Recapitulation, the repetition of a bad phase, is the opposite of rehabilitation. After all the work of rebuilding the temple, Israel recapitulated. The people of God had gone back to the things we thought they left behind, desecrating the priesthood, neglecting the temple, and marrying foreign wives, showing their contempt for God and his commands.

The lesson to be learnt is that a building can always be rebuilt, but a community cannot be rebuilt without their hearts being renewed. See, our strongest enemies are not external leadership or opposition, but internal: our own heart, captive to sin. Yet, God will remember us for good even when we forget him. He sent Jesus to take the punishment we deserve for sin upon himself, so that in him we have hope. Putting our hope in anything else but Jesus will disappoint us. Churches will fail. People will fail. Yet, God’s love will never fail.