That is certainly a wonderful
promise, isn't it, that the Lord has promised all of his children,
all of his people, that he will never leave us nor forsake us.
I was thinking as we sang that
first hymn, the great physician speaking about the name of Christ,
the sweetest name on mortal tongue. I saw a list this past week,
I believe it was, of the alphabet. Go through the alphabet and the
names of Christ. You can find a name of Christ
for every letter in our alphabet except, I believe, three. Maybe
two or three. The Y and the Z, I believe. But there's a name. He has many names, doesn't he?
But the sweetest name of all, I believe, is the name Jesus.
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. If you
will, let's open our Bibles again tonight to Ezra chapter three. Ezra chapter three. I ended the study last week in
the middle of verse six. We read the first part of that
verse which says, from the first day of the seventh month began
they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. And so we looked
at verses one through that first half of part six. And we saw
two things especially, and that was the building of the altar
that is mentioned in verse two and the seventh month in verse
six. And we see the importance of
both. The altar is all important because
upon the altar, a sacrifice would be offered. to approach unto
God. And then we saw that in the seventh
month of all the months in the year, it was one according to
the law, which they had so much to do. And all of it representative
of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pointed out that the
day of atonement is in that seventh month, but they could not observe
that. They could not observe that because
there was no holy place and no holy, holy place and no mercy
seat because the temple had not been built. But now, beginning
with the second part of verse six, we read, but the foundation
of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. They gave money
also unto the Masons and to the carpenters and meat and drink
and all unto them of Sidon and to them of Tyre to bring cedar
trees from Lebanon to the Sea of Joppa according to the grant
that they had of Cyrus king of Persia. Now, it seems that after
they observed the Feast of Tabernacles in that seventh month, that's
when these offerings were given. to begin to accumulate materials
to build the temple, to build the house of the Lord. And now
in verse 8, in the next year, we saw that that seventh month
was like September and October in our on our calendar, and so
in the next year, in the second month, now in the second year
of their coming under the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second
month began Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the
son of Josedach, and the remnant of their brethren, the priest
and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity
unto Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites from 20 years old
and upward to set forward the work of the house of the Lord. Then stood Jeshua, and this is
not the same Jeshua that's listed in that text above that. The
Jeshua in verse eight was Jeshua, or Joshua, the high priest, but
this man was a Levite, Jeshua, and his sons and his brethren
Kadmil and his sons, the sons of Judah, together to set forward
the workmen in the house of God, the sons of Hinnadad, with their
sons and their brethren, the Levites. And when the builders
laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priest
and their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of
Asaph, with cymbals to praise the Lord after the ordinance
of David, king of Israel, And they sang together by course
in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord, because he is
good, for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all
the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord,
because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But
many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who
were ancient men that had seen the first house when the foundation
of this house was laid before their eyes, they wept with a
loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could
not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of
the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud
shout, and the noise was heard afar off." Tonight, as we look
at the remainder of the chapter, I want to speak to us of two things. I've got
two parts to the message, a look back and a look forward. And by looking back, before we
go on to see the laying of the foundation of the house of the
Lord, I want us to go back and I want to speak of something
that's in chapter two that I passed over when we came through chapter
two. And that we find in Ezra chapter
two and verse 61. We read, and of the children
of the priest, the children of Abiah, the children of Kos, the
children of Barzillai, which took a wife of the daughters
of Barzillai the Gilead, and was called after their name.
These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy,
but they were not found. Therefore were they as polluted,
but from the priesthood. Tershithah, that is the governor,
Zerubbabel, said unto them that they should not eat of the most
holy things till there stood up a priest with Urim and with
Thuman. There was a group of these people
who returned, and they said they were priests. They said they
were Levites in the family of Aaron, but they could not prove
it. did not have the genealogical
records to prove that they were in the line of the priest. Now,
the law gave the priest the privilege of eating several of the sacrifices
or food from the sacrifices. And that's the reason the governor
settled the matter. He said, until a priest stands
up with Urim and Thuban and settles this matter, they're not going
to eat. of the sacrifices. And so I thought
the Urim and the Thuman. What was that? The Urim and Thuman. Well, we know what the two words
mean. That's the easy part. We know what these two words
mean. Urim means lights and Thuman
means perfections. And over the years that I've
been preaching, I've read and studied and seen a lot of speculation
and theories about the Urim and the Thummen. But I want to point
out what the scriptures tell us about the Urim and the Thummen. I want you to take your Bibles
and go back with me to Exodus chapter 28. We're not going to consider what
men have surmised, but just look at what the scripture tells us
about Urim and Thummen. In this chapter 28 of Exodus, God gives Moses instructions
for the garments of the high priest and of the priest. And I always like to point out
in verse two where the scripture says, thou shalt make holy garments
for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty. They had to put
something on Aaron to make him look glorious and beautiful.
