author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn again to the book of Ezra. The book of Ezra.

Last week, when we left off, we were talking about how the King, the great king Cyrus of the Persian empire, sent the jews home and charged them with rebuilding the temple. Not only did this pagan king send them back and tell them to build the temple, he encouraged the people to pay for the project and he sent back the Temple treasures that were taken by king Nebuchadnezzar.

All of that happens in Ezra 1. We aren't going to read much of Ezra 2. It's just a list of the people who returned. But we will read a few verses to get the sense.

Look at the first verse:

[!bible] Ezra 2:1 - KJV

1. Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city;

Then all the way down to verse 61 is a list of people who came back. Let's pick back up in verse 61 and read a few verses:

[!bible] Ezra 2:61-63 - KJV 61. And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai; which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name: 62. These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood. 63. And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim.

So in that group that returned, there were a few people, a few families, that couldn't prove that they were of the family of the priests. They couldn't back up their priestly status with genealogies. And so these men were removed from the priesthood.

The point here is that these returning jews were dead serious about setting things up right.

Let's keep reading:

[!bible] Ezra 2:64 - KJV 64. The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore,

So, there is the summary 42,360 people came back, plus their servants. They came back to Israel and started resettling the land that they had been removed from 70 years before.

And that brings us to chapter 3. I want to read all of chapter 3 tonight. Lets start with the first seven verses:

[!bible] Ezra 3:1-7 - KJV

1. And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
2. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
3. And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.
4. They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;
5. And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of the LORD that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the LORD.
6. From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.
7. They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.

Here is where they start. They are back in the Jerusalem and they all got together and the first thing they did was to rebuild the altar and start offering sacrifices.

Remember, in the Tabernacle, the altar wasn't in the actual tabernacle, it was outside in the courtyard. It was by far the most busy part of the Tabernacle or the Temple and it was the heart of the worship there.

So the people figured that they need to start worshipping right away, before the rest of the Temple could be built, and so they setup this altar and started offering daily burnt offerings.

But they didn't start on building the Temple yet. The foundation was not yet laid. But they began on that immediately.

Let's keep reading:

[!bible] Ezra 3:8-11 - KJV 8. Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD. 9. Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites. 10. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. 11. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever 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.

So they started with the foundation. They got the wood and materials they needed and they started with the foundation of this great house. And they had a kind of memorial service, a commemoration service for this foundation when it was laid.

The priests dressed in their preistly apparel and the Levites played their special music - they got the choir together - and they had a worship service praising God for bringing them that far and for letting them start raising the temple.

Now, let's keep reading.

[!bible] Ezra 3:12-13 - KJV 12. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: 13. So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

So they are having this great service, praising God for the foundation being done. It was this happy, joyous occasion.

But not for everyone. You see, there were some older men there "very ancient men" it's called, who couldn't help but compare the start of this new temple to the old temple. And while some men were praising God and shouting for joy. These ancient people were mourning and crying.

So you had this weird mix of joy and praise and weeping and crying blending together.

Now, this is interesting. These older men were crying. They were mourning. Because the Temple wasn't what they remembered. It wasn't as glorious as they remembered. It was nothing to them.

And we know from another book of the Bible that this was very discouraging to the people who were building the Temple.

Turn with me to the book of Haggai. Haggai chapter 2. Where are going to finish this story in the book of Haggai.

Haggai and Zachariah were two prophets who God raised up at this time. They will come back in the story later. But for now I want to just read a good bit of Haggai 2.

[!bible] Haggai 2:1-3 - KJV

1. In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai, saying,
2. Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying,
3. Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?

Ok. So a couple of questions here:

First, who is inspiring Haggai to write and preach? (We see this in verse 1.)

The Lord. Haggai was told this by the Lord.

Second question, who was Haggai talking to? (Look at verse 2)
He was talking to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah.

These are the same people we see in the book of Ezra.

Now, third question, what is Haggai talking about? (Look at verse 3)

He's talking about these old men who saw the first temple, and thought it was nothing in comparison. He's talking to these same people who were crying at the end of Ezra 3.

Let's keep reading through verse 9:

[!bible] Haggai 2:4-9 - KJV 4. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts: 5. According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. 6. For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; 7. And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. 8. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Apparently, Zerubbabel was incredibly discouraged by these older people who were whining about the new temple. Here he was, he had led the people back from Babylon. He had obeyed God. God had blessed. And they were worshipping God and...

Bwaa bwaa - it's not like we remembered it!

And apparently, that really bothered Zerubabbel, it really discouraged the people. So much so that God had to send a prophet to him to remind him of some things.

So what did God tell them while these older people were boohooing about the Temple? Three things:

The first thing God was telling Zerubabbel and the men of Israel was this:

1. Be strong and finish the work, because I am in it.

Look at the end of verse 4 again:

be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts:

They were bothered by the men who were weeping and God had to remind them "No, you are doing my work. Be strong. Do the work."

