Ezra 5:11

“We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.” (Ezra 5:11)

The book of Ezra tells the story of the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple after the Babylonian captivity. God’s people had spent 70 years as exiles in a foreign land because of their rejection of His purposes in them and their sin of idolatry. The Jews who returned from the captivity to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem faced much opposition, poverty, danger, and hardship. Most of them had been born in Babylon and had never seen the land of Israel. They had to leave everything they had in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. Babylon was their home, but it was not their identity. Their mission to Jerusalem was not just to rebuild the city and temple, but to restore the Jewish national redemptive identity – God’s prophetic purpose in His people. They were few in number and had no resources for the task set before them. At times they became discouraged by the relentless attacks of their enemies. They had to reject proposed ungodly alliances and partnerships which were intended to dilute their efforts in reclaiming their national redemptive identity. They had to put away their foreign wives and children. The city and temple had been destroyed. There was much “rubbish” in the streets which needed to be removed, and the walls and gates of the city had to be rebuilt. They were mocked and attacked as they worked and had to arm themselves with their swords as they labored. Yet they persevered. In all of these challenges, they turned to the Lord, knowing they could not complete their historic task without Him. Indeed, it seems as though their struggles were designed and allowed by the Lord to purify their hearts, ensuring the integrity of their efforts, and the integrity of their national identity as the people of God.

The Keystone Project is also assigned a great task which is not without challenges and struggles. We have grown more quickly than our infrastructure can manage. Every month we have to literally “pray in” enough money to make payroll and food to feed our students. We do not have sufficient housing for our staffing needs. Most of our staff are doing multiple tasks for which they are not being paid. In addition, we deal with many spiritual attacks against our redemptive community. In the midst of all this, we reject discouragement and despair, and rejoice that we cannot do the task we have been assigned without the Lord. If He does not show up, we will fail. We have not failed yet, but have, in fact, succeeded beyond our capacity. That is not a testimony to us, but to the Lord who never fails and is never, ever late. We cry out and He hears and answers our cries. All we can do is laugh, even as we study our bleak financial reports, because we know the numbers in them reveal the greatness of our God.

Where did the Jews get the strength and faith, they needed to rebuild the city and temple? It came from the knowledge of who God was and the knowledge of who they were because of Him. “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth.” They also knew their mission, “and [we] are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.” At this moment in history, with the forces of evil seeking to destroy all that is of God, we must find a supernatural strength and faith to accomplish the task before us. Do we know who He is? Do we know who we are? We are the church of the Lord Jesus Christ! Though we are in the world, the world is not our home, and it is not our identity. We know who we are, and we know what our mission is – to make disciples of all the nations. Though the mission is with great struggle and hardship, and though our enemies are many and strong, we will prevail. Jesus declared that the gates of hell cannot stand against us!