Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 3-5.

As soon as the Returned Exiles got settled back in the land they began work on rebuilding the altar to the Lord in Jerusalem.  Then, when the altar was rebuilt they began making offerings upon it and began working on laying a foundation for the rebuilt Temple.  Once they had completed the foundation, they held a festival to praise the Lord for bringing them thus far.  All of the people were emotionally overcome by the moment, some weeping, some shouting in joy.  The noise was so loud that it was impossible to distinguish those who were weeping from those shouting in joy.  In a similar way, we should not be ashamed to allow our emotions to overwhelm us when we worship the Lord, especially when something positive happens.

I am always torn by the accounts here where the Returned Exiles rejected the request of those living in the land to assist them in rebuilding the Temple.  On the one hand, those who offered are identified as enemies of the Returned Exiles.  On the other hand, I believe that we should welcome all who wish to worship the Lord.  Perhaps if the Returned Exiles had allowed those living in the land to take part in rebuilding the Temple, they would not have become the enemies of the Returned Exiles.  Or, perhaps they would have acted to undermine the restoration of faithful worship of God.  The writer of this passage clearly believes that these people were not acting in good faith when they asked to take part in rebuilding the Temple.  All in all, this passage highlights the need to determine whether those who offer to help you serve God share your understanding of what serving God means.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 1-2.

Today’s passage shows us that when God moves, He moves all that is necessary to accomplish His goals. When He had sent the people of Judah into Exile, He had also promised to restore them once again.  When the time for that restoration came to pass, God caused Cyrus, King of the Persians, to order that they be allowed to return and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.  As part of his order, Cyrus instructed those among whom the people of Israel were living to provide assistance to those who wished to return to Judah.  We learn something about how the Exiles had lived in Exile by the fact that many of their neighbors contributed to the expenses they had in returning to Judah and Jerusalem.  Let us both contribute to those whom God has called to relocate to carry out His will and live so that our neighbors will be willing to aid us if He calls upon us to do so.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezra 9-10.

We saw in yesterday’s passage how those living in the land who turned from the detestable practices common among their people and adopted true worship of God were welcome among the returned exiles.  In today’s passage we have an account of how many among the returned exiles had married women from among the people living in the land and adopted some of their practices.  While the passage focuses on the fact that they had married women from among those living in the land we can see that it was the fact that these women had not given up the pagan practices which was the problem.  In fact, I suspect that what brought this problem up was that many of the most prominent among the returned exiles had formed marriage alliances with the prominent among those living in the land and were corruptly serving the interests of their new families against the interests of the returned exile community.

When Ezra proposed that the people must separate themselves from the people of the land and the women from among them which many of them had married, the people agreed but said that it was more complicated than could be resolved while they were all gathered in Jerusalem.  So, it was decided that those who had married women who were not part of the returned exiles would meet with the elders of their villages to resolve things.  This tells us that this was not a blanket putting aside of wives from among the locals.  I read this as telling us that some of the women in these marriages had abandoned pagan worship and embraced the worship of God.  I conclude that the problem was not that they married women from outside their community.  Rather the problem was that they married women who did not share their faith, which led them to worship practices unacceptable to God.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezra 3-5.

The returned exiles almost immediately began rebuilding the the altar on the Temple Mount so that they could resume sacrifices and the worship which surrounded those.  Their next step was to rebuild the foundation of the Temple.  It has never been clear to me if those who had seen the original Temple were sad because the new foundation did not live up to their expectations, or because of the memories the new foundation brought back.  Nevertheless, all of those who saw the progress they had made praised God.  Perhaps this can provide inspiration for us as we rebuild our worship practices after this long lockdown.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezra 1-2.

I started out intending to focus on Cyrus, but noticed an interesting person I had never noticed before, Sheshbazzar.  He is only mentioned once in the Bible, although there is a Shenazzar listed in 1 Chronicles 3:18.  Shenazzar is a son of King Jehoiachin, who was taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar.  There are numerous variant spellings of Shenazzar in the manuscripts of 1 Chronicles, making it not unlikely that Sheshbazzar is another variation on that name.  While the New Living Translation translates the passage as saying that Sheshbazzar was the leader of the returning exiles, the literal translation says that he was the prince of Judah.  Sheshbazzar is not mentioned again after we are told that Cyrus gave him the items taken from the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar.  It seems entirely likely to me that Sheshbazzar was the son (or perhaps grandson) of Jehoiachin and thus the prince of Judah, but that he never joined the returning exiles.

Now on to Cyrus: Cyrus was never a worshiper of God, or, at least, if he was he also worshiped many other gods as well.  Nevertheless, God used Cyrus to bring about a restoration of His people.   It was Cyrus who issued the order which led to the rebuilding of the Temple and the reestablishment of God’s worship in Jerusalem.  We can learn a lot about what God views as a good political leader from what the Bible says about Cyrus.  The writers of the Bible viewed Cyrus as a true servant of God, even though they never viewed him as one of them, as one of the Believers.