Then the people of Israel--the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles--celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. Sermons
I. THE REJOICING WAS OVER THE FINISHED WORK. 1. It was the end of all their toil. (1) The end, in being the consummation towards which they wrought. So will the heavenly state be to all true workers in the Church of God. (2) Also the end, in the sense of bringing their toil to its period. The labour of twenty long years was now closed. No more straining of muscles in felling of cedars in Lebanon. No more sweat of the face in lifting great stones. No more endurance of cruel mockings and violent persecutions, So when we gain our reward "there will be no more curse" (Revelation 21:3-5). 2. It was the triumph of their faith and hope. (1) The word of God sustained them against opposition from the rulers and from the rabble. It nerved them under the discouragements of threats and violence. So amidst vicissitudes for twenty years they plodded on. Now they reap the reward of their constancy. (2) So has the Church of God been carried up stone by stone amidst opposition from princes and people. Amidst poverty and perplexity. With interruptions and threatenings. But it is destined to witness a magnificent sequel (see Revelation 21:1, 2, 9, etc.). (3) The history of the Church has its epitome in the experience of its members. Their constant faith will reap its reward too in the heights of the heavenly Zion. II. THEY REJOICED OVER IMMENSE SACRIFICES. 1. There were peace offerings for the dedication. (1) The number of the victims was 100 bullocks and 600 smaller animals, viz., 200 rams and 400 lambs. At the dedication of Solomon's temple the sacrifices were 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep (see 1 Kings 8:63). Yet this immolation does not compare unfavourably. Here were only 50,000 Jews as against say 10,000,000 Israelites in the days of Solomon, or 1 to 200. Multiply these victims by 200, and they scarcely differ in number from those offered at the earlier dedication (see also Ezra 8:35). Consider also the difference in their circumstances (see 2 Corinthians 8:2, 3). Well might they rejoice in their religious zeal. (2) Corresponding to this enormous slaughter, there will be in connection with the dedication to God of his glorified Church a fearful sacrifice of his enemies. These judgments began upon the antichristian Jews (see Jeremiah 19:6, 7). They will culminate in the destruction of the Antichrist of Gentiledom (see Isaiah 34:1-7; Ezekiel 39:17-20). If mercy rejoices, it rejoices upon judgment (not "against" it); as the ark of mercy rode upon the flood of judgment (see Revelation 22:15). 2. There were sin offerings for all Israel. (1) "Twelve he-goats according to the number of the tribes." The number of the victims sacrificed for the tribes at the dedication of Solomon's temple is not mentioned (2 Chronicles 7:4). (2) Why for "all Israel," when so large a part of the ten tribes remained in their dispersion? Perhaps an expression of faith in those promises which speak of a full restoration of "all the house of Israel wholly" (see Ezekiel 11:14-20). This restoration was but an instalment of the ultimate restoration even of Judah. (3) Atonement necessary to the acceptableness of services. The "children of the captivity" had a lively remembrance of the miseries they had suffered through sin. The redeemed in heaven will sing of Calvary (Revelation 5:8-13). III. THEY REJOICED OVER THE ORDERING OF THE SERVICE OF GOD. 1. The priests were distributed into their divisions. (1) These "divisions" are also called courses (2 Chronicles 8:14). They were twenty-four in number, and so ordered by David (1 Chronicles 24:1-5). They served in turn, under the direction of the high priest, and on entering this service were ceremonially sanctified (2 Chronicles 5:11). Example in the case of Zacharias (see Luke 1:5, 8). (2) There will be supreme order in the service of God in heaven. 2. The Levites also were distributed into courses. (1) David, the type of his infinitely more illustrious Son, gave this ordinance likewise (1 Chronicles 23:3-6). (2) Their services were (a) those connected with sacrifice (2 Chronicles 31:2). (b) Supervising matters pertaining to the temple. (c) Keeping the doors of the house of the Lord. (d) Leading the praise in the worship of God. 3. Believers in Christ are the priests and Levites of the spiritual sanctuary. (1) They offer continual sacrifices of prayer, of praise, of service. (2) Everything which concerns the house of God concerns them. The service they render is therefore joyful service. We should welcome holy ordinances with joy (Psalm 100:2) - J.A.M.
