THE HOUSE THAT GOD BUILT

KEY PASSAGE:  ^73b When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities (Neh 7)…  ¹ And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. ² And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. ³ And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. ⁴ And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood (named the men from all their cities). ⁵ And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: ⁶ And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. ⁸ So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. ^9c For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. ¹⁰ Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength. ¹¹ So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved. ¹² And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. (Neh 8)

  The Second Temple had been built. The Jews had a Church; they had built God’s House. With the Temple built, it seemed that it was not needed. The Chronology Study Bible has these passages subsequent to the building of the Temple. If subsequent, why were the Jews considering the words of God outside, and why would they need tabernacles (tents) again? (Keep that in mind, while I deviate a little.)
  A common thread throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation of the re-genesis is that, “trees are; as men walking” (Mark 8:24). The First Psalm echoes from the future the same vision:

¹ Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. ² But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. ³ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (Psalm 1)

  Note that the psalm presents men; as trees standing by the River of God! Likewise, I see within the Garden of Eden, trees; as men standing by the River of God facing the Tree of Life.  Why are trees so significant in scripture? They represent people. Why were they so important during the time of the key passage above? Nehemiah 8 has the prelude to the Feast of Tabernacles. What do tabernacles have to do with trees?  The Tree of Life brought/brings forth twelve fruits, and are gifts of the Spirit. The “trees” of the psalmist also brings forth spiritual fruit!

¹⁴ They found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month: ¹⁵ And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths. (Neh 8)

