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.
Ezra 3:11 NIVUK
I know of a number of young people who were asked to share what they had learned during lockdown in video messages for a church. We asked one young man if he would participate. He wasn't sure if he could. You see, he had quite enjoyed lockdown. He spent most of the time at home playing video games, didn't have to go to school, didn't have to go out, didn't have to see anyone, and he liked it that way.
Not everyone feels that way. Many have experienced mental health issues due to lack of human contact. Others have really struggled with disabled children or relatives at home. Others have lost jobs and livelihoods as businesses have gone under. To hear that someone has actually enjoyed lockdown may seem out of place, or even insulting.
Now imagine how these returnees, many of them elderly, would have felt. They were stood there, grieving for the mess their nation was in as they worshipped on a demolition site in front of a wooden altar, and a bunch of younger, carefree whippersnappers were holding a worship party while they wept.
I can only imagine the conversations...
Yet these young people had every right to be happy. They were back in the land of their ancestry. They had freedom to worship their God. They were worshipping on the very site of the first Temple. They were taking the very first steps to rebuild their nation.
Perhaps a little look at some other Bible verses from around this time might help us to understand their joy.
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: ‘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 Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.” ’
2 Chronicles 36:22-23 NIVUK
The Israelites had spent seventy years in exile. Seventy years! In all this time, the Temple and the city that contained it had been a complete ruin. Now they were being given the opportunity to rebuilt it - and they had a royal mandate to do so! That alone was a huge reason for celebration.
‘Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?’
Zechariah 4:10 NIVUK
The worship at the Temple site might seem like a small thing. How could it compare to worship in the previous Temple? But given all the horrors of the exile and their life in Babylon, we have to understand that it was a start. It was a step in the right direction. Something good was happening at last. And that deserved a joyous celebration.
Yes, this verse was written around five years after that initial act of worship on the Temple foundations, but the principle still applies. And it is a very important principle: when you have a long journey to complete, you should be grateful for every step, no matter how insignificant.
Let me give you an example. A number of years ago I suffered from a disk in my back that had prolapsed quite spectacularly onto the sciatic nerve going down my right leg. And it refused to move. The pain was excruciating. I couldn't move. I couldn't sit or lie down. I couldn't sleep. It got to the stage where I had a hot bath at 3am to try and release it, which worked for about 30 minutes before the pain came back.
I saw a doctor the next morning. He put me on strong painkillers and anti-inflammatories. The pain gradually subsided. But I was left with not much movement in my lower back and tingling down my right leg - tingling I was told would not go away due to potential nerve damage.
I saw a physiotherapist and began exercises. That was really tough. It took around nine months for me to regain full movement and eighteen months before the tingling stopped. Eighteen months of doing often painful exercises every night. Eighteen months, much of it spent trying to do exercises that a healthy person could do without difficulty.
Anyone who has had to recover from an injury like that knows that your recovery doesn't just depend on your effort or ability. Recovery depends on your mentality. Your perspective plays as much a role as your obedience to your doctor or physiotherapist. If you measure where you are now against where you were before it all went wrong then there is no doubt about it: you will weep and mourn and feel like giving up. But if you focus on progress - no matter how small; if you focus on being that little bit better than yesterday; if you celebrate those little baby steps towards your goal, then you will have the fight to win. In fact, you will win even against all the odds.
And that is exactly what these happy Jews are doing.
‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord Almighty. “The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” declares the Lord Almighty. “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” says the Lord Almighty. “And in this place I will grant peace,” declares the Lord Almighty.’
Haggai 2:6-9 NIVUK
These are some of the most encouraging verses you will find anywhere in the Bible. Here the Lord promises that not only is He in absolute control (so they are not under the thumb of an all-powerful oppressor, but God rules over him), not only will God send His promised Messiah, not only will God provide the resources, but the glory of the new Temple will exceed the old one!
But how could that be? The old Temple was designed by David, built by Solomon and one of the wonders of the ancient world! The new one was smaller, plainer and in a ruined city. The very idea seemed madness. But it was more glorious, because of this...
Jesus was blessed in this Temple (Luke 2:22-40). Jesus listened to and interacted with teaching in this Temple (Luke 2:41-50). Jesus Himself taught in this Temple (John 18:20). But, most special of all, the curtain to the Holy of Holies was torn in this Temple (Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45).
The smaller, plainer, less significant Temple, the Temple that was no longer a wonder, was more glorious because Jesus was there. God's plan of salvation was worked out in that Temple. Our path to the presence of God was laid there.
So let me ask you an interesting question. We might be angry and sad about our change in circumstances. But what if God is in it? What if God is making us into a vehicle for His blessing that we were unable to be before our suffering began? What if He is using us as part of His redemptive plan for others?
Maybe that will put a smile back on our face.
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