Our Church Family

Dear church,

This chapter is about loans, greed, and a lack of brotherly love. And disobedience to God’s Law. And generosity. Maybe it’s about having an open hand versus having a closed hand. And again, it’s about brotherly love.

The people were lending money at interest to each other – to the point some were deeply in debt. Some were struggling to put food on the table. Some were even selling their children into slavery. And some had lost property to others.

I wonder whether the work on the walls of Jerusalem was causing a financial hardship for the people. They were so taken up with that work that they couldn’t adequately take care of the work back home – the tending of fields and flocks.

It was against God’s Law for Israelites to lend money at interest to other Israelites. “You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest” (Deuteronomy 23:19). A lot more is written about it in Leviticus 25. The point seems to be that God delivered his people – all of them – from slavery in Egypt, and he wasn’t going to allow his children to further enslave each other. “Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you” (Leviticus 25:36).

This is family business. The Israelites literally were a family – descended from Abraham. For God, there are things a family does and doesn’t do. And family members don’t make a profit off of other family members. Family members don’t take other family members as slaves. And if a family member struggles financially, other family members were to take him or her into their homes and care for that person’s needs. “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him …” (Leviticus 25:35).

You’ll notice how often the word “brother” is used in Leviticus 25 – and in Nehemiah 5. “Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. … ‘Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers.’ … ‘You are exacting interest, each from his brother.’ … ‘We, as far as we were able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!'”

There’s something here to which to pay attention.

Nehemiah also took issue with the leaders who participated in this – the nobles and the officials. There was something disturbing to Nehemiah about the way in which the leaders were using their authority to take advantage of their “brothers.” This was wrong. Even the king of Israel (had Israel had one at that time) was supposed to recognize his place within the family – as a member of the family (Deuteronomy 17:18-20).

And so Nehemiah set things right. And he set the example for the people by sacrificing his own resources on their behalf. He didn’t tax them as he could have. And he set his own servants to work on behalf of the people. Nehemiah was generous out of “the fear of God.” This was the same motivation for the people of Israel to show generosity to their brothers in need (Leviticus 25:36, 43).

So what are we to make of all of this? Nehemiah was working to bring the people to holiness – to complete obedience to God’s Law. God would dwell with his holy people, but they had to be a people intent upon following God’s Law. The intermarriages that Ezra had to deal with and the unbrotherliness that Nehemiah was dealing with had compromised the people’s holiness.

We are to be a holy people. Today, we know that holiness comes from Christ.

Of course, God’s holy people today are supposed to look a lot like God’s holy people of the Old Testament. For instance, leaders within God’s people still are supposed to serve humbly and not use their authority to take advantage of God’s children. Leadership within God’s people doesn’t look anything like worldly leadership. Remember our reading in Matthew. Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28).

God’s people today are supposed to look like ancient Israel in another key way, too. That is, we’re supposed to be a family. “Brothers” and “sisters” are words that are used a lot in the New Testament in reference to other Christians. We’re to be a family. We lend generously. We take in our brothers and sisters who are in need. We forgive. We look out for one another. We protect one another. We seek freedom, not bondage, for one another.

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people” (Acts 2:44-47).

It’s a costly kind of love that we must give to our brothers and sisters in Christ. But that’s the kind of love Christ has given us. Nehemiah, in his own way, demonstrated that kind of love. He gave generously for the sake of the people. We ought to strive to do the same.

And sometimes, the love we give to our brothers and sisters in Christ – to the church – isn’t necessarily returned. It sometimes isn’t noticed or appreciated. And that’s OK. Well, it’s a bummer. But it’s OK – because we’re being obedient to the call of Christ to love one another as he has loved us. We can pray with Nehemiah, “Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.”

Chris

Dear church,

This is a famous part of Nehemiah. The Israelites encountered dangerous opposition from the peoples around them, led by the Samaritan governor, Sanballat. It forced the Israelites to station a guard around them and even to work with one hand while carrying a weapon in the other.

Remember, the building of God’s kingdom brings opposition. Some will not like it. Some may think Christians are up to no good – that our motives are poor – or that we are weak and trying to do what’s impossible for us.

It means we need to work at kingdom-building with diligence and care. We need to keep our eyes wide open, ready for attacks. Our enemy isn’t necessarily people, although people can cause us problems in our building of the kingdom, of the church. Our enemy is spiritual in nature. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

It’s not a unique thing to encounter danger, resistance, and suffering as God’s people. Nehemiah and the returned exiles encountered it. So will we.

