3:1 When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites were living in their towns, the people assembled in Jerusalem.

 

Ezra led two delegations of Jews out of Babylon. The first delegation numbered at about 50,000. The second delegation numbered at about 2,000. There were several million Israelites at this time, so this was a very small percentage. Most Jews were not interested in returning to Jerusalem. They were not interested in God's messianic program. Instead, they wanted to keep up their business ventures with the Gentiles.

 

Some time had lapsed between chapters two and three. The time period could have been several weeks, months, or possibly up to two years. During this lapse, many of the Israelites built their homes. Haggai rebuked them for building their homes and neglecting the temple.

 

3:2 Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his priestly colleagues and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his colleagues started to build the altar of the God of Israel so they could offer burnt offerings on it as required by the law of Moses the man of God.

 

The priests returned to the Word of God, studied it, and began to build the altar as required by the stipulations found in the Word of God.

 

3:3 They established the altar on its foundations, even though they were in terror of the local peoples, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings.

 

Satan is not going to allow the Jews to rebuild their temple and teach graphic object lessons about the coming atonement of the Messiah. He rose up the local people to eliminate this threat to the satanic world system. These local people were deportees brought in from other countries by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. They saw the Jews as a threat and quickly wanted to undermine their allegiance to God.

 

3:4 They observed the Festival of Temporary Shelters as required and offered the proper number of daily burnt offerings according to the requirement for each day. 3:5 Afterward they offered the continual burnt offerings and those for the new moons and those for all the holy assemblies of the Lord and all those that were being voluntarily offered to the Lord.

 

Ezra taught these men the Word of God. In reaction to this teaching, these people began offering the daily sacrifices and observing the feasts. One lamb was sacrificed every morning and every day. Additional lambs were also offered on the Sabbath, the New Moon (once a month), and on all of the feast days. If a feast day fell on the Sabbath and on a New Moon, then five sacrifices would be offered on that day. Each of these lambs was a graphic object lesson which pointed the Jewish families to the atonement of the coming Messiah. 

 

Jehovah had to prosper the nation of Israel so that they could offer these amounts of sacrifices. The nation would be blessed if they kept the Mosaic Covenant, but cursed if they did not. Capital punishment was ordained by God to purge the sinners out of the commonwealth of Israel. The sinners brought curses upon the entire nation, so they were sent to their Maker for judgment.

 

3:6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. However, the Lord’s temple was not at that time established. 

 

The sacrifices which pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ were being offered at the right times and at the one appointed place designated by God, but the temple had not yet been built.

 

3:7 So they provided money for the masons and carpenters, and food, beverages, and olive oil for the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar timber from Lebanon to the seaport at Joppa, in accord with the edict of King Cyrus of Persia. 

 

It took a lot of wealth for 52,000 Israelites to transport cedar logs from the Phoenician cities of Sidon and Tyre. Sidon and Tyre had to obey the edict, because they were also subjects of King Cyrus.

 

3:8 In the second year after they had come to the temple of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak initiated the work, along with the rest of their associates, the priests and the Levites, and all those who were coming to Jerusalem from the exile. They appointed the Levites who were at least twenty years old to take charge of the work on the Lord’s temple. 

 

About one year later, the prophet Haggai encouraged Israel to begin rebuilding the temple. Governor Zerrubbabel and High Priest Jozadak were the leaders of the building construction.

 

3:9 So Jeshua appointed both his sons and his relatives, Kadmiel and his sons (the sons of Yehudah), to take charge of the workers in the temple of God, along with the sons of Henadad, their sons, and their relatives the Levites. 

 

Jeshua was the High Priest of Israel. He appointed his sons and relatives to supervise the construction crew. His sons and relatives were trained Levitical priests. They knew the details of the temple as per the detailed instructions which were recorded in the Scriptures.

 

3:10 When the builders established the Lord’s temple, the priests, ceremonially attired and with their clarions, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with their cymbals, stood to praise the Lord according to the instructions left by King David of Israel.

 

After the temple was completed, the Levitical singers praised Jehovah as per the details written by David. 

 

3:11 With antiphonal response they sang, praising and glorifying the Lord: “For he is good; his loyal love toward Israel is forever.” All the people gave a loud shout as they praised the Lord when the temple of the Lord was established.

 

The young people began to sing and praise Jehovah. Their song of praise was similar to Psalm 136:1. The older people most likely did not sing, because the Ezra temple was inferior in size and glory to the Solomon temple. There was no tabernacle. The Shechinah Glory was not dwelling in the temple.

 

The young people sang that “God is good.” Man is totally depraved and evil. Jesus said to the young man, “Why do you call me good?” Only God is good.” The point is that Jesus could not be a “good man,” because no man is good. Man is totally depraved and evil. The heart of man is desperately wicked. Since Jesus is good, then He must be God.

 

The Hebrew word for “loyal love” is חָ֫סֶד (chesed), meaning God faithfully and loyally loves Israel. Therefore, this חָ֫סֶד (chesed) love will cause Jehovah to keep His promises to them. This חָ֫סֶד (chesed) love is eternal. God will never stop loving Israel, even if they spit upon him, mock him, blaspheme him, and crucify him on a cross.

 

3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders—older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established—were weeping loudly, and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout. 

 

While the younger people were singing, the older people were crying. The older people had seen Solomon’s temple, so they were not impressed with Ezra’s smaller temple. Sometimes, older folks think things were much better in their younger years. They often use their experience to shame the younger folks, instead of encouraging them.

 

3:13 People were unable to tell the difference between the sound of joyous shouting and the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people were shouting so loudly that the sound was heard a long way off.

 

There are many old-timers who discourage the work of God. They remember the old days when the church was strong, so they are not willing to enter the new days of the church. They sit around criticizing those young folks who really are attempting to work for the Lord Jesus Christ. Since Jesus is going to separate the wheats from the tares, then new folks should learn from the old folks and the old folks ought not to criticize the young folks. If there is a movement of God, then God should be praised and not criticized.