EZRA 3
Read Ezra 3:1-13
All these people who had travelled from Babylon back to Jerusalem set about the building project. The first task was to build the altar. The main method of corporate worship in the Old Testament was by sacrifice and that required an altar (the Hebrew words for ‘altar’ and ‘sacrifice’ have the same root – an altar is ‘a sacrificing on thing’!). Once the altar was built then they could start praising and thanking God in the time-honoured tradition of their forefathers.
Worship is according to God’s word. We read in v4 that they celebrated a festival ‘in accordance with what is written’. They also had regular worship in the morning and evening. Praising and thanking God is something that is done regularly and on a routine basis, not just on special ‘holy days’. And yes special occasions are marked with special services but there is a regularity to worship that makes it an ongoing service to God. We replicate that pattern today with special service, at Christmas and Easter for example, but continue to praise and worship the Lord week in week out.
At this stage the Temple had not yet been rebuilt; that was a much bigger task. More money and more materials were needed and more expertise. Some more of the exiles returned (the return from exile seems to have been a long process of people coming back to Jerusalem over a period of time) and that enabled the process to begin. The foundations were laid and there was much rejoicing and praising the Lord. Progress was being made on rebuilding the Lord’s house.
But the fact that the Temple was not yet fully rebuilt did not prevent worship. As we have seen, once the altar was there, then worship could continue. The altar was the focus of worship and represented God’s presence with his people. The sacrifices on the altar were seen as gifts given to and dedicated to the Lord. We see too that ‘the people assembled as one man’. True worship is God-centred and in fellowship with others. That’s not to say that we can’t praise and thank God when we are on our own, but the prime environment for worship in the Bible is alongside fellow believers. We see this in the New Testament as well, where worship is sometimes seen to be in synagogues or people meeting in groups. This is particularly noticeable in Paul’s letters where we see the early Christians meeting in all sorts of places, wherever they could find.
Today, too, we meet as church congregations to worship the Lord. The fellowship of believers is the main way to nurture growth in the faith and to encourage one another in our Christian lives.