Worship is Restored after Exiles Return
Study: Ezra 3: 1 – 6, 10 – 13
Background: Ezra 3:1 – 13
Devotional: Colossians 3:12–17
Lesson 12 May 17, 2025
Key Verse
And they sang, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, saying: “For He is good, for His favour is upon Israel forever”.
And all the people shouted with a great shout of joy, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. Ezra 3:11
INTRODUCTION
Our Study captures extremely well the joy, the sorrow, and regret that come after a devastating loss which has shaken the human heart to the core.
How can a person return to the scene of their crime after they remembered the smell of the disaster they created and for which they were responsible, having to look at the wreckage of their homes as well as the destruction of where the Lord God had promised to dwell?
How could you want to return to that scene? How could you feel rummaging through the wreckage of your God given inheritance, search for and hopefully finding in the remnants of the wreckage bits and pieces of a life that was long gone, in this case gone 70 years before?.
One writer asks the question,
“How could you rebuild when you have messed up so badly and you have caused the devastation?”
Now some of us must admit we have done things so foolish and crazy which have damaged and destroyed our family life, our careers, our relationships with wives, husbands, children, relatives and friends, and as well the church, that we carry crushing feelings of guilt and foreboding which lead to mental difficulties we cannot seem to shake.
Psychiatrists tell us guilt feelings are the greatest and most destructive of human burdens.
So imagine the extent of the bad situation the people of Israel must have felt as some of them returned once again to the land God had promised them.
Do not forget to imagine the feelings and guilt those that did not return as God had directed.
Those scattered people would never be able to shake the guilt and this would make them do crazy things and suffer over the many years of their existence.
Now all that remained of that promise to the fathers made by God was a ruined land where God’s presence and dwelling place looked just like ashes and rubble.
Does that remind you of your life experience?
But our God of promises is not shaken by our foolishness and our iniquity. He has promised to bring His people home despite their horrible mistakes. He knows the frailty of His people.
Let us seriously look at the agony the people of the nation and its prophets experienced. Look seriously at your agony when you think straying from God has any help for you.
The prophet Jeremiah lived through the ordeal of the nation and his agony showed in Lamentations 3: 17-22 as he prayed:
“You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity
And I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the LORD”.
Remember my affliction and roaming,
The wormwood and the gall.
My soul still remembers,
And sinks within me. This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope”.
Note the reason the people in the dungeon of despair will survive and have the victory. There is something called the gracious Hand of Our God. So the prophet Jeremiah reminds us:
“This is what the LORD says: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.
“For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your hearts.
I will be found by you”, declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you”, declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile”.
We are now looking at the restoration, the gracious promise to His people after they have been disciplined for their time and time again disobedience.
So as we study ask yourself, What does this tells you about the LORD?
We expect it will tell you God will never leave His people without hope.
There is always hope on God’s promises.
The Book of Ezra tells how Jews from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin returned to their homeland from exile in Babylon. That happened shortly after the fall of the Babylonian Empire to the Persians in 538 BC (Ezra 1:1–2:1), when the Persian king, Cyrus, issued a decree that allowed the return (Ezra 1:1–4; compare 2 Chronicles 36:22–23; Isaiah 44:28; 45:1, 13).
The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah chronicle the return in three distinct phases. Ezra 2:64–65 reveals about 50,000 people in the first wave, making the arduous trip of over 800 miles.
A later wave of returnees, coming under the leadership of Ezra, took exactly four months (Ezra 7:8–9).
The primary purpose of the journey was to “[re]build the house of the Lord” in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:5). When that city was destroyed in 586 BC, there remained no nation of Judah, no capital city of Jerusalem, no temple, no royal palace, and no walls (2 Kings 25:8–17; compare 2 Chron. 36:15–21). Normally, it would be practically impossible for a nation to come into existence again after an absence of more than half a century.
But God was in this situation, and the impossible became not just possible but a reality. As Jeremiah stated, nothing is too difficult for God (Jeremiah 32:17).
Since God’s hand is at work the rebuilding of worship to God which would take place in the Temple would have to begin with the altar, because the altar is the heart of the Temple.
The sacrificial system and its practices is what will define the people of Israel as the people of God. They would have to worship Yahweh as Moses had prescribed in the Law. They would have to rebuild the altar on the exact spot where the altar had been originally placed on the instructions of God.
Note the spiritual significance of the altar. Worshipping God in obedience at the altar of sacrifice was more important than having a house or Temple erected, for sacrifice could be done without the house, as the patriarchs had demonstrated. Sin was dealt with at the altar. The people thus met God at the altar.
