Click above to watch video.
OR
Click below to play audio and read along.
Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
You’ve probably heard the phrase “timing is everything”, right? Undoubtedly there have been times in your life when circumstances converged together at just the right time for something memorable to happen. I’ve had the wonderful experience several times in my life. Join me today, in the partially rebuilt city of Jerusalem, in the year 515bc for one of those ‘timing is everything’ experiences.
Yesterday, we witnessed the completion of the prolonged process of rebuilding the Temple of God in Jerusalem after many years of delays. If you’ve ever spent time around construction or remodeling or renovations, you are familiar with the frustration of delays. Seems the original timeline is always extended, sometimes much, much longer than anticipated. Normally that results in major cost over-runs. In this case, as we’ve seen, this Temple rebuild project took more than 20 years due many to political delays. But God’s hand was on the process and in the Timing! Why do I say that?
Because since the days of Moses, the annual great Jewish Passover Festival was always on the 14th day of the first month of their year. (Ex. 12:6) That first Passover with Moses would have been more than 900 years before; and now this Passover, with the Temple rebuilt, would be only about 30 days after the completion of the Temple construction! What a remarkable evidence of the hand of God guiding this massive project, even to the details of the timing! Pause for just a moment to think back in your life. How many times God has guided the timing of circumstances for your benefit? Has that built your confidence in trusting God for His timing in your future?
As word spread that the Temple was completed and would be all cleaned up and ready for Passover, I doubt we can imagine the great sense of anticipation which filled the hearts of these Jewish exiles. 24 years before this, the first wave of 50,000 exiles had trekked 750 miles back from Babylon. That in itself was miraculous. They had every reason to believe they would never leave their captivity. But God intervened!
Over the two decades that followed, many had been born since that return to Jerusalem, during this rebuilding process. And many others had come from Babylon as word reached them of the progress made by these exiles in rebuilding their lives, their city and their Temple. Now, with the Temple completed, for the first time in more than 70 years, Passover could be celebrated in Jerusalem, on the Temple mount, with the Temple fully rebuilt! Oh my, the excitement!
Ezra 6:19-23 describes this wonderful, joy filled, week-long festival. It seems all Jews from the entire region were invited and joined in this great celebration. This one statement sums it all up: “For seven days they celebrated with joy the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Passover), because the LORD had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.” (Ezra 6:22) Do you see my friends how these Jews were celebrating all that God had done to accomplish this amazing feat? They had so much to be thankful for: Delivered from captivity / provided permission from King Darius to rebuild the Temple / provided supplies, resources to complete the task of rebuilding / and provided protection from those opposed, while they worked! Oh my, they had so much to thank God for!!
It amazes me my friends that God often uses people who don’t know God and even resources that are under the control of people who don’t know God, to accomplish the great purposes of God! Has that ever happened to you? This second Temple, now surrounded by thousands of Jews of all ages, celebrating the great Passover Festival, would serve Jerusalem and generations of Jews from 515bc until 70ad when it was finally destroyed by the Romans. That’s almost 600 years, my friends!
Also, this Temple, with renovations by King Herod the Great, beginning about 30bc, would be the very same Temple into which infant Jesus was brought to be dedicated to God by Simeon; and the very same Temple Jesus and His disciples would come to frequently!
Here’s a staggering thought… as God was watching this first Passover celebration at the rebuilt Temple, I wonder if God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit were also celebrating in heaven, as They looked down through time to the days Jesus would be at that Temple proclaiming God’s truth and inviting people to trust HIM as their Messiah and Savior?
Because there’s another time gap after Ezra 6:22 I’d like us to pause right here and celebrate with these joy filled people during their first Passover at the rebuilt Temple. Let’s celebrate that God is Sovereign over all Time and all circumstances, so you and I can trust all the rest of our earthly journey to the Sovereign oversight of God! Here’s a great song to help us worship, and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow, my friends…
Today’s Scripture: Ezra 6:19-22.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.