Category Archives: Old Testament

From Ignorance to Restoration

Posted on September 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

ACTS 3:17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 24 And (All this took about 450 years.)all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of (Ro 9:4-5) the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, (because you have obeyed my voice.”)‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

MY THOUGHTS
Peter’s shifted his appeal to the Israelites.  His first sermon was to shock these men of Israel into recognizing their personal responsibility in the death of Jesus. God had sent the Christ appointed to them and they’d killed the “Author of life” by choosing to ignore what God had clearly taught them for the last 450 years.  Peter’s words were gracious compared to his previous accusation.  “I know that you acted in ignorance,” but “God having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”  Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you!

I learned more about what Peter was trying to tell those Israelites about their identity and adoption by following cross references from v25, then writing them in the sequence they appeared, but separated by “—.“  Adoption is still a promise.  We too are Abraham’s “offspring.”  The Word is truth that reveals itself to be applicable to all generations of all people even when it’s sequence and its location in the Bible is reorganized by the scholars that referenced it.

“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. — But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God — let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. — And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. — For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”
(Romans 2:28-29 — Romans 2:17 — 1 Peter 3:4 — Deuteronomy 30:6 — 2 Corinthians 10:18)

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Posted in 1 Peter, 2 Corinthians, Deuteronomy, Light, New Testament, Old Testament, Romans, Wednesday

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The Parable of Separation

Posted on September 24, 2023 | Leave a comment

Matthew 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

My Thoughts 
Remember how Genesis starts?  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”  God was complete in that beginning but He had a greater purpose for all time — an eternal kingdom.  Jesus learned the necessity of separation in those early days of eternity as He watched His father define His kingdom by separating light from dark, day from night, land from sea and mankind from dust.

Jesus tells this parable about separation just a few days before His arrest.  It’s more than a story about judgment of behavior, it’s about relationship and firsthand experience.  Did you notice the odd truth all those contrasts in this parable revealed about those two groups?  Both groups were surprised to discover Jesus noticed their choices.  Both were surprised that what impacted their kingdom destiny in such a dramatic way was not just their choices but their relationship, or lack of it, with Jesus Himself. 

Jesus understood the inheritance prepared for the “blessed” was eternity with Himself in a kingdom created for them.  He’d seen it created firsthand.  Jesus’s warning to the “cursed” was separation from Him and a destiny of eternal punishment “in a land of forgetfulness and separation,” not inhabited” by God.  He could warn them of that absolute truth with certainty because He knew in just a few days He would briefly experience the reality of that separation firsthand.

a Leviticus 16:20-22 The goat shall bear upon himself all their iniquities, carrying them to a land cut off (a land of forgetfulness and separation, not inhabited)! AMPC

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Posted in Leviticus, Light, Matthew, New Testament, Old Testament

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They Should’a Known

Posted on August 6, 2023 | Leave a comment

Acts 2:22 Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 

Hear these words! Words to those law-less men to whom God provided clear evidence of who Jesus was.  According to God’s definite plan and foreknowledge… those men crucified and killed Jesus!  The crucifixion wasn’t what made them lawless, that was a grisly but legal process.  Their law-lessness was rejecting the signs of God in their midst they should’a recognized. They rejected those signs because their God inhabited the place of their choosing, acted in response to their record of His laws and then waited until they were ready to approach Him with a legal sacrifice.  Their law-lessness was blind unbelief in what God had already made known to them about His presence in their long and revered history.  

25 For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

Long before Jesus, David knew[a] that God was always present with him and accessible.  He knew even when his sin was revealed God would not abandon him to destruction.  He knew death could not destroy the Holy One.  He knew the Lord had made known the paths of life.  He knew God’s presence filled him with unshakable hope that made his heart glad.  He knew because God had made it known to him.  Even the history of God’s presence that lived in David’s words from the past was not enough for the lawless men to believe God would be present with them, now!   Their law-lessness was that God had come into their midst and made Himself known to them and they rejected Him.  They should’a known!

[a] quoting Psalm 16:8-11

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Posted in Acts, Light, New Testament, Old Testament, Psalms, Sunday

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Rich is “More” than money

Posted on June 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

16 And he told them a parable, saying, (AF)“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, (AG)‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my (AH)barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up (AI)for many years; relax, (AJ)eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, (AK)‘Fool! (AL)This night (AM)your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, (AN)whose will they be?’  21 So is the one (AO)who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

If there’s an opposite to ‘cliff notes’ this post is certainly it!
This parable had so many Old Testament (cross reference) letters I couldn’t ignore them.  They were an insistent interruption to an easy read.  The Old Words are compiled together in order of appearance below. Read in that way they verify there’s continuity of truth in the Bible that matters.
Jesus spoke the truth He knew about what turns a “rich man” into a rich “Fool.”
All the references are footnoted at the bottom.

THE OLD WORDS
1  Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases.  For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.  For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light.  Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish. 2  He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 3  Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. 4  There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,
5  Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. 6  Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool. 7  Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. 8  For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? 9 Surely a man goes about as a shadow!  Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
10  He may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. He builds his house like a moth’s, like a booth that a watchman makes. He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more; he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone. Terrors overtake him like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries him off. The east wind lifts him up and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place. It hurls at him without pity; he flees from its power in headlong flight.

