Present Grace Greater than Past Failures

“But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, [who were] ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:” (Ezr 3:12 AV)

Israel had served out their seventy years of captivity and now the LORD was restoring them to their land.  The first order of business was to rebuilt the destroyed temple.  The next, build a wall around the city.  When they laid the foundation of the temple, there was a mixed reaction.  Those who had never seen the temple shouted with rejoicing.  Those that had seen the temple, mourned with weeping.  It is those who mourned which caught my attention this morning.

I do not think these elder men were ungrateful.  I do not think they were upset that Zerubbabel laid a smaller foundation because he could have laid a larger one.  The fact of the matter is, some of what Solomon built needed not to be included in the temple itself.  Three floors of apartments and storage were completely unnecessary.  There is also the concern of stability.  If the new temple were laid directly over the foundation of the old, the building may not have been stable over time.  Whatever the reason for making this temple smaller, the aged generation felt remorse.  What I believe is they compared the glory of the old temple with the diminished glory of the new and it was a reminder of what they had lost because of their past rebellion.  The new temple was a reminder of what they had failed to do more than it was that God’s grace had come again.

There are so many people I meet that cannot get over the mistakes of the past.  They hound them and continue to rob them of the joy they could have in the present.  No doubt, there is a loss of what might have been.  We all suffer for the choices made and we all could have had a better life if only we would have not made certain choices.  But that does not mean we should rob ourselves of the joy which we can experience today.  A smaller temple is much better than no temple at all!  Yes, we have all made horrible mistakes in our past.  But if we dwell on them and not on how God is blessing in spite of those choices, we live a miserable life!