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Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
What’s the greatest celebration you’ve ever attended or even watched on TV? Perhaps the Olympics opening or closing ceremony? Perhaps an inauguration of a King or President?
Did you know the Bible describes several amazing and even extravagant celebrations? Perhaps the greatest of all was the dedication of the Temple for God which King Solomon constructed. That celebration was so spectacular, its description requires three full chapters in the Bible, 2 Chronicles 5,6,7! God even responded by sending fire from heaven to consume the sacrifices on the great altar in front of that Temple, and the cloud of God’s Presence descended and filled that Temple! (2 Chronicles 7:1-3)
Recently, we’ve been tracing the remarkable and even miraculous rebuild of the SECOND Temple of God in Jerusalem on the same Temple mount, in fact on the same foundation as Solomon’s Temple. Sometimes when we read the Bible, we lose track of time. Let’s put it all into perspective: Solomon’s Temple was completed and dedicated to God in 960bc and served the people of Jerusalem for almost 400 years until its destruction by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586bc. Is there any structure in your country that has been used every day for 400 years?
The Persian emperor King Cyrus issued his famous edict allowing Jewish captives to return and rebuild Jerusalem and their Temple in 538bc. (Ezra 1) ‘King Darius the Mede’ was positioned by King Cyrus to reign over the Babylonian portion of the Persian empire that same year, even though he was elderly, 62 years old. (Daniel 5:30) This ‘King Darius the Mede’ and the old prophet of God Daniel, who was probably in his 80’s by then, had their famous ‘lion’s den’ experience, as recorded in Daniel 6 perhaps two or three years later. Both men likely died not long there-after.
While an initial rebuild effort on the Temple had begun in those days, construction was paused for almost twenty years due to opposition. (Ezra 4:24) It resumed in 520bc under the influence of two prophets of God, Haggai & Zechariah and the discovery of a scroll detailing King Cyrus’ original edict. (Ezra 6:2-5) It was ‘King Darius the Great’, no relation to ‘Darius the Mede’, who had ordered the search for that scroll, and he then sent an amazing letter ordering those in opposition of this construction project to provide everything needed to the workers and to assure this huge rebuild project was completed! (Ezra 6:8-12)
Yesterday we witnessed the completion of that second Temple in the year 515bc, as recorded in Ezra 6:14,15. Ezra’s very next verse begins the description of the dedication ceremony for this second Temple of God in Jerusalem: “Then the people of Israel – the priests, Levites and rest of the exiles – celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.” (Ezra 6:16) In the few verses which follow Ezra describes the very modest scope of this celebration. May I give you some reasons why this dedication celebration of the second Temple was so mild as compared to the extravagance of the first Temple in King Solomon’s era?
First, as the second Temple was completed Jerusalem was still being rebuilt from its destruction.
Even the wall around the city was still little more than rubble. It was a vulnerable city and with the exception of a few Jewish towns nearby, Jerusalem was surrounded by towns, in all directions, which were occupied by peoples who did NOT want Jerusalem, or this rebuilt Temple to exist! Can you imagine living in a place surrounded by people who don’t want you to exist?
Second, only some Israelites from two of the original 12 tribes had participated in the rebuild of this second Temple, and many of those who had been freed to return to rebuild Jerusalem rejected the offer and chose to remain in Babylon!
The descendants of the other 10 tribes of Israel were scattered far and wide, intermarried with people of many nations. There was little which remained of the Kingdom of Israel, both geographically or as a nation of people, as compared to the days of King Solomon.
Nor was there any descendant of King Solomon as leader and no throne, for Israel was no longer a nation. Jerusalem and the surrounding area were not then, nor would it ever be again until 1948, a sovereign nation! Jerusalem and this second Temple were under the authority of the Persian Kingdom!
Third, there is no record in the Bible of the fabrication again of all the major worship artifacts inside the Temple which had been confiscated by King Nebuchadnezzar. (2 Chronicles 36:18)
You may recall the golden lampstands, the Table of Shewbread, the Altar of Incense, and especially the Ark of the Covenant, all of which were in the Tabernacle and later Solomon’s Temple, were designed by God, with their specifications given by God to Moses. (Exodus 37) Both at the completion of the Tabernacle by Moses (Ex. 40) and the first Temple by King Solomon, (2 Chronicles 4,5) these sacred pieces were consecrated as essential for daily and weekly worship, as they were placed inside the Tabernacle and later Solomon’s Temple.
I find it fascinating and disturbing there is no mention, here in Ezra 6, or ever again in the Bible, of the Ark of the Covenant, the centerpiece, the most valuable part of this Jewish Temple of God! Perhaps you remember there was a fairly famous, fictitious movie made about this Ark and a treasure hunter Indiana Jones?
We presume the Ark had been taken as a war prize by King Nebuchadnezzar in one of his three invasions of Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his god in Babylon. (2 Chronicles 36:7) You may recall the Philistines had done the same when they captured the Ark of the Covenant during battle? (1 Samuel 4:11; 5:1,2) The Biblical account of 1 Samuel 4-6 gives us details of how God protected the sacred Ark while in Philistine territory and it was returned to Israel.
But we have no such record of the Ark ever being returned from captivity in Babylon nor does the Bible tell us a new Ark was fabricated to replace the one stolen by Nebuchadnezzar.
Perhaps you remember those two tablets of stone, with the 10 Commandments of God’s covenant with Israel, inscribed by the finger of God, which Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, were kept inside the Ark and that’s why it was called the Ark of the Covenant! (Exodus 40:1-5) We have no record of those tablets ever being returned from Babylon either.
The daily and weekly priestly functions inside the Holy Place of the Temple required the Altar of Incense and Table of Shewbread, and the Golden Lampstands. Thus, we presume they were fabricated and placed in this second Temple at the time of its dedication so the priestly functions could begin immediately. But while the Ark of the Covenant was essential for the Day of Atonement celebration once per year, is it possible they did not fabricate a new Ark since there is no mention of the stone Tablets of the Covenant ever returned from Babylon?
Ezra 6:18 tells us the priestly ministry began at this second Temple “according to what is written in the Book of Moses.” In other words, the second Temple functioned as both the first Temple and the Tabernacle before it, according to the specific worship instructions God had given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
For those Jewish exiles in Jerusalem, while daily worship resumed in the Temple that dedication day, they were all looking forward to celebrating their first Passover Festival in Jerusalem with their Temple rebuilt, and tomorrow we’ll join that great celebration!
For today, let’s worship with this very special song which I first heard in Kampala, Uganda as worship leaders were calling worshipers together. I hope you have a great worship experience this weekend with your church family wherever you live in the world, and I’ll see you here again tomorrow…
Today’s Scripture: Ezra 6:11-18.
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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)
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