Be God's Family
S3 E44. Zerubbabel: Rebuilding the Temple
This is the Be Gods Light podcast with Ben Greenbaum and Mark Elsasser and here in 2024 we've been going through the Old Testament from the beginning of the year in January and now it's October and we've looked at the history of the people in Israel all the way through living now in exile in Babylon Babylon was taken over by Persia the Persian Empire and under the Persian Empire Cyrus the Great begins to allow some of them to return and we're going to take a look at one of those stories We're in the book of Ezra anybody that wants to follow along Ezra chapter one And we'll take a look at chapter three as well a little bit today And it's a story about a guy named Zaruba Bell pretty good name like the name Zaruba Bell and he was commissioned by the Persian Emperor Persian King to go back from the region of Babylon where they were to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the temple of God the temple Ben was like super significant to the people they We remember as we've studied the earlier than sure they had a tabernacle a tent that was when they were a mobile community Coming out of bondage in Egypt and making their way toward the promised land And even in the early years in the promised land they did not have a permanent home for God You could say until King Solomon built the temple and the temple then became the center of worship for them until it was conquered by the Babylonian Empire and Destroyed and all the goods were taken out of it the the gold and silver and everything was taken out of it and hauled off to Babylon so This represented sort of the end of things for the people and it became very important for them to get it reestablished As you understand things as they were working. Why was it such a significant? I mean the first thing to go back and build Not their homes not the walls not the infrastructure Was the temple like why was that the? numero uno thing to do coming out of exile 50 years later and Going back to Jerusalem of the whole city's a pile of rubble. Yeah, all that. Yeah, all of life needed to be oriented Around worship that their hearts would be turned to God that he would become Remain really for many of these exiles coming coming out of Babylon would remain the centerpiece of of their life and so Positioning him And positioning the rebuild of the temple as being the penultimate thing the primary thing that they were given to Keeps really it keeps God as the main focus in their life as he is now Redeeming them out of Babylon and Just a quick note on this because it's one of those things that I'll always marvel at in Scripture that we don't oftentimes pay a lot of attention to And since we are coming to the Persian overthrow of the Babylonians and it's the Persians It's Cyrus who initially sends some of these exiles back home makes a way for them to go back home Right remembering that you know a hundred what 150 plus years prior to this Isaiah the prophet Isaiah named this Persian king who would yet to bid who would yet to be born named him as the one who was going to Ultimately release the captives and so it's just a it's a fulfillment of a prophecy that from from back in you know Around 700 BC. We're seeing fulfilled in these chapters as well, which has just got to marvel at a little bit Yeah, marvel at a lot of it because that's it's Phenomenal to see God working throughout Scripture. And that's one of the I think things we've seen this year, right? Is we look at the Old Testament? It's not this thing that was back then and doesn't apply anymore God is still speaking and even things in the Old Testament that not only prophesied Cyrus then prophesied Jesus and Even prophesied the return of of Christ They're there. And so it's really cool to to grab ahold of those things and see how this is a fulfillment of all of that Well, let's pick the story up. It's in the book of Ezra. There is no book of Zerubbabel So Ezra the first half of it sort of tells Zerubbabel story rebuilding the temple and the back half of it tells Ezra's story Of speaking into the hearts of the people we won't be looking at that in these podcasts But that's something that you can pick up and take a look at on your own So we're in Ezra chapter one. Let's begin right out of the gate in verse one In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia In order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah yet another prophet The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm And also to put it in writing I think putting it in writing was a big deal For for their culture when that happened it was an unbreakable thing the king had written it And so it shall be done right and it goes on in verse two. This is what Cyrus king of Persia says The lord the god of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth And he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in juda So juda we remember was the southern part of the nation of israel north was called israel the south was called juda It was juda that was conquered by babylon then babylon was conquered by Persia So then Persia inherited juda and he wants to go back and Do some rework rebuild Jerusalem and he begins by saying To rebuild a temple and as you said here a moment ago That was the right next move though Cyrus wasn't a follower he went a follower of god but God is the one who stirred him to do it So that's a pretty interesting part of the story too That god can work through people who are not only deep and devout followers of god But also people who don't know god at all Yeah, it's a reminder that god is truly the king of king. She is the lord of lords. He is sovereign over all and so to know that he intervenes in this situation lays this upon syrus's heart And syrus feels compelled to do this for the people of juda Yeah, it's really really pretty cool part of story verse three any of his people among you That's god's people among you may go up to Jerusalem in juda and build the temple of the lord Now this is not a small thing. You can leave captivity. You can leave exile You can go back home To build the temple of the lord the god of israel the god who is in drooslem and may their god be with them Any and in any locality where survivors may now be living The people are to provide them with silver