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Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Have you ever been part of starting something significant with a group of other deeply committed people? Were you attempting a project much bigger than any one or two of you might have accomplished without a group of people and God’s miracles? Was your project something that would benefit many people for a very long time, in fact was it designed to outlive you?
Today, let’s join in on that type of project attempted in Jerusalem about 2500 years ago. The story is found in Ezra 3.
Approximately 50,000 Jewish exiles had returned to the region of Jerusalem, from many years living as captives in Babylon. (Ezra 2:1,64) What they found, of course, was overgrown rubble from the demolition of Jerusalem several years before by King Nebuchadnezzar’s great army. Because history shows us demolished cities often attract wandering people who may find it easier to rebuild homes from rubble than from nothing; I presume the top of Mount Moriah where Jerusalem had once stood as a proud city, had been a gathering place for wanderers looking for a new home. Thus, these Jewish exiles not only needed to clean up the rubble and rebuild, they probably had some skirmishes with squatters who had moved in. The conflicting claims of land ownership for Jerusalem and the land of Israel was once again erupting even in 538bc!
Ezra 3 gives us this picture of the landscape: “When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns; the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua, son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to rebuild the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses, the man of God. Despite their fear of the people around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings to the LORD, both the morning and evening sacrifices.” (Ezra 3:1-3)
The seventh month in the Jewish calendar was “Tishri” and would be the time in our current calendar from mid-September to mid-October. Ezra does not give us a record of exactly when these exiles began their trek from Babylon, nor when they arrived in Jerusalem, but because Ezra 3:1 says these returned exiles “had settled in their towns”, we can presume they had been back from Babylon for some time. We don’t know what motivated this gathering of the exiles in Jerusalem, but I presume it was a deep desire to begin the daunting project of reconstructing the great Temple of the God of Israel.
I find it fascinating the first thing they set about to rebuild was the huge altar for Burnt Offering sacrifices and they did so finding and using the foundation of this original Altar initially constructed in the days of King Solomon, more than 500 years before! By the way, lest you imagine this is a small altar, barely large enough for one little lamb, according to 2 Chronicles 4:1 this was a huge altar for burning of many sacrifices simultaneously. It measured 30 feet square and was built up to a level of 15 feet above ground level! It would have required a ramp for the priests to walk up onto this altar surface and could have accommodated several priests offering burnt sacrifices at various places on this huge platform altar simultaneously! Can you picture it in your mind’s eye?
We are introduced to two leaders of these exiles here, Joshua and Zerubbabel. I presume this Joshua had either been born in captivity or was a young child when taken captive from Jerusalem, thus I imagine on the day this Joshua was named by his parents, they hoped and prayed he might grow up to be like the Joshua who led the Hebrew slaves out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land, following the death of Moses. (Joshua 1)
Zerubbabel may be the leader named Sheshbazzar to whom King Cyrus entrusted the valuable objects King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple when his Babylonian army conquered Jerusalem years before. (Ezra 1:7) The name ‘Sheshbazzar’ appears to be Babylonian, and I surmise like Daniel and his three Jewish friends, (Daniel 1:1:6,7) it was a name given to erase Zerubbabel’s Jewish history from his identity.
Did you notice in Ezra 3:2 Joshua was a priest, and he rallied his fellow priests to engage their roles as spiritual leaders of the people and that, of course, demanded they rebuild the Temple. Zerubbabel appears to have been a recognized leader, and he rallied other family heads and leaders who then rallied their people to engage the Temple rebuild project. But did you notice the little phrase: “Despite their fear of the people around them…”? Clearly some people lived in this region who were not Jewish. They had no interest in the God of Israel and no desire to see either Jerusalem or the Temple rebuilt and certainly no desire for worship of the God of Israel.
Does that sound a little like your city or mine? But these people were determined to honor and worship their God who had miraculously delivered them from Babylonian captivity; and opposition or not, the great Altar was rebuilt and daily, morning and evening sacrifices were soon begun, in obedience to their traditions and the Law of Moses. (Exodus 29:38-46)
God had promised Moses, so many years before, that if the priests were faithful in the daily offerings God would consecrate that place by His glory and would come and dwell among His people! Joshua may well have had a copy of the Exodus scroll and maybe even read it aloud as they offered the first sacrifice on this rebuilt altar! God had spoken to Moses about this altar with these words: “For generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting [Tabernacle /Temple], before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by My glory…Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt, so that I might dwell among them…” (Ex. 29:42-46) Can you imagine the people cheering as Joshua may have read that, standing atop the great Altar, especially when God’s words reminded them that their God had rescued their ancestors from Egyptian slavery, and now, this same God had rescued them from Babylonian captivity!!
In summary Ezra records that “They celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles…On the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, though the foundation of the LORD’s temple had not yet been laid.” (Ezra 3:4-6) Do you see it friends? With yet piles of rubble needing to be cleared, and hundreds of homes yet to be built, these returned Jewish exiles prioritized worshiping their great God, thanking Him for all HE had done to preserve them while in captivity and bring them back home to Jerusalem! Can you imagine how the oldest among the exiles made sure the young ones understood the significance of what they were experiencing?
As we pause to ponder all God had done for them, I wonder what you are thanking God for today and are the younger generations joining you? Here’s a great worship song to help us join with those hard working, rubble clearing exiles, who were once again worshiping in Jerusalem!
Today’s Scripture: Ezra 3:1-7.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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