God will bless our worship

The whole point of this incredible trip that we've been studying was to worship God. Ezra moved over five thousand people across nine hundred miles of desert, and carried incredible treasures with him, just to be able to worship God by offering sacrifices at His temple in Jerusalem.  (And we grumble if we have to endure traffic and a lack of coffee to make it to church services.....)

Worshiping God at His house was so important to these people that they were willing to suffer hardships, danger, and inconvenience. They were willing to uproot their families from where they'd been living in exile and go back to the homeland they'd heard about.

As soon as they made it to Jerusalem (no small feat -- they were blessed in being able to avoid robbers and ambushes), they rested, and then carefully accounted for all of the items that they had brought for the temple. This was important, as we've noted, to be able to send back a report to the king that everything was accounted for. No mistakes. No losses.

Then it was time to offer sacrifices to the Lord.

Then the exiles who had returned from captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven male lambs and, as a sin offering, twelve male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord. 36 They also delivered the king’s orders to the royal satraps and to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, who then gave assistance to the people and to the house of God. (Ezra 8:35-36)

I kinda think they worshiped like Jonah did, after all they had been through:

But I, with shouts of grateful praise,    will sacrifice to you.What I have vowed I will make good.    I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord. (Jonah 2:9)

The entire Old Testament sacrificial system pointed forward to the day when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would offer Himself on the cross as atonement for our sins.

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. (Leviticus 17:11)

The rules and the rituals all pointed to that day. The instructions about an animal without blemish, and all of the things that the priests and the people did . . . everything was a foreshadowing of the work that Christ would do for us on the cross.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)

The sinless Lamb of God:

 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:13-14)

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace (Ephesians 1:7)

Our sins are forgiven!
Our worship must always focus on Jesus Christ, our Savior.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)

I believe this is the whole message of this chapter - if we exalt Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, God will honor our worship, our faith, and our work for Him. The people (and indeed, Ezra himself) were not perfect. We will see an example of that in the next chapter that we study. I guess we can be assured that there will never be a "perfect" church on this earth, until Jesus Christ returns. We are all prone to the influences of the world, our sinful flesh, and the devil, too.

But just because the church is not perfect, doesn't mean that it can't be good. We can be a people who seek holiness, even if we have not yet achieved it. We can seek Him and experience His blessings if we have faith, integrity, and worship that is focused on Christ.