The Jewish people were very organized as they returned to Jerusalem. They carried their family records and immediately began preparing themselves for the work of rebuilding and serving in the temple. Everyone knew which category they belonged in: Tribal members, priests, Levites, musicians, temple gatekeepers, temple servants, and descendants of the palace servants going all the way back to King Solomon.

Some of the priests had lost their family records so they were not allowed to serve in temple worship or be part of the distribution of food from the offerings. The governor decreed that the next high priest would determine whether they would be readmitted to the ranks of the priesthood.

The returnees gathered at the site of the destroyed temple in Jerusalem before going on to their ancestral homes. The heads of families made gifts to the temple treasury for the rebuilding project. They must have been preparing these gifts for a while because, besides the donations of silver and gold, they had a hundred garments ready to give to the priests.

The fifty thousand plus returnees then turned toward the open countryside and went out to resettle their ruined towns. It was a time of reconstruction, replanting, and cultivation. It must have been so good to be back.

Returning to Worship

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Joshua the priest and Zerubbabal the prince located the foundation of the altar in front of the ruined temple and built a new one. By the seventh month of that year they were ready to make sacrifices and offerings on it. They started by offering a lamb every morning and evening as prescribed in the Law of Moses.

The time for the Festival of Tabernacles arrived and the people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate, just as they had before the temple was destroyed. They must have camped on the rubble of their old city and gathered each day at the rebuilt altar. The temple was still in ruins, but the most important thing was that they were observing the Law, and making the place where they met the Lord sacred to him alone.

“On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.” Ezra 3:6

Before they went back to their homes the people gave money for the masons and carpenters to use in their work on the temple. They provided food, drink and olive oil to trade for lumber from Lebanon. Lebanon was part of the Persian Empire so King Cyrus had to authorize cutting down the cedar trees and floating the logs from Tyre and Sidon down to Joppa on the Judean coast.

Rebuilding Begins

In the second month of the second year after the Jews arrived back in Jerusalem, Joshua and Zerubbabel began organizing the work of rebuilding the temple. Levites twenty years old and older supervised the work.

Once the workers laid the foundation for the temple, a great ceremony was held to celebrate. The priests put on their vestments and the temple singers and instrumentalists made music.

“With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: ‘He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.’” Ezra 3:11

The people shouted with joy because the foundation of the house of the Lord was finally in place. Most of them had never had the opportunity to worship at the temple before. All they knew was that they were building the place their elders had longed for over many decades in exile. They were rediscovering their identity and re-establishing their worship.

Joy Mixed with Sadness

“But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.” Ezra 3:12-13

When we read Haggai and Zechariah we will see that the older people wept over this foundation because they realized the second temple couldn’t compare to the glory of the first. Solomon’s temple was staggeringly expensive to build and there was no way to replace it. Also, the Ark of the Covenant was lost when the temple was destroyed so the second temple was never going to have it in the Holiest Place.

The older people still grieved over the burning of Jerusalem and the temple. Standing there in the ruins of what had been, they were unable to make the younger generation understand what had been lost. But God knew their grief and he spoke comfortingly to them.

“Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them,  ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’” Haggai 2:2-5

Enemies Attempt to Infiltrate

For centuries people from other lands lived in Israel and Judah. It began when the Assyrians deported people from the ten northern tribes and replaced them with foreigners from other parts of their empire. God sent lions to devour those foreigners when they tried to worship their gods in Samaria, so the Assyrian king sent a Jewish priest to teach them how to worship the God of Israel. From then on they worshiped both Israel’s God and their own gods.

Now the foreign residents used that story to try and deceive Zerubbabel and Joshua into letting them join the temple building project.

“They came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, ‘Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.’” Ezra 4:2

The Jewish leaders saw the subterfuge, rejected the offer of help, and sent them on their way. So their enemies tried other ways to stop the building. They bribed officials to work against the Jews and frustrate their plans. From then on the pressure of opposition complicated the work.

Dealing with Opposition

God’s people had finally gotten back where they belonged and were trying to do everything right. It’s too bad that they were sabotaged by the people around them, but isn’t life just like that?

In this world we will always have opposition, no matter how pure our motives are or how hard we work. We live in a fallen world with spiritual enemies who want to do us in. There is no end to the creativity of Satan and his minions in seeking to undermine us — from tempting us to serious sin, to simply getting in the way of our daily Bible reading.

One the ways our enemies deceive us is by telling us we can never do enough. It’s easy to get discouraged by how small the results of our work seems. But the Lord has comfort for us, just as he did for Israel.

“Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.” Haggai 2:4-5