and gold with goods and livestock With free will offerings for the temple of god in drooslem. So he's making this proclamation and saying All you people who are here in exile you can go if you're not going to go You can instead of paying me all the money or keeping it for yourself. I'm I'm recommending Maybe requiring I don't know how it worked But that you take you you put yourself in the game put some skin in the game Give some money give some livestock give some goods for the building projects Do some things so this temple can be rebuilt And it's it's 50 years later Some of them had never seen it Some of them were born in captivity But he really encouraged the people to get involved and I can imagine people being excited to do that It goes on in verse five then the family heads of juda and benjamin And the priests and leviates everyone whose heart god had moved Prepared to go up and build the house of the lord in drooslem All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold with goods and livestock and with valuable gifts In addition to their free will offerings verse seven more over king syrus Brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the lord Which nebuchanezer had carried away from drooslem and had placed in the temple of his god So he'd stolen these goods from from the temple before it was destroyed gold and silver and all kinds of objects for worship And this king syrus is giving them back And the summary of chapter two is I mean they brought huge amounts of money over 40,000 people Thousands of animals priests leviates musicians gatekeepers temple servants I mean like all these people were mobilized to travel back to drooslem And build this temple This had to be Some undertaking you think I mean like how do you see this thing unfolding it as people are getting excited and even those not going I imagine they they were excited I imagine it was a big deal that you think yeah, I think An aspect of it too as you mentioned the vast majority of those returning want to say vast majority I would assume you know in the 99th percentile of these folks have never Never experienced the temple just because they that you know they would be well into their 60s probably at this point um even for those who are born into captivity and so the excitement after having heard for so many years about That you know the days of growing up in drooslem and juda and yes while they would have heard about the babylonian conquest and obviously the exile uh to babylon All of the uh all of the stores that their parents grandparents would have recounted to them while they were living in exile and so the excitement about going home In many ways going home and not just going home but being commissioned To rebuild the temple which they had heard about for all of these years And so yeah the just the excitement to reestablish worship And in the temple in drooslem. I can't imagine the uh Just the overwhelming joy that had erupted amongst the people It must have been some kind of stories because my dad would always tell me stories about where he grew up Which was in greasy ridge, Ohio Did you visit greasy? I think it's just down the road from knockamstiff, Ohio I'm being serious. He's out of place. Okay. Yeah, ask ask a resident, Ohio and our Buckeye here Doug has no clue. Yeah, he's he's well, you there's a place called knockamstiff, Ohio And there's there's a place called greasy ridge greasy ridge is really the nickname of it I think it's wilgus for all of you wilgus listeners out there Something like that, but they called it He said they called it greasy ridge because they used to slaughter the pigs on the on the ridge and it would become a greasy ridge So that became the colloquial name of it Hey, tell me all these stories about growing up there on the farm and there were nine people in the family and I had no desire to Ever move there go there rebuild there or anything So these must have been some good old stories because I just had I've I went there once with him You know, it was kind of it was kind of cool. I saw the old homestead and that was it like let's go to a reds game Yeah, you see I think about this because like, you know, I got to visit My my mom's childhood home her primary childhood home I used to vet when I was a little kid we visited a lot of the time on on the weekends But my dad's childhood home, um, that he grew up on and on magazine street in New Orleans Uh, you know, my grandparents had had moved away from from that Uh that first home where where he was born into and he would tell stories of it And it's fascinating. I hadn't thought about this before but the nostalgia I feel For magazine street just from the stories of hearing my dad grow up on that street and hearing the dynamic that existed On that street. It was they were pretty impoverished Growing up and so it was a mixed race neighborhood and You know, like it was a it was a place where there was a lot of unity among the impoverished black white Whomever it might have been and so there's like this element of nostalgia that I feel For magazine street for this house that i've never seen and this deep affection That I have for this street just having heard my dad speak about it And having driven down it numerous times but having never like experienced really any life there And yet I feel this connection to it and I can only imagine for these folks where the center of worship itself Of god himself being in Jerusalem So the nostalgia they would have felt and the longing to go home That was also Fixed in the promises of these prophets like isiah and jeremy which they surely had heard and now to be the people who were going to experience The fulfillment of these prophecies not that this this time was going to be easy for them by any stress of the imagination But to be alive in that time To see the hope that their parents had talked about grandparents had talked about you know Reciting the words of jeremya to their children of the promises of god and now they get to firsthand experience those promises Again can't imagine like this overwhelming sense of joy and anticipation Uh as they as they approach going home. Yeah, the part that part of the world i mean whether it was greek gods rowing gods Babylonian Persian gods They there was a mindset that temples Represented the very presence