  Something really spiritual happened when Ezra read the Law… from the Water Gate, no less! As Ezra read, living water flowed forth from the Word of God, and made them all understand the Words of God in their own dialects, “They read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (key verse 8). “Sense” in that passage is taking their new knowledge and it giving them understanding. The men from all the tribes of Babylon represented confusion. The language of the Babylonians was Aramaic, and even some passages of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah are written in that confused language. Aramaic is an impure language. It is a mixture of many languages. Jesus is believed to have spoken in the language of the common people of his time, and that would be Aramaic.
  Ezra read the Torah (Books of the Law) in Hebrew, but everyone regardless of origin, understood what he read as if it was in their own tongue! Their understanding was not their own. Most certainly, the Holy Spirit of God was giving them understanding to hear and discern God’s Will for them. They learned from Holy Scripture that God had a Plan and a future for them! With that new understanding, they surely understood Moses holding the bloody serpent on a tree! The remnant of the Jews were born again, and they were what Jesus said, you must be (John 3:7).
  The key verses end with the Feast of Tabernacles. They built canopies of trees and limbs. Those tabernacles perhaps represent the trees in the Garden, at least the branches, and the structure were tree thick branches or the tree trunks. The tabernacles represent God in His people. Jesus clarified what the tabernacle means: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Where did the material for God’s House come? From hand-worked (hewn) timbers. From where did the material for the tabernacles come? From the One who Created them, just as Jesus indicated. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman” (John 15:1).
  Jesus acknowledged that he was the supporting structure of the Church, but God Created the material. Jesus, as the Tree of Life, is the “Vine,” or “Thick Branch,” and Christians are the lesser branches. Christians are as trees walking, and tabernacles are as trees standing. Ezra confirmed that: “Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood” (and named all the men of the various tribes.) Ezra symbolizes the Word. He stood upon a pulpit made from wood. My bet is that the pulpit was made from a tree that was fabricated by them! Why? Because it surely represents the foot-rest of Jesus when he died on his “tree” (Acts 5:30).
  Envision this: Ezra appeared to them as Jesus on the Holy Cross (key verse 10). They raised their hands (verse 6), and if like the early Christians, they were raised to form a cross-shape. From the church fathers, we know that, that was the early Jewish mode of praise. Then they bowed down on the ground, representing Jesus’s death and entombment. It should be clear that all those from the different tribes understood that Yahweh is “Yahweh Saves.” They, in their mind’s eye, saw Jesus in the Word (John 1).  Not only did they understand Jesus, but it was through the Holy Spirit whom they sensed (verse 8) from the water from the nearby well. Perhaps that is the same Living Water of which Jesus spoke about coming from the well (John 7:38).
  The understanding of the Hebrew tongue in their various languages is akin to those at Pentecost who understood Hebrew as if their own tongue.
  Note that Pentecost is in the sixth month, and that the Feast of the Tabernacles is in the seventh. In the New Testament (Acts 2), the Holy Ghost entered those from different lands. That is, God’s living waters entered walking temples of God, as Paul wrote, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Cor 3:17). Note that tabernacles made of trees were the canopies that Ezra had built for the Feast. In Moses’ time, tabernacle worship was each Hebrew standing in their own tent, looking at the Cloud of God in His Tent. That “Cloud” was pre-incarnate Jesus. They, as Moses did not, and could not see God’s Face for it was concealed in a cloud.
  The people who heard the Word of God saw Ezra’s face, and surely it was a picture of Jesus, because they bowed to him after demonstrating to him their crosses (their lifted hands).
  Ezra and the people built still tabernacles for the filling with those with the Spirit. At Pentecost in apostolic times, the people also came from all tribes (nations) to become “temples.” The Feast of Tabernacles came soon after Pentecost. I believe that Nehemiah 8 is a foreshadowing, and is a picture, of Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Ghost came and filled the temple of understanding Christians from everywhere! Like the Jews in Ezra’s time, the Jews of Luke’s time were all of one accord.
  From the Book of Acts, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). Compare that to our first key verses: “When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities…  1And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate.” In the time of Ezra, the people from various nations were gathered by the water gate. Why would that be? They were waiting for water from the well, which we found out from Jesus is living water, or the Holy Spirit. The Jews got a “drink” of living water in Ezra’s time, and a filling of living waters at the same place – Jerusalem – from the same God, Jesus!
  Only the King James Version makes a distinction between the times. The early Jews received the Holy Spirit, whereas the believing Jews in apostolic times received the Holy Ghost: “(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)” (John 7:39). That verse explains the difference between “Holy Spirit” and “Holy Ghost.” It is one of experience only. The Holy Spirit is God before He experienced death, and the Holy Ghost is truly the Ghost of the Man, Jesus – God after He experienced death!
  The Jews in Jerusalem in the fifth century before Christ (B.C. Jews), received the Spirit of God who had yet to experience death, and the Jews in the first century after Christ (A.D. Jews) received the Holy Spirit who had experienced death! He is the same Spirit of God, but one of different experiences. The B.C. Jews saw Jesus as a withering tree before he died, and the A.D. Jews saw Jesus as an alive, walking, glorified “tree!”
  As I wrote before, the common thread in scripture is that trees represent mankind whether standing still or walking – waiting or moving along the path to Paradise. The early Jews were as trees walking, but once they returned to Holy Ground, they were regenerated; they again were like trees standing in the Garden of Eden. They were again standing there in Paradise listening to the Voice of God through the reading of the Word. For those dispersed out into the world, indeed, their exodus home again, was a return to Paradise. In like manner, in apostolic times, the Temple was rebuilt, but in the hearts of mankind. The B.C. Jews had built for God a House of trees, and the D.C. Jews built for God a House with them as the “trees.” They stood still as they received the Ghost of Jesus, as did the B.C. Jews who received a drink of living water.
  The Church was made from those “trees” as branches, and Jesus is the main Branch, or Vine. The Tabernacle built by the A.D. Jews still stands to this day, but the Second Temple which the B.C, Jews built, perished in 70 A.D. The Feast of Tabernacles is a representation of the Christian Church, first called that at Antioch. To this day, many Christians still consider churches as tabernacles. I see the trees of the Garden of Eden as myrtle, palms, olives, and pine trees, as well as cedar and fig, just as the psalmist did. He described a canopy, and so it seems were the trees of the Garden of Eden!
  Picture this: Ezra standing in the midst of the tabernacles of living “trees” appearing to them as the Tree of Life. Ezra appeared as the thick branch, as Jesus did as the Vine. Compare that scenario to the Garden of trees and vines, with all the various trees standing still facing the Tree of Life.
  Note that nowhere did the psalmist mention fig trees, but Jesus did. He mentioned the fig tree as withered. It was not used for building tabernacles because it represents the Wisdom Tree in the Garden. It is beautiful, fruitful, and plentiful; but nowhere is it holy!
  The myrtle tree represents Esther’s God-given name (Hadassah), the “star” that Xerxes worshiped. Can it be that Esther is a foreshadowing of the “star” that wise men from Persia followed? Was Esther, who the writer of the book provided a confused lineage, be an angel? Could she represent the star that lead the Persians to Jesus?
  Aries was the alignment of the sun, Jupiter, the moon, and Saturn. That alignment happened one time, and calculations show that it will never happen again. Could that alignment be the Star of Bethlehem that wise men from Persia followed. Could it be that Esther – the “star” Venus – was not a star at all, but Aries?
  For those not familiar with the time of Jesus’s birth, it has been determined to be March 20, 6 B.C. on the Christian Calendar (Nisan 1 on the Jewish). That was the period when Aries waned and Pisces waxed. The Christian era is the Zodiac period of Pisces, hence the fish symbol represents Jesus, and myrtle represents Esther. Was a tree of the Garden the spirit of Esther? Could Esther, since she was not known to history, be an angel who waxed for Xerxes, then waned for mankind, but then waxed again for Jesus, and then waned at his birth?
  The olive branch represents the Prince of Peace, and the palm the majesty of Jesus. Vines represent Jesus’s giving of  life, and its fruits those of the Spirit.
  I see trees standing still looking at Jesus in the Garden, I see men as “trees” looking at Jesus (Joshua) standing in River of the Garden (the Jordan River), and I see “trees” looking at Ezra and understanding Jesus. I also see rebellious “trees” surrounding the Tree of Jesus on the Place of the Skull of Adam, gawking at him as nothing more than a tree.
  I see myself as a withering fig tree that Jesus made a living branch of the Vine. I see those who live for pleasure, as fig trees with what seems to be beautiful fruit for now, but will soon wither and die. The vision of Christians should be to see themselves as one of the branches in heavenly Paradise on the Tree of Life! The Jews saw Ezra as the Tree of Life and themselves as the branches, and I see me as a myrtle tree when Jesus sees me as a star.

Ezra on His Pulpit (Wikipedia; Ezra 8)