But Sanballat’s opposition to the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem tells us something about the work of the kingdom of God, of the work of building up the church. Sanballat asked five questions about the work.

Sanballat’s question #1: “What are these feeble Jews doing?” There is a certain feebleness to the people of the kingdom of God. In Nehemiah’s day, Israel was a weak nation, under the control of the Persians. They were relatively few in number. And their resources were far diminished from the previous greatness of nation. From the world’s perspective, it’s foolishness. But God’s way is a way of weakness. The world looks on and scratches its head. “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

Indeed, Jesus didn’t appear to be anything special, at least according to the world’s standards. “Feeble” might be a good description of him. “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. … We esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:1-3). God brings strength out of weakness. Think also of Samuel, David, Gideon, and Elijah. Even Paul went into the city of Corinth professing his own weakness. God’s ways aren’t the world’s ways. His ways require our total dependence upon him, rather than our own strength. In fact, God shames those who think they are strong. Are you willing to admit your weaknesses?

Sanballat’s question #2: “Will they restore it for themselves?” Could it possibly be that these “feeble Jews” would restore the city of Jerusalem? Yep. This was God’s plan, to build up a people for his name, who would bless the world. This restoration seemed so unlikely to Sanballat. Of course, a “restoration” would require things to return to the way in which they once were. And for that to happen, the people would need a king. And there was no Israelite king in sight in Sanballat’s day. There seemed to be no new King David in the offing.

But He was coming. A virgin named Mary would have a son who would sit on the throne of David: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:30-33). A restoration was coming.

Sanballat’s question #3: “Will they sacrifice?” This is the best question of all. Sacrifice was at the heart of Israel. I suppose the Jews were known most for their sacrifices. We know those sacrifices were part of walking in relationship with the One True God. Those sacrifices were designed to bring atonement for sins, to remove the barrier between God and humans, to join unholy people to a holy God – at least for a moment.

But an even greater sacrifice was coming that Sanballat did not foresee. What did Jesus say? “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). One sacrifice would be sufficient to cover over all sin. The people’s work on the walls of Jerusalem was moving the whole world toward that one ultimate sacrifice.

Sanballat’s question #4: “Will they finish up in a day?” The walls would take some time to complete. God’s building project would continue. But there is a Day (Isaiah 66:6-8). Nehemiah and the Israelite builders were participating in it. And there’s a moment within that “day” for which we all are waiting (1 Corinthians 15:52).

Sanballat’s question #5: “Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” Is it possible to “revive” a stone? This question of Sanballat should warm your heart – because in Christ, we all are living stones. “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5). 

When we read that – “Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish?” – it’s best to think about Jesus, walking among the piles of broken down stones, among rocks cracked and abandoned. It’s best to think about Jesus saying, “Yes, I want that one – and that one – and that one …” This is the story of the gospel. Broken down things are restored by the work of Christ.

And so Sanballat asked more than he knew. Yes, those feeble ones were indeed involved in the eternal restoration of Jerusalem – through a “feeble Jew” named Jesus Christ and an unthinkable sacrifice that reconciled God and humanity. And all this is being brought to fulfillment in the Day of the Lord. And we’re the broken down stones that are getting a revival.

I wonder what you think of all of this. For me, this is a reminder that salvation is about restoration. Our relationship with God is restored through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And that restoration is not just the restoration of me as an individual. It also is the restoration of God’s people. The “walls” of Jerusalem are being built up – stone by stone. This is the church. And so salvation is not an individual thing. We are saved into a community. We’re part of the restoration project.

Chris

Dear church,

You might have found this chapter boring. Another list. This is a list of those who worked on the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah records their names, and sometimes he records their occupations – priests, goldsmiths, local rulers, merchants, gatekeepers, etc. Sons, daughters, and brothers were involved in the building project.

It wasn’t just Nehemiah who was responsible for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. There were many others, and Nehemiah was careful to write down their names – to record for all time those who took leadership roles in the rebuilding of the walls.

The description of the rebuilding work begins and ends at the “Sheep Gate.” I picture the city being closed up, encircled, with the Sheep Gate being the main point of entry.

That’s fitting, you know. Remember Ezra 1:1 and the importance of the book of Jeremiah to the Ezra/Nehemiah story. Jeremiah 50:6 says, “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold.”

A little later in that chapter, Jeremiah records this: “Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria. I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and his desire shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found, for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant” (Jeremiah 50:17-20).

Who says Nehemiah 3 is boring! There’s a lot going on here, if we care to look. Nehemiah described the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, and he used the Sheep Gate as his focal point. It seems he did this because God, as Jeremiah had predicted, was “restoring Israel to his pasture.” The nation has been “lost sheep,” scattered and straying from the fold. Here, the fold was being restored. The lost sheep would be brought back, and their desires would be satisfied.

