After Jerusalem was destroyed, her walls broken, gates burned and people taken captive, there wasn't much to be joyful about. In fact, the gloom and doom of the people of God was probably never deeper than at that time. Then, the king of Persia, probably moved by God's prompting, allowed the people to return to the former city of God in order to rebuild the temple.

Ezra was the prophet who recorded the event while Zerubbabel and others went to do the work. They had little money and we learn in Nehemiah that they had great resistance. But the temple was rebuilt, albeit a much smaller and less adorned version.

The people broke out in a chorus of praise to God when the foundation was laid. They might have been overcome by the darkness of their capacity but a foundation meant the work was in progress. Their gloom turned to joy in anticipation of being involved in this work to once again elevate the worship of God among the people.

May I point out a significant point in the account that you may have missed? In fact, you may not see any significance of this event to your own life, but there is relativity in a couple of areas. First, if you allow someone else to lay your foundation, you'll not be able to correct it later. The things on which you base your life is not only important, but it will affect everything else in your life, like it or not. If you lay a bad foundation, the best structure in the world is compromised. If you lay a good strong one, the sky's the limit to what you can build on it.

Secondly, the people went and did the work when there wasn't much hope they'd prevail. Together, they found encouragement to keep doing the things that needed to be done in order to complete a project that was bigger than any one person. No doubt, there are many people who pray and encourage you along your way. When you get to the end and look at your life, you should recognize the role others played in "your" success.

Finally, at the completion on laying a flat unattractive and mind you, boring slab called a foundation, they were finally able to get the beautiful structure off the ground. But if they had waited till the work was pleasurable, easy or less costly, they'd probably have never built it at all.

Are you waiting for someone else to lay your foundation? Are you a loner, falsely thinking you alone are responsible for the good you do? Are you standing around waiting for something to happen before starting to work on your foundation? If so, I've got news for you. You're building one without knowing it and everything you do in your life will be no stronger than the foundation upon which you stand.

Is your life built on God's word? Are you a man or woman of prayer, spending significant time with the Lord? This might be a good time to look at your "slab," and see if there are any points of vulnerability before you continue to build on it. Otherwise, when the storm comes, you might find your structure laying on your head.

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( Er. 3:1-4:24 1 Co. 2:6-3:4 Ps. 28:1-9 Pr. 20:24-25 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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