Tag Archives: Christianity

Daily Bible Study

August 16, 2015 Bible Study — Free to Do What You Please, But Is THAT Really a Good Idea?

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 21:14-16

    Those who do what is right rejoice when society enforces justice, those who wrong are terrified by it. You can see this in people who encourage others to jump to conclusions before the facts are in and then do their best to suppress facts which run counter to the judgment they want people to make.

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Psalm 34:11-22

    The key to a good life is to be choose your words correctly. Do not speak evil, do not tell lies. This is the first step, if you do not follow this advice you will be unable to follow the rest. The next step is two-parter. Turn from evil and do good. It is not enough to not do evil, you must also do what is good. Of course, the best way to avoid doing evil is to fill your time with doing good. There is one more step to leading a good life. Search for peace and when you find it, do what you can to maintain it. As I read this, I think about the troubles I see around this country. There are some true problems which have led to these troubles, but the protests and riots are not going to make things better. There are times when protests are necessary, but currently the country needs someone to calm the situation and quietly address the real grievances.

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1 Corinthians 10:14-33

    Paul makes several points in today’s passage, but I am going to focus on just one. Here Paul talks about our freedom in Christ. We do have freedom in Christ. We are free to do whatever we choose. The Christian faith does not bind us to a set of rules in the way that the Law of Moses binds those who follow the Jewish faith (or even the way the Koran binds those who follow the Muslim faith). So, we are indeed free to do whatever we choose. However, Paul tells us that we need to remember that not every course of action is good for us. Some courses of action are merely not beneficial (that is they do not harm us, but they also do not improve us). But some actions are actively harmful, either to ourselves or to others (I believe that actions which are harmful to others are almost always, if not always, also harmful to us). We should choose actions which are beneficial for both ourselves and others. Let us not only avoid actions which harm others and ourselves. Let us choose actions which make us all better off, not just the actions which bring us pleasure, but those which improve who we are.

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Nehemiah 11:1-12:26

    The leaders of the Jewish people lived in Jerusalem so that they could work together for the good of the entire people. However, in order for it to be viable for them to live there, other people needed to live there as well. The decision was made to choose those people by lot, allowing God to determine who, besides the leaders, should live in Jerusalem. And while they chose them by lot, the passage tells us that those who went to live in Jerusalem did so voluntarily. This is a reminder that we should never use something like the lot to select people for a task who are not willing to undertake the task.

Daily Bible Study

August 15, 2015 Bible Study — Taste and See That The Lord Is Good!

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 21:13

    Another way of expressing the point made by this proverb is, “What goes around, comes around.” Except that this proverb makes it clear that failure to act may be just as bad as acting badly. Yet another way to put this proverb is this, help those in need when you have the opportunity because one day you may be in need and wish for someone to help you.

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Psalm 34:1-10

    I love this psalm. I get tired of saying this, but it is true of so many of the psalms. First, it encourages me to praise God all of the time. It does more than that, it challenges me to tell others about what God has done for me, to tell them how He has answered my prayers. This psalm tells us to tell others what God has done for us, inviting them to follow Him.
    However, it reminds us that no one will ever come to saving faith based on our testimony. No, verse eight tells us that the most important part of our invitation must be to invite them to experience God for themselves. It is only when we take the risk and experience God for ourselves that we truly come to faith. If you have not yet come to faith in Christ than I invite you to “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” I am sitting here crying as I write this, thinking of my friends who are starving for God, yet refuse to taste the meal He has laid out for them. They are convinced that it will taste terrible. I have told them how fabulous it is, but there is nothing more I can do until they taste it for themselves.

