The Work Of Prophesying

(Ezra 4.24 to 5.1)

In the brightest days of David and Solomon the national life of Israel had been centred oil Jerusalem, the city of God, and the temple therein, the house of God. Throughout the captivity God used His prophets Ezekiel and Daniel to bring His people to repentance and to keep alive in their hearts a longing desire to return to the land that God had given them, to the place of the Name. There once again they might know the joy and strength of God in their midst as a nation still in covenant with Jehovah their God. Thus had the LORD spoken :This is the place of My throne, the place of the soles of My feet, where

"I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever" (Ezekiel 43.7).

How near to fulfilment was this vision when a remnant of the people with spirits stirred and hearts united in one purpose, laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem! That such a work, commenced with such fervour and with deep consciousness that God was working with them, should cease before completion, was a calamity indeed. In spite of much sacrifice, progress in building seems to have been slow. Their resources in men and materials were but slender, and without was the continuous opposition of the people of the land to weaken their hands and frustrate their purpose many years. These and other similar hindrances could readily be seen, but there were deeper spiritual reasons beneath the surface which only the light of God's word through His prophets could lay bare.

"Thus speaketh the LORD of Hosts" was the striking and arresting announcement of Haggai the prophet in the second year of Darius in the sixth month, and of Zechariah in the eighth month, to the dispirited remnant, kindling afresh in their hearts the majesty of that great Name, Jehovah of Hosts, the Leader of His vast organized armies, angelic and human, their God of infinite resources whom they had so badly failed. Into the well-built houses of Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest, into the dwellings of the people and the priests in their towns and villages comes the LORD's messenger, revealing, reasoning, pleading, exhorting, saying,

"This people say, It is not the time for us to come, the time for the LORD'S house to be built. Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses while this house lieth waste? Consider your ways .

saith the LORD."

Almost forgotten had been their great commission, and immersed were they in their own business. Content were they with their service at the altar, while the house itself, still open to the sky, and the vessels of the sanctuary in store, was a rebuke to their guilty conscience. What then were the consequences of their failure ?

unknown | Apr 1956
The Return From Babylon