Getting the House in Order

I have moved on to reading of Israel's return under Zerubbabel in the early chapters of Ezra.  Having posted on the revivals under Hezekiah and Josiah from reading 2 Chronicles, those previous scenes are fresh for making comparisons.

Similarities
1.  The Jews had been away from the Lord, whoring after other gods and sacrificing on the high places.

2.  There was a small group willing to lead the people back to where they belonged spiritually and to clean up the vestiges of sin that remained.

3.  There was one person who served the people so that they might do the work.  This fact is easy to overlook.  The kings and governors were not simply lords over the people pushing them on.  They supplied materials for the work, opened avenues for the people to work unencumbered, offered protection, and interceded to God on the work's behalf.

4.  The people had a heart to worship.  Sacrifices were restored to the rightful God in the rightful place, though maybe not quite in the right way.

Differences
1.  Under the kings, Judah was still within the Promised Land.  In Ezra, God had disciplined severely by allowing them to be taken captive for 70 years.  The people had been mightily humbled and were now allowed to return to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:2-4).  This change in locale refined the people in two ways: never again would idolatry be a concern, and revitalized dedication would be demonstrated in those undertaking the arduous return to the land.

2. The first feast observed under the kings was Passover, on which I commented previously.  Later, the people observed the Feast of Booths (Ezra 3:1-5).  This could have been a matter of timing, but it seems instructive that a feast established to memorialize the wilderness wanderings is the first celebrated after a return from "wandering" for decades in a foreign land.

God's dwelling place
Lastly, besides the aforementioned desire for worship, the people had a desire to restore God's dwelling place.  The temple was in varying states of disrepair between the three occasions.  For Zerubbabel, this meant a complete rebuild.  God had given an explicit commend to worship him where he made his habitation (Deut 12:1-7).  For Judah, restoration and cleansing of the temple was paramount for the Lord's enduring presence.

I left this point as last to draw an application to the local church.  It is possible to understand that sin has done damage amongst the assembly and subsequently deal with it, yet leave God's habitation, the local church (1 Cor 3:16-17), in disrepair.  The context of this passage addresses multiple problems in the church at Corinth.  While several concerns are addressed in this epistle, Paul had to begin by addressing the root causes—divisions and immorality—before moving on to the questions they had original sent for advice.  If I might make allusion to 1 Peter 2:1-10, the foundation of the church was secure in Christ, but the living stones being used in the habitation were anything but holy with sacrifices carnal and unacceptable.

May each assembly remember that we can go about doing correct things but not deal with underlying problems, so that in the end all that remains is an empty edifice.  There will be bodies but no life within them.