Do you realize that you are part of something much bigger than you, your family, your country, and even your era in history? We often look at our slice of life as insignificant, unimportant, and maybe even trivial compared to the great events in history. We can lose any sense of motivation and inspiration for challenges to pursue excellence for the glory of God, if we think, we are just, a speck in the universe, waiting to be blown away by cosmic gales.
Creation is much wiser. It groans like a woman in labor waiting for the day when all of the redeemed will be revealed for eternity, and thus all sin, corruption, and depravity forever removed from the created order. Creation understands, each of the redeemed are counted by the larger number, and each are viewed as essential to the whole, without which the whole is incomplete.
Do you know the names of all the exiles that returned to rebuild the temple that had been desolate for 70 years? We know a few of the names, particularly those in leadership positions and those by whose names families were recognized. But of the 43,000 that returned, we only know a few names. Were the others insignificant? Certainly not! The work would never have been accomplished without them; the celebration of worship would have been poorer apart from that unnamed number joining in worshiping the Lord.
When we get to the point where the temple is finished, the only names mentioned are those of the two prophets who preached to them and pointed them to the sovereign might of the Lord. The rest are unnamed. Not even Zerubbabel and Jeshua, who had such important roles in the early stages, are mentioned. While the “elders of the Jews” led the way, it’s just “the sons of Israel” that ended up completing the task of rebuilding. That in itself is significant because that phrase normally referred to the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, at least after the kingdom divided. It was primarily those from Judah, Benjamin, and Levi (the southern kingdom) that returned to rebuild the temple. But when the credits rolled in our text, the focus was on the whole of Israel. And yet was that the focus? While considering the sons of Israel as the human workforce for completing the temple, the real focus was on the Lord God who brought it about. The celebration was not about how great the sons of Israel were and how hard they worked. Rather the celebration for them, as it should be for us, was on how gracious our God is in His sovereign work to accomplish His mighty purposes.
Mervin Breneman (NAC, vol. 10, 118) writes: “The most powerful word on earth at that time was the decree of a Persian king, but silently and mysteriously the king was being directed by an even more powerful divine word.”
Reflect on 6:6-12 and the significance of what Darius commanded concerning the work on rebuilding the temple.
It was a divine work! The word “decree” is used in the Hebrew for both that of Yahweh and that of Darius (the ESV rightly brings this out).
Charles Fensham (NICOT: The Books of Ezra & Nehemiah, 92), “God works through history and historical process.” Derek Kidner (TOTC: Ezra & Nehemiah, 59), “It is a model of the way God works and of the means He uses.”
Note how it is put: the elders were successful, thus doing what Darius decreed; but it took place through the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, thus the work was ultimately accomplished through the divine decree. Darius commanded the work to be done; but God decreed by mysterious sovereign might that Darius would command this work.
The mysterious sovereign work of God is accomplished by the hands of men.
Note: 2 Chronicles 11:2-4; Acts 2:23-24; 4:27-28
Also consider Philippians 2:12-13
Is this too casual of a word? Not at all when we consider the grandeur of what our God has done and the overwhelming expressions of praise that burst from the heart!
This is so important for believers. The church should be a place of celebration. That does not mean that we ought to manufacture a certain type of feeling or atmosphere. That kind of faulty mood manipulating approach is worldly through and through. Celebration in the truest sense can only happen when we revel in the glory of our God through Christ. What are we doing in celebrating?
They returned to Scripture, “in the book of Moses.”
They were ordered by the Word, “as it is written.”
This gives us a good pattern for the Regulative Principle in worship.
What does this involve?
For 70 years they had not celebrated Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread; now the celebration returned because the central focal point of worship was restored in their lives. No more harps hung on the willows!
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