Our great high priest, he needs nothing like that. He is all
glorious. He's the glory of the only begotten
Son of God. And He has a beauty that is unlike
all others. So, basically, in verse 4, they
gave the instructions for the garment for the high priest.
And the garments consisted of a breastplate an ephod, a robe, a brodered
coat, a mitre, and a girdle. And in the breastplate, we know
they set 12 stones. There were four rows of three
in the breastplate. You see that in verse 29 and
30. And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel
and the breastplate of judgment upon his heart when he goeth
in unto the holy place for a memorial before the Lord God continually. This, of course, pictures to
us the Lord Jesus Christ who bears his people upon his heart
as he intercedes with the Father for us. We have a high priest
always before God, and he always bears not only on his hands are
our names engraven, but on his heart. And on his shoulder also,
the high priest had these names engraved on the stones on his
shoulder, showing the strength of our high priest. But notice
the next verse says, and thou shalt put in the breastplate
of judgment the Urim and the Thummim. And they shall be upon
Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord. And Aaron shall
bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before
the Lord continually. So one thing that we know about
the Urim and the Thummim is it was to be put in to the breastplate. Put in the breastplate and Aaron
would bear that because he bore the breastplate on his heart
with the names of the children of Israel. He would bear the
Urim and the Thummim on his heart as well in the breastplate. And then I point out a second
thing in verse 30. It says, when he goeth in before
the Lord and Aaron shall bear the judgment, the judgment of
the children of Israel. Now that word, which is translated
judgment, according to strong means properly a verdict, a verdict. a verdict. They could arrive
at a verdict somehow by the Urim and the Thummim. But it was a
priest, it was a high priest who bore this upon his heart
in the breastplate. And this is the way that they
got direction. This is the way the Lord would
direct them. As we see in our text tonight
that we looked at there in Ezra chapter 2, The governor said,
when there arises a priest with the Urim and Thummim, this matter
will be settled. This matter can be settled. We
will see if these who claim to be priests, who profess to be
priests, if they truly are in the line of Aaron. They'll be
settled by the Urim and the Thummim. And an example of this, if you
look with me in numbers, in Numbers chapter 27. And by the way, I believe we
only have this Urim and Thummim mentioned five times in the scripture. I believe that's right, five
times in all the scripture. But here in Numbers chapter 27,
God gives instructions to Moses to lay his hands upon Joshua
Joshua's going to be the commander of the armies when they go into
the land of Canaan. And he's going to get direction
from the priest with the Urim and the Thummim. Notice that
here in Numbers 27, verse 21. And he shall stand before Eleazar
the priest. Now that's Aaron's son became
the high priest, Eleazar. Joshua shall stand before him. who shall ask counsel for him
after the judgment of Urim before the Lord. At his word, the priest
will make the verdict or give the verdict. His word shall they
go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all
the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation." This
is the way the judgment was determined this Urim and Thummim in the
breastplate. As I said, the Urim and Thummim
are only mentioned five times in the scriptures in the Old
Testament, and the last two times is the one in our text in Ezra,
and we have a repetition in Nehemiah, the same words there in Nehemiah
chapter seven, I believe it is. I want you to turn, I know I'm
asking you to turn to several places, but I want you to look
now in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 33, if you
will. What I believe the Urim and the
Thummim is a type of Christ, a type of Christ. As I said, we know what the words
mean, lights and perfections. Well, lights and that is plural. We know that Christ is the light
of the world. He's the light. He created natural
light. In the beginning, all things
were created by him. And God said, let there be light. He created natural light. He
gives a light of grace in the hearts of his people. And we
know that he is the light of heaven. There's no need of the
sun in heaven because the lamb is a light thereof. And then
perfections in Christ, there's all perfections. If you consider
him in his deity, He's God, a very God. In him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and perfection as to his humanity as well. He's
sinless. He's a perfect man, the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Lights and perfections. And I
