Royals: Wonder as We Wander
Focus: The goal of God through his people is to revitalize the priority of worship in the earth through Jesus Christ.
I Wonder As I Wander
Worship As a Priority
The Wonder of Jesus
I Wonder As I Wander
We wander and go astray when we think God has given us this life solely for personal pleasure, achievement and gain.
The Israelites returning to Jerusalem would have had to sort through this as they sought to reestablish their identity and purpose on their return from Babylon.
When we arrive at this place in history, we know that Israel was once a great nation so revered that the surrounding peoples would send delegates like Queen Sheba from modern day Yemen to marvel at the glory of God within Israel’s borders.
Yet this would pose the challenge of orientation - was God and his purposes the focus of worship or were the people to simply be cul de sacs of Yahweh’s blessings?
Prior to the deportation, in King Hezekiah’s time, envoys came to inquire of the miraculous hand of God at work in his land.
2 Kings 20:12-19 ESV
“At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.” Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”
Rather than use that fame to give glory to Yahweh, King Hezekiah used the opportunity to boast concerning his personal treasures and possessions.
It was a reflection of the pride that is in the heart of every man and woman - to turn what was meant to evoke praise, testimony and service to God into an opportunity for mere self-centered living.
Hezekiah had forgotten the meaning of worship and was being driven by self-indulgent pride.
“Pride is essentially competitive. It gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”
-CS Lewis
We are all tempted to become a cul de sac for God’s blessings rather than using God’s blessings to worship.
Even as Isaiah the prophet spoke about the impending judgment and exile to the very same Babylon to whom Hezekiah had boasted, Hezekiah reflected the unregenerate heart that was satisfied with the discipline as long as it affected future generations and not his own.
Return from the deportation
We then fast forward to Cyrus.
By the time we get to the Persian empire, which would conquer Babylon, Israel was a shadow of the people they used to be.
Though their homeland was plundered by the Babylonians, by God’s miraculous hand, even in the midst of the exile, they were able to maintain their national and spiritual identity.
Returning to their homeland, without the prominence of the days of King David, Solomon or the following kings of Judah or Israel, the people of Israel would have to reestablish their sense of identity and purpose.
Zerubbabel was to be their leader.
Zerubbabel would have to reestablish a sense of identity and purpose.
Our challenge living as aliens and strangers in this world is answering the question of the ambiguous existence - “What are we really doing here?”
God takes what is ambiguous and makes both our identity and purpose clear in him.
Ezra 1:1-5 ESV
“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.”
*So it is ironic that King Cyrus who did not know the Lord had a better understanding of his purpose in establishing God-centered worship than the kings of Israel who went before him.
God would reestablish this life of focus on worship through Zerubabbel.
Who was Zerubbabel?
Born from the line of King David, Zerubbabel was one of the Israelites born in Babylonian captivity who was appointed to lead a wave of Israelites back to Jerusalem after King Cyrus’ decree.
He was the grandson of King Jehaoichin, the second to last king of Judah before the Babylonian conquest and Israeli exile.
King Cyrus II appointed him to be governor of those returning to Jerusalem.
Ezra 2:1-2 ESV
“Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:”
The Israelites had lived off of their hopes of a better day that would be ushered in through their prophesied Messiah.
After the return from exile, would Zerubbabel be the promised Messianic king from the line of David?
Though he did not turn out to be the Messiah, Zerubbabel was a descendent in the direct line of the true Savior, Jesus.
Matthew 1:12-16 ESV
“And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”
Zerubbabel’s name meant “planted in Babylon”.
He was a man who had been defined by his people’s exile in Babylon.
He was now called to return and make a difference in a world that neither remembered nor respected the former glory of the dynasty from which he had come.
Yet because God had moved on the heart of Cyrus to allow the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild, Zerubbabel was given a life of purpose again.
His identity was restored as a chosen son of the most High God to reestablish worship in the land.
Zerrubabel would have to rethink the importance of his identity in the Lord and how he spent his days.
In Babylon, he could find himself obscured in the midst of “good enough” living.
He could plant vineyards, build houses and settle down as Jeremiah had instructed in Jeremiah 29 without any direct connection to worship.
But now, Zerubbabel had a commission from God to reestablish worship in the land.
Are we that different?
*How often do we try to fly under the radar of life undetected?
What happens when it is not as obvious in the eyes of the world that you are part of the royal line of Christ and should have his prescribed impact on the world?
