the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 2 of 5
Ezra 3:1-13
Psalms 137 shows us the exiles of Judah when they were beside the rivers of Babylon, unable to sing because of their sadness. But now they realise Psalms 126 : "When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion . . . our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing . . . the LORD hath done great things for us: whereof we are glad" (Psalms 126:1-3). Besides was not this a commandment from God (Isaiah 48:20)? They celebrate the "feast of Tabernacles", the festival of joy (in v. 11 we also see them singing). Their first thought is for the altar of the LORD which they set up on its "bases". Their motive is worth noting: "for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries" (v. 3). Fear drives them, not to organise ways of protecting themselves but to move close together around the LORD who will defend them.
Then the foundations of the new house are laid. That gives rise to a touching incident in which joy and tears are both appropriate (see Jeremiah 33:11). What a contrast with the first temple! The same contrast exists between the beginnings of the Church as recorded in the book of Acts and the feeble, collective testimony presented by believers in the midst of the present-day state of ruin.