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1 Corinthians 9:19-10:13

    Paul tells us to discipline our bodies. We should train in a manner similar to the way in which professional athletes train. However, we are not seeking to train our bodies to athletic excellence (although we may do that as well), rather we are to train our bodies to the discipline which allows us to better serve God. Let us train our bodies to avoid sin. My recollection is that when I have heard (or read) someone teach on this passage they have emphasized “spiritual” discipline and minimized the idea of physical discipline. I put spiritual in quotes in the last sentence because I am coming to believe that true spiritual discipline cannot be truly separated from physical discipline. If we wish to have spiritual discipline (and I believe that we are called to do so) we must also have physical discipline.
    This passage comes at a good time for me. When I started this blog, I intended to complete it every morning. For some time now I have started it in the morning but have been letting it go until later in the day to complete. Over the last few days I have been convicted that I need to start disciplining myself to completing it in the morning before work (or whatever other activities I do for the day). In addition, my blood sugar has been higher than it should be a good bit. I need to discipline my diet so as to bring that back down. Until this morning I did not see those two things as connected. However, I believe that they are. I believe that as I discipline myself to complete my devotions (this blog) first thing in the morning it will help me discipline myself to bring my blood sugar down. And as I discipline my diet to bring my blood sugar down it will help me discipline myself to complete my devotions first thing in the morning. I pray that the Holy Spirit aid me in this twofold endeavor.

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Nehemiah 9:22-10:39

    The leaders of the Levites led the people in a prayer in which they acknowledged that the hardship they were facing was a result of their sins, and the sins of their ancestors. The Jewish people were subject to the authority of the Persian Empire because when times were good they had repeatedly turned from God to worshiping idols. At the end of this prayer the people vowed to separate themselves from the pagans living around them. They would not marry anyone who did not worship God. They vowed that they would not do business on the Sabbath or other Holy Days. There is an important element in their vow. They did not say that they would strive to prevent those who did not worship God from doing business on those days. They merely vowed that they would not do business with them on those days.

Daily Bible Study

August 14, 2015 Bible Study — Do Not Muzzle the Ox

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 21:11-12

    The foolish only change their behavior when they see someone get punished for that behavior. It is sufficient to inform the wise that you find certain behavior unacceptable. The wise will change their behavior out of respect for you.

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Psalm 33:12-22

    There is great joy for any nation whose people make God their Lord. God sees the whole human race and understand everything we do, even when we do not. It is not by our strength, our knowledge, our wisdom, nor our wealth that we will be victorious. It is God who will deliver us from defeat. It according to His will that those who fear Him will be successful in what they do. I will put my hope in God, not in my puny abilities. If my skill is sufficient to the tasks which God has given me, it is not to my credit, but to His. If my skill is insufficient to His tasks, I know that God will supply me with aid to make up for the lack.

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1 Corinthians 9:1-18

    Paul first makes a point that those who preach the Gospel and those who teach others how to live according to God’s word are entitled to be supported by those to whom they preach or teach (or both). This is an important thing to remember. We should all be willing to pay the support costs of those who lead the local Body of Christ. However, Paul then goes on to make the point that he not only never demanded such support from the Church at Corinth, he actively rejected it. He did not do this because he was too good for them. Rather he did this because he felt compelled to preach the Gospel to them. It was only by doing so at his own expense that he felt he was doing something worth mention.
    I have struggled with what Paul says here because he sounds like he is bragging. However, I am convinced that Paul is trying to inspire some to imitate him in this way. I have become convinced that, while the Church should willingly support its ministers, the Church needs some leaders who refuse to accept a salary for doing God’s work. Some of the movers and shakers in the larger Church body need to be people who receive no human recompense for the time they spend doing God’s work.

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Nehemiah 7:73-9:21

    After they had completed the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, the people gathered to hear the Law of Moses read. I find it interesting to read how they arranged for multiple speakers to repeat what Ezra said as he read the Law. Each speaker had a copy of the Law and they read along as Ezra read. As the people heard what the Law had to say, they began to weep. The leaders encouraged them to refrain from sorrow because the festival they were celebrating was one of joy. This first celebration was to praise God and thank Him for bringing them back to Jerusalem.
    A month later, the people reconvened to confess their sins and express their sorrow for those sins. First they celebrated the wonderful things God had done for them. Then they expressed their remorse and sorrow for their sins. I do not think this is always the order we should follow, but there is an important truth here. There are times when we are called to celebrate the joy we feel because of what God has done for us, and there are times when we are called to weep and mourn because of the pain we have caused God and others. We should not always be joyful and we should not always be sorrowful.

Daily Bible Study

August 13, 2015 Bible Study — It Is Wrong To Encourage Others To Do What They Believe Is Wrong

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 21:8-10

    The first of these proverbs represents a basic fact that many people do not understand. I have known people who were secretive about their behavior and went out of their way to leave people confused about what they had, and had not done. They could never understand why people were always suspicious of them when those people had never actually caught them doing wrong. They would get angry when they were accused without evidence for the wrong they had done, demanding to know why the person thought they had done the deed, and insisting that the only reason the person thought they were guilty was because of unjust prejudice (even though they were indeed guilty as charged). They did not realize that the very tactics they were using in an attempt to hide their guilt gave it away.