Don't listen to these ancient men who are weeping. Don't be discouraged by what they are saying. You keep working because God has charged you with this.

The second thing Haggai said to Zerubabbel and the people was...

2. The "Desire of nations" is going to come to this new Temple.

Verse 7 says that "the desire of all nations shall come and fill this house with glory"

Who is "the desire of all nations?" That is Christ. Zerubabbel had to build the Temple so that Christ could come there.

I love this - the building these old timers were sneering at. It's the same building that Jesus would come to hundreds of years later. Jesus would come there - and that is why it was significant. "The desire of all nations shall come and fill this house with glory."

Zerubbabbel - you are doing God's work. Be strong. Some day Jesus is going to come to this Temple.

3. Because of that, the glory of this second Temple would be greater than the first.

Verse 9 puts it plainly:

[!bible] Haggai 2:9 - KJV 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

The Problem with religious nostalgia

Now, I want to make a few points from this little story. I think the bad guy in this story is nostalgia. Nostalgia.

These old timers were filled with nostalgia about the way the Temple used to be and their nostalgia was enough of a problem that God sent two writing prophets to talk about it.

There are three problems with religious nostalgia, and all three of them are at work in this story:

The first problem with religious nostalgia

1. Religious nostalgia often gives us a skewed view of the past.

These ancient men in Israel who were mourning the old Temple, saying that this new Temple would never be as glorious as the old one, they were forgetting somethings about that old temple.

That Old Temple was destroyed in part because the people were unfaithful. That Old Temple had seen some pretty wicked stuff.

• Manasseh had put idols in the Temple including a carved image of the goddess Asherah.
• Ahaz had altared the Temple to worship Assyrian gods.
• When king Josiah reformed the temple, he had to get rid of pagan idols, remove male prostitutes, and stop child sacrifices that had happened in the Temple.

Even when the Temple itself wasn't bad, the people tended to look at the Temple the wrong way - and it became just this place of ritual for the people. God destroyed Judah despite that Temple.

And look, these old timers who were weeping - their hadn't been a Temple there for 70 years. Right before the Babylonians destroyed the Temple, it had been corrupt. These Old Timers had thus had likely never seen an uncorrupted Temple.

And yet as God is leading Zerubabbel, they are mourning - because it will never be as good as it used to be.

Church, we can fall into the same thing today. There are Christians who spend an awful lot of time reminiscing about how good it was in the 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s. But if you could see with clear eyes, it wasn't as glorious as your nostalgia makes it out to be.

Religious nostalgia skews our view of the past.

The second danger of religious nostalgia that we see in this story is...

2. Religious nostalgia takes away from what God is doing now.

Think about what happened in Ezra 3 again. You have these people who are there to obey God. They are there because they want to see God's laws obeyed and God's people restored to faithfulness.

By the answer of many prayers, they are able to come home and start rebuilding the Temple. They are careful to be faithful to the law. After the foundation is built, they have this awesome time of praise, glorifying God.

That had to have been awesome. Amazing. Wouldn't you have liked to see it? This was one of the high marks in the history of Israel. Religiously, this is THE high mark for anyone who is alive at this point.

But mixed in with that glorious song of praise was the noise of people crying.

Imagine our choir singing this beautiful song, doing really well, glorifying God for the amazing work He is doing among us - and mixed in with that song and that beautiful God honoring music is the sound of people crying.

Why are they crying? Nostalgia. Things aren't the way they used to be. Do you understand how discouraging that is?

There was absolutely nothing sad here. But Nostalgia made it sad.

And listen, there will be people who, when God is at work in the present, saving people in the present, raising families in the present - want to taint God's present work by mourning over a past that nostalgia has glorified and skewed. It's wrong.

• Nostalgia presents a skewed version of the past.
• Nostalgia takes away from what God is doing in the present.

There is one more danger to religious nostalgia we see in this story that is still a danger today:

3. Religious nostalgia threatens to hinder what God wants to do in the future.

This weeping and waling from the Old Timers about their long lost Temple was incredibly discouraging to the people who were doing the work. It was one of the tools that the devil used to try to derail that project.

We are going to look at a few more. But this one definitely slowed it down, and God had to bring in Haggai and Zecharia to stir up Zerubbabel and Joshua so they wouldn't get discouraged and quit.

So as I wrap up this Bible study, I want to ask you some pointed questions:

• Is it possible that you are looking at the past with rose colored glasses?
• Is it possible that you have let your nostalgia take away from what God is doing today?
• Do you think God is more concerned with what happened yesterday, or what He is doing today and wants to do tomorrow?
• Do you think it honors God when we allow religious nostalgia to hinder His work?
• Do you think it is right for leaders to let that sentiment hinder what God has called them to do?

I'm going to be honest with you. I did not set out to write this message tonight. I just wanted to preach Ezra 2-3 to you tonight. This is where I feel this text took me. But it is a message I believe our church needs to hear.

Let's stand for prayer.