God is Merciful in the Small Ways as well (Ezra 3:7-13)

Source: Life, Hope and Truth

Ezra 3:7-13
Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia. In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. Joshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah ) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God. 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 toward Israel endures forever.” 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.

We have arrived at the point where the rebuilding of the Temple of the Lord has begun. The Israelites have already put God First, by praising him, now, it was time to get the temple started.

v7 sees the masons and carpenters to be paid with money, whilst the people of Sidon and Tyre were to be paid in food and drink for transporting the cedar logs by sea from Lebanon. V8, the supervisors are chosen from among the priests and Levites who were 20 years or older.

It is clear, that careful planning was essential right down to the time at which things were to be done. The first month of the year would have been dominated by the Passover, leaving the second month (v8) to start laying the foundations. This would have been perfectly planned with King Solomon in mind since he also built his temple to the Lord in the second month of the year (1 Kings 6:1).

In verse 10, the builders lay the foundation stone, which results in a chorus of praise to God - the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord. Although there is no ark, like there was in Solomon's time, God is still enthroned through the praises of his people. Verse 11 records the words spontaneously sang, perhaps pointing toward their memory of what God had done for them (by bringing them out of Babylonia again). The sight of the temple would have been a momentous achievement for the people of Israel, those who had returned from the 70-year exile. This was a sign that God had not forgotten them and indeed was moving forward with them. His throne was once again among his people and once again, God would sit upon it.

To a people who had known no temple of the Lord (which would account for many of those who had returned), this was a joyous occasion, however small the act was. These young Levites and Israelites were ecstatic with awe and joy because to them, God had worked miracles to achieve his goal of dwelling among his people out of nothing. To them, God had surely made a way where there seemed to be no way.

Not everyone was happy, however, verse 12 shows that many of the older Israelites were wailing at the sight of the foundation stone. No doubt remembering the magnificent design and splendour of the previous temple of the Lord. As verse 13 points out, their wailing was just as exhuberant and loud as those who were praising God. To these people, this second temple was a pale comparison to the former glorious temple of the Lord. Perhaps they were thinking that God would find it a poor house to dwell in. Their memories were clouding their judgement. They were allowing what they remember, former glories, former apearances, former wonders to take over their lives and minds. They focused on the sin that had caused the first temple to be taken down, rather than on the future.

To the young, even the laying of the foundation stone was a great achievement. They see the glory of God's mercy, however small and seemingly insignificatn it appears to us.

To the older Israelites, their inward facing sin forced them to dwell on the past, dwell on those who destroyed the temple before, focus on the past that caused them to be exiled to Babylon, rather than focus on what God is doing today!

That is something we do, today. We often choose to focus our thoughts on the past, the bad things that happen in our lives, the people who caused us hurt, the job that we lost, anything. We choose to dwell on the bad things in life - this is exactly why TV drama is so negative at times - we love to watch (or read in the case of books) when things go wrong. We have begun to sympathise with the darkness. We have begun to accept the darkness as normal, as what our lives ought to be and we only dream of what our lives was once before all the darkness took over. We are very much like the older Israelites who wailed and cried at the laying of one small (relatively!) stone. We cannot accept that things could be better when they were so good in the past. We have forgotten to be thankful for the small good things God has given us.

But, as Ephesians 2:4 tells us because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. 

Our lives today can be governed by one of two things: 1) us dwelling on our past problems or 2) us focusing on what Christ has done for us. Which will you choose?

Let us not allow the memory of past afflictions drown out the wonder of present mercies.