Rebuilding the Walls. The Story: Headed South

Transcription

1 Rebuilding the Walls The Story: Headed South Today is a watershed moment in our study of The Story. Today marks the end of the Old Testament. It s the end of all those unpronounceable names and strange places. And as we close the Old Testament, we see three building projects. Last Sunday we saw how the temple was rebuilt by Zerubabbel. That was building project #1. The second building project we see is the building of the walls of Jerusalem. You read about that last week, although I didn t talk too much about it. Today we ll be taking a look at that as we move through this morning s message. And finally, the third, and most important building project of all: the rebuilding of the spiritual lives of God s people. So, let s dig in. The stage is set as the Exiled People of God Return to Jerusalem. What Ezra found Last week we saw how Zerubabbel brought 50,000 Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Now, 80 years later, Ezra the priest leads another group of exiles back. When they arrived in Jerusalem, Ezra found the temple in good order but he didn t find the people s spiritual lives in good order. He found them intermarrying with the people of the surrounding culture who worshipped other gods. Listen to Ezra s words: After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices..., They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness. When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice. Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God and prayed: O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens... we have disregarded the commands you gave through your servants the prophets... Ezra 9:1-6,10b Ezra was so distraught as the people did exactly what God told them not to do that he tore his clothes and pulled out his hair in grief. There s a warning there for us here and it s called syncretism. A warning regarding syncretism. Syncretism is when all the religions of the world are lumped together under the guise of worshipping the same God. We see it on bumper stickers urging us to Co-exist. We see it when Jews, Christians, Moslems and Native Americans come together and say, Let s have a joint worship service.

2 I wonder how that works? Because no self-respecting Moslem would ever pray to the Trinity, not authentic Christian is going to pray to Allah, and no Jew would worship Jesus as the Messiah. But syncretism says we are all praying to the same God. We hear it when politicians and media types who consider themselves enlightened want to decide social issues based on feelings rather than God s Word. It doesn t matter what the Bible says, this is how I feel about it. Here s what the Bible says in Proverbs 14:12: There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. This is what Ezra found the people in Jerusalem doing. They were not separate. They worshipped other gods just as is done today. Ezra tore his clothes in grief and the people repented. When will our nation repent? Next, we turn to re-building the walls of Jerusalem. This takes place back in Persia, in Susa with a man named Nehemiah who was the cup bearer for the king. The King s cup bearer is the guy who tasted everything the king was about to eat or drank to be sure it wasn t poisoned. It was a very high ranking position in the Persian government. One day Nehemiah s brother came from Jerusalem for a visit and told his brother that the temple was being constructed but that the walls of Jerusalem were in shambles. He said: Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire. Nehemiah 1:3 Nehemiah sat down and wept. They did a lot of weeping in those days. But, it brought to Nehemiah a vision. A vision is born Nehemiah s vision God laid a vision on Nehemiah s heart that the walls of Jerusalem should be rebuilt. So, Nehemiah travelled to Jerusalem and when he got there he laid low for 3 days. Then, he went out at night with some of his cohort and examined the wall or what was left of it. This is what he said to his co-workers: You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, Let us start rebuilding. So they began this good work. Nehemiah 2:17-18 From a leadership perspective, Nehemiah was creating motivation among his coworkers. He spoke of the trouble that Jerusalem was in, that the walls were in ruins and the gates burned down. It was a security issue. They might have a grand spanking new temple but with no city walls anybody could waltz in to Jerusalem and capture the city. It was a security issue and an issue of pride. He spoke of being in disgrace among the surrounding people. But mostly he told them that God was involved, that God had given him this vision. He said that, the gracious hand of my God upon me. Then he asked them to get on board and begin work. Our vision

