And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem.
The exiles have finished the long road home and settled into their own towns. Then, at a set time, they all leave home again and travel to one city. Why that month, why that city, and why does the whole crowd move like a single person?
This was not a burst of enthusiasm. The calendar explains it. The day named here was already fixed in the law as a summons:
In the book of Numbers we read, "On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and it shall be a day for you to blow the trumpets." (Num. 29:1) This feast of trumpets pictured in advance the restoration of Israel in the last days. So the people showed true spiritual perception when they gathered in Jerusalem at this time. That perception, together with their perfect unity, showed that both they and their leaders had been taught by God, and were under the power of His word.
The same date carried a second picture. The month opened with a new moon, and one writer sees the returned people in that thin crescent:
Israel had lost divine blessing through their own fault. The people should have reflected the light of the glory of the Lord, just as the moon reflects the sun, but that light had disappeared. Now the new moon, an image of the restored people, had begun to reappear. The full splendour of this light was not yet visible. But this first quarter moon pointed forward to the future showing of the glory of the people of God. What feast could have suited the moment better?
The phrase means more than a large crowd. Commentators trace this oneness back to a single cause:
This gathering "as one man to Jerusalem" reminds us of that other gathering in Jerusalem centuries later "when they were all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1)... Whenever God's people let the Spirit of God work His power unhindered among them, He always brings them together. The Spirit of God never divides, but unites.
Such oneness is rare, and no one can manufacture it:
Only seldom in the history of God's people has such oneness appeared. No general agreement can produce it. It comes only when all alike submit together to the power of the Spirit through the truth.
They had just settled in their cities, yet they travelled. Worship had one appointed place:
The remnant gathered "as one man" in the only city in the world that God had chosen. It was the only place where they could take up their long silent, unstrung harps again and worship Israel's God! In Babylon they might pray with the window open toward Jerusalem, and confess their sins. But they could not worship Him there.
Unity meant a shared journey, not just a shared opinion:
The distance of their cities does not stop them from coming to the altar at Jerusalem, and nowhere else, to show this unity.
What they did on arrival showed what they valued. Enemies were near, yet they built no wall first:
Here it was the harvest month, the final one of the Lord's feasts, but it was only a little witness... Had the God of Israel not been before their eyes, they would not have gathered in this way. Human prudence would have hurried to put up a wall against their enemies. Faith and reverence led them to build the God of Israel's altar.
Writers apply the scene to gatherings today, and to any group that feels too few to count:
It is the same today at the Lord's table. Like the altar of the remnant, it shows the unity of the people of God, expressed in "one loaf" in which all share. It mattered little that the Jews were few in number. It matters little if we are only two or three. The altar set up in the middle of the court expressed the unity of all the people. For them, the question was not whether others would follow their example. They had the will of God, announced by Moses, as the basis for their action. The Word bound them; their gathering was an act of obedience. Is it not the same when the saints gather around the memorial of the cross of Christ, the blessed place where the Lamb of God was offered up: the Lamb that was slain, whom we worship, as such, in glory?
- Summoned. The seventh month opened with God's appointed day of trumpets, a picture of Israel's restoration. The gathering began with His calendar, not their planning.
- Gathered. "As one man" is the work of the Spirit, as at Pentecost. Such unity comes when all alike bow to the truth. Agreement alone never produces it.
- Centred. They could pray in Babylon but not worship there. One place drew them, and distance was no excuse to stay away.
- Worshipping. Prudence would have built a wall first. Faith built the altar first. A small, weak company put God's claim ahead of its own safety.
- Repeatable. Being few is no barrier. Two or three bound by God's Word, gathered around the memorial of the cross, express the same unity as the whole restored people.
Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up burnt-offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
A priest and a governor stand in a ruined city, and their first joint act is to rebuild an altar. Not a wall, not a house, not even the temple — so commentators ask two questions: why the altar first, and why the verse points back to what Moses wrote.
The verse names a priest and a governor, and gives the altar a purpose.
At least they could build the altar of God, which showed that their relationship with God rested on sacrifice. We too can have no relationship with God apart from the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. That sacrifice is therefore the basis of true worship. Jeshua the high priest, son of Jozadak, and his brothers the priests joined with Zerubbabel the governor, son of Shealtiel, and his brothers, who were lesser rulers in Judah. Together they rebuilt the altar so that they could offer burnt offerings to the Lord. The burnt offering was the most important of all the offerings. It speaks of the glory God receives from the value of the sacrifice of Christ. They also cared that they did this in line with what Moses, the man of God, had written years before.
