The Good Old Days
It’s fun to look at old photos, reminiscing about by-gone days. But if we’re not careful, we can start feeling sad. Old photos reveal how much the passing years have taken from us—our friends, our youthful faces, our favorite old places. We may find ourselves yearning for the irretrievable “good old days.” We aren't alone in this tendency. A similar thing happens to the elderly Jewish exiles who return to Jerusalem with the younger folks to help rebuild the temple. When the foundation of the new temple is laid, everybody shouts for joy—except the old folks. They start to weep. 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 (Ezra 3:12 NIV). These folks are in their seventies and eighties, with childhood memories of Solomon’s magnificent temple still fresh in their minds. The new temple will be unimpressive by comparison. Why should they try to rebuild it?