Israel in exile had been surrounded by hundreds of idols and everywhere they went they faced every kind of idol. It is estimated there were thousands of shrines and worship for the multitude of god places in Babylon which met the needs of the conquered people. The empire did not care about this variety as long as people acknowledged the supremacy of the Babylonian pantheon of gods.
Israel now had two choices, a simple choice, one, to worship idols, or two, to worship God.
So what would you do when you return home?
The choice was made by these ancient people.
It has to be made by modern people. Remember you are wired to find eternal significance in something. We are reminded:
“We will give every fiber of our being to someone or something, and whatever that thing is we will worship. We will worship; there is no question about this. The only question is whether we will worship God or an idol.
An idol is anything we believe we need, apart from Jesus to make us happy, satisfied, or fulfilled. An idol arises when we desire something more than we desire Jesus; when we fear things rather than God; when we worship ourselves rather than Christ; when we put our trust in anything other than God; when we serve anything other than Jesus”.
Note that some of the things we desire can be good things. But they can easily become a false god..
As worshippers the only antidote to idolatry is our turning to worship the one true God.
Have no nostalgia for the past.
The nation had been disobedient for many, many years, but now the returning exiles had decided and would do things God’s way. God would see them making the great start of rebuilding the altar and then the Temple for they had committed themselves to rebuilding their relationship with God.
The Temple’s rebuilding would require much effort, money, time, labor, and good leadership. An easier and quicker task would be to start rebuilding the Temple’s altar of burnt offerings (see description in Exodus 38:1–7 and use in Leviticus 1:1–17; 6:8–13; also see Lesson 4). And that’s where we begin our Lesson.
With the priority of worship and the regulation of worship, we see the need to be
- Unified
- Organized
- Encouraged
- Get all the people involved, and
- Having everyone seek and praise God.
There is no plan B that will work. So the prophet Haggai had to warn the returning exiles:
“You have planted much, but harvested little, You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it”.
The prophet warns us also. He hits precisely on the reason for our failures in our life.
Today we continue to study the initial activities involved in the rebuilding of Israel after the exile and what in fact will be a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy of the dry bones that began to live again.
Israel was taken into captivity and scattered among the heathens. Yet, God promised that He would restore them. For a while, though, their condition was not enviable. The dry bones of Israel were given some life and — as is often the case in Scripture regarding prophecy — there was a near fulfillment, followed by a complete fulfillment much later on.
The Book of Ezra speaks to the realization of Jeremiah’s prophesy about the Jews’ return from Babylon at the end of seventy years. This foretelling of course is a “type” of the prophecies that reveal a great deliverance for these people in the last days.
Ezra was the great priest and helper, ordained with the important task of preserving the records of this great event. He left this record to us so that we can learn what is involved when God restores His people by rebuilding the lives of the individual and the nation.
We are made aware that God has the right to direct us, make the path of our lives fit into His plan and make all the decisions, large and small in our lives. He has the power and authority, which He uses whether we like it or not, to restore and cleanse us and to bring us back into fellowship with Him, so that we may find the many blessings that He has in store for us.
We must never underestimate the value of the work of Ezra. He loved the Law of God, and meditated on it day and night. He hated to see his people, the people of God, remain in sin and bondage. Therefore, he studied the word of God and prepared himself for the day when the prophecy of Jeremiah would be fulfilled.
Ezra committed himself to be an instrument in the hand of God, zealous for maintaining the purity of the nation and cleansing it from all pagan influences.
He stands as an example for us. God can always use men and women who diligently study His word and are dedicated to proclaiming and acting on it, so that the people of God will turn from their frequent sinning and turn to truly following Him. We pray that God continues to raise up valiant men and women who are prepared to study the word of God like Ezra and do the work of God.
God fulfilled His promise to restore the nation. However, only fifty thousand people chose to return to Jerusalem from Babylon when given the opportunity.
Our Study looks at what that small remnant of faithful returning Jews did when they returned home from captivity.
We can learn a lot from them, for we too get caught in spiritual bondage on occasion. When God frees us, we want to know what to do. Sometimes we feel our worship is inadequate because of our deep sense of gratitude to Him. We may feel that it is lacking in perfection.
It helps to look at our circumstances and discern our own motivations for doing God’s will. In addition, we can learn the necessity of sacrificing from the resources that we have, even if they are few. We can learn that, together with others, we are able to assemble what God has called us to build, thanking Him for whatever He provides for us.
