Ezra, Part II

The beginning of Ezra is full of promise— the promise of the Lord— and the steps He takes in His sovereignty to fulfill His will.  God basically moved the government, moved on the hearts of the leaders, and gave provision for that which He called His people to do.  Ezra Chapter 3 transitions as the people are resettling into their lands, demonstrating how a person should respond when their heart has been moved by God and they settle in to claim the fulfillment of His promise.

Ezra Chapter 3 starts out with the Israelites settling into their towns.  When they had done so, verse 1 says in the seventh month, “the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem.”  At the very beginning, they were unified, and not just for their own purpose.  Verse 2 says the first thing they did was begin “to build the altar to the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it.”  So they, who were in God’s will, were unified in purpose, and the first thing they did was worship God!  Verse 3 says they did this despite their fears of the circumstances— the peoples around them who were their enemies.

Being in the will of God can be a scary place because you’re not in your comfort zone, and you might feel like you’re in enemy territory.  But regardless of this, our first response, as seen in Ezra, should be to worship God in all the many ways that one can— festivals, sacrifices, and free-will offerings, and the modern equivalent of these today.

While the altars were small acts of worship, the people set into motion the rebuilding of the temple— a more permanent place of worship— a place where the spirit of the Lord could dwell.  This took much more effort than the small altars the people initially built— planning, giving, and time.  They did this, accompanied by musical worship.  Verse 10 speaks about trumpets and cymbals, and verse 11 says they sang to the Lord with praise and thanksgiving.

My favorite verse is the worshipful response of those who waited such a long time for the promise to be fulfilled.  Verse 12 says these people wept aloud, while others shouted for joy.  Verse 13 says, “No one could distinguish the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise.  And the sound was heard far away.”  It makes me wonder what those people, whom the Israelites were so afraid of, were thinking.  If I were them [the enemies], I would be afraid.

While the situation of the Israelites and their culture is so different from ours, I feel there is an applicable spiritual lesson that we can carry away from this and use today.  For those walking in the will of God, our first response to the reception of His promise should be worship, praise and thanksgiving.  There, of course, should be the initial altar in our hearts, but it shouldn’t stop there.  When we have moved into the will of God, we need to take the steps necessary to establish a more permanent “house of worship”.  Whether this is joining in unity with the local church or putting into practice spiritual disciplines in your own life so that your own life can be a temple for God to dwell in, it is clear the correct process is intentionally putting the stones in place for a foundation of a lifestyle of worship.