When Everything is in Ruins

We are starting a new series today. One that God had placed on my heart a couple of months ago while we were all in quarantine. I read through Ezra during that time and felt the Holy Spirit saying that these Old Testament words will be very applicable for when we were able to gather together again. I texted Frank and here we are. Now that we are on this side of it all I can honestly say I had no idea just how applicable these ancient words would be.

Change is a natural thing, but when so much change happens all at once, it feels like the world is coming to an end. Even though some of us feel this right now we must remember that we are not the first people to experience a time of complete upheaval and unrest.

Israel has quite the history. They were God’s chosen people. God established their kingdom through the patriarchs and then lead them through a series of judges. After Moses led them through the desert and they had been given the promised land, it should have been a time of blessing and prosperity but due to sin and disobedience they went through a dark time in their history. Some of the judges who were appointed to lead sought God, but the majority of them did evil in His sight. After 400 years of being led by judges, Israel begged God for a king, which He reluctantly gave them. Saul became the first king of Israel, but he soon fell from God’s favor and David rose to be the king that Israel needed. Although he wasn’t perfect he led Israel into a time of prosperity, which his son Solomon continued. He was the one who built the first temple in Jerusalem in 957 BC. But if you follow the story of Solomon and the kings that followed him it is fraught with sin and disobedience. The kings weren’t the only ones who went against God, the whole nation of Israel continued to sin and disobey, which ultimately led to the fall of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC.

God used many prophets to warn Israel about the coming destruction. They called the nation to repentance, but the people didn’t want to listen. Jeremiah almost lost his life preaching a prophetic word to the people of Israel about the coming destruction. His words were hard words to hear.

The New International Version Chapter 7

“ ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. 3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.

9 “ ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, d burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.

The Israelites had been going to the temple and had gone through the motions of their faith, but their hearts were corrupt. They acknowledged God with their mouths but did not make Him the King of their hearts. And God saw it all. After He had warned them and reminded them of His lasting covenant with them, He let them choose which way they would go.

And according to Ezra 5:12, the Israelites chose destruction.

The New International Version Chapter 5

But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, king of Babylon, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.

And because of their disobedience Jerusalem and the Temple were left in ruins.

Ezra was written approximately 70 years after the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Babylonians. At that time, the Israelites were taken into captivity and forced to live in Babylon, which was the complete opposite of everything they had ever known. Nebuchadnezzar had become their new king and he effectively put the Israelites through a process that eliminated their faith in God and conformed them to the new culture they were forced to live in. If you have ever studied the book of Daniel you will find that the young men were taken and given the choice foods of Babylon and they were also indoctrinated into the Babylonian mindset.

Everything they had ever known had been destroyed. The city they had loved and the Temple they had worshiped in. But it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Prophets had prophesied about its destruction for years.

As I look around our nation right now it seems like everything is in ruins. We have a pandemic which has affected the lives of so many whether they have lost a loved ones or they’ve lost their jobs. We have riots breaking out all over because of injustice. We have murders happening in every ethnic group. Gender inequality is still a thing in some places. Abuse has skyrocketed. And it feels like everything is crumbling around us. I feel it, you feel it. And most of us are saying, what in the world is going on?!

Some have said we are watching end time events unfold before our eyes. There have been lots of posts about how the book of Revelations is being lived out. So how do we respond?

1. We have to reflect on the past to know how to move forward.

The destruction of the Temple is a good reminder of what happens when we deny God and His Kingdom here on earth. When we give Him lip service but we are still conformed to the ways of this world. When we say we are Christians but nobody would know by the way we live.

Today we have something that they didn’t yet have in the Old Testament. We have Jesus. We now live under the New Covenant which is marked by love and grace. We are not bound to a building in order to worship and repent. Just as Jesus told the woman at the well, a time has come where people won’t be bound to worship at a specific location they will be free to worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

When Jesus died on the cross, the wrath of God was satisfied and our sin was paid for. He reconciled us back to God, allowing us to have a relationship that wasn’t about going through the motions. Instead it was about the transformation of the heart which leads to lasting change in a persons life.