Their weakness did not empty their offices of meaning.
Joshua and Zerubbabel stood at the head of those left of Judah and Benjamin. When they returned to Jerusalem, their condition was one of deep humiliation. They were weak representatives of the priesthood and of royalty. Yet at the same time they were forerunners, pictures, of the Messiah in His future glory.
Notice what they did not start with.
It is not that they began with the wall. That stands out all the more because another book, Nehemiah, is devoted to building the wall. They began with God and not with themselves. They began with the great expression of acceptance before God. The altar was the link between God and His people. It was the point of contact between them, the place where they brought their offerings.
One writer reads their choice as a pattern for renewal today.
Their very first priority was to rebuild the altar (v. 2). Building the altar speaks of the recovery of worship. Think how empty their lives must have been in Babylon. They had no altar, no sacrifices for their God, and no worship. Here again, this is a feature of revival. God wants to restore it today to anyone who has lost the privilege of worship.
Enemies were close, and a wall would have been the sensible first project.
Human prudence would have rushed to build a wall against their enemies. Faith and reverence led them to build the God of Israel's altar. They could not do all that Moses and Aaron did, or David and Solomon.
One writer treats the altar itself as their defence.
The altar was re-established by faith. On one side it was the grace of God. On the other side it was faithfulness in man, who recognized Him in his difficulties as his safeguard and wall of defence. The people of God are always in their right place when they adore God and recognize Him as their security and strength.
Their circumstances were unlike anything Israel had known. That is exactly why the phrase matters.
Their first concern was the worship of Jehovah. They returned to God's order and did "as it is written in the Law of Moses." They did not set up something new. They returned to what God had set up before. They set the altar upon its bases — where it had been before.
Weakness gave them no excuse to change the rule.
They had little strength, but they kept His word and did not deny His name. It was all the more striking, because most of Israel stayed far away, scattered among the nations of the east. Godly ones had prayed in their captivity, with windows open toward Jerusalem. But there only did they build an altar, there only offer burnt offerings. Never do we hear of such worship in Babylon, never in Assyria.
Commentators do not all read this chapter as a simple success. One looks at what came next.
Right conduct on a wrong motive must fail. In Ezra 3, we have the Jews working for God, and doing it from the written word. They kept what Moses commanded (v. 2), and they did what David did (v. 10). But they failed. The adversaries of Judah came and stopped the work. The cause of failure was not in the adversaries of Judah. It was in the hearts of the people, which were set on their own things and not on the things of God.
- Altar first. They began with God, not with themselves. Worship came before walls, houses, and even the temple.
- Altar as link. The altar was the point of contact between God and His people, the place of acceptance and of offering.
- Altar as defence. Enemies were near, but faith built an altar instead of a wall and made it their safeguard.
- Altar as written. They invented nothing new. They set the altar back on its old bases, as Moses had written.
- Altar tested. A right start still needed a right motive. The work later stalled, and one writer traces the cause to the builders' own hearts.
And they set the altar on its base; for fear was upon them because of the people of the countries; and they offered up burnt-offerings on it to Jehovah, the morning and evening burnt-offerings.
A small group has come back from exile to a ruined Jerusalem — no wall, no army, no temple, and hostile neighbours all around. The first thing they build is an altar, and the reason the verse gives is fear.
Fear can push a person toward self-protection or toward God. Here it does the second.
This is very beautiful. In a godly spirit, fear did not lead them to protect themselves by human means. Instead their heart turned to the Lord, and to the altar of acceptance they enjoyed through Him. Their first thought was the Lord; they brought Him in between themselves and their trouble from the enemy.
The order of what they built matters.
It is not that they began with the wall. This is all the more remarkable because another book of the Bible is devoted to building the wall — the book of Nehemiah. But they began with God and not with themselves. They began with the great expression of acceptance before God. The altar was the link between God and His people — the point of contact, so to speak, between them — the place where they made their offerings... this is all the more striking because the reason given is that fear was on them, and that fear led them to God and not to themselves or to other men.
One writer puts the principle in a single line.
If we set up our altar, it will serve for walls.
The altar was not put wherever was convenient. It went back on its own base. The verse before says they built it "as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God."
