Ezra 6: Rebuilding
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Written on January 8 and posted today as a Favorite . . .
The house is to be rebuilt . . .
We are so often exhausted by life’s demands that we cannot experience joy when we hear good news . . . the house is to be rebuilt.
In today’s Noontime, King Darius reiterates the original command given by King Cyrus . . . the house is to be rebuilt. Nehemiah, the administrator, and Ezra, the priest, set about restoring the city and temple in Jerusalem. They travel through dangerous territory and carry with them a letter of safe-passage from their former enemy. They arrive in Jerusalem to find a pile of rubble so dense that horses cannot find a pathway – they must pick their way on foot through toppled stone. They return from exile most likely drained of energy, but there is hope and even joy because . . . the house is to be rebuilt.
I am struck by the concordance of the instructions in the decree we read today with the original description of the temple that Solomon built which we read in 1 Kings 7. God does not forget his promise to the Jewish nation that . . . the house is to be rebuilt.
Nor does God forget all that God has promised us, his daughters and his sons. Just like the destroyed temple, we too will be rebuilt and in fact are being rebuilt each day. We are the temple in which the Spirit dwells, and as the cares of the world tear at its pillars and nibble at is foundation, Jesus becomes the master planner who constantly offers to help us reconstruct. His constant attention and love remind us that . . . the house is to be rebuilt.
I am thinking of Psalms 126 and 127. Those who go out weeping return singing . . . we labor in vain unless the Lord is the master builder of our house.
Whatever our flaws, whatever our sorrows, all will be converted to joy for we are promised that . . . the house is to be rebuilt.
Whatever our obstacles, whatever our fears, they become our stepping stones to serenity once we remember that . . . the house is to be rebuilt.
A re-post from August 14, 2011.
For more on how Habitat for Humanity rebuilds after disasters, click on the image or visit: https://www.habitat.org/ap/our-work/rebuilding-after-disasters
The Noontimes 