That didn’t work out the way the governor, Tattenai, thought
it might. He had in mind that these Jews would be taken to task for erecting
this temple in Jerusalem, that they would be found to be not only in error but
also rebellious. Instead, the governor
was ordered to pay for the work on the temple out of the royal treasury as
tribute from his own pocket. Not only that, he was also to provide whatever was
necessary on a daily basis for the sacrifices required for worship there. In other words, God was fulfilling the words
of prophecy that the returned community would plunder their captors just as the
generation of the exodus had done when they left Egypt. Providing for the worship and the temple
would cost God’s people nothing. Four years
after the work was renewed, twenty years after it was begun and approximately
seventy years after the exile, the temple was complete and prepared for worship. Passover was the first major celebration, a
fitting time for the group who had come back to the Land just as that earlier
generation had done. Judaism today looks
to this same hope, the worship of the temple, in Jerusalem, each year at
Passover with the thought, “next year, in Jerusalem.”
The disciples concern for Jesus teaching in parables rather
than propositions is that they know the people aren’t getting it. Jesus says that the disciples have been given
a great gift, “to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven,” but this has not
been given generally to these others. It
isn’t a matter of their being unable to grasp the principles Jesus is teaching because
they are too “zen” to understand without deep thought, it is because they lack
the Spirit to bear witness. We lack
spiritual insight because we lack the Spirit.
We, even those of us who have the Spirit, can grow dull to the
promptings of God, can lose our ability to see and hear because we lack the
zeal to know and grow. His desire is for us to be always open and ready to
learn and to see and hear Him active in the world around us. Let us awaken to
His voice and His work, shaking off our indifference and complacency with what
we know in order that we might know more and see more. Christians should be always expectant.
As John weeps over the fact that no one has been found who
is worthy to open the scroll an elder speaks to him of the lion of the tribe of
Judah who has conquered and is worthy to open the scroll, opening the way of
hope again. Is the next thing John sees
a lion? No, it is, instead a lamb
looking like it was slain. Amazingly,
this Lamb went to the throne and took the scroll from the hand of the one
seated there. When it does, heaven
explodes in praise and worship for the Lamb, ascribing to it the praise that
had been directed to the one on the throne in the previous chapter. We are now part of the exile community for He
has, by His blood, “ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and
people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and
they shall reign on the earth.” Stop being
disappointed that you were expecting a lion and only got a lamb and see things
God’s way. Perhaps God’s way is better than you can ever imagine.
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