When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord , the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord , as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord : ‘He is good; his love towards Israel endures for ever.’ And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord , because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No-one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.
Ezra 3:10-13 NIVUK
Change.
It's the only thing in life that is a constant. Only change can be guaranteed. Nothing ever seems to be the same.
The problem is not how we stop it, or even how we slow it down. Change is inevitable. Change happens. It has to. Without change our society would never grow and develop.
Even we as believers need to change. Christians are like cars driving up a steep hill without brakes: we either move forward or we move backward. Remaining how we are and where we are is not an option.
Christians actually have no excuse for opposing change unless the change is against what the Bible teaches. The Gospel itself is a message of change: it changes lives. It changed our lives. And it should still be changing our lives even now.
Change is inevitable. And it doesn't have to be a bad thing.
I remember a time in my life when multiple big changes happened at the same time. I was married in May 2003. We arrived in Scotland at the end of July. My wife was pregnant by mid-September. We signed our first mortgage agreement in late November. I remember walking from our tiny apartment above our church to the bus station when it hit me hard: "Paul, you have a mortgage, a wife and a baby on the way. Time to grow up. Take responsibility. You aren't a kid anymore. This is it."
I don't think I've ever felt change as forceful as that.
The people in these verses were undergoing change on a level that few of us could ever understand or comprehend. In fact, I sincerely doubt if any of us would want to go through this level of change.
What we see here is an excellent example how people react to change - both psychologically and practically. What these verses, and others nearby, describe are three emotions that people display when change happens.
The first emotion is anger. So let's look at THE ANGRY PEOPLE.
Nothing stays unchanged in life things continually change. We just have to learn how to cope and react to change.