February 9
2019
What You See vs What You Know
When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD:
“For He is good,
For His mercy endures forever toward Israel.”
Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off. Ezra 3:10-13
With the laying of the foundation of the new temple, a new thing was set forth.
Those that looked ahead, beyond the “beginning foundation” toward what the Lord was going to do, knew that it would be great and they shouted aloud with joy.
Those that looked back at what had been, only saw what was in front of them; what looked like a shabby copy of what had been.
They were blinded to what the Lord was going to do ahead of them, only focusing on what this “beginning foundation” looked like and how it paled in comparison.
They missed the fact that this was just the beginning of the new thing.
They wept with a loud voice.
We often look at the new thing the Lord is doing in our lives, in this way.
We begin to compare the glory of the old thing in its heyday to the beginning foundations of the new thing that is coming.
There is no comparison.
This is a new thing.
We must learn to look beyond what we can see, to what we know.
Oh that the Lord would give us new vision for the new thing He is doing!