Altar Before Houses: The Priority of Worship

Maclaren observes a remarkable paradox in the returned exiles' conduct: having endured months of desert travel and finally reclaimed their ancestral lands, they abandoned their fields—unguarded and unworked—to gather at Jerusalem for worship. This was no small sacrifice. These were new settlers, their survival dependent upon immediately cultivating their property and erecting shelter. Yet they obeyed the summons to rebuild the altar and begin the Temple's foundation.

Maclaren's withering comparison cuts to the heart: "It would take a good deal to draw a band of new settlers in our days to leave their lots and set to putting up a church before they had built themselves houses." The exiles' "glad and unanimous obedience"—or even spontaneous assemblage without summons—reveals something profoundly countercultural about their devotion. They chose the Yahweh's mizbeach (altar) before domestic security.

The historical timing amplifies this: they arrived barely in time for the Feast of Tabernacles on the seventh month's first day—a festival laden with memories of the Exodus and Solomon's Temple dedication. No elaborate preparation was possible. Yet they gathered "as one man." The phrase suggests not mere compliance but unified ardor.

While Maclaren acknowledges the era's heavy emphasis on worship's externals, he refuses to diminish what this obedience reveals: a people who understood that restoring covenant relationship with Elohim took precedence over personal comfort. Their unguarded fields testified to their real treasure.