How to reconnect with God and strengthen the relationship? (Ezra 3:1-7)
Ezra 3:1-7
We have all known times when our connection to the Lord was lost or weakened. Weeks went by without praying to God or we read our Bible with one eye on the clock and thoughts buzzing with the tasks of the day. We may have skipped church a few times due to fatigue or conflicting engagements until it became a habit difficult to break. Perhaps a tragedy has shaken our faith so deeply that seeking the Lord became too painful for a while or we gave in to temptation and sinned. The exiles knew what it meant to lose their connection to God. They lost their temple symbolising His presence with them and their land where God promised to bless them. Yet, He has taken an active hand in returning them home and restoring them. What then can our passage teach us about regaining closeness with God?
An undivided heart and united in the Body of Christ
First, the exiles were united in their desire to worship God (Ezra 3:1-2). This is important because when our hearts are divided and pulled in many directions, encountering God becomes difficult. If we struggle with lukewarmness, we can ask God to awaken our desire for Himself – He is able help us. Further, our passage emphasises that the returnees came together. It can be pleasant to watch church online sprawling in an armchair in jammies, as many did during Covid, but it is missing the accountability and fellowship that comes from gathering as Church. The isolated Christian experience long-term makes as little sense as having limbs and organs detached from the physical body. God designed our connection to Him to be strengthened through connection to each other as the Body of Christ (the Church).
Cleansing and forgiveness
Secondly, the exiles set up the altar and re-started the sacrificial system (Ezra 3:2-3). This was important because a sinful people could only approach a holy God if they were cleansed, and the burnt offering had this general atoning function (Lev 1:4). It was the spiritual equivalent of the daily shower. As Christians, we are reminded that Christ’s sacrifice has cleansed us, but it is still important to seek His forgiveness for sins that creep into our lives because they create barriers to our relationship to Him. As Jesus explained to His disciples (John 13:10), we are clean in one sense, but our feet that walk in the dust of the world need washing from time-to-time.
Remembering what God has done
Thirdly, the exiles’ celebrated Tabernacles remembering how Israel lived in tents after the exodus as they journeyed to the Promised Land (Ezra 3:4; Lev 23:42-43). In my gap year in Israel, I saw how Jews used branches to build booths or lean-tos next to their house and camped out in these for a week during this feast.[1] Similarly, the returnees would have re-lived the past, which found an echo in their experience as they settled in the land again. Such remembering would have engendered deep gratitude: God’s amazing grace has turned their lives around. It would also have taught them that these blessings could only be enjoyed in a restored relationship with Him and not be taken for granted (sin has lost them the land before).
As Christians, it helps our relationship to recall how God has saved us from an unsettled and dead way of life and gave us rest. Such remembering can rekindle our longing for Him and make us thankful for all He has done. It also teaches us that we cannot enjoy the benefits of our salvation unless we are deeply connected to the Lord. It is only ‘in Christ’, in our relationship with Him that we can live at peace.[2]
Serving and building up the Church
Finally, the exiles did everything to re-build the Temple. They gave money, got building supplies, contributed with their time and with physical work (Ezra 3:7, 10), according to abilities and resources. In other words, they actively participated in enabling worship for the whole community. In a Christian context this means building up the Church, the people of God. Some will do this in very practical ways like cleaning, serving tea or coffee, others through gifts in music, teaching, encouragement, hospitality, using whatever abilities God had given them. Such initiative may seem like the outcome of a close relationship with God, but those who serve know how it can also bolster their engagement with God. Ultimately, as God’s people are built up, we are also helped and strengthened by each other in our faith and walk with God (Eph 2:20; 4:11-16).
[1] Sukkoth (lit. ‘tents’, i.e. the Feast of Tabernacles) usually falls into September-October when it still tends to be warm and dry in Israel, so you can sleep in these booths though people do not necessarily do so.