Despite their fear of the opposition to the true worship of God, they set the altar on its bases. They established their worship on the true basis of the Word of God, not hiding this from the eye of the enemy.
These offerings were not a one-off ceremony.
They presented their burnt offerings morning and evening. When it was first given, this was called the "continual burnt offering" (Exodus 29:38-46), and because of it God had been able to dwell among His people. His presence might no longer be among them, and He might no longer dwell between the cherubim over the mercy seat. Still, the power of the burnt offering remained. As long as faith brought this and presented it to God morning and evening, the people stayed under the Lord's protection as before. They were as safe as in the days when Jerusalem in her glory stood behind fortified walls and defences — in fact, far safer.
Another writer notes which offering this was, and how long it was to run.
It was not the sacrifice for sin, but the burnt offering, the true image of worship. The people were to keep offering it, without any interruption, until the temple was finished.
The altar also answered a question about the group itself: what made them one people?
It made no difference that the Jews were few in number. It makes no difference if we are only two or three. Some of the people had returned from captivity. Others were still scattered along the rivers of Babylon, or in unknown cities of Persia and Media. The altar, set up in the middle of the court, expressed the unity of them all. For them the question was not whether others would follow their example. They had the will of God, announced through Moses, as the basis for what they did.
Why the altar first, and not the temple? Because of what the altar and its offerings stand for.
First they obeyed His Word. They set up the altar for worship and for coming to God in the appointed way. Then they trusted Him to keep them among their enemies. The altar and the burnt offerings morning and evening are pictures of Christ, who is both the altar and the burnt offering. Whenever the Spirit of God sends a true recovery and revival, He will put the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work first.
- Fear first. The danger was real. It did not send them to build defences; it sent them to God.
- Altar first. They began with God, not with themselves. The altar was the meeting point between the Lord and His people, and it went up before any wall.
- Word first. They rebuilt the altar on its own base, as the Law of Moses directed. Their worship rested on God's Word, in full view of the enemy.
- Christ first. The altar and the morning-and-evening offerings picture Christ. In every true recovery, His finished work comes first.
- Shelter last, and best. With the offering still rising, a people with no walls were safer than the old fortified city. Set up the altar, and it will serve for walls.
And they held the feast of tabernacles as it is written, and [offered] daily burnt-offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required;
The exiles were fresh back from Babylon. The temple was not yet rebuilt, and enemies surrounded them. Still, this small company sat down to keep a festival of joy. Two things stand out. They measured their worship by what was already written. And they kept it up day by day, by number, before any building stood to house it.
The phrase "as it is written" appears twice in this chapter. Their circumstances were nothing like the days of Moses or Solomon. Still, they went back to the original instructions.
As we begin to read the third chapter, a fourth feature of true revival is plainly shown: obedience to the Word of God. In verse 2, and again in verse 4, we find the words 'as it is written'. Their first recorded action, when back in their land, was to approach their God in the way He had laid down at the first... yet they recognised that what God may lay down at the start of His dispensations stands unchanged to the finish.
That meant leaving behind the habits picked up during seventy years away from Jerusalem.
Whatever they had practised in Babylon, whatever their traditional rites and customs had been, they left it all behind in the place of their captivity. Now, delivered and brought back, nothing could satisfy them short of the authority of the written Word.
They kept the feast before anyone had laid the temple foundation. Hole sees that order as deliberate.
They began with the burnt offering, which lay at the basis of all God's dealings with them. The seventh month had come, so they observed the feast of tabernacles, which fell at that time. This they did though the foundation of the temple had not been laid. The burnt offerings very rightly came before the 'house'.
Enemies surrounded them. What they built first shows what they trusted.
Human prudence would have hurried to put up a wall against their enemies. Faith and reverence led them to build the God of Israel's altar. They could not do all that Moses and Aaron did, or David and Solomon... The burnt offering was the constant expression of approach to Him through an unblemished sacrifice, when everything given to the fire rose up acceptably before Him.
The verse does not stop at the feast. It counts out offerings for each separate day.
So there was no weariness of it: it was no passing act. There was the daily offering. This is a very important thing... It always makes me unhappy to see God's children merely putting in an appearance on the Lord's Day morning — merely keeping up an outward link with the Lord and with His people. I admit there may be circumstances where it cannot be otherwise... but as a general rule, the same faith that makes us value coming together to meet the Lord at His own table ought to make us rejoice to meet the Lord on every occasion, and to grow in the truth by every means.
