Today’s passage: Ezra 3:8-13
Helpful thoughts:
- The foundation of the Temple has been laid! The people are excited, the sons of Asaph are singing and making music again. What a great day!
- But, not everyone was so thrilled. Those who were younger didn’t have any memories to compare the new Temple with.
- This Temple was not going to be as wonderful as Solomon’s Temple. And worse, God’s glory wasn’t there (1 Kings 8:10-11, Ezekiel 10:18).
Questions to consider:
- Why would it make sense that some rejoiced while others wept on that day? What was worth rejoicing over? How did the occasion for rejoicing bring with it the pain of why there had to be a new Temple at all?
- In what way could both responses have been appropriate before the Lord? (Psalm 51:17)
- In the life of any church that has existed as long as ours, there will be people who feel the same way when they think of the past. How are we to biblically evaluate the health of our church: past, present and future? Whose heart and life must we evaluate first as we look to the present and the days ahead?