Is rebuilding a lost faith something that only reformers attempt? Upon what foundation should we all rebuild the faith once for all delivered? Let’s begin in Ezra 3.
What was the first thing that an exiled people started to rebuild in Jerusalem?
When the seventh month came and the Israelites were in their towns, the people gathered together as one in Jerusalem. Then Jeshua, Jozadak’s son along with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son along with his kin, started to rebuild the altar of Israel’s God so that they might offer entirely burned offerings upon it as prescribed in the Instruction from Moses the man of God. They set up the altar on its foundations, because they were afraid of the neighboring peoples, and they offered entirely burned offerings upon it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings. (Ezra 3:1-3 CEB)
What autumn festival did they celebrate? Did offerings begin again?
The people followed the rules for celebrating the Festival of Shelters [Tabernacles] and offered the proper sacrifices each day. They offered sacrifices to please the Lord, sacrifices at each New Moon Festival, and sacrifices at the rest of the Lord's festivals. Every offering the people had brought voluntarily was also presented to the Lord. Although work on the temple itself had not yet begun, the people started offering sacrifices on the Lord's altar on the first day of the seventh month of that year. (Ezra 2:4-6 CEV)
How did the rebuilding of the temple begin? Who was involved?
So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia. Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the Lord. And Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers. (Ezra 3:7-9 ESV)
As the foundation took shape was there a mix of joy for the new start and tears for the old temple?
When the builders had laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple, the priests, dressed in their robes and holding trumpets, and the Levites descended from Asaph, holding cymbals, took their positions to praise the Lord, as King David of Israel had instructed. They sang with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord: “For He is good; His faithful love to Israel endures forever.” Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid. But many of the older priests, Levites, and family leaders, who had seen the first temple, wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this house, but many others shouted joyfully. The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from that of the weeping, because the people were shouting so loudly. And the sound was heard far away. (Ezra 3:10-13 HCSB)
Upon what foundation should a new generation rebuild? Is it just listening to Jesus’ words or also acting on them?
I will show you what everyone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. They are like a person building a house, who dug a deep hole to lay the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the floodwaters pushed against that house but couldn’t shake it, because it had been founded on the rock. But the person who hears what I say but doesn’t act on it is like someone who built a house on the ground without any foundation. When the floodwaters pushed against it, that house quickly collapsed, and the resulting destruction of that house was extensive.” (Luke 6:47-49 ISV)
Is rebuilding a lost faith something that only reformers attempt? Upon what foundation should we all rebuild the faith once for all delivered? You decide!
