A Good Foundation

In his first year of reign, King Cyrus of Persia, was moved by God to build up the temple at Jerusalem. King Cyrus realized right from the start who gave him all those kingdoms, and in the beginning of the book of Ezra he stated that, “the Lord, He is God.” Boy, he got off to a good start wouldn’t you say?

In chapter one verse three, he told all the Jews to go down to Jerusalem and help with the work in building the house of the Lord. In verse four of chapter one, he said, “If you choose to remain in the same place where you sojourn, then help out with the work by contributing silver, gold, goods, beast, and free-will offerings to the house of God.”

You know, that sounds sort of like helping out the work of missionaries. If we choose to stay in one spot, or for some reason can’t go to the mission field, we need to help out the work by contributing goods, or money. I remember when I was a missionary with my family on a very hard mission field. We would receive boxes from time to time with can goods, packaged foods, clothes, and sometimes even candy. My, my, my, no one could ever know what those little boxes of goods meant to us. My sister and I would think we had died and gone to heaven. Our main diet over in Haiti was rabbit, frog legs, rice, beans , and the Haitian fruits and vegetables. If we wanted anything sweet, we had to eat sugar cane like the Haitians did. By the time we were done with that stalk of sugar cane, our teeth would ace so bad.

But anyway, back to our story. I’m sure that the contributions from those who couldn’t go to Jerusalem and help were greatly appreciated. Don’t you think? Not only that , but King Cyrus brought back all that King Nebuchadnezzar had stolen out of the house of God. Wicked ole King Nebuchadnezzar stole thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, twenty nine knives, thirty basons of gold, four hundred and ten basons of silver, and a thousand other vessels. {Ezra 1:9-11.}

Boy howdy!! He really stole from God, didn’t he? He not only stole all of that from the house of God, but he placed them in his own house of gods. You know, there are people that steal from God today, and give the money to their own gods. For example maybe they take that twenty dollars the Lord told them to put in the offering plate, and they spend it on new shinny rims for their car tires. Maybe they take that fifty dollars that the Lord wanted them to give to a missionary, and they spend it on a new stereo system for their car. You see, their car has become their god, simply because it comes before God.

God should always be first in our lives. God’s promises always come true. The Bible says “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.” So God comes first, and everything else just falls into place.

So now we learn from the Bible that King Cyrus put God first. He told the Jews to start building the temple that was once destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar. Then he cleaned out that wicked house of gods that Nebuchadnezzar set up. The Jews worked hard on the temple, and finally they got the foundation laid. And my goodness, what a day! The priest had trumpets, and the Levites had cymbals, and they all sang praises to God for his mercy and his goodness to them. They were all excited that the foundation had been laid. The older men wept with a loud voice, and many shouted for joy. Do you know that they wept and shouted and laughed and made so much noise, that one minuet it seemed like they were all shouting for joy, and then the next minute it seemed like they were weeping. The Bible tells us that it was hard to tell the shouts, from the cries. {Ezra 3:11-13.}

Have you ever been so happy over something that you cried? Well, that’s how the Jews felt that day. Have you ever laughed so hard over something that you cried? My Mother was the worst one in the world to do that. I can remember the last time she laughed so hard that she cried. It was about three months before she died. She was taking the boys and I to their football practice. She was sailing down the road and came up on a railroad track. She didn’t have any time to slow down at all. She hit the tracks, and the boys and I literally went up in the air and hit our heads on the roof. No, we weren’t wearing our seatbelts, and I give my apologies as a Sunday school teacher for not obeying the laws of the land. We should always wear seatbelts. But at that time, I’m glad we weren’t, because my Mother got the biggest kick out of our heads hitting the roof. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and then the tears started to roll down her cheeks, and then she cried, and laughed , and cried. I looked at her and said, “Momma, it wasn’t that funny.!”
She said, “Yes it was, you should have seen your face.” And she laughed all the way to the ball park, wiping her tears. Now I laugh every time I go over those same railroad tracks.

