God Provides...Once Again - ANB W3, D2 - 3.19.13

Tuesday, March 19                                                     God Provides…Once Again

Ezra 7.11-28

Ezra had a sizable task ahead: renew the people of Israel and purify their worship. Yesterday we looked at Ezra’s qualifications as one of the rabbinical line of Aaron and as a man who studied hard the Word of God and resolved to teach it in its entirety to the people. There is no question of whether or not Ezra was the right man for the job. Today, we see how Artaxerxes became God’s instrument of provision for the people of Israel. Once again we see a pagan ruler being used by God and more than adequately financing the work that God wanted done. Artaxerxes yields ALL of the gold and silver to be found in the province of Babylonia PLUS any money that the people wanted to donate to the cause (v. 16). And if that was not enough he adds this line to his decree: “The rest of the needs for the house of your God, for which you may have occasion to provide, provide for it from the royal treasury” (v. 20). But wait, God is not done emptying Artaxerxes pockets: “We also inform you that it is not allowed to impose tax, tribute, or toll on any of the priests, Levites, singers, doorkeepers, temple servants, or servants of this house of God” (v. 24). WOW!!!

This passage is literally dripping with the generosity of our God. But, why? Why does God continually take the initiative to provide the material and finances for what the people of Israel were to be doing? It is safe to say that in this passage the provision is made because of the importance of the act. In other words, the proper worship of God is so important to God that He does not want to leave it up to us to handle. We have blood on our hands, our hearts are tainted, and our souls reek with depravity. The same was true for Israel. These were the same people who let the temple remain as a mere foundation for sixteen years and then for the last sixty have not allowed the Word of God to penetrate their hearts and allow their worship of God to be more than mere ritual. For an act as important as purifying the worship of God, why would He not provide the way including ALL of the materials necessary?

Let’s venture off the path of Ezra for a second and talk about this idea of provision and worship. The picture of God making the full provision for His worship is no more clearly portrayed than Gen. 22. You know the story. Abraham is required of God to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. So, after resolving to do things God’s way, Abraham gets Isaac and the necessary materials for the worship of God and heads to the mountain. When Isaac inquires to the whereabouts of the sacrificial lamb, Abraham responds that God will provide His lamb. And when Isaac is bound on the top of the wood pile and Abraham has his knife raised to the highest point, ready to pierce his son and spill his blood for the sacrifice, the angel of the Lord stops him and points to God’s provision, a ram in the thicket. God provided for the worship when Isaac was helpless and Abraham was in agony.

This is not just about Abraham and Isaac. This is a picture of what God has done for us. When we were at our most desperate point, bound by sin and headed for hell, God provided His Son, the sacrificial lamb for the sacrifice and provided our way to worship Him properly. This is what God does. He makes our pathway to worship Him clear. We cannot say we can’t afford to do what God wants us to in order to worship Him properly, because He provides the way. Abraham could not properly worship God because he had a long awaited son in the way and God provided a means for Abraham to look past the son, to the Father and His provision. Israel could not worship properly because they did not have the teaching to back up the sacrifice and they did not have a purified means of worship and sacrifice, so God empties the treasury of the Persian throne repeatedly so that Israel could bow before God unimpeded by their selfishness and blindness to the truth. We cannot worship God properly because we are sinners. Our sin separates us from who God is and there is nothing that we can do about that. But God, because He loves us and seeks to redeem the lost, sent His Son and provided the sacrifice that would end all sacrifices to atone for our sin, so that we can stand before God as a new creation, pure and blameless, and worship Him. God provides our means of worship for us.

This is also not just about a building. It is about our hearts and our attitude about the things of God. For Israel it was about a building because the temple symbolized the presence of God, whose presence dwelt in the holy of holies, behind the veil. But remember at the crucifixion, the veil was torn in two (Matt 27.51), symbolizing the coming of the Holy Spirit and putting to end the need for temple worship. We do not need the building the way that Israel needed the building. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. Paul tells us that our body is the temple of God, so it’s not about a building or a building project. It is about spiritual renewal inside each and every one of us so that we can rightly worship God because of His provision.

On some levels, however, it is about a building. See, the temple also symbolized to the people of Israel that they were expected to come together to worship God. In the Levitical codes specific instruction for the construction of the temple and how it was to be ornamented were given. We learned last week about God’s displeasure with the Israelites over their negligence shown towards the completion of the temple. The temple was the place to express that heartfelt, purified worship of God. Not only should our motives and intentions be in check so that we can properly bear our hearts before God and allow Him to transform us into His likeness, but because of our worship of God, we should seek that all people be given the opportunity to gather at His altar. In many ways, as with the people of Israel, the condition of our worship space reflects on the importance our God plays in our lives. If we need bigger worship space, if we need extra Sunday School classes, or if we need more worship services, we must make the path for the world around us to come to the altar and bow at the cross of Christ. God made the provision for us, we must work to tell others about that provision and also work to ensure that there is always room for one more.

Prayer:

God, I want to thank You for providing my means of worship in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, it is not anything that I have done to merit Your favor, but only that You loved man and wanted us to be redeemed and have fellowship with us. God, grant me a vision for taking that provision to my community. Help me to see how You want Hopewell to build Your kingdom here for our life everlasting there, with You.