And then there’s this whole piece about iniquity and sin not being found in Israel – “for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.” Again, everything points to Jesus Christ. About 500 years after Nehemiah’s rebuilding project, Jesus would die on the cross just outside those city walls at Jerusalem. But he would rise again. The forgiveness of sin and reunion with our Creator and Lord is central to the crucifixion and resurrection. Did you know your sins have been forgiven?

In Christ, we have a picture of the gathering of sheep. There is plenty of imagery for us in the gospels to consider on this point. I would just point out this one: “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture'” (John 10:7-9). Actually, if you have time today, read all of John 10. I think you would find it fruitful.

And so Nehemiah subtly reminds us of the way in which Jeremiah’s prophecies were being fulfilled, and Nehemiah unknowingly points us to Jesus Christ.

I really like this chapter – Nehemiah 3. I like it because of all those builders. They really aren’t all that significant from the world’s perspective. They’re really forgettable people. And it seems the work they did was not all that significant either, again from the world’s perspective. “So you built a gate. Big deal!”

But you can imagine how God views them. Shallum was there. He was an important guy in Jerusalem. He ruled half the district of Jerusalem. And he repaired the wall near the Tower of the Ovens. Oh, and it wasn’t just him. His daughters were with him. They went out and worked on the wall. They sacrificed their time and energy and resources for the rebuilding of that wall. And as we know, it wasn’t just the wall that they were working on. They were helping to build the nation – the people of God. They were God’s “servants” (Jeremiah 2:20).

And when Jesus on Palm Sunday approached those walls on his way into Jerusalem, the people cried out and rejoiced and referred to Jesus as “King” – and the Pharisees told Jesus to make the people stop. What they were saying wasn’t appropriate. And Jesus said, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). I like to think Jesus was talking about the stones of those walls – the very stones that people like Shallum and his daughters put into place. All of it was work that was aching for the arrival of the Messiah. Creation was eagerly waiting (Romans 8:19).

Finally, I couldn’t help but think of the people in my life who have done the work of “building.” These are people who put the gospel into my life. My faithful grandmothers are two of them. A pastor in Wichita, Kansas, in the church where I grew up – Charlie Greer – was another. Multiple other pastors and small group leaders and mentors are part of that. My favorite pastor – Chuck Terrill – is another. They diligently do the work of building. To the world, their work is insignificant. But their names are written down (Revelation 3:12-13).

So you might want to think about who those people are in your own lives. Who has been doing this work of building? Thank God for them and – if they are still with us – pray for them.

Chris

Dear church,

Sometimes I go into our empty church sanctuary and daydream. The sanctuary is empty nowadays – pretty much all the time. And my daydreams are about what it would be like for the sanctuary to be full – so full that we have to bring out all the chairs, and so full that people are lining the side and back walls, standing room only. And so full we have to throw open the windows and turn the sound system outward so that the people who are standing on the lawn can hear what’s going on inside.

In my daydreams, I’m standing on the lawn, listening to the sound of the worship inside and to the words of the preacher as he explains the gospel. And people are listening. They are singing. And after the service we might watch some baptisms in the Crystal River – some very cold baptisms.

It’s just a daydream, a hope, for the Church at Redstone. Eventually, my vision settles again on our empty sanctuary, the chairs all spread out six feet apart, and it’s silent. I’ve given you a little window into my soul!

My daydream is pretty small, in reality. And it certainly is not quite the same as what I’m sure some of the faithful Jews had in Jesus’ day. Theirs was a grand vision. Some of the Jews in Jesus’ day had a heavenly hope. They had a hope that their nation would be restored, and that the words of the Prophets would be fulfilled.

Shortly after Jesus Christ was born, his parents took him to the temple in Jerusalem to be circumcised. And a widow was there named Anna. She was 84 years old. (That’s 7 times 12, if you are into math). And Anna was a prophetess. And upon meeting the baby Jesus, Anna “began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

We learn something there. In Jesus’ day, some people were hanging around the temple who were “waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” And the presence of Jesus – this infant – sparked something in those people. “Here is hope!” Luke, the gospel writer, recorded this little episode with Anna because, I suppose, he wanted to make sure we knew the mysterious excitement the baby Jesus sparked in the lives of strangers – strangers who cared about the redemption of God’s holy city.

Jesus Christ brings with him the “redemption of Jerusalem.”