The feast came at the close of harvest and vintage.
Israel dwelt in booths during the feast, in remembrance of their having lived in tents when brought out of Egypt... It was at the end of their harvest and vintage, when they enjoyed the fruits of God's goodness. The feast prefigures the millennium, when the people will enter into full blessing.
Keeping a feast of joy among ruins looks absurd until you see what carried them.
To human eyes looking at their desolate condition it might have seemed a mockery for these poor returned captives to be keeping a joyful feast. But faith is "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen," and so brings the future into the present. And once the soul stands before God in all the acceptance of Christ, pictured by the burnt offering, it already holds the certainty of every promised blessing, secured in Him.
This verse holds a distinction in Israel's history that is easy to miss.
The feast of tabernacles was above all a time of rejoicing. But the only time we read of it being celebrated in the Old Testament is here in Ezra 3:4, after the remnant had returned from captivity.
- Written. Everything began with "as it is written" — not with new arrangements to suit their reduced circumstances.
- Altar. Worship came before walls and before the temple foundation. The burnt offering came first, then the house.
- Daily. They counted out offerings for each day. The recovery lasted; it was not one burst of enthusiasm.
- Joy. They kept a feast of gladness among ruins. Faith treats promised blessing as already secure in Christ.
- Forward. The feast pictures the coming age of full blessing for Israel. Its only Old Testament record is here, kept by a small, obedient remnant.
and afterwards the continual burnt-offering, and those of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of Jehovah that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a voluntary offering to Jehovah.
The exiles are home in a ruined Jerusalem, and their first move is not to build but to restore the altar and its sacrifices. So why did worship come first, and what does an uncommanded gift add to a schedule God Himself fixed?
The daily sacrifice here was never meant to stop. Its subject is one thing: a life given up to God in death. One writer explains what it meant, and what it secured:
Its meaning is His devotedness to death. In the place of sin and for God's glory, He proved His obedience to the very end, even to being made sin for His people. So the altar consumed it all, and it went up as a sweet aroma to the Lord. This offering never stopped. By it God laid a foundation on which Israel could stand, accepted in all its fragrance. It becomes a clear picture of the believer's position, and shows the ground of his acceptance in the Beloved.
The word "continual" carries weight here. What the returned people started, they kept up:
There was no weariness of it: it was no passing act. There was the daily offering. This is a very important thing.
The month they started in carried its own message. The moon has no light of its own, and it pictures Israel here:
Israel had lost divine blessing through their own fault. The people ought to have reflected the light of the glory of the Lord, just as the moon reflects the sun. That light had gone out. But now the new moon, an image of the restored people, had begun to reappear. Its full splendour was not yet visible. Yet this first quarter moon pointed ahead to the coming display of the glory of the people of God.
Every item in this verse was already written down. What the exiles had practised in Babylon did not come home with them:
The striking feature of all their proceedings was that they now ordered everything according to the word of God. Whatever they had practised in Babylon, whatever their old rites and customs had been, they left it all behind in the land of their captivity. Now, delivered and brought back, nothing could satisfy them short of the authority of the written Word.
The verse does not end with the calendar. It ends with people who simply wanted to give:
The record does not note only the new moons and the set feasts. It adds, "and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the LORD." When God's Spirit is acting in power, He fills the hearts of many of His people to overflowing. The vessel cannot hold the blessing, and it runs over in thanksgiving and praise to God. This is the secret both of devotedness and worship.
Worship prompted by a recent kindness fades with the memory of it. A voluntary gift is different:
When the soul goes out to God in a voluntary act of worship, that worship comes from a larger measure of spiritual energy. It is more than worship that only springs from some special mercy felt at the time. But where the Holy Spirit leads the heart out in some voluntary or deliberate expression of praise, it will be of a more lasting character.
God watched all of it, and He credits what His own grace produced:
It was welcome to the heart of God to see His people return to Himself. They owned His claims and the only ground of their acceptance. It shows us how much notice He takes of what His own people do, and that He takes pleasure in their approach and worship. Producing these fruits by His grace in their hearts, with the same grace He puts them to their account.
Yet the altar was only a start. A right beginning can become a resting place:
In faith they built and used the altar without delay, and that was good. It was better still to lay the foundation, and not to settle for that beginning — informal, yet acceptable and right.