Why does God intend on making worship the mark of our existence?
It is because true Biblical worship is the basis for our reconciliation with God through Christ and the avenue to all human flourishing in life.
Hebrews 13:14-15 ESV
“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him (Jesus) then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
We will come back to this.
Worship As a Priority
Worship is not just about song or, though important, simply maintaining a set of doctrinal beliefs - rather it is building Christ and his kingdom into the place of priority in your life.
This affects your pursuits, how you spend your time, talents and resources.
As God reestablishes the priority of worship in our lives, all other tasks, commitments and opportunities make sense in the light of Christ.
Ezra 3:1-7 ESV
“When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.”
The returning Israelites had to ask this question as they followed Zerubbabel:
What do you do when it is not as obvious what God is doing in and through your life?
Answer: You build the place of worship
Why the focus on rebuilding the temple?
God understood that worship is the foundation of our lives.
God was intent on resuming worship.
Worship is the rudder of our lives - not just in song, but in life, sacrifice and service.
Whatever we intentionally choose to sacrifice for and serve will determine the trajectory of our lives - it is where our heart, energy, sense of significance and purpose will be.
These are meant to be found in God, and through gathered, intentional, ritual worship, he forms and shapes our hearts for his glory, ours and humanity’s good.
Why was it important for Zerubbabel to rebuild the altar and the temple?
As the Gospel Coalition recounts:
The physical restoration of the city was a crucial component in the development of God’s unfailing purpose of redemption in preparing the way for the coming Christ. According to prophecy, there had to be a Jerusalem and temple in place when the Messiah came (Mal 3:1). Therefore, the first order of business for Zerubbabel and the hopeful remnant was to rebuild the fallen temple. The book of Ezra records that at first progress on the project was good. The people were excited, unified, and hopeful. But soon there was external opposition, beginning with misunderstandings, and escalating to rumors, accusations, and threats. The opposition became so intense that the work ceased. That led to internal problems as apathy and carelessness replaced the initial enthusiasm and diligence. The work had ceased, and worse yet, nobody seemed to care. Involvement with the issues of life took precedence over work for God’s kingdom.
*When we are discouraged by the inevitable spiritual pushback, it is easy to want to resign to the way things used to be.
It is easy to begin living like everyone else - living for the weekend, excursions and an existence wrapped around pleasure.
And the things that begin to mark our identity, happiness and pursuits outside of God begin to come with a cost.
Even the unbelieving philosopher David Foster Wallace, who met a tragic end, had an understanding of the importance of worship, though not the right foundation for it - which is the truth found in Jesus Christ.
What happens when we don’t worship the right thing?
"Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship... is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive."
-David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest in his 2005 Kenyon College address entitled This is Water
What is it that you’ve been giving yourself to outside of God that has been trying to “eat you alive”?
Again, building had stopped on the temple, on cultivating the priority of worship, and this is when God sent the prophet Haggai to remind Zerubbabel and the people of their purpose.
Haggai 1:1-16
“In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.” Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.”
The lesson: Build God’s house before your own
“A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment. There isn’t a hint of that in Psalm 126.”
Eugene H. Peterson, -Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society
We need to understand in the present why the life of worship and sacrifice is better.
People say, “I don’t want to be bound by the constraints of faith and religion.”
Yet as Timothy Keller would recognize:
“You are always bound to something. Freedom is not the absence or presence of restrictions, but the presence of the right restrictions.”
-Timothy Keller
And again being driven by pride outside of the worship of God, Keller further elaborated upon CS Lewis’ earlier thoughts regarding the emptiness of that to which we give ourselves in worship other than God:
“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better-looking than others.”
-Timothy Keller
And thus, this is how pride disorients us.
And it is why only through the recalibration of worship do we once again come into contact with God’s plumbline of righteousness that leads to true freedom and peace in Christ.
But we need to understand that worship is not touch and go.
It is a life of daily devotion and ongoing consistency in Christ.
This is that to which the prophet Zechariah spoke to Zerubbabel in his attempt to build the place of worship.
Construction began on the temple around 536 BC.
Yet opposition came to the work and caused it to stall.
Understand that opposition always comes to the work of God:
Ezra 4:1-6 ESV
“Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.”
Seventeen years after Zerubbabel began the work, it was unfinished and God gave this word through the prophet Zechariah:
Zechariah 4:5-10 ESV
“Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my Lord.” Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. “These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth.””