And they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai. Homilist. It —I. QUICKENS THE POWER OF THOUGHT. He quickens public thought most who presents the most startling subjects with the highest enthusiasm. The true pulpit does this. The subjects it presents are the most vital to man's interests, the most stimulating to his inquiry. They involve the sublimest facts of nature and the grandest truths of inspiration, the highest interests of man now and for ever. Hence there is no power equal to the power of the true pulpit to break the monotony of mind and set the wheels of intellect ageing. This being so, the attendant on a true ministry will be — 1. The more qualified to form a good plan of action. 2. The more practical sagacity he will have to adapt means to ends. 3. The more solicitous he will be to execute his plan. II. SUPPLIES THE TIMID WITH MOTIVE FOR ACTION. The man who has been made thoughtful by the power of the pulpit is made to feel that the more successful he is in his business — 1. The more useful he is as a citizen. 2. The more useful as a religionist. (Homilist.) (J. Parker, D. D) (George S. Merrian.) Homilist. There is no book that throws more light upon the obligation of building temples for God, and the spirit that should ever inspire it, than that of Ezra.I. IN BUILDING A CHRISTIAN TEMPLE WE EXPRESS OUR FELT CONNECTION WITH THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. All building may be regarded as the expression of some sentiment, instinct, or wish of human nature. Markets, senate-houses, theatres, hotels, have all risen as the effects, embodiments, and realisations of some principle in our common nature. But these are all for our material wants and interests. In building a house for God we declare that we have other relations than those that connect us with this material system, other wants than those of the body, other interests than the secular and the physical. We thus attest our connection with the spiritual universe, our relation to eternity, our moral obligation to the Infinite, our desire for communion with God. II. IN BUILDING A CHRISTIAN TEMPLE WE EXPRESS THE IDEA THAT WE REQUIRE SPECIAL MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD. In the temple of nature God is portrayed in every object and proclaimed in every sound. But we feel that some other manifestation is required. In nature we can only see Him as the Almighty Creator and Absolute Sovereign; we want Him to appear in another relationship, one more suited to our fallen condition; we want Him to appear to us a redeeming God — one mighty to save. Had we not sinned we should need no such manifestations of God as we seek in the erection of temples. The temple of nature would suffice. There is no temple in heaven; God is seen in all, loved in all, worshipped in all. III. IN BUILDING A CHRISTIAN TEMPLE WE ATTEST OUR FAITH IN THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. 1. As a revelation from God intended and adapted to meet the condition of sinners. 2. As necessary to all men, through all times. We feel that while coming generations may not require our systems of philosophy, our ecclesiastical polities, our schemes of government, our codes of laws, they will require the gospel; and hence we rear a temple for its proclamation. IV. IN BUILDING A CHRISTIAN TEMPLE WE EXPRESS OUR PHILANTHROPY. We are not building merely for ourselves, but for others; not even for our contemporaries, but for posterity. A Christian temple true to its mission is the greatest blessing to society. There the most soul-elevating ideas are proclaimed. Of all ideas to which men are subject none are so important as the religious. Other ideas will arouse certain faculties — some the intellect, some the imagination, some the emotions — but this the entire man. Other ideas act upon human nature as the rays of winter upon the soil; under its influence only a few germs will be evolved and a few plants will grow; but this, like the glowing beams of the vernal sun, will penetrate the deepest depths with its quickening energy, cause every seed-bud to burst into life and expand into fruitfulness. The mystic rod of Moses was not so mighty as the instrument the religious teacher wields. He lives nearest the heart of the world; he is up at the head springs, out of which proceed the issues of life. True religious ideas wherever proclaimed are the chief blessings of the world. In Christian temples such ideas are brought to bear with all their force upon the human mind; by them men are made to feel their obligations to be truthful, virtuous, benevolent, and Godlike; evil is subdued, hearts are changed, and souls are saved by these ideas. Christian temples are to society what tides are to the ocean, what the winds are to the atmosphere; they stir the mass and keep it pure. V. IN BUILDING A CHRISTIAN TEMPLE WE EXPRESS THE IDEA THAT PUBLIC WORSHIP IS TO BE PERPETUATED BY HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY. We have reason to thank God that He has left such work as the building of temples to us. Had the necessaries of life sprung from the earth, so as to require no labour, the physical energies of man would never have been developed. Had knowledge come into our mind without the exercise of our faculties, we should never have known anything of intellectual force. In like manner, had everything in religion been done for us, so that no demand would have been made upon our benevolent sympathies, we should have been beings of morbid religious sentiment, and without any force or greatness of character. (Homilist.) From this subject we learn —1. That man in this world needs a sanctuary, in which he may call on the name of the Lord his God. We are closely bound to the material globe, and the holiest affections. The most spiritual exercises naturally cling round some sacred spot where we have been accustomed to meet with God and with His people. Speaking of an old village church, Washington Irving says, "For my part, there are feelings