We've actually covered the third chapter, but I want to revisit 12 and 13, no surprise there, verses 12 and 13 of chapter 3. And we'll begin with a contrast between where the children of Israel, this remnant that had returned to Jerusalem, where they are at that time, and we'll contrast that with where they were in the worship that took place under the temple that was built by Solomon. So that would be, so 2 Chronicles 5.13. So if you turn there, 2 Chronicles 5.13, that's not, you know, you're going back toward Genesis and it's right close. So 2 Chronicles 5, And we'll read verses 11 through 14, we'll get the whole gist of that worship time as the temple, Solomon's temple was complete. And then we know that temple was destroyed and the children of Israel were taken captive to Babylon. And then this is the remnant that returns in Ezra and they're going to rebuild the temple. But we wanna look at a contrast because there's worship going on in both places. So let's read out of 2 Chronicles 5, 11 through 14. When the priests came forth from the holy place for all the priests were present, had sanctified themselves without regard to divisions. So notice you got all the priests there present, who were present. So you have priests, you have a good number of priests. And then verse 12, and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jaduthun, and their sons and kinsmen clothed in fine linen with cymbals, harps, lyres, standing east of the altar and with them 120 priests blowing trumpets. I mean, this is a worship time. They're not holding anything back here. And verse 13, and they're in unison when the trumpets and the singers were to make themselves heard. with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, he indeed is good for his loving kindness is everlasting. Then the house, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. So that is the celebration, the worship that took place at the dedication of Solomon's temple. You turn to Ezra, so there's a lot of water under the bridge, so to speak, between that second Chronicles five, the dedication of Solomon's temple and here, The children of Israel have been taken captive. The children of Israel no longer have a temple and barely have a city. They were allowed to return and there's just a remnant. There's not the full complement of the children of Israel that were there with Solomon. And so you read there in chapter three, the tail end there of chapter three concerning the worship that took place At this time, yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' households, the old men, listen to this, who had seen the first temple. I wonder what was going through their mind. I mean, they've got a foundation, that's it. I think they had a foundation, that's it. They have an altar. This is not the completion of the temple as the folks under Solomon were worshiping and were witnessing. The old man who had seen the first temple wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy. so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people. For the people shouted with a loud shout and the sound was heard far away." We know from verse 11, they were singing, they praised God, they gave thanks to the Lord. We know that they recited some Psalms, for he is good, for his loving kindness upon Israel is forever and ever. The people were shouting and they praised the Lord because the foundation of the Lord, of the house of the Lord was laid. But it wasn't the completed temple. And so these older men that had seen Solomon's temple are weeping because of the diminished temple. That's where they're standing. They're standing virtually in ruins. And this is not a high and glorious time for them. They're coming back a thousand miles to their home and their place of worship. And it's really not there. And they barely started to work on it. Now we know that Haggai and Zechariah both prophesied and they prophesied about this time. So I wonder what they had to say. I wonder what these people were feeling. Do you think they felt like they were close to the finish line, close to having a completed worship place, a temple? Or do you think it looked a long way off to them? Well, if you go to Haggai, I think the old preacher said Haggai. Not too many syllables. Let's go with Haggai. So you go over there where the pages in your Bible might be a little sticky if you hadn't been through the minor prophets of late. Haggai. You go to chapter two, beginning with verse three, and we know Haggai preached during this time. He is a contemporary of the people, the exiles that had come back from Babylon. So on the 21st day, this is chapter 2 of Haggai. This is what Haggai was directed by the Lord to say about it. On the 21st day, or on the 21st of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, speak now to Zerubbabel. Okay, we know he's leading the building project. Ezra, the first six chapters are really about Zerubbabel. Ezra comes in chapter seven through the end of the book. So speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant, there we go, there's a remnant, he's speaking to the remnant of the people, saying. So, all right, Haggai, God's given you a word for the people. What is that word? So here's what he says. Verse three, who's left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison? So as you might think, God knows the minds of his people. He knows what they were thinking. They were thinking, especially those old men, compared to that first temple, this is nothing. Here we are. We don't have a bunch of priests. We don't have a bunch of trumpets. We got a few people singing and praising God. We've got a remnant of people at that. And we got people, we actually have people weeping and shouting at the same time. And we're not even close, we're not even in the dry, as the builders like to say. But Haggai gets a word from the Lord and he says, who's left among you who saw this temple in its former glory and how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison? Just a point of application. I hear it from Christian people sometimes. Give us back the good old days. Really? Give us back the good old days. I remember when church was like this. And we say it and we're kind of bragging on God for the good old days, but I think we got to be careful to obey God in the current situation. Hear the word of the prophet here. He says in verse four, but now take courage, Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Take courage also, Joshua, son of Jehoshaddak, the high priest, and all you people of the land. Take courage, declares the Lord, and work. For I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts. As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is abiding in your midst. Do not fear. So