Everywhere the need is great, and we are reminded of how Nehemiah was affected when he heard the report about the people of God at Jerusalem, how he got down before God in fasting and prayer, and asked for twelve years off duty before the king to go to Jerusalem. Arriving there he viewed the wall by night, then set to work to rebuild it, watching and praying.
Ezra deals with the state of the people. Having learned for himself from God's word he sought a right way for all who were with him. Those who trembled at the word of the God of Israel assembled at Jerusalem, God's centre for His earthly people: no other place of meeting would do. In the wilderness, the Tabernacle was the divine centre; the people had their tents, and God had His, the Tent of meeting. When Israel got into the land, Shiloh was first the centre, then Jerusalem.
In our day, Christ is the centre for every saint. It is in heaven we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour at God's right hand. Stephen was the first to see God's new centre; the heavens were opened, and by the Spirit's power Stephen's eye was filled with the glory of God and Jesus. But this view was not only for Stephen, "We all" look on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face (2 Cor. 3:18); and in Hebrews 9 and 10 we see how saints are fitted and encouraged to enter now into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
On account of Israel's idolatry, Moses pitched the tent of meeting outside the camp, and all who sought the Lord went out and worshipped there. Today, all who have faith are exhorted to go forth unto Jesus outside the camp, and there offer the sacrifices of praise to God continually, the fruit of the lips, confessing His Name. It is in 1st Corinthians we have the divine instructions for the gathering together of the saints of God's assembly; and the first thing in their gathering is the eating of the Lord's Supper for a remembrance of Him. We are to go on with the breaking of bread "Till He come."
In the days of the returned remnant, the people were caring for their own houses, and neglecting God's house. The prophet Haggai, speaking for God, calls upon them to consider their ways. They were to go to the mountain and bring wood to build God's house for His glory and pleasure, and in so working they would find that God was with them. What they were building might seem feeble compared with Solomon's temple, but they were to go on with the work, assured that the latter glory of the house would be greater than the former. We must not give up anything that belongs to Christ.
The moral tone was very low in the days of Malachi, but those who feared the Lord spake often one to another, and a book of remembrance was kept for them. One thing I would encourage the saints to do is to get together and read the Holy Scriptures and pray. The fellowship and the breaking of bread will only be a reality as we listen to God speaking in His word, and as we speak to God in prayer.
In John's First Epistle he wrote "these things, that your joy may be full" (1 John 1:4); in his Second Epistle he trusts to come "and speak face to face, that our joy may be full" (verse 12). It is not always what we get when we come together that helps us; it is sometimes what we part with. Water removes defilement, and rust is rubbed off. So that in meeting one another to read and pray much may have to go, wrong thoughts, wrong feelings and wrong desires. But the word of God not only puts out wrong things, it puts in right things, the things of God.
May we therefore, as children of God, be "so much" the more together as "the day" approaches, considering Christ, and considering one another, and encouraging one another (Hebrews 10).
(Extracted) R. K. Wilson.