that visit me in a country church, amid the beautiful serenity of nature, which I experience nowhere else; and, if not a more religious, I think I am a better man on Sunday than on any other day of the seven." This principle lies deep in human nature. Among the most sacred memories of life are the childhood recollections which carry us back to the old familiar church, which then seemed so grand and impressive, where with father and mother we reverently worshipped God. 2. We learn that toil and sacrifice enter into the building of these sanctuaries. God does not ask for that which costs us nothing. Sacrifice may not be needed by Him, but it is necessary for us, and without it human nature cannot attain its highest and best. 3. We learn not to neglect the sanctuary. (E. B. Mason.) Kept the dedication of this house of God with Joy Monday Club Sermons. I. THE BUILDING OF GOD'S HOUSE WAS CARRIED ON IN FACE OF OBSTACLES. Every important work has its hindrances. No great results have been achieved without meeting obstacles. But men have always been found qualified for the hard tasks. A clear brain, boundless energy, and unflinching will are hidden away in the right man, ready to be revealed at the right time. The tremendous barriers that stand before the waiting and needed reform chill the courage of the many, while they also arouse the energy and provoke the will of the true leader. Haggai had counted the cost, and knew exactly what he had to contend against. There was the cry of procrastination. "The time is not come — the time that the Lord's house should be built." "The time is not ripe" is a phrase that might often be interpreted to mean, "the people are not ready." When any reform is pressing, you hear a clamour for delay. There are some who take counsel of their fears rather than of their faith. When Lincoln read his Proclamation of Emancipation to Seward, the Secretary of State counselled delay, until at last the President took the matter into his own hands and sent the message of liberty ringing through the land. Haggai understood the reason for delay, the people were filled with self-love and desire for display.II. THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE HAD A MORAL AND SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE ON THE PEOPLE. At the dedication they offered a sin offering of "twelve he goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel." When once the temple was furnished, and the people saw all the appointments complete and an altar standing before them and in use, their sense of sin was aroused. The first sacrifice on that new altar was for their sins. With their new house they began a new life. The house of God in a community stands for a spiritual idea. The school-house and college stand for the intellectual needs of man. The moral and spiritual side finds its exponent in the church. These silent memorials of God's grace compel us for a moment to think of duty and the hereafter, and they are suggestive of the rest that "remaineth." A reverential soul can worship God anywhere, but a house dedicated to Him is an aid to such worship. While there we are released for the time from the distracting sights and sounds of outside life, and under the singing of hymns and the uplifting influence of prayer the mind becomes calmed for the consideration of truth. III. THE HOUSE OF GOD IS THE HOME OF JOY. The Oriental expressed his feelings in most demonstrative ways. He shouted, clapped his hands, and danced when happy, and these extravagances were carried into his religious worship. Worship with the Jew was a natural channel for the display of feeling, while the Occidental suppresses his emotion in worship. We need more naturalness in the house of God. We come before God to express ourselves, not to suppress ourselves. The very truth proclaimed in God's house is fitted to produce the liveliest emotions. Mankind ought to be induced to come to the house of God because of the abundance of peace to be found there. The view of God should be the one fitted to draw all hearts to Him. A young man, homeless and lonely, wandered through the streets of one of our cities. He could get no work, and had had no food for some time. Despair had seized his soul, and in that frame of mind he entered a church and dropped into a back seat. The sermon was being delivered, and it presented such a view of God and emphasised certain elements of truth that it deepened his despair, and he rushed from the church and threw himself into the river. This ought not to have been. There are stem truths in the gospel, yet to give them undue prominence, and make them overshadow the obvious intent of the gospel is to deprive it of its essential quality of hopefulness. The house of God stands for the best and brightest and cheeriest in human life. (Monday Club Sermons.) We are here advised as to the accessories by which the builders of the temple were enabled to succeed.I. GOD WAS WITH THEM. All along He had been predisposed in their behalf. We also are exhorted to work out our own salvation because it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do. II. GOD WAS PLEASED TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEM THROUGH HIS ORDAINED SERVANTS. Haggai was an old man whose strength lay largely in admonition. Zechariah was younger, more inclined to the dreaming of hopeful dreams and the seeing of bright visions. III. THEY WERE ENCOURAGED BY THE FAVOURABLE ATTITUDE OF TEMPORAL PRINCES. The dedication took place in the month Adar, "the month of splendour," so called because of the brightness of its suns and the beauty of its flowers. 