Mon.’s Devo - A Turn of Events

Read: Ezra 4:24-6:22; 1 Corinthians 3:5-23; Psalm 29:1-11; Proverbs 20:26-27 This story is another one of God’s victorious defeats. When God is ready to do something, nothing can stand in his way. God was ready to rebuild his Temple in Jerusalem. *** God’s enemies tried to stop the building with an intimidating letter to Xerxes full of propaganda and lies. Their goal was to stop the building which they had managed to delay for years. Darius came to the throne after Xerxes. *** God sent his prophets Haggai and Zechariah who told the leaders of Jerusalem to continue building the Temple. So they began again to build. When the governor west of the Euphrates, Tattenai, found out, he sent messengers to get a list of the workers and find out why they were defiling his order to stop building. They told him that Cyrus had ordered this building years ago and given them the articles he had taken when he took Jerusalem. He had returned the articles and instructed them to put them in the Temple they were building. *** When Darius read the letter, he had a search made into the archives and found the order that Cyrus had made. He sent Tattenai a letter ordering him not only to stop hindering their work but to help them in it. He was to supply whatever they needed from the taxes he collected in his land and pay for the Temple being built and to supply any animals they would need to sacrifice to the Lord. What a turn of events! How humbling must that have been for the governor. If anyone refused to obey the decree, they were threatened to have their house torn down and to be impaled by one of its beams. Tattanai obeyed at once! *** By March 12, four years later, the Temple was complete. This was in time to celebrate the Passover which they did with much pomp,. They celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days cleansing themselves to be holy before the Lord. There was much joy in Jerusalem among God’s children. *** Paul continued his letter to the Corinthians who had put so much importance on their leader instead of seeing them as servants of God. Each one of them had a part. They were workers, the people were the field or his building. They were building a Temple for the Lord just as Ezra was doing in today’s reading. Only this was not a visible one but a Temple in their hearts. *** Paul had laid the foundation which was Christ and all other builders had to build their doctrine on that foundation. In the end, the building would be tested by fire to see what remains. God’s Temple had to remain holy just as we must remain holy. The only leader we can boast about is Christ. He is true and right. *** Lord, help us to remember this. You are our foundation and your Word is our covenant. May we stay true to You and be a holy people set apart to show your glory on the earth.