Even though fear had come

And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brethren, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. Though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries, they set the altar on its bases; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening burnt offerings. – Ezra. 3.1-3

It is amazing how little things really change. The Jews went back to Judea to rebuild the temple and to rebuild Jerusalem. That sounds fine, but there was a problem. There were other people there as well. There were people there who were descendants of the people who have lived there since the time of the Canaanites. It is not too much of a stretch to equate the situation then to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians today.

So with that in mind try to imagine how the Jews must have felt when they went back. Most of them had never been to Jerusalem. Though they were captives they had become comfortable there by the rivers of Babylon.

But their fear did not win out. Though fear had come upon them because of the people of the lands they set up the altar and restored worship to the Lord.

It is still a fearful thing to serve the Lord in this corrupt old world today. People aren't going to like it when we do what God wants us to do. But that fear is not from God and sometimes we have to act even when we are afraid.

Fear is a crippler. It is a paralyser. How do we defeat fear and move on. Defeating fear requires faith. ‘When I am afraid I will trust you’ the word of God says. To serve God our faith must be stronger than our fear.

Be strong and of good courage, don’t be afraid is so true. But sometimes even when we are still afraid we need to exercise the faith to keep on going.