1. A hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs were offered in sacrifice; "and for a sin offering, twelve he goats for all Israel." There is something pathetic in the mention of these he goats. Ten of the twelve tribes, having out themselves loose from their brethren, had little or no part in the building of this temple, but they were remembered, and a place in the sin offering was Sacredly reserved for them. It was as when mothers set vacant chairs for their absent, wayward sons on thanksgiving day. Whatever might happen, the religious unity of Israel must be preserved. In like manner the Church of Christ, however parted asunder by the controversies of the past, should be at one in the work of the kingdom and in the rejoicings of the triumph of Christ. 2. At this dedication the ancient order of service was restored. The assignments of the priests and Levites date back to the time of Moses (Numbers 3:6-10). It does not follow that because a custom is old it is obsolete. Prayer is as old as human want, like the air we breathe, and time can make no improvement upon it. It should be observed that the Feast of Passover was among the venerable customs which were revived at this dedication. It was a foreshadowing of the atonement of Christ, without which all other pomp and circumstance of service are a dumb show. (D. J. Burrell, D. D.) I. WE OBSERVE IN GENERAL THAT THE JOY WITH WHICH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, ETC. KEPT THE DEDICATION OF THE HOUSE OF GOD AROSE —1. Because of the consideration of its being now completely finished. 2. Of their regarding it as a token of God for good, a demonstration at once of His faithfulness and favour towards them and of the delightful prospect which it held out to them of their enjoying with comfort and with advantage the public ordinances of religion. II. BUT MORE PARTICULARLY THIS JOY AROSE — 1. From the consideration of their having been honoured and enabled to build a house to the Lord their God. 2. From the consideration of its being a means of promoting the glory of God. 3. From its being a means of securing the observance and extending the benefits of religious ordinances to future and succeeding generations. (G. B. Brand.) I. THE OCCASION WAS ONE OF JOY. Hebrew and Christian worship are joyful, because believers worship a revealed God of salvation. Heathen worship is a straining or groping of man after God (1 Kings 18:26-29).II. THE SERVICE WAS ONE FOR WHICH ALL WHO HAD TO TAKE PART IN IT HAD PREVIOUSLY PURIFIED THEMSELVES. III. THERE WERE BURNT OFFERINGS AS A TOKEN OF THE CONSECRATION OF THE PEOPLE HEART AND SOUL AFRESH TO GOD. IV. THERE WERE SIN OFFERINGS. In Divine worship there should always be a recognition of sin, and of Christ's having "put away sin" by the sacrifice of Himself. V. THERE WAS THE OBSERVANCE OF THE PASSOVER. They loved God because God loved them; this is the order now, and we cannot reverse it (1 John 4:19). VI. THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD WAS KEPT JOYFULLY FOR SEVEN DAYS. 1. In token of national unity and fellowship. 2. In token of their desire to cultivate purity. VII. The new national life thus inaugurated had far less of pomp and show about it than were seen in the days of Solomon. But there was more of spiritual power (Haggai 2:9). (C. Clemance, D. D.) I. RELIGIOUS REJOICING. The reasons for this were —1. Protracted labours brought to a close. 2. The honour offered to Jehovah their God. 3. The benefits which were likely to accrue to men through their sacred edifice and its worship. II. DEVOUT GRATITUDE. III. DEEP HUMILITY. IV. APPROPRIATE ARRANGEMENTS FOR ITS FUTURE USE. (William Jones.) People Apharesachites, Apharsachites, Artaxerxes, Cyrus, Darius, Haggai, Iddo, Levites, Nebuchadnezzar, Shethar, Shetharboznai, Tatnai, ZechariahPlaces Assyria, Babylon, Babylonia, Beyond the River, Ecbatana, Jerusalem, Media, PersiaTopics Captivity, Celebrated, Dedication, Exiles, Feast, Joy, Kept, Levites, Opening, Priests, Rest, Returned, SonsOutline 1. Darius, finding the decree of Cyrus, makes a new decree for building13. By the help of Tattenai and Shethar-Bozenai the temple is finished 16. The feast of the dedication is kept 19. and the Passover Dictionary of Bible Themes Ezra 6:16 5841 ecstasy Library God the Joy-Bringer'They kept the feast ... seven days with joy; for the Lord had made them joyful.'--EZRA vi. 22. Twenty years of hard work and many disappointments and dangers had at last, for the Israelites returning from the captivity, been crowned by the completion of the Temple. It was a poor affair as compared with the magnificent house that had stood upon Zion; and so some of them 'despised the day of small things.' They were ringed about by enemies; they were feeble in themselves; there was a great deal to … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The New Temple and Its Worship The "Fraternity" of Pharisees The Johannine Writings Brave Encouragements A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox. 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