Of course, we also remember The End (which also is a beginning). In Revelation, we can read about what the disciple John saw in his vision from God. Just read to this: “Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed – on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:9-14).

There is a lot of symbolism here. But we can easily see the picture of God working through the nation of Israel to become a blessing to the world – and we can see the joining of the history of God’s people, pre- and post-Christ. This is one people of God, marked by twelve tribes and twelve apostles.

The point as we read Nehemiah 2 today is Jerusalem is no ordinary city. There was a long expectation in Israel that God was going to restore Jerusalem and the temple. Anna and others spent their days in the temple in Jerusalem waiting for this work of restoration. And I think Jesus sparked new hope in them of the fulfillment of that restoration.

Nehemiah was helping to set the stage for Jesus Christ. God was moving Nehemiah forward to rebuild the walls and gates of Jerusalem, I suppose to prepare those city gates for the arrival of the Messiah. “And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good” (Nehemiah 2:18). And as Nehemiah took his late-night tour of the walls and gates, the desolation of the city was clear. Broken down. Destroyed by fire. Impassable in some places. I picture rubble everywhere.

Nehemiah commenced the work. He had his conversation with the Persian King Artaxerxes in 445 BC. In reality, the work continues today. It won’t be completed until the vision John received becomes a reality sometime in the future, after the return of Jesus Christ – “the Lamb.”

That’s the hope we have as Christians. We look forward to the return of Jesus Christ and the appearance of the heavenly city of Jerusalem, with its “great, high wall.” If you read more in Revelation, you’ll see there is no temple in that new Jerusalem because Jesus Christ serves as the temple. And you’ll see the gates are never shut.

A question we might ask ourselves today, as we read and pray through Nehemiah 2, is just what hope we have for God’s work in our lives today. We can have big hopes – like for the return of Jesus – and we have little hopes, like the restoration of a relationship or a body or a nation or a church. What is broken down today that you would like to see God redeem? Think about how God’s redemption of that thing might tie into his overall plan of redemption for his people.

Another short scripture to read and ponder today if you have time: Psalm 122. I imagine the prophetess Anna and the others who were “waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” used this psalm frequently in their prayers. It’s important for us to realize the great hope the faithful in Israel placed in Jerusalem.

Chris

Dear church,

I am watching the news closely, for any sign of relief. The government has said we will get relief from our lockdown. At some point, we will not be bound to our homes. We will not be bound to live behind our masks. We will not be locked out of restaurants and hotels and hair salons and churches.

It’s what the government has promised us. Colorado’s stay-at-home order will end on April 26. Our county’s stay-at-home order will end on April 30. The government has a responsibility to uphold. It can let those health orders lapse. Or it can renew them as they exist currently or in some new form. But the government has to do its part and decide.

We are attentive to the government these days. We are in tune with whether things are being done well and fairly by the government. We are in tune with whether the government is acting appropriately. We are holding the government to a high standard. It must do its part well.

It is an expectation that we have. It’s part of the covenant between the government and the people in this country. Each has responsibilities. The people elect. The government serves. The people submit. And then the people elect again.

It’s a covenant. A covenant creates expectations. It allows us to know how things are supposed to go. We don’t wander in the dark, wondering how things will go – because we have a covenant. The covenant puts up barriers around us – and it opens doors.

Nehemiah called God the “God who keeps covenant.” I suppose fundamentally this is a central feature in God’s character. He’s not an arbitrary God. He’s a God who does what he says he will do. He does not break his promises. He keeps the covenants that he makes.

In Deuteronomy 30, Moses wrote that when the people of Israel living in exile return to God in obedience, then God will act. “If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you” (Deuteronomy 30:4). If the people quit their rebellion and return to God, then God will bring them back into the Promised Land and bless them. It’s the covenant. God keeps covenant with his people.

And Nehemiah remembered that. Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the Persian King Artaxerxes. It was a prominent position. Nehemiah was doing well, while the Israelite people as a whole were not. Nehemiah learned the returned exiles in Jerusalem were in a bad way. The temple had been rebuilt, but the city’s walls were still in shambles. And so Nehemiah prayed to God and reminded God of the covenant.

Nehemiah knew the covenant. And the covenant created expectations. If the people returned to God, God must act.

We worship this same God today. The God of the Old Testament is the same God as the New Testament. When God makes a promise, he makes a promise that is good for all time.

So I remembered Matthew’s Gospel (again). Jesus said, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). That’s a promise. That’s a covenant. Expectations for both sides are present. We acknowledge Christ. Christ acknowledges us. Nothing can change that.

