Once God’s exiled people returned to their land, the first thing they did was rebuild the altar, even before they started rebuilding the temple. Why? Because worship must always come first. The people worshiped again when the foundation was laid, and Ezra records that the noise was great, a combination of both singing of praise and weeping. Many were joyful and thankful, but some of the old men, who remembered the splendor of Solomon’s temple and the presence of God there, wept. No temple built by the generation returning from exile would ever equal what had been lost when Jerusalem was destroyed.<\/p>\n
Do not miss the fact that they did not wait until the building was done to praise the Lord. The circumstances they were working under were certainly not ideal, nor would the rebuilt temple be nearly as great, but they still took time to be grateful, to thank and praise God for what He had done for them. The task was difficult and storms were blowing, but rough seas teach sailors how to be great. There are no shortcuts to spiritual maturity, and trials are a normal part of growing in grace.<\/p>\n
“LORD, we chose to thank You and worship You for Your loving-kindness and mercy to us this day. Please forgive us and use us, we ask in Jesus’ name.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ezra 3 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as\u00a0it is\u00a0<\/em>written in the law of Moses the man of God.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03<\/sup> And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the\u00a0LORD,\u00a0even<\/em>burnt offerings morning and evening.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as\u00a0it is\u00a0<\/em>written, and\u00a0offered\u00a0<\/em>the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;\u00a0\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And afterward\u00a0offered\u00a0<\/em>the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the\u00a0LORD.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the\u00a0LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was not\u00a0yet\u00a0<\/em>laid.\u00a0\u00a07<\/sup> They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a09<\/sup> Then stood Jeshua\u00a0with\u00a0<\/em>his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad,\u00a0with\u00a0<\/em>their sons and their brethren the Levites.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the\u00a0LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the\u00a0LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the\u00a0LORD; because\u00a0he is\u00a0<\/em>good, for his mercy\u00a0endureth\u00a0<\/em>for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the\u00a0LORD, because the foundation of the house of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was laid.\u00a012<\/sup> But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers,\u00a0who were\u00a0<\/em>ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once God’s exiled people returned to their land, the first thing they did was rebuild the altar, even before they started rebuilding the temple. Why? Because worship must always come first. The people worshiped again when the foundation was laid, and Ezra records that the noise was great, a combination of both singing of praise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7330"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16394,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330\/revisions\/16394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}