MPC 12th March 2006.March 12 - Ezra 3 - "Building a House"
Garnet Swann MPC 12th March 2006.
We all like a party. We all like a celebration. The food, the friends, the music, the laughter, just the whole atmosphere - it makes for a good time. Every now and then parties don't go quite to plan, mind you - they don't work out the way you thought it would, but that happens sometimes. I remember when we were having a bunch of people around for a nice dinner party - we thought we'd do something different and exotic. And so we used an Asian Soup Cooking Pot that works with hot coals that you put in the middle of the table. In the process - I managed to burn a hole in the table - put a dampener on the proceedings, I tell you that.
But overall - parties and celebrations are good.
And here in chapter 3 we read of another celebration. It's a celebration of the Israelites.
It says there in v10 and 11:
When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD : "He is good; his love to Israel endures forever."
Now it's a strange event - it involves priests and vestments. Vestments is a funny word for clothes. To us it's unusual. But we do recognize it as a celebration. We recognize it as a celebration - because it's joyous. It's cheerful. In fact, it's loud. Actually, can you image how loud it must've been? Along with the shouting and singing, these priests break out with trumpets and cymbals. The neighbors would've had reason to complain about this party I reckon.
But look at the words they use to celebrate - "He is good; his love to Israel endures forever". They celebrate because of God's love for them… But what causes this celebration of God's love? Well, what do you think would inspire - an outbreak of praise to God? What do you think would arouse people to cheer God for his love? Well, for these people - what prompts them is… a slab goes down for a new building.
Now to me - that's doesn't sound very spiritual. Pour out some concrete, or in this case, lay down the stone - and let's praise God for his love! Sounds strange. But we need to realise - that they praise God - because of what this foundation means. They praise God for his love, because of what this foundation represents. And for these Israelite people, this stone, this foundation represents that fact that:
We're going to look at these 3 together this morning.
Firstly - they are saved. We looked at it last week - Ezra chapter 1.
We saw that there was a Persian King named Cyrus and he let this beaten tribe of Israel to return home to their land. Now in the big sweep of what was going on in the world at that time, the 6th Century BC, you might think - so what - no big deal - a movement of people from one place to another in the Middle East.
Now in the history of the world, there were other things going on at the time. It was the 6th century BC when Siddhartha Buddha was born in northern India- the founder of Buddhism. It was the 6th Century BC when they were doing some repairs jobs on Great Wall in China which was already 1000 years old. It was the 6th century BC, when a bloke named Pythagoras came along in Greece with some laws of mathematics that we use today.
Lots of things going on in the world - but the amazing this is - the Israelites had the awareness, and it's a bold awareness - that at this moment, of all the peoples and nations of the world - God's eye was on them. God was at work to rescue, to save them, to bring them home again.
And so as they saw this foundation - laid in the dirt of their own land, in their own city, Jerusalem - they knew God had saved them. That's God's love and they praise Him for it.
Now the second reason they can praise God at this laying of the foundation - is that they're now assured, they are the people of God.
See - just imagine - the disconnection they must have felt being in exile. They were supposed to be God's people. But that involved living in the promised land, and living under God's rule. So how could they now have any sense of being the people of God - when they're off in a foreign land, living under foreign rule? Their temple's destroyed, their land's pillaged, their whole religious system done away with. Everything that stamped them as belonging to God has been pulled out from underneath them!
So how can this raggedy bunch of returned exiles possibly identify themselves as God's people? What's going to prove it to themselves? What's going to prove it to others? Well, notice - as they start to rebuild the temple, they are very specific in showing that they do things as God's people should do.
Verse 2 - they built the altar to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. And verse 4 - in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day. Or verse 10 - the priests played the instruments and took their place to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel.
In following the law, their bible - they're saying - We are the people of God. God's people follow the law, and that's what we're doing. And it's not only that they do things at this new temple as prescribed in the law, but in the building process itself- they're doing it, according to the pattern of the first temple. We don't have time to look at it - but here in Ezra 3 - the writer is careful to tell us what the material is for this new temple, and, where they get the construction material from, and how they pay for it. He wants us to know this - not because he wants to fulfill our curiosity in ancient building practices - that's my hobby - what about you!
No, he wants us to know this, because it's exactly how the first temple was built. We could open up the book of 2 Chronicles which shows us how the first temple was built and we can lay it next to Ezra 3 for the second temple and they would line up perfectly.
See - they're making the statement - we're the people of God. We looked decimated. We looked like we had no future and no hope. How were we special living in exile? But with this building of the temple in such a precise way - they're saying, we're back. We belong to God. And they praise God for His love for them.
Well, the third reason they can celebrate God's love for them when they see the foundation laid, is that most obviously - upon this foundation - will be built the new temple.
Now, the temple wasn't just a building. It wasn't a religious centre for spiritual activity. As if what the people did there made it special. No, it's what God did there that made it special. See, we're told in the book of 1 Kings when they first built the temple a cloud filled the temple and this was to show that God's glory was there - he was present. It was God saying to the people I will be amongst you - you are my people and I am your God.
What a marvelous thing for the Israelites - Jerusalem itself is on a hill and at the highest point of Jerusalem sat the temple. It was an impressive building. And for the Israelites you'd look up at the temple and you'd know that God was on your side to protect you. You'd look up at that temple and you'd know that God's holiness was present. You'd look to the temple and you'd know that God had chosen you over all the nations.
So laying this foundation was the first step to rebuilding the temple. And the temple for God's people meant God was with them. God would rule over them. And God would care for them. To see that foundation laid, the first step for the new temple in place - for sure, that would bring out praise - "God is good, His love to Israel endures forever."
