Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): Why did the Israelites first build an altar after they heard from God?

Bill Luebkemann: Pastor Bill Luebkemann elaborates.

Hearing from God, building an altar. And this was a significant thing for them to do.

It was a beachhead. It's like, you know, if you buy a piece of ground and you have to build a house on it, the first thing you're going to do is dig a hole for the basement and pour the foundation in. This was the beginning here. Something we could set down here. We could start worshipping God. We could remember and remind ourselves what this is all about.

Often neglect is the cause of a fire dying, and that can usually explain someone's stagnant relationship with the Lord. Sometimes that neglect is because we're too busy serving the Lord.

Guest (Male): As we continue in the Old Testament book of Ezra, we'll discover they rebuilt the altar first, then they proceeded in the rebuilding of the temple. Our teacher, Pastor Bill Luebkemann, will remind us that being in a right relationship is the priority. Service is to flow out of that relationship with God and not the other way around as is so often the case. With today's Hope From the Word from Ezra chapter 3, here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Luebkemann: So, we are in Ezra chapter 3, and you'll recall last time, which was two weeks ago, we looked at how the Jews were returning to the land here, and the Babylonian captivity had ended, but they did not all return. Many of them, many of them did not return. In fact, it was probably a minority that chose to return.

The King Cyrus ordered that those that wanted to return could. In chapter 1, we saw that action, and in chapter 2, we saw a list of the people by their tribes and families, and those that returned. So, they returned. Jerusalem and the surrounding area was not quite abandoned. There were still a few people that stayed behind. There were other settlers there that had moved in.

When the kings of Syria would conquer a nation, they would move all those people out and scatter them somewhere else, and they'd move other people in, scatter them all around. So, they, they kept the people subservient to themselves by keeping them mixed up and messed up and powerless. If they left them in the land, they could perhaps get together and maybe lead a rebellion. But if they were somewhere else, that would make it harder for them to do that.

So, there were people that were there in the land, but not a terribly great number, and there was a lot of work to do in restoring the temple. And that's what we're going to be looking at here, just the beginnings of that in chapter 3 here.

And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.

Though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries, set the altar on its bases, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening burnt offerings. They also kept the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings in the number required by ordinance for each day.

Afterwards, they offered the regular burnt offering, and those for new moons, and for all the appointed feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and those of everyone who willingly offered a freewill offering to the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, although the foundation of the temple of the Lord had not been laid.

Now, getting back to verse 1, what year was this? It implies here, and it says in the plain English meaning of this here, the plain meaning is, it was the year they returned in the seventh month. It says when the seventh month had come. Now, some commentators have all kind of theories on this. They say, well, it would have been really hard for the children of Israel to be living in the cities by the seventh month. But I don't see what the big deal is. They moved back, they went to the cities, they moved in. You know, no doubt their houses were not all perfect, but the plain meaning here is that this happened in the seventh month of the year that they were returning, which was around 538 BC, or maybe it was 535 BC, but it was in that range.

And the seventh month was the month of Tishri on the Jewish calendar, which is from basically the middle of September to the middle of October. It was the time when they celebrated the Jewish New Year on their calendar. It was the time when they celebrated the Feast of Trumpets. Isn't it interesting, they celebrated the New Year in the seventh month, not the first month? It seems kind of weird, you know, like we have our New Year in the first month of the year. But, you know, things are not always the way they are now.

It was just 100 or so years ago that they tried to decide and ultimately decided when should the date change? Should it be at midnight, or should it be at noon? And it was in the 1880s that they formalized that it was going to be at midnight and not at noon. Now, we look at that and say, well, how could that ever have been at midday? What a crazy idea that is. But that's just because of what we're used to. Their New Year was in the seventh month. It was also the, it was also when they had the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. So, it was a month in the Jewish calendar of much rejoicing.

And they had a lot to celebrate. And you know, if you look back in First Kings, you'll find out that they dedicated the first temple in the same month. If you look back in First Kings chapter 8, verse 2, it says, "Therefore, all the men of Israel assembled with King Solomon at the Feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month."

So, all the elders of Israel came, the priests took up the ark, they moved in and got it celebrated and all set up, way back when the time of Solomon, in the seventh month. And here it was interesting, in the seventh month again, that they were moving in or setting back up or getting things going again. And they had a lot to celebrate. And when the seventh month had come, the children of Israel were in the cities. The people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. And I think there's a whole lot in between the lines there of that.

They had moved in, they were living in the cities surrounding the area, but here they were gathered. Look at this, gathered together as one man. So, you see here, they had a sense of community, a sense of unity, if you will. They were united in what they were doing. They had a strong bond in their faith. There was much to rejoice about. Remember, this was a dangerous mission. This was some 70 years after they had been deported. So, many of these people never been to Jerusalem. If you were under the age of 70, you lived in Babylon all your life. I'm 53 years old. So, if if I was one of the ones returning, the captivity would have started 17 years before I was born. I was born in 57. So, to set it up with today's, you know, schedule of events, suppose the captivity began in 1940. And I was born in 57, and I've never been to this place.

