Ezra
It's interesting how different people can have such different reactions to the same event. In Ezra 3, the temple has just been rebuilt (or at least started to be rebuilt) in Jerusalem after years of exile. Many of the Jews have now returned to Jerusalem and the temple is back, although not in its former glory. Almost all of the people were ecstatic, gave shouts of praise to God, and offered up thanksgiving. But some of the older people there, the priests and Levites, wept aloud when they saw the temple because they remembered the former temple of Solomon from many years ago. This new temple wasn't nearly as good as the old one.
What do you say to those people who aren't happy? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth? After all, it was only by the goodness of Cyrus of Persia that the temple rebuilding took place anyway. Or do you just tell them to forget about the past and move on with life? None of these words would be that comforting. I think we all just have to come to the realization that our sin is really going to make things worse, and even after God has forgiven us, we've got to deal with the consequences of the our sin, and whatever circumstances we got ourselves into.
What about the people that were happy just to have a temple? Maybe it would have been a good reminder for them to think of the former temple and see just where rebellion against God had got them. Perhaps they did realize that and understood how great it was just to have a temple and their homeland back at all.
Read on in the rest of Ezra and we'll see where this temple story leads us.
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