Normally, it would be impossible for a nation to come into existence again after an absence of more than half a century. But God was in this situation, and the impossible became not just possible but a reality. As Jeremiah stated, nothing is too difficult for God (Jeremiah 32:17).
The Temple’s rebuilding would require much effort, money, time, labor, and good leadership. An easier and quicker task would be to start rebuilding the Temple’s altar of burnt offerings
(see Exodus 38:1–7 and use in Leviticus 1:1–17; 6:8–13; also see lesson 4). And that’s where we begin our lesson.
Israel returned to cities that were in ruins. The land was untilled, strangers inhabited the land, and desolation lay everywhere. It was certainly a time of joy mixed with sorrow. What could a tiny remnant do? Our text gives us the answer. We can apply its principles to our life.
THE TEXT
Verse 1. The remnant of the exiles left Babylon at springtime and after a journey of at least four months came into the land. They would have spent a short time visiting their respective cities, examining the situation and probably constructing temporary housing for themselves. Some did this in the ruins of Jerusalem, while others most likely completed their assessment and emergency construction in the nearby cities within Judah.
Note that they had a lot of work to do and that they would have focused on providing the necessities of life for themselves and their families, especially in view of the looming winter.
Yet, in the seventh month (this would be our September or October) they acted as one man, i.e., in total unity and certainly under divine impulse. The Jews gathered themselves together in Jerusalem.
Verse 2. The High Priest properly took the lead along with his brethren, the other priests, the civil leaders, princes and their brethren. Recognizing that atonement had to be made for their sins, they immediately and urgently set about to build an altar to God. These people came together as one, putting aside their worldly business, to attend to the business of worshiping God and asking for His continued protection and mercy.
They saw this as a priority, and it was their first act as a nation. They built the altar of burnt offering in order to present sacrifices to God as often as required by the Law of Moses.
They were led in this endeavour by Jeshua, the grandson of Seraiah, the high priest who had been put to death by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. [See 2 Kings 25: 18-21.] His father Josedech was carried as a captive to Babylon and probably died there.
This passage of course shows us that we can and must follow God despite our troubles and in light of our knowledge of the punishments that were meted out to our immediate forefathers for their sins.
When God takes a person out of the darkness and bondage of the world and restores them to fellowship with Him, that individual should ensure that an altar, the mark of ownership, is erected first. One writer comment:
“An altar is always the symbol of ownership. It is both the acknowledgment that God has sole right to us and the symbol of all personal relationship to him. Therefore, an altar almost invariably involves sacrifice, worship, and praise -the sacrifice of recognizing the truth, “You are not your own; you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20); the worship of again enjoying a restored relationship, when again the heart is ministered to by the only one who can meet its needs; and the praise of a rejoicing heart.”
Thus, we learn that everything must begin with God. When our situation is difficult we must follow Him in all our ways. If we want God to guide us, we must honour Him by our worship and our offerings.
We remember that our father Abraham, the man of faith par excellence, built an altar immediately upon his arrival wherever he went. We too are required to behave similarly. We must offer the sacrifices of prayer and praise wherever we go, especially when God acts to restore us.
Verse 3. Israel did not need a Temple before they built an altar. They built an altar out in the open. They did not wait for a poor or a magnificent building to be constructed. They needed to offer the sacrifices. So, they built an altar.
The people built the altar on the same spot that the previous altar had stood. They knew and were afraid of the people that were around them because these people were not friendly to them. This fear was useful, because it reminded them that God was their only protector. Israel remembered their sad experience when they had neglected God and the daily sacrifices and prayers. As a result, they set about with vigour to maintain the burnt offerings in the morning and in the evening as stipulated by the Law. They wanted to make sure that God would work for them and protect them from their enemies. So, the people sacrificed, worshiped, and served God and did not let anything stop them from working.
It is significant that the sacrifices cost them a lot; for though they returned with some animals, they now gave up quite a bit of these to meet the requirements of the service of God. The Jews bore these heavy expenses without murmuring.
Verse 4. This was the seventh month and they began to keep the feast of Tabernacles as God had commanded previously. They offered the required amount of sacrifices as was laid out in the Law.
The Feast was established to remind Israel of the time when their fathers lived in tents in the wilderness. These returning exiles recalled the gracious mercy that God had granted to their fathers, and celebrated this feast joyfully.
When God brings us out of bondage we see that He provides special times for rejoicing. We find joy, therefore, in doing whatever the duty of God’s law requires.
Verse 5. The people continued to offer the appointed sacrifices and to observe all the established feasts of the Lord. Though the law had required them to do a great deal, they surpassed these requirements with the wealthy making free will offerings of what they had. The people were so very thankful that God took them out of affliction.
