Week 95, Day 1: Repentance

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 10:1-44

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

Chapter ten, the last chapter of Ezra gives us a very vivid picture of what is involved in repentance and the awful consequences that come with sin.  The people pledge to correct their unfaithfulness to God.  He had commanded that they not take wives from the foreign women.  Their fathers had done such and it had lead to the downfall of many.  Because of these foreign wives the hearts of the men of Israel were turned away after idols.  And here is the remnant committing the same acts of disobedience and inviting the reproach of God.  So they pledge to change, to correct their actions and put away their foreign wives.  This is what repentance is.  Making the needed changes, no matter how difficult, so that our lives are in compliance with God’s commands.

Note that in verse 44 we are told that some of the people also had children with these women.  Think about how hard it would be to turn away the woman you loved and your children!  Even if someone argues that the children were not sent away you are talking about sending away their mother.  How horrible.  And yet this is the consequence caused by their sin.  No one ever said that dealing with our sin would be easy.  Repentance can be an extremely difficult thing to do.  And yet God calls for us to repent and put away those things which are evil.  Today there are many who want to remain in adultery or commiting fornication because they say God just wants them to be happy.  God has told us what He expects of us.  Will we be strong and dedicated like the remnant of Israel here?  Will will do what it takes to correct our sin and make things right? 

Question:  What does it say about someone who is unwilling to change their actions in order to be pleasing to God?

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Week 94, Day 5: Great Guilt

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 9:1-15

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

Ezra is appalled at what the Jews have done.  In addition to all their deeds of unfaithfulness, they have disobeyed God by marrying foreign women.  The text does not specify if this happened while they were in exile or after they had returned to the land.  Either way they knew better.  What needs to be emphasized is how Ezra responded to this news.  He mourned their unfaithfulness.  He riped out portions of his hair.  He expressed outrage.  This was not a trivial matter.  They had defiled the “holy race” (vs 2) and added shame to their condition.  Ezra knew that what they deserved for this was to be punished.  He also recognized that God had treated them so much better than their iniquities had deserved.   Great is Gods forgiveness and faithfulness.

Question:  Are we in any different a situation than the Jews?  They had great guilt from all their sin, the remnant survived only because of God’s mercy and God had treated them better than they deserved.  What other things can we note as similar for us today?

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Week 94, Day 4: Riches Brought In

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 8:1-35

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

We are told how much wealth was sent with Ezra as he journeyed to Jerusalem.  A massive amount of silver, gold and other utensils were sent as a freewill offering.  Such abundant offerings would have made for no excuse for why the Jews would not be able to worship and sacrifice as commanded.  They could afford all the things needed and they had the necessary utensils needed in their worship services.  The coming of Ezra and the people with him would have been a tremendous aid to the Jews already in Jerusalem.  We will see this more so in upcoming chapters.  But it should be pointed out the kind of power that was given to Ezra.  He had been appointed the responsibility to teach any who were ignorant of the law of God, to appoint judges and to even execute judgment on any who were rebellious to God’s laws (7:25-26).  The coming of this group of men was vital for the further strengthening of the remnant in the service and devotion to God.

Question:  Why do you think that Ezra divided the money up between the 12 leading priests for their journey?

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Week 94, Day 3: The Calvary

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 7:1-28

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

It is interesting to think about how the Gentiles must have felt about all of these decrees that were coming from the kings of Persia that ordered support for the temple building and worship practices.  I figure that shock was one of the more common emotions experienced.  We now have a second king of Persia who has issued a decree to supply Jerusalem with much goods and revenue from the royal treasury.  Why?  Because God put it on their hearts to do (6:22, 7:27).  God kept His word to cause the remnant to be brought back and then provided all that they needed.  The remnant wasn’t expected to do the impossible on their own.  They were supported, encouraged and held up by God.

Chapter 7 tells us about the sending of the priest Ezra.  He obtained favor from the king because the hand of God was upon him, vs 7.  I thought it neat to see a record of how long it took to travel from the King to Jerusalem.  It took four months to make the journey, vs 9.  We are so spoiled today to hop in a car or plane and be somewhere in no time.  We also have little concept of the dangers of travel.  We do not worry about being set upon by robbers or having to find some place to sleep each night while being exposed to the elements.  When Ezra reaches Jerusalem this too is a testimony to God providing safe journey for Ezra. 

Question:  In what areas of our lives and for what things should we be thankful to God for His rich care over us?

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Week 94, Day 2: Let the work continue

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 6:1-22

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

God’s blessings on Israel continue.  The situation works favorably for their contiued work on the temple.  There was a statement made in the last chapter that began this thought.  While the letter was sent to Darius and a reply was awaited, the officials and governor did not halt the work.  That is due to the Lord’s help.  Then Darius bothers to search the records for any evidence that there had been a decree made, the king didn’t have to bother with such matters.  Then the decision is made by Darius to keep the decree in tact and to further issue more warnings against halting the work.  He even goes to the extent of reaffirming that the costs are to be paid by the taxes of the province.  All of these things points to the Lord’s help in the rebuilding. 

