In the days of Israel, when she returned to the promised land, life was hopeful but hard going. It was encouraging, to a point – but tough. These were “grey times.” But Ezra 3 indicates that God’s people can live through grey times.
Ezra 3 helps us understand what God’s people can expect at such times and how we are to respond.
In Ezra 3:1-6 the focus here is on the altar, not the Temple itself. Notice what is said about Israel and, by implication, about us:
When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem… They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings to the Lord… And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written (Ezra 3:1-4)
Israel was fearful (on account of the enemies around them) as they began to undertake a work that was bound to create objections. They were faithful and keen to establish worship and renew the public feasts of Israel.
The purpose of the feast of Tabernacles was a reminder of their wilderness years. It was a reminder of their fragility. By stirring them to good the feast in the middle of all this uncertainty, it was as if God were saying,
“That’s always the situation with My people. Don’t ever forget that your life is fragile and that I alone sustain it.”
The implication in verse 3 is that Israel re-established its worship because she was afraid. Is that legitimate? Shouldn’t we have higher motives for worship? Maybe. But what’s wrong with this?
What better recourse can we have in our fears than to turn to God? Why shouldn’t we take our fears to His altar? (cf. Genesis 32:9-12).
In racing to rebuild the altar, they were unashamedly looking to God as their refuge. These are the circumstances we will face, and they all make one very crucial point:
You can be fearful and faithful at the same time. You can be fragile and yet still be fruitful.
Our response to life’s uncertainties and life’s opposition is to seek and worship God. To call upon Him as our only Sustainer.
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong… (Ecclesiastes 9:11)
The faithful are those who come together in their fear and in their fragility to intercede, pray, and worship God.
Strange, isn’t it, how fearful hearts can be the means by which God stirs us to faithfulness?
Like Hezekiah, when times are tough, we are tempted to look to the horses of Egypt. But God calls us to look to Him. This is a lesson that God’s people have often had to learn the hard way.
…when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets… And they sang… and all the people shouted with a great shout… because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid (Ezra 3:10-11)
The description moves from the restoration of the altar to the rebuilding of the whole Temple, beginning with the foundations.
Think of the hot mess that Babylon left behind when they destroyed the city and carted off the Israelites. Now, against all likelihood, the words of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 33:7-11) are beginning to be fulfilled.
It’s straightforward in one way, but sometimes, in our fear, we must be reminded that we will again see the goodness of God.
This whole action is typical of God, and we see Him doing this sort of thing again and again: Proving His faithfulness to the unfaithful. Initially, rebuilding the Temple would have seemed a hopeless and impossible task.
The only way you could possibly mount such a project is by being convinced that you will, in the end, prevail over your enemy.
As Christians, our lives suffer similar fears and doubts. Being weighed down by the cares of this world, we don’t always see the goodness of God. In uncertain times, we are tempted towards worldly ways and means, pessimism and compromise.
But God has spoken and has said that He will save the world, yet we look out our window and are sometimes convinced that in the end, He will destroy it.
God has said that the number of the elect will be beyond counting, more than the stars in the sky (Jeremiah 33:22). But we look out our window and conclude that, in the end, most people will end up in hell.
Where is the victory for Christ in that – if Satan takes a greater number of captives?
And this is the disappointment we must guard against.
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… so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping (Ezra 3:12-13)
Notice the mixed response of the people in these verses. It looks like the memory of the first Temple has clouded the day for some.
The older folk remember the magnificence of the first Temple – Solomon’s Temple – and could tell from the foundation that this New Temple would have none of that same sparkle.
There is no problem here with a little honest weeping. There are some things we held dear 30, 50 80 years ago that we have let slip away.
And over that, we should grieve.
But, there is a danger in grieving. It not only has the potential to colour the whole occasion, but it can also lead to doubt in God’s promises and ultimate despair about the future.
Nostalgia, looking back at the glory days and comparing them with now, can kill a church.
We can have terrible problems if we become preoccupied with whether the church, the minister, the music, and the fellowship meet our supermarket, consumer-driven expectations.
This is the beginning of a despair that will, in the end, turn its back on God.
In our culture of hyped expectations, we tend to think that what is low-key, ordinary, simple, and quiet and lacking the sparkle of yesteryear must be rather worthless.
If it doesn’t have the supposed perfection or pizzazz of former days, we begin to look elsewhere for our buzz and our excitement.
This attitude can affect and infect God’s people.
We forget that it is possible to be faithful and fruitful even when God does not enter the room with ten thousand of His Holy ones.
We look back on our glory days and lament as though God had finished His work, and now it’s all downhill from here.
God has indeed laid the foundation for His Kingdom, and He has done it through the body of His Son, Jesus.
But God has by no means finished.
As God’s people, we can expect disappointment, setbacks, and even a falling away of some labourers. And, since these ups and downs characterise God’s Kingdom as it slowly makes its glorious and, ultimately, victorious trek around the world, we should expect these same ups and downs in our personal lives.
We should not be unprepared, but we should expect times of hardship. There will be tears, and there will be joy.
And the question is, “On that day, what will you turn to?”
Will you return to the world? The best the world can do is try and distract you and amuse you to death. But faithfulness, even in the midst of fear and grief, is about staying the course God has mapped out for you.
It’s not about choosing joy or sadness. It’s about coming to Jesus Christ, who alone can sustain our joy in the pain and in the sorrow.
And therefore, Zechariah, speaking to Israel during these events in Ezra, reminds us…
Don’t despise the day of small beginnings (Zechariah 4:10)
Things may not be bells and whistles every day of your life, but we can still engage in family devotions, sincere public worship, and coming together for prayer and fellowship.
We can still pursue faithful Christian living in our school or our workplace.
And we can still quietly and humbly seek to make Jesus visible in the midst of His enemies.
You may not be the biggest congregation with the most dazzling props, but the question isn’t, “Is she grand” but “Is she genuine?” The question is not, “Is it jazzy here” but, “Is Jesus here?”
Can the church live through her grey days? Yes. By recognising our fragility and running with our fears to worship the Saviour. This is how we do our warfare. By expecting that though God seems to have dashed all hope, we will yet see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Faithfulness is about contentment. Content to run to God in a day of fear and anxiety. Content to trust God with our fragility.
And content, especially when God prefers to work in ordinary, non-sensational ways to bring about His people’s ultimate joy and victory.
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