Ezra 5:16

Zerubbabel (the name means sown in Babylon) came from the royal line, a direct descendant of David. In Ezra this royal leader goes by his Persian name, Sheshbazzar.

In his first year, they said, Cyrus had issued a decree to build this house of God (v. 13). He also ordered that the gold and silver articles of the house of God be brought back from Nebuchadnezzar's temple in Babylon to Jerusalem. Cyrus put these things in the care of a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor. This governor came to Jerusalem and laid the foundation of the temple (v. 14).

Whatever destruction this house suffered, and however complete that destruction seemed — like the destruction Nebuchadnezzar carried out — the Word always treats it as the house. It has one history only, one existence in the eyes of God, through all its stages of building or ruin. Rebuilt, it is not a new temple in God's eyes, but the same temple with different glories.

In the time of the book of Ezra, as today, the foundation could not be new. After centuries of abandonment it came to light again and was laid down as the only foundation able to carry the house, the Assembly of God.

What a history! Solomon had built the house, and Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it, and the cause of all this sorrow was their fathers' sins… They added, "Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been in building, and it is not yet finished" (v. 16). If the account the Jews gave was correct, they were fully justified even in the eyes of man. It was a well-known feature of the laws of the Medes and Persians (and Cyrus was king of Persia) that no one could change them (Dan. 6:8, 14, 15, etc.), and their opponents proved to be in the wrong through ignorance of the law.

The consciousness of our ruin should mark us today, as it marked the people in the times of Ezra. We cannot and should not deny it or shrug its burden off our shoulders. Instead we must bear the humiliation of this ruin, while we set the house of God back on its only real foundation, Christ, with the apostles and prophets who gave witness to Him.

It is in no way a question of building a new Church. She already exists, built by God Himself, and grows into a holy temple in the Lord… But God expects His people to make her visible to all, by bringing materials suitable for her construction… each witness of Christ is responsible to bring noble and living material to the house of God. Our unfaithfulness has scattered these materials instead of gathering them, so that only the eyes of God can see them.

God also decreed that "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; and his hands shall finish it." No opposition from the great of this world can frustrate what God has set Himself to do. It may be a "day of small things," which God's people tend to despise. But the faithful will see that the outward appearance does not show the true value of the work of God.