of the god they worship And I would imagine that that was also true for the people of israel that They needed the temple it is a visual representation That god was present among them So the their commission to go back and in chapter two they're going to take all these things and you know Thousands and thousands of people and all kinds of things that to get the job done and they had to be quite a caravan That was it was marching on its way Well, they got there in chapter three as we're chapter three when the seventh month came And the israelites had settled in their town. So of righty towns. I guess surrounding jereuslem They assembled together as one in jereuslem then joshua son of josadak and his fellow priests and Zaruba bell That's our guy son of shelltail and his associates began to build the altar 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. So I was thinking about this like You know, I would feel like if you're going to build a temple the first thing you would do is lay the foundation uh-huh They built the altar and the altar As it had been constructed in solubens temple was outside of the temple building proper. It was this big elevated Area where they would have burnt offerings and animal sacrifice offerings on it So even before they started to put down the first stone For the foundation They built the altar There's there's some. I mean like if this goes like a level beyond what you just described that they needed the temple To get their priorities right even the priority within the priority is before we Built the church the temple. Let's build the altar Yeah, because the center piece of it all is worship of god, right? And so you think about Uh, even in our own time There's a tendency to sometimes worship tradition or worship the building Or worship the aesthetic of of the building rather than You know centering our worship on on god himself And it's reminder like this this is uh, and so as they come back the first priority is to establish worship Um and to give themselves to that the other thing too just real quick because I want to make sure we don't gloss over it is uh You know when when they arrive back. It says the people assembled together as one and Jerusalem And so, you know prior to entering into exile There is a massive amount of dysfunction. There's a massive amount of discord people are being oppressed being taken advantage of by their own people Um people, you know, you've got jeremaiah Is a is a true prophet of god. You've got the false prophets. They're in opposition to one another's like The entire landscape of the the jewish people and in juda is one of of this function Um, where they're you know, you've got a groups that are a small set of you know, the righteous remnant that's worshiping the once you're god And then you have all these other folks worshiping all this plethora of gods and here there is this unity restored unity Um where the people are are truly One in heart one in mind centered on their one god And so as they return again as you've pointed out They're first the first thing that they commission is to construct the altar for the sake of re-instituting worship in Jerusalem. Yeah, I want to want to be like to construct our lives in such a way that The first thing we do the main thing we do is worship and we don't see it as Sort of the end of the week. Yeah, it's the first day of the week on the calendar but We kind of functionally think of it as the end of the week and it's It seems like a lot of times. It's what we do if we're not overwhelmed with busyness or or fatigue or whatever else it's This is a reorienting that our lives is say the first thing we do the main thing we do if we end up doing nothing else It will be to worship. Yeah communally Worshiping as well. And so this isn't you know again. They don't go back to Jerusalem and start to rebuild homes Um, it's it's coming together. There's this coming Together and communal worship. You don't think any of them stayed home and and watched altar worship on youtube No, and one of the one of the most beautiful most beautiful pictures of the worship that is instead is reinstated in uh Is in nia mia when azura nia mia commission's azura right to to go and to read the law from like basically from like uh, sunrise to noon and the people stand and at the reading of the law their hearts are just absolutely Just broken before god and they're there's weeping and I mean just this spirit of repentance as they come Together the thought of not being present for worship Uh for those who have truly are truly seeking to abide in the relationship with god Seeking to give themselves over to god Um, the idea that you're going to depart from corporate worship the idea that you're it doesn't exist Because they recognize the centrality of it to all of life and sunday While our rhythm is to see sunday as the last day of the week Reality it's the first day of the week And so that our hearts are positioned in communal worship so that we would go and as paul says in roman's 12 You know, I urge you therefore brothers and sisters, uh In in light of god's mercy in light of god's grace to us and this is what we see in the people god has redeemed them From uh babylon brought them home and what do they do? They give themselves over to worship and the communal act of worship is to set them This would of course been on like a saturday, but this was would set them Uh to live a life as paul would describe as a living sacrifice So where the whole of our life then out of this communal act of worship the whole of our life then is lived For the worship for the glory of god Yeah, that's that's Super super well put so they build this altar and they they get down with it and they're worshiping god there Then it goes on in verse seven Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people Of sident and tire that's up to the north where all the wood the forests were so they could bring cedar logs by sea From lebanon to japa as authorized by syrus king of purges the same way that Solomon had gotten these things hundreds of years earlier when this temple was built they were doing it Again and in verse eight in the second month of the second year so they there there's the second year end of this Return they're getting ready to build the temple in the second month of the second