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Psalm 33:1-11

    This psalm reminds me of many great hymns and songs of praise, even though I cannot think of one I know based on it. Let us praise the Lord and make music with any and every instrument we can find to honor His name. His word holds true for all time. It does not change with the seasons, nor with the latest fad. People may insist that God did not really mean what He said when He called this or that wrong, but when the consequences of doing those things come home, they will realize that God did not forbid those actions because He was a killjoy. Rather He told us not to do certain things because He loves us and does not want to see us hurt.

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1 Corinthians 8

    The first point Paul makes here is that anyone who thinks they know all the answers does not know all that much. Knowledge makes us feel important, but love causes us to make OTHERS feel important. Therefore love is more valuable than knowledge. Let us seek to act out of love for our fellow believers rather than out of a desire to be right.
    Paul goes on to discuss the fact that we know that there are no gods besides God. Therefore idols are not actually gods, so anything dedicated to an idol is not really dedicated to anything. The result of this is that there is no harm in using an object (or eating food) which has been dedicated to an idol. However, some people are used to thinking of an idol as a god. For such people using an object (or eating food) which has been dedicated to an idol is an act of worship of something other than God. If by our actions we cause someone else to commit a sin, to worship an idol, we are more in the wrong than they.
    It is the responsibility of those with the stronger faith to look out for those of weaker faith. If you believe that it is not a sin to do something, and thus believe that you are more knowledgeable about Christian faith than those who believe that it is a sin, it is your obligation to make sure that none of your actions encourage them to do that which they believe to be a sin. If you encourage others to do something they believe to be wrong, you are sinning against those other believers and against Christ.

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Nehemiah 5:14-7:73

    Nehemiah gives us a good example about what is needed in a leader in troubled times. He did not use his position to enrich himself at the expense of the people. Instead he used his own wealth, the wealth which had allowed him to gain a position of leadership, to supply the needs which resulted from his position of leadership. This is not a criticism of those who need the support of those they lead (whether as political leaders or in some other leadership role) in order to fulfill their obligations as leader (Nehemiah lays out some of the obligations he had). This is a criticism of those who use their position of leadership to extract wealth for themselves from those whom they lead.

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August 12, 2015 Bible Study — Being Single In the Church

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 21:5-7

    If you carefully plan and work diligently at the plan you will prosper, if you hastily knock things together you will soon find yourself impoverished.

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Psalm 32

    When we refuse to confess our sins, to acknowledge that we have done wrong, it will eat at us, destroying our peace of mind and our bodies. However, when we finally confess our guilt and acknowledge our wrong it all changes and we discover that God will forgive us. Then we experience joy and our bodies begin to recover. It is not enough to confess our sins, we must also seek to follow God and no longer do what is wrong. Instead of continuing to do wrong, let us follow the path that God lays out for us and do right.

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1 Corinthians 7:25-40

    This is a complicated passage because Paul is making several closely related points. The stimulus for Paul’s teaching was “the present crisis” which was occurring in Corinth (and perhaps throughout the Mediterranean). However, I believe there is applicability to what he taught here for the Church at any time. The primary message was that in times of crisis we will be better off if we do not change our current status; if we are single, we should remain single; if we are married, we should stay married.
    However, I think the modern Church (and probably the Church through most of history) misses an important point Paul makes here. The Church all too often treats single adults as if they are not yet adult. There is tendency towards the attitude that when they finally grow up they will get married. Paul tells us that those who are single can focus more on serving God than those who are married. Those who are married must spend some of their time considering how they can meet the needs of their spouse, not just on serving God. Paul is not saying that this is wrong, just that those who are single are able to expend more effort on serving God. Those who are single can spend their time doing God’s work and thinking about how to please Him. On the other hand, those who are married need to spend some of their time thinking about how they can please their spouse. God’s calling is for some Christians to be single and for some Christians to be married. All too often the people of the Church have acted as if being married is the norm and being single is somehow abnormal. We spend too much of our time trying to find God’s intended mate for our single friends and not enough time considering that they can, in many ways, better serve God by remaining single.
    I rejoice that God gave me a wonderful wife, but I regret that when I was single I did not spend less time looking for a wife and more time looking to serve God.

