Acceptable Worship

“You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.” - Ezra 4:3

Around 537 BC, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild God’s temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 1). The Jews, who had been taken into Babylonian captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar years earlier, gathered and returned to Israel, each to their own city. They went back through the records and determined who among them were qualified to be priests (Ezra 2). Then with huge fanfare, they set the altar up on its foundations. After one year of gathering materials and hiring workers, they began to rebuild the temple. Again, when they laid the foundations their rejoicing was so exuberant that the sound could be heard from far away (Ezra 3).

But then a strange thing happened. The enemies of Judah and Benjamin offered to help. They stated that they had been offering sacrifices to the Lord since Esarhadon, king of Assyria had brought them there. As we see in today’s passage, the Jews flatly denied their request.

Many in our multicultural, pluralistic, politically correct society take offense at such a rebuff. “What?” They cry. “Do you think that you are better than we are? Our approach to God is just as valid as yours! With this attitude you are going to lower our sense of self-esteem!” But if you will examine the scriptures a little deeper, you will discover the cause of their rejection.

These people had been brought in from Mesopotamia and Aram, but their origin was not the issue. God had issued clear orders in the Law to accept and protect foreigners (Exodus 22:21). The problem was that they continued to worship their own gods while also taking up the worship of Yahweh as the local deity (2 Kings 17:24-41). Exodus 22:20 very clearly states the consequences of worshipping false gods.

We must be sure that we have not absorbed elements of the world’s worship into our worship of the one true God. We must not allow principles and philosophies that come from corporate America to drive our approach to God’s Kingdom. We must sniff with suspicion the offerings of those who would have us follow church-building tips based on consumer driven service. “Give the customer what he wants! The customer is always right! Let’s make each service have a different musical theme. Let’s give our customers multiple venues and times like a movie theater!” I’m afraid our seeker-sensitive churches don’t realize how close to Wal-Mart they have come.

Brothers and sisters, we must always be careful to not only maintain a purity of faith and doctrine but even of culture (Romans 12:1-2). When we do, we may be persecuted (as we will see in tomorrow’s devotional) but we will also be protected. God will make sure that things will ultimately turn out to our good.