God is Secure

In the ancient world, battles between peoples were thought of as battles between gods. It wasn't just whether my army was bigger and better than your army; an army wasn't enough to win a war. You had to have the bigger, better god on your side. 

That's why when conquerors came into Israel, it was important to them to destroy the Temple, to tear it all the way down, to make it nothing but rubble. If you could defeat a nation's god, you could subjugate the people; they had nowhere else to turn. 

It's also why when the people of Israel started to return to Jerusalem after the exile, the first thing they started to rebuild was the Temple. 

Not the walls. Not the gates. Not their homes. They started on the Temple. 

Because if they could demonstrate God's strength in the land, that was akin to getting their land back for good. It meant something - something more than just the faithfulness or piousness or righteousness of the people. It meant something about their God. 

One of my favorite scenes in the rebuilding of Jerusalem comes early, and it comes in Ezra 3. 

A few of the Israelites have returned to Jerusalem to start rebuilding, and this includes a number of priests and Levites and those who serve. And the first thing they do is clear out a space in the middle of all of the rubble...and rebuild the altar to start offering sacrifices. Yes, in the middle of the rubble. 

You have to read the actual account in Ezra and let this paint a picture in your mind. The whole place is in ruins. There's not even a city left. There are no walls, no security. A few mangled houses. Nothing left of the Temple, which has been laying as a pile of rubble for decades. Then, these guys come in, sweep out a section right in the middle of it all to get down to the flat ground...and build an altar. 

Then, in the middle of the dust and ashes, they start burning a fire, slaughtering animals, and offering sacrifices. Now, there is dust and debris and dirt and rubble...and blood and smoke and fire. 

There is no image like this one. 

But it raises a good point about God. 

You wouldn't think you'd want to rebuild an altar first. You wouldn't think that the first thing you'd want in a ruined city would be a sacred place. You would think you would want to have a way to protect your holy place before your build it - that you'd want to have walls and watchtowers and guards and, at the very least, a structure around the altar itself...not just an altar on an open floor in the midst of rubble. It seems too easy. It seems too vulnerable. 

But God is not vulnerable. 

That's what Ezra knew. That's what Jeshua knew. That's what the Israelites knew. There is no worry about putting up an altar in what looks like the most vulnerable place possible because God is not vulnerable. 

He is secure. 

Even in the most wide-open, desolate place.