The people of God have been captives of Babylon and into the Persian era for seventy years. But as Jeremiah the prophet had prophesied, it was now time for the Israelites to return back home. In his first year, the Persian king Cyrus orders that the Israelite captives return home and rebuild the house of God.
Oh, how long have they been waiting for this moment! Ezra 3 tells that the first thing restored when they returned was the restoration of worship. Next they started on the restoration of the temple, the house of God.
I believe this applies to our lives as well. We have met Jesus, and He has made us clean. Before knowing Jesus, our minds were full of rubbish and meaninglessness. It was no different from the ruins of the temple. Now that we have met Jesus, we should restore worship and rebuild the temple of God. Worship is indeed important in the fact that it connects us to God. We were created in the likeness of God for us to worship Him. 1 Corinthians 6:19,20 tells us that our body is the "temple of the Holy Spirit." We need to rebuild our temple. It is very important that we cleanse our mind and thoughts and live for His glory.
But the process of restoring the temple was challenging. There were many objections. Hearing of the complaints, King Artaxerxes commands the restoration of the temple to stop. The people of God did not give up and at last under the decree of King Darius, the restoration of the temple is finished!
Notice what interests me next. Ezra comes to Jerusalem with the second group of people and this is what he does next:
"For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel." Ezra 7:10.
I think this verse says it all. Being captives of Babylon and Persia for over 70 years they must have forgotten the Law of God, the statutes, and the ordinance. It was now time to restore their identity through the Word of God!
It is only through the Word of God that we can be restored. It has the power of life and we need to learn to practice it daily just as Ezra did. Daily connection with the Word of God is what accelerates us to sanctification. Jesus has saved us to eternity and the Word of God is what helps us keep connected and practices us to be suitable to live in heaven with God.
Ezra 7:10 reminds us of another verse (as my friend Mike Cho has told me) which is Deuteronomy 6:7: "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."
The Word of God must be lived in my life at all times.
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