The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Ezra 3:1-2,
Nevertheless, the Jews pressed ahead and reestablished the morning and evening sacrifices. They celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles with the attendant burnt offerings. They offered New Moon sacrifices, the regular burnt offerings as well as sacrifices for all the "appointed sacred festivals of the Lord", in addition to freewill offerings to the Lord.
Where Israel once turned from worshiping the Lord in favor of chasing false idols with their detestable worship, the nation now could not wait to begin to worship her God in his prescribed way - and that before the temple had yet been built.
Israel had suffered a rightful and horrific judgment of God for their unfaithfulness. However, that judgment was not without intent and design in mind by God as he performed his precision surgery upon the nation to bring about the changes he desired. Just look at this urgency to worship the true God by this former idolatrous nation!
Does God still do these kinds of things today? Might he do them on a personal level? I wonder what he might be doing in my life today to bring about what he desires…
"When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God."
Following a seventy year captivity in Babylon (due to their unfaithfulness to the Lord), the Israelites were allowed to return to their homeland. Here we learn that in the seventh month the returnees assembled in Jerusalem and began to build "the altar of the God of Israel" so they could begin to worship the Lord. As they did so, they did in fear of the surrounding nations who were not happy in contemplating a resurgent Israel.
Where Israel once turned from worshiping the Lord in favor of chasing false idols with their detestable worship, the nation now could not wait to begin to worship her God in his prescribed way - and that before the temple had yet been built.
Israel had suffered a rightful and horrific judgment of God for their unfaithfulness. However, that judgment was not without intent and design in mind by God as he performed his precision surgery upon the nation to bring about the changes he desired. Just look at this urgency to worship the true God by this former idolatrous nation!
Does God still do these kinds of things today? Might he do them on a personal level? I wonder what he might be doing in my life today to bring about what he desires…
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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