July 7, 1:58 pm

Mid-morning, I rose to read. I finished the last chapters of 1 Chronicles. It is a powerful accounting of the faithfulness of David, King of Israel and man after God’s own heart. In those chapters, David makes a great offering for the work of the Lord. Not only does he place the resources of the nation into the building of the Temple, he empties his personal treasury – everything this rags-to-riches man has accumulated after a lifetime of unparallel success in military operations. At Solomon’s inauguration, 1000 bulls, 1000 rams, and a 1000 lambs are offered with other sacrifices “in abundance.” I was on my feet preaching with passion and power (to a room empty of all but two!).

A bit later, I had to go meet with some folks for about an hour. When I came back, there was a need for me to read again. I took over just in time to finish 2 Chronicles and start Ezra. In one chapter, I read the quick death of the nation and the pillaging of God’s Temple. After all that – all the laborious work of counting the people in Numbers to ensure a right distribution of land in Joshua. After all the birthing pains during the era of the Judges. After all the splendor and wealth of a nation being poured out for the Lord. After all that God had done and in spite of all their promises to the contrary, man just couldn’t stem the evil in his heart. He wouldn’t stop rejecting the God who established him.

So, God swept them away. As surely as he built them, he swept them away in disgrace.

I got choked up, but knew Ezra would send the people back to Jerusalem because of God’s great mercy. I started the first chapter of Ezra but could go no further. Between sobs I read the pitiful inventory of what returned with Ezra to Jerusalem. The rebuilt Temple was consecrated with 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and 12 goats.

Having been soaking in the Word from “the beginning,” I was living Ezra 3.12-13. “But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sounds of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.”