Subscription Lists

There's something about the temple, isn't there? The word 'temple' appears nearly 300 times throughout the Old and New Testaments, and about half of the Old Testament laws specifically require the temple in order to be carried out; in fact, a Jewish organisation has been founded with a view to rebuilding the temple, because they have recognised that they cannot fulfil the law without it! The temple is where God dwelt with His people, and it is therefore important that we recognise the importance of the temple to the Israelites of Ezra's time - this was not just some building project! The record of the building of the temple is located here - although I will be referring to particular verses I'd recommend you read it in full for yourself.

Delegation

The first thing which jumped to my mind when reading this passage is the primary difference in the way the Israelites built the temple in comparison to the altar: Jeshua and Zerubbabel were the first to get their hands dirty when building the altar, whereas in the building of the temple they step back, and delegate responsibility to others. In fact, the responsibility they delegate is to 'to supervise the work of the house of the LORD' (Ezra 3:8) - so their role now is to oversee the overseers! In my mind this is not pride creeping in to the point that these two men think 'this physical work is below me' or some such thought, because when we see these names later on in the Bible we see that they are teaching from Scripture and leading worship among other things. Their act of empowering others is a realisation of their gifts, what role best suits them and how to work best for the Kingdom. My lead elder has always taught me that if someone can do something 70% as well as you can then you should hand it over; the temptation is to hang onto things we are doing well, but being faithful with a little and handing it on can often mean that God will grant us even more to be used in!

Youth

The second thing we should recognise here is that the men Jeshua and Zerubbabel handed responsibility over to were as young as twenty - 'They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the LORD' (Ezra 3:8). This seems incredibly young to be supervising the work of the temple yet it is there in the Bible, and I think carries two challenges, to two different groups of people. The first group would be young men - I was at a leadership conference recently at which Mark Driscoll was speaking, and he closed his time by saying, 'young men, step up!' The young are arrogant, over-confident, exciteable, zealous, tactless, passionate; they're perfect! Although it is often easier to rely on age and experience, the young should be stepping up and taking responsibility - if they make the mistakes when they are in their early twenties then by the time they are in their thirties and onwards they will have matured a great deal! So here's my first challenge, to echo Mark: young men, step up! My second challenge comes to the . . . not quite as young . . . and I am reminded of Paul's comment to Timothy: 'Let no one despise you for your youth' (1 Timothy 4:12). It is far too easy for those who have life experience to hear some young guy trying to lead them and to think, 'he's only young, what qualifies him to lead me?' Here's the answer: God qualifies him. So let's be a community who are humble enough to be led by those younger than us, and who are ready to empower the younger generations to take the baton and keep running the race so that, unless Jesus comes first, the church will be stronger and still growing in generations to come! In addition, we should pray for our young leaders, that they would become more humble and continue to grow in spiritual maturity.

Family

I mention this small point here mainly because I don't think I've ever properly underlined this in an article: family is so important! Jeshua, Kadmiel and others supervised the workmen in the temple, and with each name comes the phrase 'with his sons and brothers' (Ezra 3:9); what a joy it must have been for the parents to look at their family working so well together, at something as important as building the house of God! The importance of family is a theme which continues throughout the whole Bible; one example is 1 John 3:1, which says, 'See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.' What a wonderful truth it is that we are the family of God; we should seek to imitate God's love for us in our own family units, and replicate that same love within the family of God, the church!

Praise

After the foundations have been laid we see something illogical, yet wonderful. The builders finish their work and look around, expecting to hear praise for their good work - they do, but the praise is aimed at God (Ezra 3:10)! When we are using our gifts properly then the focus of the people should be on the Giver of our gifts, the Lord Jesus Christ. A truly good sermon should not make us think so much, 'man, this preacher is amazing' but rather, 'wow, God is amazing!' The praise of the Israelites was loud and joyous - they 'shouted with a great shout' (Ezra 3:11)! If someone has served particularly well, we should be vocal and public in encouraging them, but the encouragement should not be 'Paul was excellent at the mixing desk this week' but rather 'let us praise God that He has enabled us to worship Him better this morning by blessing us with His servant Paul' - perhaps a little wordy, but you get the idea. Everything we do should be all because of Jesus and only because of Jesus, and our actions should point others toward Him, not toward ourselves. Note that the builders are not incredible public speakers with an enormous leadership ministry, they're builders - with builders' bums, builders' senses of humour and so on - do not put God in a well-dressed, well-spoken box - when He came to earth He came as a carpenter.

Weeping

Finally, there are many 'old men who had seen the first house [that is, Solomon's temple]' (Ezra 3:12), and when they saw the foundations built they wept. They had been witnesses to the glorious splendour of the first temple, and seeing these foundations reminded them of how amazing it was when God dwelt with His people - perhaps they were weeping due to the fact that they felt they could, or should have acted earlier to rebuild the temple? For whatever reason it was, we can take this challenge away: there are times when it is appropriate for us to come before God and weep - when we remember how good it used to be when we were closer to God, when we come repentant of sins we have committed, and times we have failed to act, it is entirely appropriate for us to weep - even men. When I dwell on the cross I regularly find myself moved to tears - perhaps I just like to cry but the power, the suffering and the undeserved love over my life should cause that reaction!

Jesus wants our entire lives, and that involves our emotions - we should be those who can become excited enough about the building of God's temple (be that in building the global church by spreading the gospel, or by building our bodies spiritually through His Spirit) that we are prompted to shout for joy, and become moved to tears when we are reminded of periods in our lives and in the lives of our churches that have been dry spiritually.

"Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life" from Tom Kelley

Choking can be Hazardous to Your Eternal Health