- Continual — the daily burnt offering pictures Christ's devotedness to death. It never stopped, so the ground of the believer's acceptance never shifted.
- Written — the exiles brought no Babylonian habits home. Every offering named here was already commanded in Scripture.
- New moon — the seventh month opened with the new moon. Israel's light, long dark, had begun to reappear, with fuller glory still ahead.
- Willing — the closing clause is the overflow. When the Spirit fills a heart, the vessel cannot hold the blessing, and praise runs over.
- Onward — God credits such worship to His people. But a right beginning is not a place to stop; the foundation still had to be laid.
From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer up burnt-offerings to Jehovah. But the foundation of the temple of Jehovah was not [yet] laid.
The order in this chapter is deliberate. Sacrifice began on day one; the building had not even been started.
It is interesting that the returned remnant did not first build houses for themselves. They did not build a big city wall. They did not even rebuild the temple. Their very first priority was to rebuild the altar (v. 2). Building the altar speaks of the recovery of worship. How empty their lives must have been in Babylon, without altar, without sacrifices for their God, and without worship. Again, this is a feature of revival. God wants to restore it today to anyone who has lost the privilege of worship.
They did not wait for a building to be worshippers. What they had was enough to start.
They are quick to raise an altar to the God of Israel. They need not build their Temple first. An altar will do for burnt offerings and for the Feast of Tabernacles. They are a revived people, a people who know they are standing on holy ground again. So on that symbolic day, the first day of the seventh month, they raise their altar and begin their worship.
The date was not accidental. The first day of the seventh month carried its own meaning for a people just back from exile.
The feast of the new moon began with the blowing of trumpets. It took place on the first day of this seventh month. The day suited the state of the people who had come back from captivity, and the grace God had shown them. Israel had lost God's blessing through their own fault. The people should have reflected the light of the glory of the Lord, just as the moon reflects the sun, but that light had disappeared. Now the new moon, a picture of the restored people, had begun to reappear. The full brightness of this light was not yet visible. But this first quarter moon pointed forward to the coming display of the glory of the people of God.
Note what kind of sacrifice they began with. Rossier points out it was "not the sacrifice for sin, but the burnt offering, the true image of worship."
Commentators differ on the tone of the last clause. One reading takes it as a mark of honest growth, not failure.
Thus, you see, there was progress there. No remnant that was ever called out by grace arrived all at once at the truth that God is going to give them. It is a matter of growth as a whole, not only individual growth. But they did not yet come to understand His mind and His word. At the beginning they cannot do what they may understand, and have power for, on a later day.
Another reading hears a warning in it — a first slackening, right at the start.
The sixth verse almost seems to show some decline in spiritual energy at the very start. That has happened in every new movement of the Spirit of God. At least, the statement is very significant: But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.
Whatever the delay meant, Scripture speaks warmly of the offerings they did bring.
The record of the start of the burnt offerings on the first day of the seventh month carries clear delight. It pleased the heart of God to see His people come back to Himself, owning His claims and the only ground on which He accepted them. It shows us how closely He watches what His own people do, and that He takes pleasure when they draw near and worship. Producing these fruits by His grace in their hearts, with the same grace He puts them to their account.
The unfinished foundation is what makes the verse useful now. Worship does not wait for the ruins to be cleared, and it lifts believers into a place the ruins cannot touch.
As in Ezra 3, the heavenly position of God's people could come back to light only by building the altar — that is, by the practice of worship. Where there is worship, the heavenly position of the Church must be understood. Believers do not have an earthly religion, like the Jewish people. Worship brings them into heaven. That stays true when everything around them is in ruin, and the Church, like the temple at the start of Ezra, is no more than a heap of rubble.
- Altar first. They rebuilt worship before houses, walls or temple. Hardt calls this recovery of worship a feature of revival, open to anyone who has lost it.
- Day one. They began at the new moon, on the first day of the seventh month. It was a small returning light that promised fuller glory later.
- Not yet. Commentators read the unlaid foundation two ways: honest growth that could not do everything at once, or an early cooling of energy.
- Received. God took pleasure in the offerings they did bring, and credited fruit that His own grace had produced in them.
- Among ruins. Worship needs no finished building. Rossier says it lifts believers into heaven even while everything around them lies in ruin.