[2] My point is that, like Israel who lost their land but did not cease to be God’s people, Christians can lose the joy and peace that comes from being saved even though they do not lose their salvation. It is like the marriage where the relationship goes wrong. The couple are still married but do not enjoy the benefits of a happy marriage.
For interest – Is Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel the same man?
Earlier, we read about Sheshbazzar, who led the exiles back in the first wave of returnees (Ezra 1:8). However, from chapter 2, we only hear of Zerubbabel in the list of returnees, building the altar and laying the temple foundations (Ezra 2:2; 3:2, 8, 10). He is also called governor in Hag 2:2, when the temple building was re-started after a gap of about 16 years. At the same time, Sheshbazzar is referred to as the governor in the early days, the one who laid the temple foundations (Ezra 5:14, 16). What are we to make of these reports that are in some tension with each other?
One solution is to identify the two as the same person with two different names, which the ancient first-century Roman-Jewish historian, Josephus, implicitly does in his history of the Jews (Antiquities of the Jews 11:11, 14).
Ant. 11 11 So he [Cyrus] committed these things to Mithridates, the treasurer, to be sent away, with an order to give them to Sanabassar [Sheshbazzar], that he might keep them till the temple was built […]
14 I [Cyrus] have given them [the vessels] to Mithridates the treasurer, and to Zorobabel [Zerubbabel] the governor of the Jews, that they may have them carried to Jerusalem, and may restore them to the temple of God.[1]
However, both Sheshbazzar and Zerubabbel are Babylonian names and while it was possible for people at that time to have a Jewish and a Babylonian name (see Dan 1:7), it is improbable that someone had two Babylonian ones. Thus, it is unlikely that the two names refer to the same person. Moreover, in Ezra 5, the two figures are clearly distinguished. Zerubbabel is governor when local officials query the temple building (Ezra 5:2), whereas Sheshbazzar is described as a figure in the past who was there at the initial start of the process but is not now known to officials at the time of inquiry (Ezra 5:14, 16).
Alternatively, it is sometimes argued that Sheshbazzar is the same as Shenazzar, a Davidic descendant and an uncle to Zerubbabel (1 Chron 3:17-19). Additionally, Sheshbazzar being called ‘a prince of Judah’ (Ezra 1:8) may suggest royal lineage, though it could simply mean a prominent leader. However, most commentators categorically dismiss this option though they do not explain why (perhas because the variation in the name is linguistically unlikely).
Although we can only speculate, the evidence in Ezra suggests that Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel both came back with the first returnees and were present when the temple foundations were laid. As first governor and official leader of the Jewish mission, it makes sense that Sheshbazzar was mentioned in connection with Persian officials (when the temple vessels were released and when permission for the temple work was queried – Ezra 1:8; 5:14, 16). The fact that Zerubbabel was a descendant of David (1 Chron 3:17-19),[2] however, meant that even if he had no official position in these early stages as far as the Persians were concerned, he would have been seen as a prominent figure by the exiles. Moreover, since the original temple was built by a Davidic king (Solomon), it makes sense to foreground Zerubbabel, another Davidic descendant, when the second temple is constructed.
[1] Josephus: The Complete Works, trans. William Whiston (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 343-44.
[2] Jeconiah (1 Chron 3:17), an alternative version of the name Jehoiachin, was the Davidic king when the first wave of exiles was taken to Babylon (2 Kings 24:15). Zerubbabel was his grandson. In Ezra, he is Shealtiel’s son, in Chronicles he is Pedaiah’s who was Shealtiel’s younger brother. The discrepancy may be explained if he was the biological son of Pedaiah but was perhaps adopted by Shealtiel or was his son by levirate marriage (Deut 25:5-10). H.G.M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, WBC 16 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1985), 32. A levirate marriage means that if an older brother dies (in this case, Shealtiel) without a male heir, then a younger brother (Pedaiah) has the obligation to conceive a son with the diseased’s widow. The son so conceived would be biologically Pedaiah’s but legally Shealtiel’s.
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