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Nehemiah 3:15-5:13

    The first thing that struck me about this passage was that the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall did not happen by government mandate. Nehemiah inspired the people of Jerusalem and the surrounding area to work on rebuilding the walls. He did not tax them in order to hire workers, nor did he conscript their labor to do the work. Instead, those who were able rebuilt the sections of the wall near where they lived and worked. The reconstruction was not a top down, government mandated effort. Instead, it was an effort by the people which was supported and encouraged by the government.

Daily Bible Study

August 11, 2015 Bible Study — On Marriage

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 21:4

    When one starts to believe that they are better than others, it is only a matter of time until they will begin to undertake evil acts against those they believe are their inferiors. It is when we start to believe that certain individuals and groups are of less value than ourselves that we start to justify mistreating them in order to advance our own interests.

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Psalm 31:19-24

    God has stored up goodness waiting for us to turn to Him. When we learn to fear Him and follow His commands He will release that goodness to us. If we cry out to Him for mercy, God will rescue us and shelter us from those who wish to see us fall. God will protect us if we loyally serve Him.

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1 Corinthians 7:1-24

    When I read today’s passage it sounds like he was talking about contemporary society. Paul says that staying single and nor having sexual relations with anyone is a good thing, but because of how much sexual immorality there is it is not practical for everyone. In order to minimize the temptation of sexual immorality that our society throws at us everyday, each man should have a wife and each woman a husband. Husband and wife should work to satisfy the sexual desires of their partner so that their partner is not as susceptible to lust. This is clearly a two way street.
    Paul makes it very clear that he is not commanding Christians to marry. He states that it would be ideal (Paul’s view of ideal) if everyone would be able to resist sexual sin without being married, but he knows that not everyone has that gift. Those who are single and find themselves struggling with sexual temptation should get married. So, Paul tells us that he believes that the ideal is for single Christians to stay single. However, he emphasizes that those who are married should stay married. It is wrong to leave your spouse. The only wiggle room which Paul allows is that if one is married to an unbeliever and the unbeliever leaves the believer, the believer is freed (I believe Paul would have had some serious words for a believer who married an unbeliever).
    Ultimately I find three key points in this passage. The first is that those of us who are married should strive to satisfy the sexual desires of our spouses. The second is that if a single person (whether never married or widowed) is able to resist the sexual temptations of our society, it is a blessing if they remain single…being single does not make one a second class Christian, on the contrary, we should hold them up as the ultimate example of Christianity. The third is that a Christian should not divorce their spouse under any circumstances. However, a Christian whose non-Christian spouse divorces them is free to go on with their life.

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Nehemiah 1:1-3:14

    Nehemiah received a report that things were going badly in Jerusalem for the returned Exiles. However, he did not rush off to do something about it. And he did not demand that the government do something about it. No, Nehemiah fasted and prayed for several days, actually, from the context of the passage it appears that he did so for several months (my reading is that he fasted and prayed for days at a time over a period of several months). At the end of that time, Nehemiah felt that God had given him an answer as to what he should do. This represents the model we should follow when we hear of a tragedy somewhere which touches our heart. Let us fast and pray until God gives us a direction as to what action He wants us to take.

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August 10, 2015 Bible Study–On Lawsuits Among Believers

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 21:3

    It is a good thing to make sacrifices to and for God, but you cannot make up for doing wrong by doing so. You cannot even make up for not doing the right thing by making sacrifices to God. If we want to please God it is more important to do what is right and just than it is to sacrifice to Him (or for Him).

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Psalm 31:9-18

    I do not think that the message this psalm carried for me today was one the psalmist intended to convey, but it is one I believe the Holy Spirit intends us to hear. When we have been separated from God by our sin, do we suffer in tears and agony the way the psalmist depicts himself in this psalm? Do we turn again to God with repentance and remorse? Do we trust His unfailing love and grace to transform us so that we are freed from our bondage to sin? I know that I do not feel the level of remorse for some of my sins that I need to learn. I pray that God’s Spirit will move within me so that I recognize the harm I am doing to myself and others with my sins and so that I will feel the sorrow which I know they cause God.