Nehemiah knew God in this way. We can know God in this way.

In some ways, I suppose, Nehemiah was holding God to his word. He was holding the “God of heaven, the great and awesome God” accountable. Nehemiah was doing this, obviously, in a very humble way. He was saying, essentially, “Remember your promise to us. If we come back to you, you will gather us up – even from the uttermost parts of heaven.”

When God makes a covenant, he opens himself to a relationship like this – where a mere mortal can call on God to act. This is the God we worship. And so we can remember the promise. If we call out to Jesus, even if we’ve been as far from him and his kingdom as humanly possible – even if we’ve been living in the “uttermost parts” – he will answer.

Chris

Dear church,

We have a tall tree on our property. It is a towering spruce. I’ve thought about cutting it down – or having someone cut it down for me. It’s too big for me to handle.

I want to cut it down because the soil has eroded around its base, largely because of a driveway that it stands beside. Part of its root system is exposed. I envision it falling some day. It would create quite the mess.

Its footing is weak. It reminds me a bit of our house, actually. There’s portion of our house where I can feel just a bit of a slope in the floor. You probably know what that feels like. It’s not a significant slope, but I notice it.

And over time, I envision our house – like that tree – collapsing. Hopefully, it will be a long time from now! Having a good foundation is important. The collapse may take a long time to materialize, but it’s coming.

The people of Israel had made a mistake. Actually, I counted 111 men who made mistakes – marrying women from other nations. God had commanded the nation of Israel to remain pure, to not blend in with the nations around them – specifically by not intermarrying with the people of those nations.

The survival of the nation as a holy people depended on measures such as these. Intermarriage would result in idolatry. The nation eventually would turn to the gods of the people around them.

There was no real choice in the matter, and Ezra knew that. And so he humbled himself and cried out to God for mercy. And the people took notice. They gathered – probably a little grudgingly on a dreary day – and heard the news.

It was a crisis in the life of the nation, and it was a crisis in the lives of those 111 families. Ezra’s job was to unwind those unrighteous relationships.

This strikes me as harsh. It probably should strike us as harsh. No one would want to see this happen – to see families broken up like that. I guess we should see it as harsh.

But then again, I suppose each of those 111 men had a choice in the matter. They could have taken their foreign wives and children and walked away from Israel. But if they were to remain part of this nation – this nation that was in a covenant with the One True God – this nation that God intended to use to bless the whole world – they had to make some difficult decisions.

I suppose if a person builds his or her life around outright disobedience to God, then a collapse is probably on the horizon. What did Jesus say at the end of the Sermon on the Mount? “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:26-27).

In Israel on that rainy day in front of the temple in Jerusalem, the people were experiencing one of those “great-was-the-fall-of-it” moments.

Have you ever tried to be holy? You know, that’s what we’re supposed to be as Christians. We might even say that’s what we are. We are a holy people. The Apostles’ Creed calls us “the holy catholic church.” I suppose that comes straight from Jesus. Also in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, “You therefore must be perfect (holy), as your heavenly father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

The apostle Paul added about the church, “For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:17). And the apostle Peter wrote, “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15). 

I find it very difficult to be holy. I find it outlandish, even. Me? Holy?

Some of the people of Israel must have found it that way, too. And they must have been sobered as they understood the consequences at their unholiness.

But the Law of God – so important in the second half of the book of Ezra – was what kept the people in relationship with him. The Law was supposed to be a sweet thing, preserving the nation in times of hardship as they walked with the Maker of heaven and earth. The Law was supposed to be a sweet thing – unless you violated the Law. Then it was your judge.

For the Israelites, it was pretty simple. If they wanted to be a holy nation and to receive God’s blessing, they had to build their lives on the foundation of God’s Law. And, in the end, they failed. At least, sort of.

The people could not meet God’s standard of holiness. They tried. Actually, they tried hard. Ezra tells the story of their striving to live out God’s Law. After failing and being banished from the Promised Land, they tried again. They came back to the land. They rebuilt the temple. They began worshiping God as he called them to worship.

But 111 men put the whole thing in jeopardy.

And so Israel failed. Sort of. There would be one Israelite man who got it right. All it takes is 111 men to ruin it? And all it takes is one to save it? I guess so. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). 

Jesus carried out the Law perfectly. And so for Christians, we build our lives on the Law of Christ. He’s our foundation. He’s the rock, not the sand. The law of Christ is based in grace, of course – one perfect Israelite man died for all who would believe. The nation of Israel really has become one that would bless the whole world. And we’re holy because he is holy.

Think on these things.