what? So in that just the foundation and an altar and not much compared to what they had under Solomon, God says through his prophet, God says I'm with you and my spirit is with you and you need to take courage. Now is not the time. to be forlorn and fretful, but now's the time to take courage, and now's the time to work, and now's the time to band together. Why? He says because He's with us. God says, I am with you. He says, ask for the promise I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit is abiding in your midst. Do not fear. He goes all the way back to Egypt. For thus says the Lord of hosts, once more in a little while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth. So all this is in preparation for the Lord to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea, also in the dry land. And he says, I will shake all the nations, all of them. He's not going to leave one out. And they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in his place, I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. I just want to say the Lord has good He has promised good to his people. And the glory of the former house will not exceed the glory of the latter house. And I do believe with all my heart, the glory of the latter house is the tabernacle that came and dwelt among us. And that is Jesus Christ, our Lord. John said, we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. And Jesus, that tabernacle who dwelled among us is building his church. And I think this is a, this is great encouragement for those of us who live in this church time and are submissive as much as we can be submissive to Jesus and cooperative with him in the building of his church. I mean, why else would we open the Bible? Why else would we sing the wonderful songs of Zion? Why else would we gather on Wednesday night when it's getting dark about five o'clock and all that? Why? Well, I just want to say, don't be discouraged. Don't, oh, I almost forgot. Zechariah had something to say. So just turn one page over, it's easy to find Zechariah. One page over, chapter five, or chapter four in one verse, we'll just, well, do we have to just keep it at one? No, let's read verses one through the first part of verse 10. I mean, they didn't, listen, these people, you'd think one prophet will take care of it. Right? Just one prophet, one word. I mean, if you heard what, if you were standing there and you heard Haggai say what he said, you'd say, well, God says his spirit's among us. We're going to take courage. We're going to see this thing through. But here comes another prophet. It's just like God to give a lot of attention to a really what, from a human perspective, looks like a very insignificant thing. Did you know that God will oftentimes double down on things that man says are insignificant? Like the world would, you know, not even, I mean, they just yawn when, you know, the lights are on in a church. They just drive by. But God doubles down. God brings his people together. God blesses his people. That's what he does. So anyway, on to Zechariah. What did he say? Well, beginning there in verse 1, chapter 4, Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me as a man who is awakened from his sleep. He said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see and behold a lampstand, all of gold, with his bowl on the top of it and it's seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it. Also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side. Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, what are these, my Lord? So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my Lord, it's always good to be honest with God, because he knows what's on your heart. So be honest. You don't understand it? Just say it. I don't get it. Then he said to me, this is the word of the Lord, to Zerubbabel, there he is again, saying, what'd the Lord say to him? Not by my, Not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. So you can imagine Zerubbabel sitting there and he's going, okay, I'm leading this building project. We've just had our dedication and we only have a foundation. So we dedicated the foundation and we only have an altar and we only have a remnant of a remnant. And here we are, and what are we supposed to do? And how am I supposed to bring this about? And so God shows up with Zechariah and he says, hey, Zerubbabel, over here, not by might, not by human strength, not by power, not by human ingenuity or wisdom or power, nothing of a human invention, but the Lord says, by my spirit. And then notice how the Lord identifies himself. as the Lord of hosts. Okay, now. So this was more than a building project. You need to write this down in your Bible. This is a war. It's a war. The Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. You need to know, Zerubbabel, that the Lord of armies is behind this project. It looks like a simple building project to the human eye, but it's much more than that. It's of the Lord. It's a war. What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you will become a plain and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of grace, grace to it. The Lord says, you're gonna finish it. And when you finish this construction, the capstone you will bring forth the capstone or the topstone with shouts of grace, grace to it. So it's grace from the beginning, it's grace to the end, and it's grace in the middle. Also the word of the Lord came to me saying, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. Interesting, the Lord knows exactly where they are on the schedule of the construction. and his hands will finish it, then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you." Now, what's interesting is he won't know it for sure until it's done. So, I know we always like to eliminate faith, right? We want to know it all. Well, we walk by faith, not by sight. He's not going to give us all the answers. He's gonna let us walk by faith. He's gonna let us step out on faith. He's gonna let us stand in faith. He's gonna let us minister in faith and love him in faith and worship him in faith. But then we have verse 10, just the first part, for who has despised the day of small things? And I think sometimes in God's questions to us, there is a bit of a rebuke. Don't despise the small. Don't look at something and say, well, it's just a little Wednesday night gathering. And I mean, we sang something beautiful. Hadn't heard that one in a long time. I love that song. It does speak to my heart. And then Phil, my cup lord, we sang two songs and we then we open up the Bible and for crying out loud, we're reading out of Ezra and Nehemiah. Who does that? but God's doing work. And sometimes those little blessings, if we don't appreciate that small thing that