think you see that here in Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse 8, when
Moses is blessing the various tribes and he comes to the tribe
of Levi. And he says this, and of Levi
he said, let thy Thuman and thy Urim, remember this is the priestly
tribe. The priest, the high priest would
have the Urim and Thuman in his breastplate. And when Moses speaks
about Levi, he said, let thy Thuman and thy Urim be, now notice,
with thy Holy One. Who is the Holy One? Who is the Holy One? No, our
Lord was not of the tribe of Levi, but he was a priest, he
was the priest, the priest that the priest of Levi, the tribe
of Levi, were only pictures and types of his priesthood. Let
thy Europe and Thuman be with the Holy One whom, now notice,
whom thou didst strive with, or thou didst prove at Massa,
and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah. Now
it was Aaron and Moses who were striving with the Lord. Who was that? When they came
to that rock the second time, and they were to fetch water
out of the rock, remember, God had told Moses, speak to the
rock. And what did Moses do? He struck the rock. He struck
the rock a second time. And that's what that has reference
to there, whom thou didst prove at Massa and with whom thou didst
strive at the waters of Meribah. It was the Lord they were striving
with. And it was Christ, the eternal
Son of God, who would come in the fullness of the time. So
I just wanted to go back over that. I don't think I've ever
spoken of the Urim and Thummim, but I I just want to point out
what the scripture says. As I said, there's a lot of conjecture
by men over the years that I've read and heard of how this worked
and all of that, but this is what is revealed in the word
of God. This was a way, and as a type
of Christ, remember, not only is he light and is he perfections,
but he is our guide. He guides us as we go through
this world by His Spirit using His Word. And that's the way
they came to a verdict, to make a decision, was by the Urim and
the Thuman. And so we pray and ask the Lord
to guide us, to lead us, to show us His will that we might follow
Him. Now, let's go back to Ezra chapter
three. In the second year of their return,
the Levites were appointed to set forward the work in the house
of God. They had brought the materials,
as I pointed out earlier, they had bought the materials and
Cyrus, the one, the king of Persia, who had given the command for
them, allowing them to go back and build the temple. He had
given commandment concerning the materials, cedars from Lebanon,
that they might bring to use in the work. Now, what I want
to do, I want to show what took place when they were laying the
foundation of this building. And I wanted to think of it,
of these things, these four things at least, parallel with the spiritual
temple. laying the foundation of the
spiritual temple. We know that the church, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is a spiritual temple. Every believer is built
upon the foundation, and the foundation had to be laid just
like this foundation for this temple was laid at this time. So first of all, the laying of
the foundation was the first thing. Notice that in In verse
10, and when the builders laid the foundation of the temple
of the Lord. That's the first thing in building
a building, isn't it? Laying the foundation. That's
fundamental. That's so important. And the
same is true in the spiritual temple, the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was laid, and he was laid
first by God. As the scripture says in Isaiah
28 and verse 16, therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I
lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone. a tried stone, a precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation, he that believeth shall not be
ashamed." God laid the foundation just as these men, the very first
thing they did was to lay the foundation for the temple. So
God in eternity laid the foundation for this spiritual temple. And
that foundation we know is Christ. Remember our Lord in one of his
parables that he gave to the Israelites when he was here in
the flesh, pointed out how that the men rejected the sun and
the stone which the builders rejected, speaking of himself,
and the builders were the leaders of the nation of Israel, the
priest and those men in religious authority, They rejected him,
but God made that rejected stone the head of the corner. God laid
this foundation. And in Ephesians chapter two,
we have those, those illustrations of union of the believer and,
uh, and Christ, the union, which exists. And I think the last
one mentioned is the foundation. that every believer must be built
upon Christ, must be in union with Christ. So that's the first
thing. They laid the foundation. That
was the very first thing that had to be done. Number two, the
laying of the foundation was done with a great celebration.