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1 Corinthians 6

    Paul here addresses the issue of lawsuits. Believers should NEVER take another believer to court over anything. I have heard stories of a congregation suing Church leadership over ownership of a building, or a Denomination suing a congregation over the same thing (and in both cases vice versa). I have heard stories of believers suing other believers (or, at least both parties claimed to be believers). For all of these cases Paul suggests that we should find another believer (or group of believers) to judge between us. This teaching makes sense to me, when we have a dispute with a fellow believer which we cannot resolve between us (for whatever reason), we should find someone else in the Church to judge how it should be resolved.
    Some people will ask, “But what if the other party refuses to be bound by that judgment?” Paul has a simple answer for that. It is better to let yourself be cheated than to ask unbelievers to judge between us. It is better to be cheated than it is to allow the name of Christ to be sullied by our disputes. Are we willing to trust God enough to do that? Or is it more important to us that we get our own way than that we bring glory to God?
    I agree with Paul. It is better to be cheated than to take my fellow believer (or even one who merely claims to be my fellow believer) before unbelievers for judgment between us.

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Ezra 10

    I always struggle with this passage because of how the issue is framed. I have a problem with the idea that it is wrong to marry outside of one’s “people”. However, I do like the way the New Living Translation deals with this. It makes it clear that the problem was not that the women were not descendants of Jacob. No, the problem was that they were pagans, that they worshiped gods other than God. It is really simple. For any marriage to last a husband and wife must share the same faith. If you start out with different faiths it just means that you will end up with some syncretic blend of the two which is inconsistent with either of the two original faiths.

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August 9, 2015 Bible Study–Reject Sin

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 21:1-2

    It is not enough to do what we think is right. We need to compare what we think is right against what God says is right. God knows whether we are trying to do what is best for others or merely looking out for own interests, even when we have convinced ourselves we are doing good.

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Psalm 31:1-8

    I will trust God to take care of me. He is the strong fortress within which I will shelter from all those who pursue me. If I will follow Him, God will lead me out of danger and into safety. I commit my body, life, and spirit to God to use as He sees fit.

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1 Corinthians 5

    In the last chapter, which I read and commented on yesterday, Paul told us not to make judgments about people ahead of time (or as the NIV translates, “before the appointed time”). Yet he immediately follows his discussion of that by telling the Church in Corinth to judge a man guilty of sexual sin. So, obviously there is more to what we are supposed to do than “do not judge others.”
    As we read Paul’s writing here he appears to be horrified by the situation. Not only was the man committing this sin an accepted member of the Church while openly committing this sin, the Church was proud about this fact. They are using him as an example of how accepting they are. When the Church is accepting of its members sins the entire Church becomes corrupted. The purpose of the Church is to call people to be transformed by the Holy Spirit so that they can learn to live without sin. Once the Church accepts one sin it will gradually lose its ability to call people to turn from ANY sin.
    I believe that the problem here was not that the man was sinning. The problem was that he, and the Church, were not only pretending that there was nothing wrong with his sin, but were proud of it. All of us have sinned, and most of us will continue to sin (although the Bible gives us hope to overcome that sin). However, we are called to acknowledge that sin as a failure and to strive to allow the Holy Spirit to overcome it in our lives. Sin is not something for us to accept and continue doing. It is something for us to acknowledge the pain and suffering it causes, both to ourselves and to others. When someone who claims to be a believer in and a follower of Christ begins to live in sin (and in this case, I am not using that as a euphemism for sexual sin) without any remorse, we, as their brothers and sisters in Christ, are called upon to challenge their behavior and call them to accept the transformation of the Holy Spirit. This action must be done in love, but we may not accept those who call evil good as our brothers.

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Ezra 8:21-9:15

    When Ezra prepared to set out with the group he had gathered he was concerned for their security because of the large amount of treasure they had been given for the Temple in Jerusalem. Ezra did not want to ask the king for a military escort because he had already spoken to the king about how God protected those who worshiped Him. There were two actions which Ezra and the rest of the group took to ensure the safety of the treasure they were entrusted with. The first was to spend time in fasting and prayer requesting that God protect them in their travels. The second thing they did was to divide up the treasure among various groups, carefully documenting how much of what was given to each group. The division was done in an open and public manner so that no one would be able to claim that one group was given more, or less, than they were actually given. A careful effort was made to avoid even the possible appearance of impropriety.

