It is the living and abiding Word of God through which we are born again. It is the pure milk of the Word by which we grow. It is the inspired Word that is profitable for teaching and reproof and correction and training in righteousness. And that makes us adequate for every good work. So it ought not to surprise us—in fact, we should expect it—[that the people started working on the temple again after the prophets brought the Word of God]. And we need to know that what was true in the day of Ezra, and what has been true all through our biblical history and all throughout church history, is that it is when the prophets—in this case Haggai and Zechariah—prophesy, that God begins to build, restore, and revive his church. Then the kingdom of God grows and moves forward. That will always be at the centre of things. And whenever there is any movement in the church that diminishes the place that the Word of God has in the life of the people of God, it is doomed to fail. In the long term, such an outlook will destroy the church and its ministry. You can count on it.

And that is why we have to be so vigilant about the day in which we are living, and the priorities established by the church. Because as we have mentioned time and again, the trajectory in terms of content and God's Word in the life of the people of God, is in steep decline. Less read, less preached, less sung, less prayed; the sacraments and the visible Word are less frequently administered. That is like removing the gasoline from the gas tank in the engine, so that it is no longer accessible to the engine and the car will no longer function. You are removing the power source and depriving it of its source of energy, but then you still expect the gospel engine to function. When God builds his church, he builds it through his Word, and that is what Ezra would have us understand. That is what we need to never forget.¹

Terry L. Johnson