And again, in verse 10, they set the priest and their apparel
with trumpets, Levites, the sons of Asa with cymbals, to praise
the Lord after the ordinance of David, king of Israel. And
they sang together by course and praising and giving thanks
unto the Lord. It was done, laying the foundation
was done with a great celebration. And this makes me think at least
that when God brought his son, who is the foundation of the
true temple into the world, it too was done with great celebration. It really was. Just as in the
beginning when God created the world, all the angels, all the
sons of the morning shouted and sang together. So when God brought
his son into this world, he commanded, let all the angels worship him. When he bringeth in his first
begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God
worship him. It was a great celebration. that
angel announced to the shepherds. The birth of the Lord Jesus Christ,
one angel, but then there was a host of heavenly beings, all
celebrating. Just like here, when they laid
the foundation for this temple of the Lord, it was a great thing. They had priests that were blowing
trumpets, they had some that were using the cymbals, and they
were singing, and they were singing in chorus. One group would sing,
and then another group would sing, and they would respond
to each one another. The third thing, the laying of
the foundation was attended also with weeping. Great joy, yes,
but also weeping. Great celebration, yes, but also
with weeping. If you notice that in verse 11,
The people, about halfway in the verse, it says, and all the
people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because
the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of
the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were ancient
men that had seen the first house when the foundation of this house
was laid before their eyes wept. They were shouting, some were
shouting, some were weeping. when the foundation was laid.
Now, I have to believe that the corresponding thought to me was
that when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, who is
the true foundation, there was great shouting, but there was
also great weeping. You say great weeping, yes. All
of the mothers who had children two years and younger Those children
we know were slaughtered by Herod at the command of Herod and there
was lamentation. The scripture says, in Ramah
was there a voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because
they are not. And then a fourth thing, the
laying of the foundation marked a division among the people.
Some were shouting, some were weeping. It marked a division
among the people. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the dividing one. He said, he that is not with
me is against me. And he divides mankind, the saved
and the lost, the sheep and the goats. He is the great divider. Now,
I have a word of explanation about the ancient man here. It says in verse 12, but many
of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were
ancient men, how old were they? Well, we know that the captivity
was for 70 years, but what we must recognize is that the temple,
had not been destroyed at the beginning of that captivity.
The captivity began when Nebuchadnezzar took this king, let's see, Jehoiakim, put him in fetters
and carried him into Babylon. But there was another king after
him and another king after him. And that it was during that reign
of that third king, which was actually 18 years later, 18 years
later, their captivity began. And then 18 years later, because
of their rebellion, because of their rebellion, Nebuchadnezzar
His army came back again, came back twice, I believe it was,
but on that last time, they burned it down. They destroyed everything
they could, burned the palaces, the houses, and the temple was
destroyed. So a person could have been 20
years old, had been 52 years since that temple had been destroyed,
he'd be 72 now, he could have seen that first temple, And now
he sees the foundation and it causes him to weep. But here's
something interesting. The foundation was the size,
the dimensions, was the same. They didn't make the temple smaller. The dimensions of the second
temple, this temple they're going to build now, the foundation
was the same. What it didn't have, of course,
was the the porches and all the things that were added around
that temple. And I don't know about you, but
if you've ever seen a foundation when a builder goes out to build
a house and he marks off the foundation, it looks awfully
small. It always does. It looks small. I've known people to see that
who were having a room built on their house and go out to
the builder and say, I want something more than that, bigger than that. You know, it just looks small.
But another thought is that these men, they had seen the temple
in its glory. And it was glorious within, wasn't
it? I mean, when you see some of
these, they've got a display, I think, down at the Houston
Museum of Arts, or Museum of History now, the gold of the
pharaohs. And you see some of those rooms
that are just covered over with gold. That's the way the temple
was. I mean, it was, it was just covered over with gold. Large
rooms and those, those cherubim, cherubim, remember as they were
made at first, they were just small, small little cherubims
on top attached to the mercy seat. But when Solomon built
that temple, they were big. Their wings reached from wall
to wall, and they were covered over with gold. And here they
are, captives, coming back from captivity, and they knew that
they would never see the glory of that temple as it had been
in the days of Solomon. Well, thank the Lord the spiritual
temple is all glorious, all glory within and without. Well, I pray
the Lord will bless this word to us here tonight. Christ, he is the light and he
is our perfection. He is our everything. I know
that.