You know, at the base of the Brisbane City Hall is the foundation stone and on it, it has a plaque. They wanted to honour the royalty who was there when it opened - Edward Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwell, Duke of Rothesay. And there's about another 20 titles on top of that. Pretty impressive!
But at the laying of this foundation stone, the Israelites who've returned from exile - honour God. These people have been saved by God. Now that they've returned from exile, they know they're the people of God. And God's temple will be built. And God will be amongst them. God loves them. If they were going to have a plague made and put on the foundation stone it would read,
"God is good. His love to Israel endures forever"
Well, there we have it. The Israelites throw a celebration. They hold a party and what a party it is. Musical and joyous. But sometimes parties don't go quite go to plan. Burning holes in tables for instance. And it seems that the party here hasn't gone quite to plan here either. Along with the celebration, there's also sadness.
Have a read of v12-13 with me.
But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.
This is extraordinary really - the sound could be heard far away. The neighbors really could complain about the noise of this party! But it's a noise that comes both from the shouts of joy and the sobs of weeping.
Why do they weep? Why these party poopers? It's all good isn't it? God's saved them and brought them back to the land. A fresh start. All new. But it's there in v12, the people who cry over this foundation are those who saw the first temple. And they cry because - it's not very straightforward - it doesn't tell us here, but it seems to be because they realise this temple won't be as good as the first one.
To help us out on this, we've got Haggai who was a prophet at the time. And he said to these returned exiles,
Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?
You know, older people can say - When I was a lad… when I was young, things were so much better. Maybe sometimes they look at the past through rose colored glasses. Maybe things weren't always better back then. But here - these old timers who saw the first temple - they are right. This temple won't be as great and as impressive as the first one.
And so there is all this cheering and celebration. But there is also those who cry.
So there we have Ezra chapter 3. And we're left hanging. We're sort of left wondering - what do we do with that? I was ready to be encouraged by all the celebration and now I'm left wondering about this negative thing. Am I supposed to be inspired or disheartened?
Well, I think - probably both. And of course - this is only chapter 3 - you've always got to keep reading to the end of a book to see what it's all about. But if we keep reading - you'll probably still be left wondering - how should I feel? Because if you keep reading - there's more inspiring stuff to happen - not least of which they complete the temple, but also - we'll discover that the people terribly fail God. And you know - it's a tragic thing - here is chapter 3 they seem so concerned to keep the Law of Moses - we're the people of God - we do what God says! But by the end - they totally ignore the Law of Moses. They don't care that they're the people of God - they go off and marry people of the nations around them and follow after their gods.
So what are we supposed to do with this?
What are Christian people supposed to take away from this?
Well, Christian people are people who celebrate. Christian people are those who praise God and give thanks to Him. We're people of joy. In fact we're called to be people of joy. And as we look at this party, this celebration of the Israelites, with it's sadness - we can remember again - why we can celebrate.
Firstly, we can celebrate, because we've been saved. That's always the pattern for God's people. God's people are saved people - we know God's love for us.
And we know that we've been saved by Jesus. Jesus came and died on a cross to take the punishment we deserve for rebelling against God. He was raised to life again. He poured out his Spirit. His Spirit transforms us. These Israelites were saved to live in the land but where did it get them? They turned away from God in their hearts. But we're saved completely.
The book of Hebrews in the New Testament quotes Jeremiah 31 in the Old Testament. And it speaks of the reality of our salvation. It says,
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
The returned Israelites who came back from exile - just couldn't seem to get their hearts right. But for us - the Holy Spirit has come - we've been saved and our hearts have been transformed.
See, we have reason to be joyous. We have reason to celebrate. We've been saved - but so much more fully and completely than those Israelites back then.
But this passage takes us to my second point - we are the people of God. See at the end of the passage in the quote from Jeremiah it says "I will be their God, and they will be my people".
We're the people of God, because we have God's Spirit living in us. We don't have the physical temple - we don't point to it to give us our identity. But we have God himself living in us, by his Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
The temple which spoke of God's holiness and presence has now been transferred to be about people who have the Spirit. We don't go to a temple. In fact there is no temple now. A Muslim Mosque sits on that site. But we don't need to go there. God himself live in us. We are the temple of God. By His Spirit dwelling is us, we belong to God and God belongs to us.
The Jews back then had reason to celebrate. We have more.
The Jews back then found joy in knowing God's love for them. Well how much more so for us.
Let me end by saying something about joy.
What takes away our joy in knowing God's love for us? I guess it's a complex thing.
It might be busyness, and just having your head full of all the worries of life. So many of us are always tired.
It might be always thinking about what you need and what you want - lack of contentment.
It might be worried about what others think about you rather than what God thinks about you.
It might be conflict and dealing with hard relationships.
What might take away our joy is the plain familiarity of knowing how God has saved us through Jesus.
Life is complex. There's a lot of things going on for all of us. We can't unwind ourselves from all the issues that we have to face in life.
I think part of our trouble is when we talk about joy as well - is we're not sure what precisely it is. How is it related to happiness? How much of an emotional content goes into having joy? I don't think anyone can dictate how much emotion is felt with joy - emotions are complex and we're all different. But I think joy at the heart of it is a deep and real satisfaction and gratitude towards God. It means celebrating God's love for us. And meaning it.
So for those Israelites - they got to a moment where they could stand back and realise what God had done for them. And they celebrated and they were people of joy.
I think that - with the complexity of life, that's what we need to do. We need to take stock of what God has done for us in Jesus. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus - his sacrifice for us. The sending of the Spirit to live in us. We need to look at God's word and remember again and keep remembering Jesus. See God love you and me. The Lord of all the universe, loves… you and me. And as we keep remembering God's love for us, we can have joy.