My question for you branches off of yesterday’s thought.  Why then did God allow adversaries to be able to gain the “upper hand” and be able to forcibly stop them earlier?  Here we have examples of God’s aid in the efforts and His prophets sent to encourage them and yet they had been stopped earlier.  I wonder if it again goes back to a test to see how much desire they had to get this task done.  I do not believe that God is blessing physical Israel in the same way today but when you look at what is happening in Jerusalem today I wonder if there is a similarity going on.  Israel claims to be serving God and yet they will not build the temple on the temple mount because of fear of the Muslims.  If they really believed God was on their side then why are they not rebuilding the place to worship God?

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Week 94, Day 1: The Prophets Help

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 5:1-17

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

After some period of time God sends the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to rebuke the people and give them a push to get back to building on the temple.  With the encouragement from these prophets the work resumes.  I think it is interesting to think about why the Israelites were not trying on their own to get back to the building.  Had they just accepted the situation when they were forcibly made to stop the work?  Or did they send their own letters and people to plead with the king for permission to continue.  We have no record of them taking the initiative.  I can understand that they were discouraged and perhaps waiting for some sign to direct them to start again.  But even then, were they consulting God or praying to Him to help them overcome the opposition.  This account just makes me wonder what attitude was reflected by the Israelites regarding their task of rebuilding the temple.

Question:  How much initiative do we show in our service to God?  Are we waiting around for someone to be sent to us to give us a kick?  Do we think we are alive but are really dead (Revelation 3:1-3)?

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Week 93, Day 5: The enemies rise up

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 4:1-24

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

As could be predicted, the enemies of God hear the report of the work the Jews are doing.  So they begin to try to subvert and stop the work.  They are apparently are very successful in hindering the work to where it sounds like it was still going on but as a snail pace.  And then finally they use politics to get the current king to stop the work altogether. 

This chapter gives us a lesson on what adversaries will do to stop our efforts to serve God.  These people intimidated and pressured the people.  They said bad things about the people (calling their attempts build the city as rebellious and evil).  What will we do we the adversaries are pressing in all around us and trying to force us to stop serving God?  Will we just roll over and accept defeat?  It is much easier to sit down and heed their orders.  But I am convinced that the easy way is often the way of sin. 

Question:  Was it illogical to suggest that the city would rebel against the king if it was allowed to be rebuilt?

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Week 93, Day 4: The Foundation Laid

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 3:1-13

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

The remnant who have returned now have undertaken the reestablishment of their worship to God.  They set up an altar in Jerusalem and begin offering burnt offerings to the Lord.  They also take the money they’ve been given and begin to buy supplies and hire workers to lay the foundation of the Temple.  All sounds great so far until the people begin to remember where they had fallen from.  I’m sure the temple Solomon built was magnificent.  The pride of Israel at one time was the grand structure that once existed there.  And now they are starting over and do not have near the same resources or work force to be able to build such a grand structure.  So those old enough to remember begin to weep.  This is a very interesting scene to see the rejoicing mixed with the sorrow.  There is a saying that goes something like this, “there are two ways to look at anything.”  Depending on how the people looked at this situation affected how they reacted.  There is a lesson here for us to keep in mind.  Luke 1:17 speaks of turning the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous.  What attitude should the righteous have?  Take some time to list out what attitude we should have.

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Week 93, Day 3: Return

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 2:1-70

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

From a once prosperous nation that came up from Egypt with at least 600,000 plus, now comes a meager 42,360 back.  This will not be all who return but this is a much different picture than when the Israelites first entered the promise land.  They have been humbled, brought low because of their unfaithfulness.  Because of God’s mercies they are allowed to come back to their homeland.  There is much work to be done.  They are basically starting over again. 

A verse that strikes me as indicating how Israel will approach things is verse 61-62.  On their return there are some men who claim to be descended from the priestly lineage.  But they do not have any evidence to back up their claim.  So how do the people handle it?  They consider them as unclean, unqualified to serve as priests.  This may seem harsh but when you consider that the people are now much much more consciencious about observing and keeping God’s commands then this action makes sense.  They were unfaithful before the captivity.  They have had some 70 years to think over their previous actions and to learn their lessons.  They are now going to be more concerned about keeping God’s commands and avoiding anything that might cause them to violate God’s will.

Question:  What difficulties would face the Jews when they return to the land?

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Week 93, Day 2: Cyrus

Today’s Reading:  Ezra 1:1-11

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

I decided that for the time being we will skip over 1 & 2 Chronicles since it has very similar accounts to what we read in 1 & 2 Kings.  We will pick up with Ezra.  Ezra should be a very encouraging book as indicated in the first chapter.  The Lord stirred up the spirit of the king of Persia.  I have read some commentaries that speak of Cyrus deciding to entreat the favor of all the many gods of the lands the Babylonians had conquered.  But we are told here that these specific actions were taken because God provoked it and thus caused Cyrus to desire to send back the remnant so they would rebuild he temple.  This is so impressive.  God predicted, foretold that this specific man would do these things (Isaiah 44:28-45:1).  Now God has acomplished what He spoke.  These were not som random acts taken, these were events that God knew would happen and helped shape them.

Cyrus was so moved that he even sent back the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple at its destruction.  This was an impressive amount of gold and silver vessels.  We are not told how exactly God cuased all these things to be brought about.  But we can easily see that when God promises something, He is faithful to complete it, no matter how much time passes by.

Question:  What is significant about Isaiah naming Cyrus as the specific king that God would use to accomplish the rebuilding of Jerusalem?

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