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August 8, 2015 Bible Study — Imitate Me As I Imitate Christ (And Not As I Fail To Do So)

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 20:28-30

    A ruler is secure when he is loved by his people. He will be loved by his people when he demonstrates that he loves them by doing what is in their best interest, not what is in his own best interest. This applies even in governments which are variations of democracy. If the people, who are the rulers in such governments, vote for what is in the best interest of their fellow citizens rather than just what they perceive is in their own interest, the government will be strong and well-loved. When the people vote for they perceive as being in their own interest rather than what they believe to be in the best interest of others, the government will be weak and hated. In the latter case, it will be replaced by a government whose rulers, at best, have the appearance of answering to the people, but do not.

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Psalm 30

    All too often when times are good we respond just as the psalmist did. We think that nothing will ever go wrong again and that our success is a product of our own skill. We forget God, or minimize the amount of time we spend with Him. I am as guilty of this as the next person. Sometimes, we think that our success is evidence that we are doing God’s will and that therefore we do not need to seek time in communion with Him. If we make that mistake, God will discipline us and act to bring us back to Him. If we once more turn to Him and seek His will He will turn our mourning to joy.

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1 Corinthians 4

    Paul tells us not to judge ourselves, nor should we fell condemned by the judgement of others. The only judgement which matters is that of God. We should not judge ourselves as better than others, especially not on the basis of which human leaders we follow.
    Paul urges the Corinthians to imitate him. Let us seek to follow leaders whom we can imitate and by imitating them we are imitating Christ. We should strive to live our lives in such a manner that when others imitate us they are imitating Christ.

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Ezra 7:1-8:20

    The king of Persia recognized the value of people following God’s law. He encouraged Ezra to travel to Jerusalem and appoint judges and magistrates who would judge according to God’s laws. Artaxerxes also encourage Ezra to teach God’s law to those who did not already know it.

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August 7, 2015 Bible Study — Are You Building On the True Foundation?

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For today, One Year Bible Online links here. Happy Birthday to my lovely wife.

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Proverbs 20:26-27

    When the wicked start forming alliances among themselves a wise ruler acts to break those groups up and bring as many of the wicked to justice as possible. He does not allow the wicked to thrive and build organizations unopposed. A wise ruler realizes that if he allows the wicked to do so it is only a matter of time until they will challenge his authority and seek to replace him. If they have been allowed to get too strong, they will succeed.

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Psalm 29

    Let us honor and worship the Lord. I cannot do justice to the image which the psalmist creates as he describes the power and glory of God. Read this psalm today and meditate on what a great God we serve.

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1 Corinthians 3:5-23

    It does not matter which teacher you learned from/follow. It does not matter what denomination you are a member of. That teacher, the founder of that denomination is a servant of God, spreading His message, or they are not. Find out what message God sent through every teacher who serves Him. Some plant, some water, some provide nutrients necessary for growth, but it is God who makes things grow.
    Paul then switches metaphors from growing plants to building a building. If we desire to build something worthy of heaven we must build on the foundation which is Jesus Christ. There are no other foundations which will produce a building which will stand the test. The foundation has already been laid by those who have gone before. It actually just occurred to me how this passage applies to evaluating teachers and religious groups. When you examine the teachings of a particular teacher, or the founder(s) of a denomination, are they building on the foundation which is already laid? Or are they attempting to lay an entirely new foundation? If they are laying a new foundation, run away from them as fast as you can, no matter how beautiful the structure they are building appears.
    Paul goes on to speak about how different builders use different materials. Those who use more durable materials will build something which lasts, but even those who use less durable materials will survive, so long as they built on the foundation which is Jesus Christ.

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Ezra 4:24-6:22

    In yesterday’s passage, those who opposed the rebuilding of the Temple were able to obtain orders to prevent its building by asking the authorities to check the records about Jerusalem and Judah being a rebellious province. A search of the Babylonian records indicated that such was indeed the case. Thus a halt was ordered to construction of the Temple. In today’s passage, we are told how the Jews referenced Cyus’ order to build the Temple and asked for the archives to be search. As a result, not only were they ordered to resume building, but those who had opposed their actions were ordered to support them in every way they were able. These two passages highlight the importance of how an argument is framed. Let us follow the Spirit’s lead so that we may put the task God has given us in the best possible light.