Please read your Bible text: Ezra 3:1-13
‘…arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offering on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses, the man of God.’ (Ezra 3:2)
Today’s passage in Ezra 3 is about rebuilding. God is an expert in rebuilding lives and He had been in this business since the beginning. When Adam the head of humanity fell, God rebuilt through the ‘Seed of the woman’ (Gen 3:15) and ever since He had been rebuilding humanity. God rebuilt Jacob from being a scheming fugitive into the prince of Israel. God rebuilt Moses from a failure in the backside of a desert into a mighty deliver. God rebuilt King David from being a murderer and adulterer and reinstated where he was supposed to be so that it was recorded in scripture that ‘David fulfilled all the work of God in his generation’. Are there areas in your life that need rebuilding? Perhaps there is the broken altar of your heart or the broken temple of your life or the broken wall of your ministries. Thank God for rebuilding!
1. Rebuilding the Altar of your heart – vs.1-7
Joshua and Zerubbabel and all his brethren arose and built the altar of the God of Israel (v.2). The altar of the temple can be said to be a ‘gateway’ to approaching God. No altar, no entering into God’s presence. It is upon the altar of sacrifice (the cross) that the Lord Jesus laid down His life so that you and I have His shed blood of cleansing to approach God. Altar then speaks of sacrifice, of consecration, of divine acceptance – simply altar reminds me of the place of worship – a divine encounter where sinful men meet Holy God. Has the altar of your heart broken and need rebuilding? Rebuilding the altar of our hearts is about restoring personal worship where there is a constant beholding the benevolent of God’s unmerited love (GRACE) and the beauty of His countenance (Glory). It is NOT trying to love God more – it does not even to love God (how deceiving our love can be)! Rather it is being captivated by His love and beauty constantly. When your heart is constantly caught up by divine favor and power – worship inevitably flows. Thus is the rebuilding of the altar of your heart. Thus is God pleased!
2. Rebuilding the Temple of your life – vs.8-13
Notice in vs.2-6, the people rebuilt the altar first and not the temple! They restored sacrifices of worship on the altar before they rebuilt even the foundation of the temple. They worshipped first on the altar before they work on the temple. Here is a spiritual significance. God desires worship first before work—obedience before operation—ministering to the LORD first before ministry. So often we are apt to work on the external facet of the temple but within on the inside – the altar of our hearts remain in shambles. On the outside we look good but on the inside we are hollow. In a matter of time we crash. That’s what happened! God wants our hearts to be always captivated by His Glory and overwhelmed by His Grace before we ever put our hands on the plough of ministries. How do we rebuild the temple of our lives? Three things:
1) in v.1, the people gathered together as one man in Jerusalem – that speaks of unison of heart and purpose,
2) in v.2, they did…as it is written in the Law of Moses – that is flowing with God’s heart and mind and,
3) in v.3, we read the people of God persisted in their rebuilding despite the threat from the people living in the land – that speaks of the determination or perseverance of their will.
THINK: In the harsh reality of life, sometimes inevitably we crashed – but rebuilding puts us back on the road of recovery. Rebuilding begins in our hearts not with our hands!
PRAYER: Lord, let me behold constantly the glory of Thy face and the beauty of Thy Grace so that the altar of my heart is rekindled aflame for Thee.
1 Mar 2015
David Quek
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