And life is relatively easy in Babylon. They didn't have any needs to speak of. They had their, their needs were, were taken care of. They had bread, they had food, they had businesses, some of them. Their lives were not uncomfortable. They weren't really being persecuted to speak of. And yet, here they were, these people that took it upon themselves to abandon the relative safety of living in Babylon and to set out on this journey to go back to Jerusalem, a place where many of them had never been, just heard about it from their parents or from their grandparents. There were dangers on this mission. Dangers from wild animals, dangers from the people that live there. We're going to see here that the people that lived in the land weren't too thrilled with the Jews coming back to it.

But they were united in what they were doing here. And that was honoring to God. It's through these people that returned to Jerusalem that the line of Christ descended. So, we can all give Thanksgiving to the fact that Jesus died for our sins, and if you follow his genealogy, it goes through these people that returned to Jerusalem. And so, in a way, they were sort of, if you will, sort of carrying the torch forward. Perhaps you could put it that way. They were united in what they were doing. And there was a lot of them, and they were on the same page. And they all got together. They traveled a long distance and they gave up a lot, because they felt like they wanted to do this for God. Sort of like missionaries if you will, but all moving together to another place far away. By by today's standards, you know, you could hop on a plane and be in California in a few hours. You can have breakfast here, hop on a plane, be in California for lunch. And many of us have done that.

But here they were, the distance was wasn't as far as going from here to California. But the amount of time that it took them to travel it would have been much longer, maybe many weeks, maybe even months. And here they are united and honoring God.

Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. You know, sometimes getting started is one half the work. I think we all know that. You got some project you want to do around the house? It's really hard to get started. Once you get started, it seems like it doesn't take that long. You got to balance the checkbook or, you know, fix something that broke.

I can tell you to put a message together to share in church here, getting started is is one half the work. Just being able to to get the juices flowing if you will. And that's what they did here. They got started. They want to build the temple, but they start with an altar. And that's a good place to start because they can make sacrifices sooner. It took Solomon many years to build the first temple. And he had the benefit that his father David had spent many years stockpiling supplies. These people, they don't have the the resources that Solomon had, or that David had. They don't have the supplies, they don't have the money, they don't have the manpower. Solomon had something like 150,000 conscripted laborers. 150,000. Plus he had like 3,000 and some odd supervisors over the conscripted laborers. They didn't have anything like that. They didn't have that many people total of everybody that was living there. Not even close. I don't think it was even a third of that.

So, they want to build the temple, but that's kind of a long-range goal. We all know what long-range goals are. We probably all have a lot of them. But hey, here's a place to start. We can build an altar. And if we have an altar, we can make sacrifices on it. Now, they no doubt built the altar in the same place where the temple was. And Solomon built the temple in the same place that his father David had built an altar. If you remember towards the end of David's reign, not at the very end, but towards the end, he did a census of the people. I just got my census letter in the mail the other day. I thought, well, they talk about it, it finally comes. But it wasn't really the census. It was just a letter to tell me that the census was coming. That's really a good reason to spend more money on postage, just to tell me that we're going to send you a form next week and you should fill it out. Well, why why don't you just tell me that next week and save the postage on mailing out 300 million letters? Right, exactly. Government efficiency, an oxymoron here.

So, here we have at the end of Second Samuel here, in the 24th chapter of it, David having this census, which was not what God wanted. God didn't want the people numbered. And God bringing judgment upon David, and this is where where David was given three choices. He could have three years of famine, or three months of being beat back by his enemies, or three days of coming under the judgment of God. And he said, well, I'll take the judgment of God because God is merciful. And God brought judgment upon the land, and many people died. And at the end of that, he built an altar. He bought the threshing floor, if you remember. He went up and Araunah said to him, "What are you doing here?" And David said, "I want to buy your threshing floor to build an altar." And this guy said, "Look, I'll give it to you." And David said this very famous verse here that I have highlighted, "Nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which cost me nothing." So, I'm not going to make an offering if it didn't cost me anything. You know, if you give it to me and then I offer it to God, I haven't offered anything to God. David wanted to buy it. And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, so the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn.

But look, that was the same spot where the first temple was built. That was the same spot now, or close to it, where they were building this altar here that they could worship God on and and offer sacrifices to him. And they were careful it says to build it in accordance with the instructions of Moses. It says that here in verse 2, "As it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God." One of the requirements would have been that they use undressed stones. They couldn't use stones that were shaped or cut or hacked at with with tools. In fact, if you look over in Exodus chapter 20, verse 25, in the instructions there about building altars, God said, "If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it." So, they would have followed the law of Moses here in making this altar out of stones that were not in any way shaped by tools. And there may have already been an altar in this spot. We're we're going to get into that in a few minutes here, certainly in the next chapter. And if there was an altar there already that the people of the land were using, then they may have considered it to be profaned, because the people that were using it were not all Jews. They weren't doing it in accordance with the law of Moses. And the people that were living in the land, we're going to see, were into the worshipping of many gods. They would worship the God of heaven, the Lord God, but they would worship whatever other gods came down the highway also.

