Ezra 3:2

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.