3 It s kind of like our vision here at Providence. No, we don t have city walls to build, but, we do have a vision given to us by God. About making fully devoted followers of Christ. About being people who know God s unconditional love that is freely given. About sharing that love with the people in our community through our Moves Out day, hosting Workcamp in 2016, being Reading Buddies and Lunch Buddies, sharing Beach Bags, building a Play Scape, and more. All so that the people of this community will know God s love in real, meaningful, and tangible ways. When opposition comes For Nehemiah So, Nehemiah began to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and it wasn t long before he ran into opposition. A couple of guys from the surrounding people, Sanballat and Tobias, became angry about all this. They started ridiculing them. And it wasn t just idle talk, either. They threatened to fight the Jews, and attempted to kill Nehemiah and derail the project. Opposition also came simply in the form of fatigue of the people. Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall. Nehemiah 4:10 And here s what Nehemiah did first: he went to God. Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders. Nehemiah 4:4-5 When he experienced opposition, Nehemiah went to God first. Then, to counter the threat of attack, Nehemiah posted guards so that ½ the people worked and ½ stood guard. And, he had some of the people work with 1 hand and hold their sword in the other. He had people do sentry duty at night and they were so vigilant that they didn t take their clothes off for the entire time. That s 52 days in the sun doing manual labor. The question is: how d he do it? Here s how: He stayed close to God. He was convinced that this vision was God s vision and that because it was God s vision and not a human s vision, then it is worth working on. And, Nehemiah kept that vision before the people. Opposition to our vision We, too, have our share of opposition. We didn t have any armies outside threatening to break our doors down. But our opposition is bigger and more sinister. We need to strive to read God s word, understand it, and apply it to our lives. We need to run from the temptation to do things or believe things simply because it s the politically correct thing to do or the current feeling of the culture around us. The Rebuilding of People s Hearts The question is: why build the temple, why build the walls of Jerusalem if the people s hearts were still wandering. To bring the people of God back to Him, Ezra the priest Let the Word of God speak. Ezra gathered all the men, women and children for an assembly. He opened the book of the Law and read it to the people. It had been 140 years since anyone read the Book of the Law to them. And when the people heard it, they bowed down and worshipped.

4 The Levites, the priests, interpreted the Law to the people so they could understand it, and when the people heard it they wept. They wept and were heartbroken when they realized that they had failed to keep the Law. But then they were told that this was a day of celebration, that that s where God wanted them: repentant and seeking to do His will. So Ezra read the Law to them, helped them to refocus their hearts back on what was truly important, which was all part of God s Big Picture Story - His desire to bring His people back to Him and to be with them for forever. Which has been our intent in reading The Story. So that everyone will understand the central message of the Bible, that Big Picture Story. So that every one of us will know the incredible lengths God goes through to bring His people back to Him But the people s hearts still needed work, which is accomplished by the last person we hear from in the Old Testament - the prophet Malachi. Malachi did 2 things. First was to prophecy that the people were giving only half-hearted attention to God. Malachi said; A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the Lord Almighty. It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. But you ask, How have we shown contempt for your name?... When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you? says the Lord Almighty. Malachi 1:6-9 You see, the people would bring diseased or lame animals to be sacrificed or they only gave a small portion of what God asked of them. They didn t bring a full tithe to God. And there was no distinction between right and wrong among the people. Their hearts were not fully committed to God. That s a warning for us not to be like that. That through The Story our dedication to God will increase in every way. That more and more people will be in Bible Study on Sunday Mornings with our excellent teachers. That more people would will strive to be members of the Care Team. That our giving will continue to grow because giving is an indicator of our spiritual health as a congregation. Malachi spoke of this. He spoke of giving only half-hearted attention to God. The other thing Malachi did was that he pointed the people to the Messiah. See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come, says the Lord Almighty... See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers... Malachi 3:1, 4:5 All of which was fulfilled in the person of John the Baptist, the forerunner to Jesus. It is to this Messiah that the entire Old Testament points. Because everything Points to Jesus Which is where we start next week. Because it s Christmas. Chapter 22 in the Story. The history of the entire Old Testament is over, all of which points to Jesus. Our Lord, our Messiah, our Savour. Amen.

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