The task of rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem was a huge task with many obstacles. In the middle of this effort, the friction existing between the rich and poor comes to light. The rich Jews have been taking advantage of their poorer brothers. There is a famine in the land and the people are being forced to mortgage their land and sell their children into slavery in order to buy food and pay their taxes.
The walls around the temple of our heart are built by obedience, obedience in the face of opposition, obedience in spite of the cost. Believe it or not, obedience is a joy but it is also plain, old-fashioned hard work. It is very easy to shy away from the task at hand, to count the cost as too great, the risks as being too dangerous and to rewards just not worth it. After all, we have gotten along just fine up until this point. Things may not be all that we or God would have, but we have learned to cope. Our lives may be broken, but we have learned to make them work, so why mess them up?
In Nehemiah 3 we go through a long list of people building the wall of Jerusalem, each in their own assigned location, important people, leaders, craftsmen, sons, daughters, and ordinary joes. But they all worked side by side to accomplish the great task that was before them.
Book of Ezra tells us the story of a large number of the captive Jews, who, by the decree of King Cyrus of Persia, have returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel for the purpose of rebuilding the temple. Under Zerubbabel’s leadership, the Jews have rebuilt the temple and now have begun to repair the foundations and restore the walls of the city. The Samaritans and others who have gained power in the area are afraid that if Jerusalem’s defenses were repaired, they would be threatened and could lose their power. So Rehum, the commanding officer, writes a deceptive letter (Ezra 4:11-16) to Artaxerxes, who is now king of Persia and the king replies: “Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order” (Ezra 4:21). Jerusalem’s enemies, now with royal backing, “went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and compelled them by force to stop” (Ezra 4:23). This is the sad situation that exists when the Book of Nehemiah opens. The Jews have recently lost their royal backing and their enemies are free to continue their oppression, intimidation, and dominance in Jerusalem.
Bart Wilkins continues our study in the Bible book of Ezra as he explains the importance of building our inner temple walls.
Ezra 10: A People’s Response to Sin
As we follow Christ and come to know Him, there comes a point where there is disagreement. Our morals and understanding, or just plain what we want, come into conflict with our following. We come to the conclusion that God is too harsh or God is downright mean or even that God must be wrong in this thing. The temptation is to put God in a box of our own making, one where what He thinks and says is in agreement with what we think and want to do, in order to keep our ‘following’ intact, at least in our own minds. But the reality is that we stand in danger of taking a wrong turn, of putting ourselves in the position of leading rather than following, of sacrificing Truth for own moral comfort.
Ezra 9 – A Leader’s Response to Sin
Ezra 9 leads us into one of those difficult passages in the Bible, one of conflicting ideals. The situation is simple, the people of Israel have been marrying non-Jews. This upsets Ezra greatly. “What is the big deal? Why is Ezra so upset?” we ask. Of all the things that the people of Israel can do, intermarriage is considered one of the worst.
Ezra has been called to Jerusalem. We don’t know what that call looked like, why Ezra decided it was time for him to go to Jerusalem or how he won the approval and sanction of King Artaxerxes. What we do know that Ezra is an expert in the Law and devoted to its observance and teaching. We also know that Ezra has problems and those problems are a direct result of his call and God’s Hand and blessing on that call. This isn’t going to be your ‘normal’ trip from Babylon to Jerusalem.
