts and voices in praise to the Lord for His goodness to them.

But at this point, their “togetherness” was interrupted as the young men shouted for joy and the old men wept “with a loud voice.” Why were they weeping on such a joyful occasion? Because they had seen the original temple before it was destroyed over fifty years before, and the new edifice was nothing in comparison. (Haggai would later preach a sermon about this. See Hag. 2:1–9.) These godly old men longed for “the good old days,” but it was the sins of their generation that had caused the fall of the kingdom to begin with! Had their generation listened to the prophet Jeremiah and obeyed God’s Word, Jerusalem and the temple would still be standing.

It’s unfortunate when the unity of God’s people is shattered because generations look in opposite directions. The older men were looking back with longing while the younger men were looking around with joy. Both of them should have been looking up and praising the Lord for what He had accomplished. We certainly can’t ignore the past, but the past must be a rudder to guide us and not an anchor to hold us back. God’s people are a family, not a family album filled with old pictures; they’re a garden, not a graveyard covered with monuments to past successes.

We have similar generational disagreements in the church today, especially when it comes to styles of worship. Older saints enjoy singing the traditional hymns with their doctrinal substance, but younger members of the church want worship that has a more contemporary approach. But it isn’t a question of accepting the one and rejecting the other, unless you want to divide families and split the church. It’s a matter of balance: the old must learn from the young and the young from the old, in a spirit of love and submission (1 Peter 5:1–11). When they were new, many of our traditional hymns were rejected for the same reasons some people reject contemporary praise choruses today. “But each class [the young and the old] should try to understand the other’s feelings,” said Alexander Maclaren. “The seniors think the juniors revolutionary and irreverent; the juniors think the seniors fossils. It is possible to unite the shout of joy and the weeping. Unless a spirit of reverent regard for the past presides over the progressive movements of this or any day, they will not lay a solid foundation for the temple of the future. We want the old and the young to work side by side, if the work is to last and the sanctuary is to be ample enough to embrace all shades of character and tendencies of thought.”

Every local church is but one generation short of extinction. If the older believers don’t challenge and equip the younger Christians and set a godly example before them (Titus 2:1–8; 1 Tim. 5:1–2), the future of the congregation is in jeopardy. The church is a family, and as a family grows and matures, some things have to fall away and other things take their place. This happens in our homes and it must happen in the house of God. To some people, “change” is a synonym for “compromise,” but where there’s love, “change” becomes a synonym for “cooperation with one another and concern for one another.”

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Ps. 133:1).