Series: Reset

Title: Re-build  

In our story today we will be looking the book of Ezraand how God put it upon the hearts of the Jews to restore the templein Jerusalem, which had been previously destroyedby the Babylonian invasion.

Just to give you a brief backstory of what happened before the events that we will be reading about today.

• 605BC Jerusalemwas destroyed by the Babylonians under the leadership of king Nebuchadnezzar, and the Israelites were exiledto Babylon.

While they were in exile the prophet Jeremiah writes a letter to them

Jeremiah 29:5-7

⁵ Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. ⁶ Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. ⁷ But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 

When they once used planted gardensand builthomesand established familiesfor the welfareof their own city, they were now being instructed to do so for the good of Babylon.  Which was a foreign land, among people who a spoke foreign language, and who worshipped foreign gods.  Some believe that they were even hatedby the Babylonians.  They had no altar, they had no temple, they had no public worship. This would continue for 70 years. 

The reasonthey found themselves in this situation in the first place is because of their relentlesspursuitto worship other gods.  God had given them chance after chanceto get right and turn from their idolatry, but they did not and eventually He had enoughand allowed them to be overtaken by the Babylonians.  

The Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem.  Its fortified wallswere torn down and the city was set ablaze.  The templewas also destroyed.  For the Jews, the templewas a morethan just a building, it was part of cultureand a way of life. 

It was a place which various peopleperformed specific taskswith the purpose of bringing a whole nationof people in contactwith the Living God.  It was a place where the Jews would bring their sacrificesand the Priestwould take those sacrificesand prepare them, while other priest would offer those sacrificeson the alter.  Besides that, there were other priest who minded the cleanliness of the templeand making sure everything was in order.  There were Leviteswho sang the Psalms, there were other leaders who readaloud the Torahto all who gathered to listen. There were those who gathered to listento the Torah being read.

It was a place where communities of peoplewould come together and use their giftingsto glorify God.  It was a place where manwould meet with God, and Godwould meetwith man.  It was a specialplace; it was a holyplace.  

But during their exileto Babylon all was lost.  With Jerusalem being destroyed by fire, their way of lifecame to a sudden halt.  Much like how our lives came to a halt with this pandemic.

But God who is rich in mercyand abounding in steadfast love, had mercy on His people yet again and raises up King Cyrus of Persia(AKA Cyrus the Great) who makes a decreewhich allowed the Jewsto return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.  To me this is quite amazing that God workedon the heart of a King, who followed no specific religion, to respond favorablyto His people.

• 539 BC Cyrus subdued the Babylonian empire and became king
• 538 BC Cyrus gives the decree to rebuild the temple

Ezra 1:2-13

² “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³ Whoeveris among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him goup to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuildthe house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. ⁴ And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

King Cyrus does a few monumentalthings in this passage after being instructed by God to do so:

• Issues the decree to rebuildthe temple
• He gives permissionto anyone who is willingto go back to their homeland to do the work.
• He makes provisionfor the rebuilding

What we learn from this is that God gives the task, He gives the authorityto accomplish that task, He provideswhat is necessary to accomplish the task.

In addition, King Cyrusalso knew that this great task would require a group of peoplecoming together to make it all happen and that it was not the sole responsibilityof one man. So, he tells them “whoeveris among you” to go to Jerusalem and help with this rebuilding.

You were in a situation beyondyour control in which you were not afforded the luxuryof being able to offer sacrifices to God, and have corporate worshipbut now those situations which previously restrained you have been loosedand now you are commissionedto go and rebuildthe temple of God.

Again, I am amazed that a King with no specific religion, realized the needto rebuild the Jewish templeand reestablishtheworship of Yahweh, the one true God.  Only Godcan do that.

But who would respondto this call to rebuild? By now the Israelites were seventy plusyears removed from being in Jerusalem and had become accustomedto life in Babylon. 

Besides that, it was a long distance(approx. 4 monthsjourney) to travel back to Jerusalemespecially withwomenand children. Add to that thedangersthey faced as they would be exposedto their surrounding enemiesas they attempt to rebuild.  Would they even recognize Jerusalemafter having been gone for so long? 

Why even bother? 

More than likely there was a strong temptationto stayin Babylon.  This is what they had come to know.

However, real leaderswill arise in the face of adversitywith unrelenting trustin the promises of God. That is what happens in this case.

⁵ Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.

The same spiritthat put it upon the heart of King Cyrusto allow the Jews to return, was the same spirit that filled these leaderswith a desire to worship Godfreely in their homeland.  Hopehad been rebirthedand God was committedto bringing them back to Jerusalem. It was around 536BC that the first waveof Jews returns to Israel to begin rebuildingthe temple.