Well, that’s how happy the Jews were at the time the foundation was laid, but I believe they were even happier than the little story I gave. If you’re a child of God, then you have every reason to rejoice just like the Jews did that day. We have a strong foundation, which is Christ Jesus. The Bible says in, 1 Corinthians 3:9 and 11, “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. For other foundation can no man lay that is lain, which is Jesus Christ.” Just like the Jews started to build upon the foundation of the temple, we should build upon our foundation as well. Our bodies are the temple of the Lord. Are you going to do some building on your foundation with wood, hay, and stubble? Or will it be with gold, silver and precious stones? A strong foundation means everything. That’s why the Jews made such a big deal when the foundation was laid. My foundation is sure worth shouting for joy over, because my foundation is Jesus Christ. If you don’t have a good foundation, it doesn’t matter how beautiful your building is, it’s not going to weather the storms. Do you remember the story of the wise man and the foolish man? One built his house upon a rock, the other build his house on sand. Which one came through the storms? Your right! The house that was build on the rock came through the storms. So if your foundation is built on the rock, Jesus Christ, then your foundation is strong and sure. As for the walls, that is totally up to you. You can use wood, hay, and stubble , or gold, silver and precious stones. The good thing about a good foundation is, if the walls happen to fall, you can always rebuild upon that strong foundation because it will always be there. But kids, let’s use the right stuff in building our walls so our temples can weather the storms ahead. Let’s stay prayed up, and keep our noses in the Bible. God will give us golden nuggets out of his book, and with them we can build. He will also give us honey and milk, bread and strong meat from his word to keep us healthy spiritually. If we do not read and pray, we will only end up having a measly clump of hay, a pile of rotten wood, and what in the world can you do with stubble but maybe trip over it. And when the winds, and the rains come kids, your walls will tumble down. When I say the winds and the rains, I’m talking about the cares of this old life. I’m talking about the pressures of this old world, and the wrong kind of friends. I would love for you kids to get this one thing for sure. Eternity is what matters. What you’re going to lay at Jesus feet is what matters. How you weather the storms is what matters. So let’s build some strong walls. O.K?

Well, as soon as the Jews laid the foundation, guess who showed up? Yep, the enemy. The Bible says in 4:1&2, that the adversaries of the Jews, (the Jews enemy) came around to Zerubabel, who was one of the chief father’s of Israel. And they said to him, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God, and we sacrifice unto him also.”

But Zerubabel was a very wise man. He basically told the enemy to just get lost. He didn’t need their help, and the children of Israel could do just fine in building the temple without them. Do you know what that enemy really wanted to do if Zerubabel would have let them help? They would have weakened the walls of the temple. They would have secretly, and little by little just destroyed the temple, and weaken the Jews.

Isn’t that just like today. As soon as a person gets saved, the devil starts to come around. Oh, he doesn’t bother to come around until that foundation is laid.

Here’s an example. The Lord allowed me to run into a lady and her daughter one day while shopping. I witnessed to her, and she ended up coming to church with me. The lady, Maggie, and her daughter, Crystal got saved. The week after they got saved Jehovah’s witness’s came to her door. They didn’t appear to be enemies, oh no, they came as friends. Just as Zerubabel’s enemy did. But Maggie wasn’t as wise as Zerubabel. She let the enemy carry her away. She didn’t have time to get any walls build up against the enemy.

But even with Zerubabel telling the enemy to get lost, they hung around anyway. And the Bible says that the enemy began to discourage the Jews. {4:4&5}. They troubled them in their building, and weakened the hands of the people of Judah. The enemy even hired people to frustrate them. Boy, I’ll tell you what. There are so many times I get troubled, discouraged, and frustrated in my building. The Devil hires his armed forces against me, and if I have not strengthened myself in the word, my walls crumble.

Well, after King Cyrus died, the enemies were able to stop the Jews from building through another king. But in time, God sent them King Darius, who was in favor of the house of God. And during the reign of King Darius the house of God was finished.

Ezra 6:15 says, “And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the King.” { verse 21-22} “ And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen land, to seek the Lord God of Israel did eat. And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.”

With the help of our King, let’s build some strong walls on that good foundation!