God's doing, we miss it all. Have an eye to see the small stuff, the little stuff that God is doing. So there we have the introduction there. And then we go back to, we have time for a little more. This is rich. So I do have, every now and then, I do have notes. And I had, we got through the first page, and that didn't even, that was like that. There was not much there. But we're going on. We won't get done tonight, that's the point. We're not gonna get near through. So what do you think happens from there? All right, if you are a predictor of things, there they praise God, there they've heard from the prophets. What happens next? A lawsuit. Maybe something similar to that, yes. From here, let's just go ahead and put it all out there. From chapter four of Ezra, all the way to the end of Nehemiah. Adversaries. Isn't that fun? I mean, we just love to hear that. Isn't that music to your ears? No, we want the temple filled with a cloud. But from chapter four, all the way through the end of Ezra, or the end of Nehemiah, the end of Ezra going into Nehemiah, the end of Nehemiah, you have adversity, you have adversaries. So let's read there in chapter four from, we're just gonna go five verses. And it's really self-explanatory. I'll give a little bit, but it's right there before. So look at this. So no sooner than they have this worship time and they hear from the Haggai prophet and they hear from the Zechariah prophet. Now, when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to the Lord God of Israel, They approached Zerubbabel and the heads of father's households and said to them, let us build with you, for we like you seek your God. And we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esau, Hadon, king of Assyria, who brought us up here. Hmm. But Zerubbabel and Yeshua and the rest of the heads of father's households of Israel said to them, so here's some people who've come up and said, we want to help you. Basically said, we want to help. So what will be the response of Zerubbabel and Yeshua? Well, we're gonna find out. So, but Zerubbabel and Yeshua and the rest of the heads of the father's households of Israel said to them, you have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God, but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the King of Persia has commanded us. Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and frightened them from building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their council all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. And we stop there, thankfully, and say, what just happened? They were offered help and they refused the help. for good reason, we'll show that in closing. And then, no surprise, the people that had offered to help become a more visible adversary to them because the people of the land, right there, verse four, discourage the people of Judah. Now, through verses four and five, I am no Hebrew. I have long since forgotten the Hebrew alphabet and really even how to pronounce and read. But four and five, verses four and five, are filled with participles. of what the people of the land were doing to discourage the work of the temple. And what it means is they did this relentlessly. And they did this in a variety of ways. So every trick in the book that the enemies could put in the way of the children of Israel toward completing the project of this temple, they used. I mean, they pull out every trick to try to confuse and try to slow down and try to stop the work of the temple. So why did they refuse the help? Because you could read that without any background and think, well, that seems kind of arrogant. I mean, there's just a few of you, come on now. Come on. Get somebody to drive a bulldozer. Come on. Let's get this going. I mean, they might speed it up. They might help. No. 2 Kings 17. gives us the needed background to understand why they said no. 2 Kings 17 verses 24 and following. And we will, remember they said the King of Assyria brought us here. That's what they said in Ezra. So here we are in 2 Kings and this is chapter 17 verse 24. And this is the necessary background that answers the question, why didn't they accept the help from these people? The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Kuthah, and from Avah, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities." So these are foreigners, okay? They're foreign to the children of Israel. They're not children of Israel. At the beginning of their living there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. Did you remember that from your Bible reading? So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations whom you have carried away into exile in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land. So he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them because they do not know the custom of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Take there one of the priests, whom you carried away into exile, and let him go and live there, and let him teach them the custom of the God of the land. So one of the priests, whom they had carried away into exile from Samaria, came and lived at Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made. Every nation in their cities in which they lived. The men of Babylon made Sukkoth, Binoth, the men of Kuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and you got some more there and skipping down to verse 32. They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places who acted for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the customs of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile. To this day, they do according to the earlier customs, they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law or the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel. And that is why they refuse the help of those folks. And when they refuse the help, when they turned them down, it all breaks loose. And now those people who had volunteered their help are now going to try to do whatever they can, pull out whatever trick is in the book to try to stop the work, to try to slow it down. And they slow it down. If you have the timeline that we handed out the first couple of times, you can see there's a gap between when they start or lay the foundation and then when they begin again. And we'll look at that next time. Father in heaven, thank you for the time together tonight. I pray you would teach us. I pray you would work with us and I pray God that your spirit would work mightily among us, even in the days in which humans would consider these things very small things. But Lord, you are the God of small things. And in you, we grow and we live and we move and we have our being. We praise you, praise you and give you glory in Jesus name. Amen.