This verse indicates the comprehensive reintroduction of the functions of the altar as established in Numbers twenty-eight and twenty-nine. The sacrificial system was fully reinstituted from the earliest possible moment after the Judeans had reestablished themselves.
The contexts of these offerings are summarized in terms of (1) those that are continual, (2) those of the new moons, (3) all the set feasts of the Lord, and (4) those categorized as freewill. The ancient Jews used a lunar-solar calendar, with the passage of months determined by the phases of the moon
(Isaiah 66:23). A new moon, which is the opposite of a full moon, marked the first day of a new month; the burnt offerings prescribed for this day are outlined in Numbers 28:11–15. Freewill offerings, the fourth summarization, are burnt offerings connected with vows (Leviticus 22:18, 21, 23; etc.).
The carrying out of the sacrifices also required the reestablishment of animal husbandry and pasture management throughout the area around Jerusalem. This fact, in turn, implies a restoration of the basic mechanisms of ensuring that shepherds were paid, flocks protected, water sources managed, and so on. A return to something approaching normal life had begun.
Verse 6. Israel continued these acts of obedience to God, thanking Him for His benefits and making atonement for their sins.
Consequently, the people were ready and fit for the work of rebuilding the Temple even though they had not yet begun the actual laying of the foundations and building. They were clearly preparing themselves.
The rebuilding of the altar allowed the Judeans to restart the prescribed worship of God. However, a gap remained in that the temple of the Lord was absent. Its destruction in 586 BC had been complete
(2 Kings 25:9). Even its foundation, originally laid in 966 BC (1 Kings 6:1, 37), would need to be laid anew.
Verse 10.When the foundations of the Temple were laid, there was a great ceremony. The priests in their priestly attire were there with trumpets, along with the dignitaries to lend their influence as the foundation was being laid. The Levites, the sons of Asaph were there to play cymbals and instruments of brass.
They had a choir of Levites that sang, praising God and giving Him thanks, singing Psalms 136.
When the people of God saw that the foundation was laid, they were so deeply affected that they shouted with a great shout and praised the Lord. They knew that God was good and merciful to Israel, and that He had given them the opportunity to return to their land. God restored His proper worship. He had not left them alone, but had been with them and remembered them.
The people celebrated in the best way they could on this solemn occasion. They knew that God would rebuild his Temple again and rebuild the nation. They had been captives in a strange land but God had revived them.
They had failed their God but His mercy had not failed them.
The laying of the foundation of the temple of the Lord took about a year and a half (compare Ezra 3:1 with 3:8). The identity of the builders and the source of at least some of the construction material is found in Ezra 3:7–9, which is not part of today’s text. The apparel for the priests undoubtedly included the 100 priestly garments donated in Ezra 2:69.
The trumpets mentioned here are not the kind made from a ram’s horn (as in Exodus 19:13, 16, 19). Instead, the word being translated for trumpets as used here is the same one that refers to those made from silver in Numbers 10:1–10. The ordinance of David king of Israel, for the organization of musicians, is found in 1 Chronicles 6:31–46 (compare 15:19–22). Levites as temple musicians are associated with various musical instruments in 2 Chronicles 29:25. By adhering to David’s ordinance, the broader aim was not to discard the positive aspects of Judah’s past but to renew them.
Verse 11. Here, we see another renewed connection with the past as the musicians sing of God’s mercy and enduring goodness. These lyrics go back to King David, centuries earlier (1 Chronicles 16:34, 41; Psalms 107:1; 136:1).
Verse 12: Alas, the occasion was painful for many. The older priests and Levites, the chief of the fathers, who were now over seventy or eighty years old, and who had seen the first Temple built by Solomon, compared this small, less elaborate structure with the magnificent one that existed previously. They wept because this Temple would not be as richly decorated with gold and silver as the original Temple. They did not have the large resources of David and Solomon available to them. This Temple was inferior to that of Solomon.
In addition there was no Ark, no Urim and Thummim, and no Shekinah glory cloud.
Those, however, who were too young to have seen the Temple built by Solomon, recognized that this was their Temple, and that it was still grand and beautiful. They shouted with joy.
The excitement of this accomplishment was to them unprecedented and thrilling.
The computation of the 50-year interval mentioned above doesn’t conflict with the prophecy of 70 years of oppression in Jeremiah 25:11–12; 29:10. The oppression of exile occurred in the three waves of 605, 597, and 586 BC. Similarly, the return from exile occurred in three waves: 538, 458, and 444 BC. Thus, the computation of 70 years depends on selecting which starting and ending points apply (compare time identifiers in 2 Kings 24–25; 2 Chronicles 36:11–21; Ezekiel 1:1; Daniel 1:1–2).