And they proceeded in spite of their fear or because of it. It says in verse 3, "Though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries," that would be the people that were living in the land at the time. "Though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries, they set the altar on its bases and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening burnt offerings." They proceeded despite their fear here. You also can translate that because of their fear. You know, we we want to worship God as much as we can because we need God to protect us from these loons who are running around in the land here. These people who are basically pagans, heathens, whatever. They were determined to worship God in the proper way, no matter what. You have to admire their fortitude and perseverance. When it says it was built on their bases, they set the altar on its bases, no doubt, I think, probably the exact spot that it had used before.

And it was real significant to have an altar here. It was real significant. It was like putting down a foundation. It was like having a place of beginning. It was something they could point to or believe in or connect with. That they could look back on. You know, if you look through the Bible at all the places where people build altars, I was just looking at a few of them here. There's probably many more. But it was always some significant event. Looking back in Genesis, if you want to flip through a few pages in Genesis real quick here. In Genesis 12, verse 7, "Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'To your descendants, I will give this land.' And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him." What an appropriate thing it was for Abram to do, later known as Abraham. The Lord appeared to him, and the Lord said, "See this land here? I'm going to give this land to your descendants." And that would be a real significant event if the Lord appears to you and makes a promise like that. And what did he do about it? He built himself an altar.

Later on in chapter 13, verse 4, or starting in verse 3, maybe, still dealing with Abraham here, "And he went on his journey from the south as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar, which he had made there at first." And there Abraham called on the name of the Lord. So, he even returned to this place. It was a significant spot for him. It was a place that he could go back to, and he could remember, hey, this is where the Lord spoke to me, and this is where I heard that promise from. And I still believe that he's going to do what he said he's going to do. Even though, of course, it took a long time for it to happen. And up in chapter 22 of Genesis, verse 9, "They came to the place of which God had told him, and Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood." Well, he wasn't going to forget that altar either. The altar of which he was prepared to and ready to sacrifice his son, believing that God could raise his son from the dead, he was prepared to sacrifice him there because God had instructed him to. His only son, the son of the promise, the son that he waited so many years for. And how many of us would be able to pass a test like that if the Lord sent it our way?

Over in 26 of Genesis, dealing with Isaac here, "And the Lord appeared to him and said, 'I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake.' So, he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there, and there Isaac's servants dug a well." Isaac here, hearing from God, building an altar. Look, we could go on and on. There's a few more, but I won't bother you with them, because they're all the same. Significant events in the life of these people here. And this was a significant thing for them to do. It was a beachhead. It's like, you know, if you buy a piece of ground and you have to build a house on it, the first thing you're going to do is dig a hole for the basement and pour the foundation in or something. This this was the beginning here. Something we could set down here. We could start worshipping God. We could remember and remind ourselves what this is all about. And they offered burnt offerings on it to God, offering animals to him, wholly consumed in the fire, that they wanted to offer to him as a way of expressing to him their love and their appreciation. Both the morning and evening burnt offerings and also a way of being forgiven of sin.

There were people who lived in these other countries, who they claim here in a few verses here, well, we we were already making offerings there. They were the people who could have, as we said, been resettled there by the Assyrian king, or there maybe some a few Jews who were left, and if they were, they were not following the law of Moses. Samaria became a hodgepodge because the Jews intermarried with others. To the point where in Jesus' day, they they didn't want to go in or through or near Samaria, or even touch the dirt there, because the Jews had intermarried, creating, you know, people that were half Jew and half something else. And by the time of Jesus' day, they were, you know, 1 quarter, 1 32nd Jew and and something else and and three parts cleansing cream maybe.

They also kept the Feast of Tabernacles, verse 4, "As it is written." And offered the daily burnt offerings in the number required by ordinance for each day. The Feast of Tabernacles was when they lived in booths, you'll remember. They remembered God's providence and his protection during the Exodus. It was for this period of time, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when they lived outdoors, in booths, to remember those days that they lived in tents in the wilderness. And they lived in tents for 40 years in the wilderness. But God always provided for them. They had manna in the morning. Their shoes never wore out. Imagine that, shoes that never wear out. Imagine, lasted for the whole 40 years. I'd like to know what happened to the kids. Did their shoes like grow with them as their feet grew? I'm not certain about that, or if they had to get new ones when their shoes, when their feet got bigger. But they they remembered.