#595 A Little Less Glamorous Each Time

When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. 4 And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, 5 and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. 7 So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.

Rebuilding the Temple

8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the Lord.9 And Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.

10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,

“For he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. Ezra 3 ESV

The seventh month is big on the Jewish calendar, it contains the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), which is observed with a 25 hour period of fasting and prayer. Atonement is reparation for sin, and these ceremonies pointed towards Christ final and infinite atonement, which only could perfectly satisfy not only the law but the righteousness of God. 

This month also saw the feast of the trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) in Hebrew meaning head of the year. It was a day of rest, the first day of the 7th month, and it is said of the ancients that they would have a reading of Genesis 22, which I looked up and is the story of Abraham offering up his son Isaac. Blow the trumpet, proclaim the gospel, tell the story of the Ram caught in the thorn bush. 

Genesis 22 atonement

The other is the feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Sukkot), "appear before the Lord your God in the place which He shall choose." This was an eight day celebration, starting and ending on a Sabbath. During this time the people dwelt in tents, as the tabernacle and their forefathers did dwell and were sustained for forty years in the wilderness by God. Messiah also came and dwelt among us in such humble fashion, the Word became flesh.

Sukkot feast of Booths

They build an altar, but with much fear and trembling for the inhabitants of the land are not pleased that they are here. It is built upon the old place, for God has called this Mt. Moriah the place, and it will be the place of His acceptable sacrifice. There is still only yet and forever One place where we can stand, One most Holy and acceptable sacrifice for our sins, the covering by way that we can come into the presence of God. 

They respond very differently from old to young, and for the young it is all glorious because they had only heard tell of the stories, but now they were here at the ruins. The old probably thought they would never see such a foundation again. Some probably wept for joy like the prodigal son, but noting also that this had lost some of its former glory, not to be regained. Where is the ark, Aaron's rod, the extravagances of Solomon's kingdom? I say, better the tent on the way to the Promised land, the dirt floor than the marble of kings. They probably did not have words for how they felt, but the shouting and weeping were heard a long way off. 

We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. Hebrews 13:10