The Temple had been destroyed in 586 BC, and the year was about 536 BC as the singing continued. Thus, it had been just about fifty years in between. Those who had been twenty years old when they witnessed the destruction of Solomon’s magnificent temple had become ancient men of age seventy. The fact that they wept bitterly is quite understandable. They had to have been thinking of the sins of their generation that resulted in the destruction of that first house (Haggai 2:3).
Verse 13. The scene was a mixture of some grief and a shouting for joy. One writer comments:
“The older men knew that this temple would never match up to the glory of the first. After all, King Solomon spent the modern equivalent of five to eight billion dollars on building the first temple.
They also had memories of the horrible end of the first temple, and these combined with the joy of the restoration to make profoundly mixed feelings in the old men…..
They saw the glory had departed from Israel; in their circumstances it was impossible to build such a house as the first temple was; and had this been even possible, still it would have been greatly inferior, because it wanted the ark of the covenant, the heavenly fire, the mercy-seat, the heavenly manna, Aaron’s rod that budded.
The backward look which discounts present activity is always a peril. Regrets over the past which paralyse work in the present are always wrong.
Moreover all such regrets, as in this case, are in danger of blinding the eyes to the true value and significance of the present”. (Morgan)
As expected, God comforted the people. We read in Haggai 2:1-9 that He provided this prophet, to assure the people that this Temple would one day become glorious and would exceed in glory the Temple built by Solomon.
One day the Messiah Saviour, Jesus Christ would come to this Temple and fill it with His glory.
As time progressed beyond this high emotion, it’s easy to imagine excitement becoming disappointment and disillusionment. That’s because the next 20 years turned out to be a tug-of-war between outsiders on whether or not the work on the Temple should continue (Ezra 4:1–6:12). Opposition to construction was eventually defeated. Still, the intervening years resulted in lethargy on the part of the Judeans. The Lord himself had to intervene to get the project back on track
(Haggai 1:1–2:9). The result was that the temple remained unfinished for two decades, not being completed until 516 BC (Ezra 6:15).
CONCLUSION
“The center of God’s Kingdom is not a building anymore, but a person, Jesus Christ. He is and ever will be the foundation of our faith and the object of our worship, as He has brought a new covenant into existence by the priestly shedding of His blood” says one writer.
Whenever God works to restore His people, there will be a mixture of sadness and happiness. This is because sin will invariably bring some pain and destruction when we leave our first love. People who leave God find that when they are restored, they are somehow diminished and brought low.
Still, their pain and their tears, though mixed with their joy, will over time be changed as God leads them along. Therefore, let us not despise the small things that God gives us when He restores us. Let us be thankful for what He has done. Let us work with Him to build again the ruins and to fully restore the beautiful worship of God.
Some will sorrow and some will joy but remember that in heaven, the angels will be singing and rejoicing that God has restored His people, and that they will build the House of God again.
It is certain that any sorrow we feel when we are redeemed will one day be turned to complete rejoicing. One writer exhorts us: “Let not the remembrance of former afflictions drown the sense of present mercies.”
Do not make the dreadful mistake of feeling that the problem is outside you. The problem is inside you and you must look for the solution to come when you are changed on the inside. The problem is sin, our sin. The solution can come only from the grace of God.
Be careful to note that the sins of Israel were large and justice had to be met for these sins so that forgiveness could be offered. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away their sins and so God had to provide the spotless lamb the Lord Jesus Christ to shed His blood as a substitute of the blood of sinners.
God thus calls us to be grateful and worship Him, offering your body as a living sacrifice for you are now priests and kings.
Weeping, a normal human reaction to the memories of sins committed might come, but joy comes in the morning. God’s mercies are renewed and come fresh every morning.
We know what God has promised. We know what He has done for His people and we know that He is a God who never changes. Let us begin to rebuild, knowing that God is the builder and we are simply his tools.
Let us not guess about the future. We know that the future will be more glorious than the present and more glorious than the past. Our task is to rebuild the House of God and the people of God. We need only to sacrifice to Him, as He has instructed, and to work as He has encouraged.
Today’s Text points not only to human endeavor but also to God’s mercy. His mercy makes our every endeavor possible and allows results. The story also signals God’s actions, to which humans respond. God had brought the Judeans home in something of a “second exodus,” allowing them to rebuild their world. The key question at that point was: Would their world also be His world? That question rings across the centuries to confront us today: Is your world His world?