Chris

Dear church,

Chapter 9 struck me as a chapter that is full of emotion. Ezra was distraught. He had heard some of the returned exiles had intermarried with the local peoples, and he tore his garments and pulled out his hair in anguish. The people had fallen into sin. Couldn’t you feel his anguish?

God had said the people were to remain pure. They were not to intermarry with the people of the Promised Land. The heart of the issue was idolatry. The spouses from the other nations tended to turn the Israelites toward false worship. We learn that from none other than the life of King Solomon. And the people of Israel were in a covenant with the One True God. To be in a covenant with him meant to worship him and him alone – and to follow his commands. The calling of the people of Israel was to remain pure. And so these kinds of intermarriages were off-limits. The Israelites were to faithful to God alone.

Idolatry caused the Israelites to suffer the discipline of God and to be kicked out of the Promised Land to begin with. And here Ezra discovered the people were falling into it again. You get a sense that the people were living on borrowed time – on the sheer grace of God. They were just a “remnant,” and they were living in a period of “a little reviving in (their) slavery.” They had gotten another chance. They were back in the Promised Land, and the temple had been rebuilt. Things were looking pretty God. God had blessed them in unexpected ways.

And they were blowing it.

There’s emotion here. Ezra said, “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you.” He was serving the role as priest for the people – interceding for them before God. And I noticed how this was a communal thing. It wasn’t just that one member of the Israelite nation had sinned, or hundreds had sins. The whole nation was at fault. Ezra, who hadn’t engaged in intermarriage, was acting like he had sinned. All the people were in this together.

Of course, we don’t live like that today. Or rather, we don’t think we live like that. We kind of think we’re all on our own. (We’re Americans after all.) Another church member can sin if he wants, but that doesn’t affect me. I wonder if we can find some sort of corrective to that here in Ezra. Do God’s people all live in this together – as one body, where one rejoices and all of us rejoice – and where we intercede on each others’ behalf before God? The Bible says we do.

Anyway, I was struck by how moved Ezra was by the people’s sins. And how he collapsed before God in prayer – prayer for mercy. It was communal sin.

And I wonder whether we ever see communal sin in our midst as a church. Is that something we would notice? And would we, even if we didn’t engage in the sinful activity, hit our knees before God in petition for forgiveness.

Of course, God promises to forgive us as we confess our sins (1 John 1:9). Jesus Christ paid the cost on the cross. As I was thinking about Ezra’s prayer in light of our new position in Christ, I came to the conclusion that it is Christ who is interceding for us as we sin. He’s embracing that sin – our sin – as his own. Indeed, our sin is communal. That’s what the cross was all about, after all. One man died for many so that we could live. He is our high priest.

And then I thought about sin. I thought about the temptation to blend in with the other “nations” around us. Remember, God had a purpose in that rule against intermarriage. He wanted a peculiar people – a distinct nation that could become a blessing for all the other nations. The nation can’t be distinct unless it worships God alone. And we still are called to be a distinct “nation.”

And there remains a temptation to “intermarry” – although we don’t think of it as a big deal. The culture around us has other things that it worships – self, money, good health (a big one today), sex, prestige, individualism, freedom, etc. And we can slip into that kind of worship if we aren’t paying attention.

We’re called to separate ourselves from the world. And as we separate ourselves, we build the kingdom that draws the nations toward God. That’s the idea of God’s peculiar people.

But that separation is not something we sometimes think we should do. But we must remember it’s not a separation of looking down on non-Christians or judging the world. Rather, it’s a separation based on our priorities. We simply trust and follow Jesus. That’s it. We follow wherever he goes. And that means there are some roads we simply don’t travel.

The apostle Peter – one who knew all about the forgiveness of Jesus – wrote this: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). And the apostle Paul wrote this: “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler – not even to eat with such a one” (1 Corinthians 5:11).

Let’s be aware of ourselves. How are we falling into the traps of the world? And let’s be aware of ourselves as a church – what communal sins might we need to bring before God?

Chris

Dear church,

Ezra 7 is the start of the second half of the book of Ezra. The first six chapters of the book focuses on the rebuilding of the temple. It was completed in about 515 BC. Ezra entered onto the scene in 458 BC – the seventh year of the reign of the Persian King Artaxerxes.

You’ll notice how Artaxerxes – like the kings Cyrus and Darius – dealt favorably with the Israelites. How is this even possible? The people of Israel were a small, relatively insignificant tribe. They’d been routed in battle more than 100 years earlier and carried off into captivity. And yet pagan king after pagan king was highly interested in the Israel’s welfare – first in the rebuilding of the temple and then in the teaching of God’s Word. The short answer is God was acting on behalf of his people. He was giving them grace among the nations.

