Ezra 3:4 Commentary and Bible Study

This was going to be a great uniting occasion. At the feast of Tabernacles Israel made booths, or little huts, to remind them of their time in the wilderness and their deliverance from Egypt centuries before. The feast of Tabernacles doubled also as a kind of harvest festival. They hadn’t really had a harvest yet, but it was a time of special thanksgiving and rejoicing, and it is often said that the feast of Tabernacles was the happiest of the national feasts of Israel in olden times. It was most appropriate that they should be at the feast of Tabernacles. The feast lasted for seven days and involved an offering by fire for seven consecutive days and then an eighth day which was a holy convocation on which a further offering by fire was made (Leviticus 23:34-43) – ‘and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required’. They obeyed in detail and in the right order as God has said. The people had a very positive attitude. They kept the law of Moses steadfastly and willingly, offering freely from their hearts. From then on they were consistent in keeping all the feasts. All the offerings were offered up and all the feasts were observed. The ceremonial ritual was considered more important than the building itself, for these things were done without waiting for the temple structure to be completed. The people went to the heart of the matter: the altar and the sacrifices that were offered on it. These represented the most important thing of all in terms of their symbolism – Calvary and the redeeming work of Christ on which all else rests. ‘But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.’ That took up to another year.