When He poured out His Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, those who are in Christ became a living temple where His Spirit dwells. We now live as people who willingly sacrifice our rights and opinions in order to love others and show them Christ.

Even though we as believers have the hope of eternity, what we are witnessing right now makes us wonder about what God is doing in these crazy times.

So many of us want everything to go back to normal, to the way it used to be. We want to sit closer together at church, we want to share a meal together, we want to be able to hug. We want all of the racial tension to subside. But how do we take the ruins that surround us and begin to rebuild what has been destroyed?

2. We have to allow ourselves time to grieve and mourn for what was and what we have lost.

Exile is defined as: Mass deportation of large population groups practiced in ancient times usually for political purposes, frequently to destroy the power of an enemy nation and to prevent rebellion. Sometimes the exile of a conquered people was carried out to colonize an area, to create a cultural fusion. Captivity removed people from familiar associations and patriotic memories and put the defeated under the eye of the central government. Deportation was generally resorted to as an extreme measure when other means, such as the imposing of tribute, failed.

Being in exile means that everything is stripped from you. Your life will never be the same. Even though the Babylonians tried their best to destroy Israel, they couldn’t take their faith away from them. A remnant remained, faithful men and women who mourned the loss of their previous way of life, but never forgot their God. While the Israelites were in exile, they were given the chance to remember who God was and all He had done for them.

We have been given an opportunity right now to mourn what was but also remind ourselves of where our true allegiance lies. And that is in the Kingdom of God. We choose to live under His reign and rule. We abide by His command to love others. We make His call to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with him a reality. We give Him supreme authority to call us out in any area where we fall short. And we invite His Spirit to make the changes necessary in our lives so we can live as Jesus lived.

I’ve felt a little bewildered this week. I haven’t known exactly what to do or how to proceed as a voice in this world. But one morning something happened. The Holy Spirit reminded me of something that happened at Preachers school in California. I had the opportunity to preach in front of 40 men and women who were preachers themselves. Talk about intimidating. After I had finished, they opened up the floor for constructive criticism and encouragement. There was one comment that changed my life. An amazing black brother raised his hand and he said, “You are safe for me to listen to. I have been hurt by many men in my life, but it was like my mom was up there preaching and I could listen and receive from you. Your voice was safe.” As that memory flooded into my mind this week I was brought to tears. I felt the Holy Spirit lead me to message him and tell him that his comment led to a paradigm shift in my own journey as a female preacher. He stood up for my voice and validated it. And I told him that I would always use my voice, which was safe to him, to stand with him and for him amidst any injustice he may face.

As we realign our heart with God’s heart we will find that healing, reconciliation and genuine change begins in our own individual lives before it can spread to the nation.

3. Before we can rebuild we have to evaluate the ruins and see what we should keep and what needs to be left as rubble.

Jeremiah’s words still ring true. “If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.”

Have we evaluated our hearts and allowed the Holy Spirit to reveal to us ways we have acted unjustly? Have we been convicted of oppressing those who are less fortunate? Have we followed deceitful words and allowed them to become our god?

Paul writes in his letter to the church in Corinth these pressing words.

The New International Version Chapter 5

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Paul begins that text with the words, So from now on.... This indicates a marked change in his life. A new era. The old has gone, the new has come. We have a chance to experience a marked change in our lives today. The old has gone, the new has come. What is the Holy Spirit convicting you of today, an old habit, an old way of life, an old thought process, an old prejudice. God does not want you to hold onto those things any more. He wants there to be a marked change in you. We will no longer view anyone from a worldly point of view.

4. We make it our mission to be people who are driven by the ministry of reconciliation.

Bringing people to Christ no matter who they are, what they look like or where they’ve been.

Our old life may be in ruins but we believe that God is about to rebuild something that will be paramount in the Kingdom of God. He’s going to rebuild His church and His people to be aligned with His Kingdom agenda. You don’t want to miss this, it’s going to be breathtaking.

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Exile. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 732). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.