Ezra: The Lord Helpsናሙና

I only know three dates in history: 1066 (the Battle of Hastings); 1666 (the Great Fire of London); and 1966 (when England won the Football World Cup)! When those years are mentioned, I know exactly why they were so significant. But give me any other date and it won’t register with me at all. 

Your interest and knowledge of history are likely to be greater than mine, but my guess is that as you read the first words in verse 8, you didn’t give them a second thought: ‘In the second month of the second year after their arrival.' It’s just a date, but it’s very important to note. It is now two years after the exiles had first arrived back in Jerusalem. It takes two years before they start rebuilding the temple. 

They’d rebuilt the altar first and celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles. They now have a place where they can be made right with God. They know that they have a sure and certain eternal future. Then they set about rebuilding the temple (v. 8). I presume they paid for this work from the money given to them by their neighbors when they left Babylon (1:6) and from their own freewill offerings (2:68–69). 

It is terrific that they’ve finally made a start on the temple, but the fact remains it has taken two years to get to this point. Then all they’ve managed to construct are the foundations (vv. 10–12).

It takes a long time to build the temple. It takes a long time to build God’s church. Usually, people are not converted when they first hear the gospel. Once converted, we’re not changed into the people we should be through one Bible study. A church family doesn’t become the people it should be through one cracking sermon. The nation is not going to be won for Christ in a year. Rome wasn’t built in a day! Consider Jesus’ agrarian parables in Mark 4. After sowing the seed of the Word, it takes time before there is growth. 

As we read the Bible, we’d do well to note carefully the time markers. Otherwise, we can be tempted to think that everything happened very quickly, and then wonder why it all takes so long today. It’s helpful to see how things take time, or we’ll be discouraged and impatient with the ‘slow’ progress we experience in gospel ministry now. Be in it for the long haul.

Reflection

How often do you get frustrated when gospel ministry doesn’t move more quickly? Why is this the case? Ask the Lord to give you godly patience and a realization that genuine gospel ministry takes time.