In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide … - Ezra 6:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 2, 2014): Ezra 6

When the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center fell, it didn’t take long for the discussions to begin with regard to the rebuilding of the Trade Center complex. The ideas were many, including an argument in the beginning that the complex should not to be rebuilt at all, but eventually other ideas won the day. The argument that won was that the spirit of man demanded that the Trade Center be rebuilt bigger and better than it was before. What better response could there be to the ones who attacked the Trade Center in the first place than to prove that the United States could not be defeated by the attack of terrorists. The Trade Center would rise from the ashes, bigger and better than it had ever been before. It is a common reaction. When something is destroyed, no matter how the destruction came about, we almost seem to feel that it is our responsibility to rebuild bigger and better than it was before.

Ezra says that at the request of the enemies of Jerusalem, the King was to make a search as to whether a decree was ever really made about the rebuilding of the destroyed Temple of Jerusalem. The Temple had been the center of all life in Jerusalem, and those who opposed Israel, opposed the rebuilding of the Temple – knowing that the rebuilding of the Temple could be the spark that would give life to the defeated Children of Israel.

And so a search was made and an edict was found. And the edict given in the first year of the reign of Cyrus the Great. The edict did in fact order that the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. But the edict did more than just order the rebuilding of the Temple – it also appears to give the dimensions of the future temple. The Temple seems to be ordered to be a cube, sixty cubits (or 27.5 meters or 90 feet) in every direction. The new temple that had been ordered by Cyrus would be bigger and better than the one the Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.

But there is a problem. The Second Temple when it was finished was actually smaller than the first, not bigger. And the most obvious reason for the why of the discrepancy is that while the spirit of man demanded something bigger, the reality was that the people who lived in Judah, and those returning from exile, were poor. They couldn’t afford the temple that Cyrus had allowed them to build, so they built something smaller. While the spirit of man demanded something bigger, the pocketbook couldn’t keep up with the spirit.

So the exiles built what they could – the best of what they could afford, as their sacrifice to their God. And this smaller Temple would once again become the center of life in Jerusalem – and would stand as a testimony to the nations.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Esther 1