Daily Devotional For Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Good morning Southside! I am following the One Year Chronological Bible reading suggestion and any Bible verses you see highlighted in bold (ex. John 3:16), means it is a link to that verse. All you have to do is click on the reference and it will take you to the verse online. Our daily devotional reading for today comes from Ezra 3. This involves the restituting of worship in the Temple that had been destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar over the years between 606-586 BC.
What we see in Ezra 3 is how God’s people returned to do their number one purpose for existing. Contrary to popular opinion, missions are not the number one goal of the church. It is worship. Why? Because God is ultimate, not men and women. When all this is over and we all stand before the throne of the Lord, missions will cease. We see several references to the angels and the elders worshipping the Lord in the book of Revelation: Rev. 4:6-11; Rev. 5:11-14; and Rev. 7:11-12.
Pastor and author John Piper writes this: “Worship is the goal and fuel for missions. Our goal in worship is to be so free in worshipping our God that out of gratitude we want to share the Gospel with others so that they come to Christ and experience what we have (see Ps. 97:1 and Ps. 67:3-4. Also, worship is the passion for missions. You cannot worship what you do not cherish (see Ps. 104:34)” (Source: John Piper, John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions, 2nd ed., p. 17).
Remember these returning exiles have never seen Jerusalem, the Temple or the wall around Jerusalem. They have been in captivity and exile for 70 years. These are the grandchildren, great-grandchildren and the great-great-grandchildren who have returned. They have never seen Solomon’s Temple in all its splendor and glory. They have heard stories about that have been passed down but that is not the same.
The Bible does not tell us how long these exiles had been home until they started rebuilding the altar and the Temple. Once they rebuilt the altar and started the sacrifices again, this was a whole new experience for them. It should not surprise us that there was tension between the exiles that returned and the descendants of those whose families had been left behind by King Nebuchadnezzar to starve to death.
The descendants of those left behind considered these exiles as refugees and we know that nearly 40,000 exiles returned home. There was no infrastructure that could handle, feed, provide jobs, homes, and etc. for all these returning exiles. 100 years later this will become such a big issue and tension that Nehemiah will have to arm those exiles rebuilding the wall (Neh. 4:13-14). So, these returning exiles who experienced fear from the remnant that was left behind, what did they do first? They worshipped the Lord.
Once the altar was rebuilt, it would be possible for the returnees to offer sacrifices again. Since it was the seventh month, over two hundred sacrifices of bulls, rams, and male lambs (see Num. 29) were prescribed in the stated festivals of Trumpets and Tabernacles, not to mention the daily morning and evening sacrifices of burnt offering mentioned in Ezra 3:4.
It would be difficult to overestimate the revulsion that most of us would sense at the sight of these sacrifices; the gallons of blood that flowed down the side of the altar would be enough to turn our stomachs! What this signaled, of course, was the truth that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness (Lev. 17:11; Heb. 9:22).
What these animal sacrifices remind us, however revolting and the revulsion they may create, is they remind us that our culture and even ourselves believed the problem in life is outside and thus the solution must come from inside. The Bible says just the opposite. The Bible says the problem is inside of us and the solution must come from outside of us. Blood sacrifices reminded them and us that salvation and forgiveness of sin comes at a cost – the taking of life. In the New Testament, we see the sacrificial Lamb of God shed His blood to fix what is wrong inside of us.
These returning exiles were not free to worship as they pleased. They were instructed by Ezra who taught the Old Testament Law on this. God had already told them how they were to worship. What does this mean for us today? Worship can only be experienced when it is in agreement with Scripture. Anything else is man-made innovation and manipulation. While the Old Testament was clear on how to worship, when to worship, what to use in worship, and etc.
The New Testament is not vague on this but instead it goes to the heart. When you come to church, do you worship with your heart? Or are you just going through the motions? Are you sincere in your worship or are you just doing what you are asked to do? Worship not from the heart is not worship. It is a show. It is entertainment. It is fake and a farce. It is an insult to the Lord. When you sing, do you sing with energy and gusto or do you sing more with gusto and energy when your favorite non-Christian music plays on the radio?
Reflection Assignment: The focus of worship is God, not our feelings, not our personal preference in music genre, not our desire for song selection. God is the focus, not ourselves. Does this express you each Sunday you come to church and your personal worship at home? Why or why not?
Scripture To Meditate On: Hebrews 12:28, “Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, and offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship with reverence and awe” (AMPT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I want my worship to be genuine, sincere, and acceptable in Your sight. I do not want to mock You with a lackadaisical or apathetic attitude in worship. Help me to worship You in Spirit and in Truth. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly