But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop…

Ezra 5:5 ESV

May the God who has caused his name to dwell there…

Ezra 6:12 ESV

What stood out to me were the phrases about “the eye of God” and “God who cause his name to dwell there.” I was remembering them from when the temple was first built.

1 Kings 9:3b “I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.”

The promise was for all time. In between then and this point in the story, the temple had been destroyed. The people had been removed. They returned and began the work of rebuilding. They are then stopped for years. God hadn’t ever actually taken His eye off the place. He had still chosen that place for His name to dwell.

There’s just a greater work going on than building a physical temple. God is building a spiritual temple. In the reading today in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9, Paul says we are God’s building. God is building us as a temple individually and collectively.

There’s a greater work God wants accomplished than just the good works he’s set before us to do, and that work is going on in our hearts. He will accomplish His purposes. All of them.