THE REBUILDING OF WORSHIP

In the last chapter, we saw the Jews returning to their homeland. The last verse closed with each family dispersing to go to their own hometown or city. This presumably took place in the spring. As this chapter opens, the summer has come to an end and the people come together for the purpose of rebuilding their place of worship.

When the Jews first returned to the land, they tended to naturally gravitate to their own cities and their own villages. The entire land was desolate, but Jerusalem was especially devastated. The walls had been torn down. The Temple had been burnt. The city was a heap.

This began to change when, in the seventh month, the Israelites came together to Jerusalem. Our new year starts in January. We tend to number our months from that starting point. But this was not always the case. Even the names of the months that we utilize bear witness of a different starting point.

• September is from the Latin septem and means "seven."

• October is from the Latin octo and means "eight."

• November is from the Latin novem and means "eight."

• December is from the Latin decem and means "ten."

The new year started in the Spring. It coincided with the spring equinox. This was true even though the Jewish calendar was oriented as a lunar calendar with 28 days a piece.

We are told, not only that the people came together, but they came together as one man. It was as though a single body was at work. And in a sense, it was. This is how the church is always supposed to work. We have been called together to be the body of Christ. A body by its very nature is unified.

There was a unity, not only among the people, but also among the leaders. Jeshua was evidently the high priest while Zerubbabel held the reigns of civil authority. But there was no competition between the two. They both came together for the purposes of worship.

They began with the altar. This was no small structure. The altar was a large structure made of uncut stones. No human hand had molded its makeup. It represented that which is offered to God.

Notice also that they did not wait until the entire Temple was completed before they began worshiping the Lord. They began with what they had.

Verse 3 says that they set up the altar on its foundation, for they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands. The translation of the word "for" makes it look as though the reason that they set up the altar was because of their fear of the people of the land. But I don’t believe this is the case. Although the preposition usually carries the idea of "for" it can be translated in a variety of ways and even as a conjunction ("but"). I think that the context would warrant such a translation in this case. They set up the altar in spite of the potential opposition from those who were living in the land.

For an entire week, the Israelites would eat their meals and sleep in these temporary booths. For the children among them, it must have been akin to a week of camping. It was a holiday spirit and a time of remembrance. They were to remember that there had once been a time when they were without a home or a country and that they had been nomads wandering in a wilderness.

On this occasion, the Feast of Booths had a special significance. It looked back, not only to the time of wandering in the wilderness following the Exodus, but it also served as a reminder that they had recently been wanderers and were only now coming back into their homeland.

In verse 4 we read that this observance was according to the ordinance. This underlines what we know in theological terms as the REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE. It means that we worship God only in those manners in which He has designated worship to take place. This is in contrast to other positions:

The worship among the Jews was not according to convenience or their own decision. It was in keeping with that which had been mandated in the Scriptures.

These people did not have a lot. They had lost everything when they were uprooted and taken away to a foreign land. They had rebuilt from scratch and now they had left their new homes in Mesopotamia to return to the Promised Land. They were in the process of rebuilding. But that did not stop them from giving to the Lord’s work.

Their view was that the rebuilding of the Temple of God was a project that was worthy of their gifts and offerings.

One of the popular sayings today is to speak out against "organized religion." It is really a silly statement. After all, what is the alternative - disorganized religion? God is a God of order. And there is an appropriate organization that coincides with the worship of God.

If I had been organizing the rebuilding of the Temple, I would have had the architects and the builders and the masons and carpenters. But that would have left out an important part of the construction process. I am speaking of the musicians. Music is important. It is ordained by God to touch the soul of man.

God invented music - it existed at creation (Job 38:7). He is the greatest music-lover in the universe. The Bible does not tell us what kind of music God likes - rather, He is concerned about the musician.

Why the two different reactions? We can understand those who shouted for joy. They were witnessing the rebuilding of the Temple. They were seeing the reconstruction of that which allowed them to worship the God of the universe.

But why did the old men weep? Verse 12 tells us that those who wept were those who had seen the first temple. I think that there are several possibilities:

1. They wept because the new Temple promised to be so much smaller and less grandiose than the original Temple.
2. They wept because they were reminded of the terrible consequences of sin. There is a lesson here. God is forgives sin. That is what the cross is all about. But the consequences often remain and have to be endured.