Ezra and the Rebuilding of the Temple

Ezra 3:10-13

Our true story comes from a part of the Bible called Ezra. Ezra loved God very much, helped to each the people about God, and helped to rebuild God's house, the temple in Jerusalem.

We begin with a beautiful building called the temple. The temple is where God’s people would meet to learn about God and worship God, kind of like we do at church. 


The temple was a very special place, but it had been destroyed.


So, God’s people decided to rebuild the temple! Now rebuilding the temple was going to be a very hard job. 


Pretend to help the people rebuild the temple. Take out your pretend saw. Back and forth! Back and forth! Back and forth! Good Job! You can put away your saw.


 Pretend to hold a hammer. Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap tap! Wonderful! You can put away your hammer.


It’s time to lift some heavy bricks. Pretend you are holding something really heavy. Pretend to pick up a heavy brick with both hands. Now pass your brick to the worker next to you. These bricks are so heavy! Now, pick up another brick and pass it to the worker next to you. Again, pick up and pass. Pick up and pass. Pick up and pass. Whew! Very good! You can sit down now.


The work was really hard for God’s people. They worked and worked and worked and they finished the first part of the temple!


Temples are really big, and it was going to take a lot of hard work to rebuild it. But some people started celebrating that the work had begun.


They played trumpets.


They played cymbals.


And they sang songs to God about how good God is and how thankful they were. They had so much JOY!


We can be like the people who chose to celebrate. We can look at the good things God is doing and have joy! We can play music, sing songs, and say “thank You” to God. We can have joy all the time—even when we do hard things! So, when anyone asks you, “Who can have joy all the time?”, you can say, “I can have joy all the time!”






Bible Paraphrase: A joyful heart is good medicine. —Proverbs 17:22, ESV

Text Truth: I can have joy when I do hard things.



Family Devotional

When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

“He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.”

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.
—Ezra 3:10-13

In our Bible Story, God’s people did something hard. What did they do? They rebuilt the temple. When they finished building the bottom of the temple, some of the people stopped and started celebrating! They played music and sang songs! They had joy even when doing something hard! We can have joy when we do hard things too, because we can have joy all the time!

A joyful heart is good medicine. —Proverbs 17:22, ESV

We can have joy even when doing something hard! So, with your family, get a piece of paper and make a list of things that are hard to do. Have each family write down something that is hard to do. And make sure they write their name next to their hard thing.

Pray with your family. Allow any family members to pray if they wish. In your own words, say, “Dear God, sometimes we have to do hard things, like (read the list your family made). I’m so glad we can have joy all the time, even when we do hard things, because You love us all the time. Help us remember how much You love us the next time we do something hard. It may even help us to sing a song to You while we do the hard thing! We love You, God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

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Some story illustrations are in the Public Domain.

All story illustrations are the property of their respective owners.
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