InEzra 3 We find many different people comingtogether at Jerusalem working to rebuild the temple.

• Vs 2 Jeshuahis fellow priests, and Zerubbabelwith his kinsmenbuilt the altar of the Godof Israel.  It was the first thing  It was important it was to restore worshipto the Lord as soon as possible.  They had enemies lurkingaround.
• Vs 4 Says that they immediately began offering sacrifices, so that means there were priestpreparingsacrifices and yet other priest burningthose sacrifices on the altar.
• Vs 7Masonsand carpenterswere brought in
• Vs 7b Cookswere preparing food for the workers
• Vs 8 Levitesfrom the ages of twenty and up were appointed to supervisethe work of the House of the Lord
• Vs 10 speaks ofthe builderswho were laying the temple foundation, and of the worship band.

We are to also assumethere were other occupationswhich were necessary for the building of the temple which were not named.  Being that Jerusalem was destroyed, it is more than likely they slept in tentswhich required tent makersand installers.  They needed food, so there were probably farmers, hunters, and gatherers.  Building materialsneeded to be gatheredand/or movedaround so there were laborers. 

There were also spiritual needsof the workers during this time of construction which would require other priestand/or spiritual leadersto tend to those.  

The idea is that everyone whose heartwas stirredby the Lord to rebuild the temple was chipping inand doing their partin the rebuilding process.  Which makes this whole event even more spectacular.

Now watch how the people of Israel respondwhen the foundation of the temple is complete.

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.

We see two different responsesto the laying of the foundation for the temple.

For the younger generationwho were born in Babylon, they were shoutingwith loud shouts of joy.  For this might have been the first time they have encounteredthe faithfulness of Godin a tangible sense.

But for the priest and Leviteswho had seenthe firsttemple which Solomon had made, they wept. 

Wept in this contextis the same as when Joseph wept aloudwhen herevealedhimself to his brothers after being soldby them to some gypsies. That longing to be reunitedwith his family and the fulfillmentof the dream of Godhad finally come to pass.  Just as the priest and Leviteswere longingto once again worship God in the temple, that desire was becoming a reality.

They knewwhat it was to experiencethe presence of God, and to taste of that once more is just an overwhelming emotion.  Just as it was an overwhelming emotionwhich I felt when I was finally ableto come back into the house of Godwith my brothers and sistersin Christ.

Really, we were alot like the Israelites:

• They were brought to a landwhere they were separatedfrom their normal practicesof worshipping God. Likewise, we could not assembleor have corporate worshiplike we were accustomedto as we were confinedto our homes.
• In Babylon there was a community of peoplewho still had faith in God, and probably encouragedeach other in a more private setting, it just wasn’t the sameas being in Jerusalem.

Likewise, many of usstill have faith Godand met together via zoomor through Facebook, but who can testify that it just not the sameas being in the house of God.

• As Cyrus’s decreewent forth and stirred up faithand hopein many of the Israelites, As Pastorsour faithand hopewas stirred with anticipationas we received the decreeby our governorto reopenour church.
• As the Israelites returned to Jerusalem, which was in desperate need of rebuilding, we too have returned to a churchwhich will require rebuilding.
• To rebuild the templetook a community of peoplecoming togetherand doing their part, to rebuild the churchit will take the same thing.

We need nurseryworkers, childrenchurch workers, greeters, vandrivers, cleaners, cooks, prayerleaders, it takes a community of believers coming together doing their part to build a church. 

We had so much momentumbefore the pandemic, the church was gaining traction.  But I really believe God is not finishedwith us yet.  Those things that He has put in our heartwill come to pass.  We may be facing uncertaintyjust as the Israelites faced uncertainty while in Babylon.  However, we will continue to believethe promises of God and march forward.

Just to recapon some things that we were moving towardsbefore it all went down

• Evangelizing every first Sunday of the month
• Invite Sunday with message of salvation and baptism
• One big event periodically as a draw to bring in families
• Two services to reach more people (goal of 175 by the end of year)
• Small groups on Wednesdays
• Prayer on 5^thWednesday
• Reach the homeless and needy
• Reach the elderly
• Reach the Spanish Community
• Cooking for hope
• Acquire the entire building complex

I believe our goal is the sameas the Israelites; We want God to be glorifiedin all that we do.  As the churchof God is rebuilt, I believe we will see a releasing of His Spirtlike never before. 

Just as there was singingand celebrationamong the Israelites, there will be great rejoicingnot only in our churchbut in the heavenliesas menand womenand generationsto follow experience the power of God workingin their lives and setting them freefrom the bondage of sinand shame.