year After their arrival at the house of god in jerusalem Zerubbabel and joshua and the rest of the priests and leviates and all who had returned from cap today jerusalem began the work They appointed leviates 20 years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the lord Verse 10 when the builders laid the foundation of the lord the priests and their vestments and with trumpets and the leviates With symbols took their places to praise the lord as prescribed by king david In israel and it goes on to like the the praise they're just shouting out this praise to god and and weeping and Shouts of joy and all these things that are going on. So it's interesting like we They built the altar first external to the building and they stopped and worship then they put the foundation down And they stopped and worshiped There's something about their rhythms that are interesting because we don't really see ourselves as a success until Job done It feels like and they're just stopping to give praise to god and all they have is a foundation at this point Yeah, I think a lot of times we get drawn into a particular vision Centered around a mission that that we've constructed which might be god or dane don't misread me here But then the functional god becomes the completion of the mission Rather than god himself to where we lose our rootedness You know and I think that's where a lot of times we get into a position where god might give us a vision for something and then you know, we We go all out to fulfill the vision and oftentimes we can lose sight of god Recognizing or affirming our dependence upon him to carry it out and not seeing Not seeing the living into god's call as an act of worship in itself Like it's not a task It's an act of worship and I think a lot of times we get so task oriented because we're you know, it's the western way We get so task oriented. I've got to do, you know, here's here's the task laid out on my to-do list that I've got to get completed so I can feel like I've done all that I need to do for the day and And again somehow or another we end up excluding god from those things And and not seeing the whole of life as an act of worship unto the lord and so even the most menial task That we do doing it in a way that is glorifying to god Doing it in a way that's in in many ways. I think a prayerful expression to the lord Um and a reminder of why we're doing this uh, and so even Which is which is tough sometimes, you know, I remember in seminary When I was at when I was at dallas theological many moons ago During our orientation one of the things that they warned us about is they said do not treat this As an academic exercise Most of you are going to want to get a's that's going to be your goal Your goal is the transformation of the heart by the power of the holy spirit That's your goal. Your goal is to treat your assignments as an act of worship and uh Which was not We were doing a greek exegetical didn't feel much like an act of worship though transformative um but uh But yeah, like seeing life more through that lens rather than being so task oriented Which is the way it's almost like our default like I got to get the stuff done Rather than being like this is what god has given me to do today. May the lord be glorified. Yeah. Well, you're what you're saying here. I mean, it's It's penetrating to me because you know, i'm i'm all about tasks and getting things done and accomplishing things um And there are times when I need to step back and say Just give god praise enjoy the moment and enjoy what it seems to me like in my in my ministry time It's the interruptions So to speak with you that because I have my whole week laid out or my whole month. So the way I work my whole year laid out and it's those it's those um Somebody coming and said would you do my baptism or would you do my wedding or would you do my my loved ones funeral? Or or some other kinds of things which take me away from all of my tasks that I have laid out so perfectly and neatly In a row and I just have to stop What I was thinking I was going to do and live into that ministry moment with people And it's a good reminder for me that sometimes building the altars worth We're taking some time and sometimes the foundations were taking some time with god And giving him glory well they they keep on building This thing and they're they're working on it for a while In chapter four this story is told about how there are some people who come along and they're super mad They do not want These folks to rebuild the temple and they write letters back to the new Persian king at that time And they get the work stopped. So it's like six years into it. I think they get the work stopped and that's it like It's not going to it's partly built the temple by this point is is part part done But mostly undone and they have to stop because the new king in Persia makes them stop and they and they do so Until some things they they stop for a decade and they then they say well we'll get we're here Then they start rebuilding their houses And so we get the prophet haggai That will show up and we'll talk about him next time who shows up and says hey It's been a decade you've got this temple part built Let's get going and we'll look into that story and see how he is a prophet Encourage them to get going with the work So that's that's what we'll pick it up next time And we encourage you to check back in with us in a week and listen there And if you want to just jump in deeper with all that we're doing with this are You know our year and maybe you want to go back and listen to small sermons or some old podcast or you want to get the the church app And get in in touch with we have daily bible readings and devotions and and so forth that we put out Go grab that fishes umc.org or or our our church app and click on the be God's light link And it'll help you find and connect to all of that and if you want to stay up to date with these podcasts We encourage you to follow and rate wherever you get your podcast And hopefully you'll be back on that next week as we come with you again I like the prophet haggai until then may god bless and we'll talk to you then [MUSIC PLAYING]
Mark Ellcessor and Ben Greenbaum talk about the prophet Zerubbabel, who began to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.