The Second Temple had been built under Zerubbabel but many of the older people were in tears because it didn't have the grandeur of the First Temple. Ezra had returned to Jerusalem from captivity a few years later along with more of the remnant. His first task was to offer burnt offerings to God for bringing them home safely. His second task turned out to be listening to the officials as they told him how the people of Israel who had returned earlier had not separated themselves from the peoples of the land or from their abominations. Today we tend not to fully understand what or how terrible those abominations might have been....just as we now do not understand the severity of our own abominations....but Ezra did know....and he rent his clothes and pulled some of the hair from his head and his beard. He then laid it all out before God in humiliation and repentance....for the people had done this before and God had judged them. Were now a remnant returning from captivity....because of the former judgments....to do that all over again?
Nehemiah as we all know returned a little later yet....and set out to.....build the wall....catchy phrase....'build the wall'....to rebuild what remained of the walls and gates. Folks we need first in America to rebuild God's house. Whatever it is that we have today in much of evangelicalism should bring tears to those who have read about the church in days past.....and we need to build a wall around it again. The Lord's Day had been one hedge of protection for the church but we ripped it out by the roots and brush hogged even the stubble that remained....then covered it with artificial turf.
We are not separated....we are not even a peculiar people.....we are no threat because the gospel of...."come in....find your own ministry....and grow with us" does not send fear into the powers and principalities that are arrayed against us. We are today many more people in American churches than were Jews at the time in Israel....but we have too few Ezras to turn us back to God....what with the loss of men like Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul. We have too few Zerubbabels or Haggais or Zechariahs left to reform the church....maybe a MacArthur here or a Horton there....and yes others....but not enough....and too few Nehemiahs to build a wall.....if any. We are in a captivity of sorts in America but do not realize it. We do not even know that the grandeur of the church is not in the size of the building but it is in He who we are there to worship and proclaim as our Lord and Savior....a grandeur that even Solomon's Temple could not give! We've been given ample opportunity to return.....even commands....but we prefer to stay in Babylon.
Nehemiah as we all know returned a little later yet....and set out to.....build the wall....catchy phrase....'build the wall'....to rebuild what remained of the walls and gates. Folks we need first in America to rebuild God's house. Whatever it is that we have today in much of evangelicalism should bring tears to those who have read about the church in days past.....and we need to build a wall around it again. The Lord's Day had been one hedge of protection for the church but we ripped it out by the roots and brush hogged even the stubble that remained....then covered it with artificial turf.
We are not separated....we are not even a peculiar people.....we are no threat because the gospel of...."come in....find your own ministry....and grow with us" does not send fear into the powers and principalities that are arrayed against us. We are today many more people in American churches than were Jews at the time in Israel....but we have too few Ezras to turn us back to God....what with the loss of men like Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul. We have too few Zerubbabels or Haggais or Zechariahs left to reform the church....maybe a MacArthur here or a Horton there....and yes others....but not enough....and too few Nehemiahs to build a wall.....if any. We are in a captivity of sorts in America but do not realize it. We do not even know that the grandeur of the church is not in the size of the building but it is in He who we are there to worship and proclaim as our Lord and Savior....a grandeur that even Solomon's Temple could not give! We've been given ample opportunity to return.....even commands....but we prefer to stay in Babylon.
