Worship is Restored

May 18, 2025 Background Scripture: Ezra 3 : 1 - 13 Lesson Passage: Ezra 3:1- 6, 10 - 13 The topic of today's lesson is a little misleading. This text does not record the restoration of worship in Jerusalem as it was prior to the Babylonian invasion. Instead, it records what was intended to be the full restoration of worship by the Jews in Jerusalem. The effort to restore worship by the Jews in Jerusalem was met with much resistance. That resistance led to a considerable delay in achieving the restoration of worship in Jerusalem. God sent several prophets, spiritual leaders, and Gentile rulers to overcome that resistance. Today's lesson is timely and instructive for the post-pandemic local church. Today, many pastors and congregations are struggling with what appears to be a lackadaisical attitude concerning the post-pandemic restoration of congregational worship by the people of God. When the civil government ordered mandatory social isolation to slow the Covid deathrate, it was the first time that many Christians had experienced being away from the church's public assembly for months at a time. Many congregations coped using various types of technology to allow the members to connect with their pastor and other members virtually. Some became fond of the virtual connection and the newfound freedom they experienced by using it. This became obvious when the government mandates were lifted. Some members were reluctant to return, and others have yet to return. Zerubbabel faced a similar dilemma after the people of God were given permission to return from Babylonian exile. Millions of Jews had been deported out of Judah by the Babylonians. When they were given permission to return to their homeland seventy years after being sent into exile, only about fifty thousand were willing to return. Many of the families who did not return to Judah gave money and other materials to the returning exiles to support their effort to rebuild the temple and restore worship in Jerusalem. From the beginning of their deportation seventy years earlier, Jeremiah had warned the exiles that their captivity would last for seventy years. Therefore, they were advised to live a normal life in captivity because it would not end soon. It seems that most of them became comfortable with their "new normal". However, during their exile, they were not allowed to gather for worship, or to construct a temple for such. They understood that the Jewish temple could only be built where God specified for it to be built, in Jerusalem. Some of the Jews who returned to Judah were born while their parents were in exile. They had never known corporate worship that centered around a temple in Jerusalem. Normal for them was to not gather for public worship. What Zerubbabel achieved in today's text was a worship ceremony around the altar which was set on its base with sacrifices burned on it, and the laying of the foundation for the new temple. The altar was placed on its base prior to the foundation of the temple being laid. The group of Jews that gathered around it was the first to worship together in Jerusalem since the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians fifty years earlier. After a series of worship services that corresponded to the holy feasts' days specified by the Law, the foundation for the new temple was finally laid. During the dedication of the foundation, many shouted for joy because of the progress while the old men cried in disappointment because the new temple did not measure up to the magnificent structure erected under the leadership of King Solomon. After the foundation for the new temple was laid and dedicated to the Lord, full restoration of corporate worship was delayed for an additional twenty years when the temple was finally completed and dedicated. Robert C. Hudson April 19, 2025