We Are The Servants Of The God Of Heaven And Earth
The Jews had been in Babylonian captivity for some seventy years. After the overthrow of Babylon by the Persians, Cyrus proclaimed that the Jews were to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the house of the Lord. About 50,000 Jews returned to Jerusalem, and the work of rebuilding the temple was begun. However, the opposition from enemy forces slowed the work and some sixteen years later Haggai rebuked the people because they dwelt in their own ceiled houses while the temple was lying desolate. Once more they began work on the temple. When questioned by their enemies as to whom they were and by what authority they acted, the elders replied: "We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and set up." (Ezra 5:11)
What a wonderful answer they gave! And it is precisely the answer we ought to give today when asked who we are and what we do.
1. "We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth." Here is the highest service possible — the service of God. We were called of God into His kingdom (2 Thess. 2:14). How many of us truly act as the servants of the Most High?
2. "A great king built the house" — Jesus, the greatest of all kings built the church (Matt. 16:18). He built precisely what the God of heaven decreed. But men overran and destroyed the beauty of this house with Catholicism and denominationalism.
3. We "build the house that was builded these many years ago." We do not build a new house. We are simply seeking to restore the pattern of Christ's house as He originally built it. Here is the greatest work in the world. This is why we require Bible authority for every practice. This is why we stand at the apostate alters of the rebels against God's pattern and cry "Back! Back to God's way."
Are you the servant of the God of heaven and earth? Are you actively rebuilding the house that our great king built?
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