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Chosen no: R-4894 a, from: 1911 Year. |
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The Second Temple's Foundation
--EZRA
3:1-4; 5.--OCTOBER 22.--
"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and
into His courts with praise."--Psa. 100:4.
THE JOURNEY from Babylon to Jerusalem required about
five months. Ezra, with his smaller company, subsequently made the journey in
four months. We can well imagine the enthusiasm of this company of captives, of
all the tribes, people of all ages. A few of the very aged remembered having
seen the land and the city in their childhood.
Arrived at their destination they found terrible dilapidation. The
crumbling hand of time had co-operated with the destructive fires of
Nebuchadnezzar's army, seventy years previous. To live in the city was scarcely
practicable. The people scattered in the country round about for a distance of
twenty miles. First, attention was properly paid to making themselves
comfortable, preparing dwellings, training olive trees and vines. But shortly
after, the religious sentiment stirred them to prepare for offering formal
worship to the God whose favored people they were delighted again to be.
First, the altar was built on the height of Mount Moriah,
supposedly the very spot where Abraham offered his son Isaac--the very spot
which was the site of the altar in Solomon's temple. Divine worship began, and
the Feast of Tabernacles was observed in the seventh month. By the next spring
they felt ready to begin the reconstruction of the temple, and a start was made
by laying its foundations. The enthusiasm of the people for the worship of the
true God is noted in connection with this service; namely, a foundation
celebration was held, and the people shouted and wept by turns as they thought
of God's goodness and sought again to apply to themselves the Divine promises.
In this connection we read that some of the very aged of the company who
had knowledge of the original temple of Solomon, wept, perhaps in appreciation
of the fact that the one they were founding would be much less glorious than
Solomon's.
The news of the return of the people and of their start to rebuild the
temple of the Lord spread amongst the people of the land, who, in some respects
at least, had been recognized as Israel's enemies. Now, however,
they desired to join hands and become participators in the building of the new
temple. They made overtures to this effect, saying, "Let us build with
you, for we seek your God as ye do; and we do sacrifice to Him since the days
of Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, which brought us up hither."
However, this kind offer was refused, with the answer, "Ye have
nothing to do with us, to build a house unto our God; but we ourselves will
build it unto the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, hath
commanded us." Then these people, repulsed, sought to delay the work and
to hinder its building. They even hired attorneys to frustrate the matter at
the court of King Cyrus in Persia,
and through the days of his son, Cambyses, until King Darius came to the
throne. The latter followed out the original policy of Cyrus and [R4894 : page 380] gave full authority to
proceed with the work at Jerusalem.
WAS THE PROPER COURSE TAKEN?
Many have said that the Jews in this matter showed themselves
narrow-minded and bigoted; that they should have been glad to have the
assistance and the co-operation of their neighbors in the building of the
temple, and in all the arrangements for God's worship; they should have had the
missionary spirit.
Not so, we reply. Their course was the only proper one when we
understand the terms and conditions under which God was dealing with Israel. It was
not their commission to make Israelites out of all nations; they, as one
nation, had been elected or selected by God to establish and to offer the
sacrifices and worship which God had ordained through Moses. They were not at
liberty to change or amend the Divine proposition and to bring others into the
"elect" nation. There was indeed a method by which outsiders,
non-Israelites, might become Israelites--by becoming "proselytes of the
gate"; but in no other than in such an open, public renouncement of their
wills and by devotion to Jehovah could any one become a participator in the
Divine promises made only to the Seed of Abraham.
The Jews are still following the Divine arrangement for them in keeping
aloof from other religions and by refraining from inter-marriage with other
peoples. God has thus preserved this nation separate from all others; and He
tells us why. For them He has a great place in the Divine programme. They are
again to become God's people, God's representatives in the earth, after the Elect Church
shall have been completed and shall have been glorified on the heavenly plane. The
latter will constitute the Spiritual Seed of Abraham and the Spiritual Kingdom
of God, while the former will constitute the earthly seed of Abraham, and be
the earthly representatives of God's Kingdom to the world. These two Seeds are
referred to in God's promise to Abraham, saying, "Thy Seed shall be as the
stars of heaven and as the sands of the seashore." And through these two
Seeds, the spiritual and the natural, God's blessing of restitution is shortly
to be showered upon mankind in general, under the reign of Messiah for a
thousand years.
SPIRITUAL ISRAEL'S
POLICY
The same policy should be observed by Spiritual Israel --"The
Temple of God is holy, which Temple
ye are." No outside, unconsecrated stones are wanted in this Temple. Let the world
build its own. God Himself is the Builder of the Church, which is the Body of
Christ, the Temple
of the Holy Spirit. God permits his consecrated ones to be associated with
Himself in the building of this Temple; as St. Paul declares, the
saints, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are to "build one another
up in the most holy faith." (Jude 20.) There is absolutely
no place for worldly workers in conjunction with this great work of God now in
progress.
Incalculable harm has resulted from the failure to note this matter
properly. The children of this world and the children of the Kingdom of God
too frequently join, after the manner suggested in our study. The effect always
is to bring in worldliness and to give the worldly mind a measure of control in
respect to spiritual things, of which they have no real knowledge--"The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned." --I
Cor. 2:14.
W.T. R-4894a : page 379 - 1911r