It is good to remember here that these events, according to the book of Ezra, were designed so that “the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled” (Ezra 1:1). Jeremiah prophesied before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. He had plenty to say about those events, as well as the events that would come after, such as the people’s return from exile (Jeremiah 31).

Jeremiah also prophesied about the Law of God – “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me …” (Jeremiah 31:33-34). And so Ezra is beginning to bring the Law back into the center of Israel’s life. Of course, this is just the beginning. Jesus Christ will mark the culmination of this work begun by Ezra. The Law will be written on the people’s hearts by the Holy Spirit.

As I read Ezra 7-8 and saw the new emphasis on the God’s Word, I was reminded of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. Moses led them into the wilderness, and a couple of things happened pretty quickly. The people received the Law of God – the Ten Commandments – and the people received instructions about the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle. So they got God’s way for their living (the Law), and they got a holy place for worship.

In the return to the Promised Land, the people seem to be re-enacting the exodus. They rediscover their central place of worship, and they rediscover God’s Law.

Moving into chapter 8, we get another list. Accompanying Ezra on his journey to Jerusalem are two priests, a member of the house of King David, and 12 families (likely representing the 12 tribes of Israel).

In going to Jerusalem, Ezra didn’t want to go without any Levites, and so he stopped and sent for Levites to come with the group. The Levites are important in the life of Israel because of the work they do in preserving the nation’s worship and its obedience to the Word of God. Again, this goes all the way back to the exodus from Egypt, when the people were in the wilderness. The Levites step to the front in Exodus 32. Read it when you get a chance. Another place to read about the Levites is in Numbers 3.

A couple of points can be made about the trip to Jerusalem. The Israelites needed courage because they were without a formal military escort. They had to trust in God – kind of like the Israelites needed to trust in God during their first venture into the Promised Land (Joshua 1). Also, priests were given control of the offerings. They were trusted to be good and righteous. Not all of Israel’s priests were like that. But these, apparently, were. This was a good sign.

And the whole trip started just after the Passover feast. There’s a lot of symbolism here! Please spend some time pondering it.

And ponder this: “We came to Jerusalem, and there we remained three days.” Recall Matthew 12:40.

We can also think about the numbers of bulls, rams, lambs, and male goats that were offered in sacrifice. The numbers 12 and 7 represent perfection, completion, and wholeness. The nation of Israel was becoming whole again. They had the land. They had the temple. They had priests and Levites. And they were about to refocus themselves on God Law. The nation was moving again toward holiness – to be a nation that would bless the whole earth. Israel was being made new.

But things were still in process. The people were not yet holy. Things still hadn’t been brought to completion. But the pieces were coming together. God was superintending a renewal in the life of Israel.

I suppose the element that caught my attention the most in these two chapters was the entrusting of all that gold and silver to the priests. Ezra told the priests, “You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy …” Israel’s priests had important work to do. But it wasn’t just the work that was important. It was important who the priests were in themselves. They were holy to God – set apart, dedicated, consecrated for a specific purpose.

They weren’t just anybody. They were priests of God. And they carried holy things with them, things of precious value, things dedicated to God, things that were bound to reside in the temple of God.

Jesus is our high priest. He is holy, set apart for a purpose. And he carried a holy thing with him as he went – his sinless life. And at the end of the day, he gave it over to God as an offering, as a sacrifice.

And Jesus is still carrying holy things along with him. He’s carrying you and I, who are made holy by his sacrifice.

At some point, we just need to stop in gratitude.

Other scriptures to read: Hebrews 7:23-28 and 1 Peter 1:13-21.

Chris

Dear church,

As Christians, we always have something to rejoice about. The headlines have been gloomy lately. They are getting better, I think, but they’ve been gloomy. I’m inclined to think much of the news coverage is over-the-top, but it’s hard not to scroll through the news and feel a little bit down. There’s the coronavirus, of course. And then there’s the economy: Jobless claims are up. Even some hospital workers are getting laid off. Some are making comparisons to the Great Depression.

It can leave a person feeling down. But the news is getting a little better. Pitkin County opened up construction sites again – and bike repair shops. So there’s that.

And the Israelites finished the temple in Ezra 6 (our Scripture reading for today). And they had a celebration. They offered God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and 12 male goats. Ezra tells us they celebrated the dedication of the temple “with joy.”

