Ezra 3

The people are back in Jerusalem now ready to start rebuilding the temple.  They have been stripped of their worship and now want to bring back their old celebrations and offerings as it was written by Moses.  They have a dilemma – scripture says it like this: “Even though they were afraid of what their non-Israelite neighbors might do, they went ahead anyway”.  The people were unsure what the reaction would be if they lived their life honoring God the way they knew they should.  They didn’t know if they were going to be accepted or persecuted for returning to the old way of worship.  Sometimes I think we live like that.  We are afraid we might step on someone’s toes if we let Jesus shine in our life, or if we talk about our spiritual relationship, or if we acknowledge that what happens is not our doing but that of God.  We allow fear to dictate what and how we say it.  The people have been persecuted, exiled and are a bit gun shy here.  They don’t want to rock the boat too much.  But they also know that God’s truth calls them to live in relationship with Him and to follow a set of traditions and customs handed down to their forefathers.  They decide to take a chance and built an altar, start rebuilding the temple and celebrating the festivals and burning offerings.  People light up – they are “noisily shouting with joy” because they experience life the way God planned.  “God is good” is what they find.