What’s On Your List? - Jeshua And Zerubbabel

Jeshua son of Jehozadak joined his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his family in rebuilding the altar of the God of Israel. . . . Even though the people were afraid of the local residents, they rebuilt the altar at its old site.

Ezra 3:2-3

Have you ever considered how much of life is a series of lists? You have lists of things to do at home before you go to work and lists of things to do at work before you can go home. Come the weekend, there are more lists.

Sometimes, it’s good to stop and ask yourself what tops your list of things to do. If time with God fails to appear, then it is time for an adjustment.

You know the things that hinder you from spending time with God: chores to do, kids to spend time with, ball games to attend, calls to be returned. Then, of course, there’s your wife, who needs at least some of your undivided attention.

Jeshua and Zerubbabel were called to lead a remnant of Jews back to Jerusalem following the Babylonian captivity. They created a buzz when they insisted on making provisions for worship before preparing to rebuild the city’s walls. It’s not hard to imagine the worry setting in as the people gazed upon the devastated city—or the questions that followed.

“Can’t the altar wait? We’ll have plenty of time to build an altar and worship after we get the wall built.”

“Don’t these guys understand the danger we face? Our enemies want to kill us!”

The people had legitimate concerns that Jeshua and Zerubbabel shared, but these two godly leaders knew what they were doing. They understood that unless they placed the worship of God at the top of their “to do” list, nothing else would matter. Without God’s protection, their enemies would destroy them, wall or no wall. They remembered that the people who built the original walls had forgotten to put God at the top of their list—and that’s how their walls had come tumbling down.

Does anything on your own “to do” list come before spending time with God? How do you deal with voices that cry, “That can wait—we have more pressing issues to take care of”? When you make time with God your top priority, you invite him to bless all the other things on your list.