I’m sure someone noticed, however, that the news wasn’t altogether positive. There was some bad mixed in there. Maybe the person didn’t want to bear the bad news – to rain on the parade. But the fact of the matter was this: By comparison, it wasn’t much of a celebration. The Israelites didn’t have much to offer God.

If we go back and read what King Solomon offered to God when the first temple was dedicated, we begin to get the picture. Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep (1 Kings 8:63). There’s a big difference between 120,000 sheep and what the people were able to muster when they dedicated the second temple. If a person were to look around at that second dedication ceremony, and if that person were to remember the scriptures, he or she might get a little depressed. It might have seemed a downer. The people of God were not what they once were.

But the people didn’t seem to notice. They simply celebrated “with joy.”

There was a lot going on in that dedication scene and the Passover celebration that followed it. There certainly was more going on that met the eye, if one were simply looking out over the herds brought as offerings.

The people were back in the land. The temple had been rebuilt. Prophecies were being fulfilled. The local pagan governors even were forced to help finance the work on the temple (Ezra 6:8). And “the Lord had made (the people) joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.” The people had seen the hand of God at work around them.

The Passover marked the time God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. He told them to spread the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. If they did so, they would be spared God’s judgment (see Exodus 12). The Israelites reenacted the Passover feast every year. And shortly after the new temple was dedicated, Ezra tells us, they again celebrated the Passover. They remembered their deliverance from destruction.

Here were a weak people recognizing the deliverance of God in the life of their nation. These particular people had been through a lot. Decades in exile. Mass slaughter among their people. Poverty. Servitude. And here they were, limited in number, but seeing that GOD STILL WAS WITH THEM. They knew God was with them because the foreign king – a pagan man who should have wanted nothing to do with Israel – was helping them. God had “turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them.”

I wonder if they thought they’d been “passed over” again – that somehow God had delivered them from the judgment, that he had spared them, that they had been preserved through that long night of exile and now found themselves in the bright light of dawn – a nation spared.

God’s promise to Israel remained true. And they knew it. And they celebrated “with joy.”

No bad news can shake us. Our temple – Christ – stands firm. The sacrificial blood is good for all time. As we go through this difficult time, we can rest on the truth of the Passover, and the truth of the second temple. God still is with us.

Chris

Dear church,

In Ezra 5 – our reading for today – the people of Israel got back on track. They had become discouraged and fearful in rebuilding the temple, and for about 15 years, the work stopped. A new king came to power in Persia – Darius. He reigned from 521 to 486 BC.

As you read the chapter, you’ll notice a couple of things. First, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah played an important role in the people getting back to work on the temple. If you get a chance, read the books of Haggai and Zechariah to see exactly what they said. It’s fascinating stuff. (As always, read the Bible as a Christian. Look for Christ as you read.)

Second, when the people got back to work, they were questioned by the local Persian officials. The officials apparently were unaware King Cyrus had given the OK for the rebuilding of the temple, and they wanted to verify that a building project like this – with all its attendant religious and political ramifications – was on the up and up. So they sent a letter to King Darius to get his thoughts on the matter.

I thought it was interesting how the Persian officials – Tattenai and Shethar-bozenai – asked the builders of the temple for their names. And the Israelites replied, “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth …”

That stuck with me. The people of Israel had grown lax in their commitment to God for about 15 years. They came back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. And then the work stopped. For whatever reason – discouragement, fear, frustration – they quit.

And then the prophets spoke up. They spurred the people back into action, to recommit to the task at hand, to attend to the things of God. Remember from Ezra 1, it was the God who got the ball rolling on this project to begin with – stirring up the spirit of Cyrus and stirring up the people of Israel who were in exile. God was the initiator.

And the prophets got the people moving again – “in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.” God again served the role of initiator. And the people remembered who they were – “the servants of the God of heaven and earth.” And I assume they remembered they were supposed to be doing the work of God in the world. They were supposed to be about his business rather than their own. They were supposed to put his work in the world first.

This resonated with me. Sometimes, I need to be reminded about who I am as a Christian – “a servant of the God of heaven and earth.” I don’t need a name. I belong to God. His name is the only one that matters. And I need to get up and do what he would have me to do. I need to get up and look around and see where he would have me act in his kingdom today.

God may be waiting for me to wake up to his purposes and to be faithful in serving him. And his Holy Spirit will remind me. And his written Word – the Bible – will speak to me about it. And I just need to listen, and then act. I need to remember that I am God’s servant before I am anything else, and a servant should be busy working for his master.

Maybe this is a good reminder for you, too. What would God have his servants do today? What are the things of God to which we should be attending?

Chris