The temple was completed twenty years after its beginning in 516 BC.
God intends to complete the work he has started in and through us.
He does not intend for our life and work in God to be left unfinished.
To what has God called you to give yourself over a similar period of time and what has it produced?
Was there a place where you quit in the middle because of opposition, accusations, discouragements or misunderstandings?
For example:
What relationships in your life have been neglected or are deteriorating?
Is it your marriage?
Have you slipped in your childrearing?
What aspect of ministry to which you were called have you laid down?
What do you need to pick back up to complete by the Word of the Lord?
These are all important considerations as we walk with Jesus.
But some would say, “I don’t really have a heart for worship.”
Regarding this, God also wants to set us free.
He wants to do a supernatural work in our affections as we yield to Jesus, by the person and filling of the Holy Spirit.
And once he’s done so, he matures us through a pragmatic reality:
“We live in what one writer has called the "age of sensation."' We think that if we don't feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.”
-Eugene H. Peterson, -Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society
*How do we build these altars to God in our life today?
*We make a log of where we place our affections, where we spend our time, talent and treasure - to offer on the altar that which belongs to God and sacrifice anything that comes before him.
What is it that needs to be offered by you today?
What wasn’t completed by Zerubbabel in the Second Temple was completed by the true returning king, Jesus Christ.
The Wonder of Christ
As the light of the world, Jesus takes those who are lost, confused and tormented, and gives them meaning, purpose and most importantly, salvation, through worship.
Sin is defined as missing the mark.
One of the fruits of the flesh Paul described in Galatians 5 in which if we choose to live, the Holy Spirit had Paul indicate that we would not inherit the kingdom of God, is selfish ambition.
Galatians 5:19-21 NIV
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5:19-21 ESV
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
It is interesting that in the NIV the sin is translated as selfish ambition and in the ESV the word rivalries was utilized.
We saw so much of this in Luxembourg and it fills our culture in Chicago.
Whenever we live according to the selfish ambition of the flesh, we are disorienting our person and purpose.
Jesus did things differently.
He lived a life focused on glorifying and fulfilling the purpose of his Heavenly Father.
Jesus knew who he was.
Jesus knew what he was sent to do.
John 8:12-14 ESV
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.”
Jesus anticipated the trials, opposition and betrayals.
Jesus knew how to persevere because he remained in unbroken fellowship with the Father and worked by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus did this because he was on an undeterred mission to seek and save the lost.
Luke 13:31-35 ESV
“At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Like Zerubbabel, we too are called to do a work reestablishing worship to God.
We need to first repent of our sins and be reconciled to God through the sacrificial death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
We then need to choose to build a life of worship.
We need to stop defining the wins by how many moments of self-indulgent pleasure we can attain and instead become ambitious towards the sacrifices we’re offering to bring worship in the earth.
We too can face discouragements and a temptation to resign to “good enough living”.
Yet God calls us to more.
He calls us to relationship with himself and to live lives of worship.
Jesus went to the cross to pay for our sins, to reconcile us to God and reestablish worship in our hearts and in the places in which we live.
Jesus left nothing undone, but at the cross, with his dying breath said,
John 19:30 ESV
“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
There is nothing more we need to do to be reconciled to God.
Jesus has fulfilled Yahweh’s covenant promises by making a way for us to have a new heart and a new spirit, truly becoming a temple of worship in Christ.
Ezekiel 36:24-28 ESV
“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
We experience this individually, but only walk in it fully as we are an active participant amongst God’s people of worship - the church.
As the Holy Spirit had the Apostle Paul write:
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV
What we need to do is repent of our sins, put our faith in the love of God poured out for us at the cross and complete the altars in our lives that are meant to be our daily orientation in Jesus.
This is what Zerubbabel was charged to do.
It is how we are to live by the power of the Holy Spirit today!
It is how we are useful in the hand of God in establishing worship of Jesus in our city and in the nations.
I Wonder As I Wander by John Jacob Niles
I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus, the savior, had come for to die
For poor on'ry people, like you and like I.
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.
When mary birthed Jesus, t'was in a cow's stall
With wisemen and farmers and shepherds and all,
But high in god's heaven a star's light did fall,
And the promise of ages, it then did recall.
If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing
A star in the sky or a bird on the wing
Or all of god's angels in heaven for to sing
He surely could have it, for he was the king!
I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus, the savior, had come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I.
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.