1 Psalm 49:16-20, 2 Ecclesiastes 5:10, 3 Proverbs 27:1, 4 Ecclesiastes 2:24,
5 Ecclesiastes 11:9, 6 Jeremiah 17:11,  7  Proverbs 27:1, 8 Job 27:8,”
9 Psalm 39:6, 10 Job 27:17-22

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Posted in Ecclesiastes, Jeremiah, Job, Light, Luke, New Testament, Old Testament, Parables, Proverbs, Psalms

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Preservation

Posted on June 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

THE STORY
7 And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. 8 And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 9 For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
THE KING
21 “And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence…23 Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons.
EZRA
27 Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, 28 and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

MY THOUGHTS
A long line of Persian kings have remembered the priestly history of the exiled people and the dramatic intervention of the “God of heaven” in their past.  What is remarkable is all those kings, who’ve revered many gods have kept a fearful reverence for the power of this God to act on behalf of His people in the present…and…Finally we meet Ezra himself.  Ezra is a descendent of Aaron the first High Priest and the son of the last High Priest before captivity. He was born in captivity.  That history has been the bookends of his life.  He has never personally experienced worship in a place filled with God’s presence but he’s “set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel” and the king has given him legal authority to act on God’s behalf.

Ezra’s heart is generous to the king.  “Blessed be the Lord, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers.”

The king’s generosity has seen the value of his support for “the people of Israel” as the preservation of his kingdom.  “Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons.”

Ezra stands “before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers” knowing “the good hand of his God” is revealing God’s steadfast love and power that manages the heart even of a pagan king — for the preservation of His people.

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Divided Hearts

Posted on June 18, 2023 | Leave a comment

1 Then Darius the king made a decree…
2 And in Ecbatana, the citadel that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written:…
3 In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained…
4 with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.
5 And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God…be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place.
…11 Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.
12 May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.”

Preparation:
The exile’s return created a conflict of territorial, cultural and religious rights between them and the people who occupied the land in their absence. Frustration, intimidation and fear have resulted in a years-long delay of building and divided hearts in the people of God.

Proof:
God has chosen the prophet’s words to overcome the fear and intimidation of His people by their adversaries and prepare their divided hearts to resume rebuilding the temple.
AND the the long-awaited letter from Darius the King has arrived with full details of how the project is to to be funded, orders giving the Jews full territorial rights to this spot: to proceed rebuilding the house of God without the interference of the cultural opposition to the project and the promise to return the stolen religious treasures from the original temple.

Provision:
The most interesting truth of this story is it’s about God’s provision for divided hearts to accomplish His plan.  He used the challenging words of Haggaia so His own people could recognize their hearts were divided by circumstances.   And there was Godly preparation for the divided heart of a Persian king to acknowledge that despite territorial, cultural and religious disputes with those same people he would issue a dramatic decree of accountability to a God he did not really know…”May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

a Haggai

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Posted in Ezra, Haggai, Light, Old Testament, Sunday

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Not Yet Finished

Posted on June 11, 2023 | Leave a comment

Excerpts: 5:3 At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus: “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?”…5 But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it. 6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River…sent to Darius the king…8 Be it known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built with huge stones, and timber is laid in the walls. This work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands. 9 Then we asked those elders and spoke to them thus: ‘Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?’…13…in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt. 14 And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, these Cyrus the king took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor; 15 and he said to him, “Take these vessels, go and put them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.” 16 Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been in building, and it is not yet finished.’ 17 Therefore, if it seems good to the king, let search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem. And let the king send us his pleasure in this matter.”

Stop! That was the order from the local authority of “Beyond the River” that brought the rebuilding of the temple to a halt. Beyond the River was the name given by Persian rulers to their province that included Judah and Israel.  The local authority was foreign people, aka “samaritans,” brought into this land by the Assyrians to replace the exiled tribes after the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. During the years of exile they have become the controlling presence in the land and are determined to protest the Jews right to rebuild the temple.  They have no legitimate connection with Jerusalem, but they see themselves as heirs of the Northern Kingdom. They’re not a bit confused about the legality of what the people of God are doing but they’ve found a loophole to explore using the only bureaucratic tool they’ve got.

The letter to the King details good things about the work on the project using all the right words and then taints the truth of their words by asking King Darius to verify certain things for them. Did Cyrus really issue such an edict and does it limit the Jews in any way? Just asking. Is this letter a veiled warning to the King that he “let search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem.” Is this persistent building of the Jews only the first phase of a larger plan to take over the whole city and undermine the king’s authority, and theirs? What has prompted my question is their odd phrasing in the last half of verse 16…“from that time until now it has been in building, and it is not yet finished.’”

The Jews are acting as “the servants of the God of heaven and earth” and they have faith in the legality of the edict of King Cyrus that gave them permission and support to rebuild the temple on it’s former site in Jerusalem. Their confidence in those two things has encouraged them to resume building “the foundations of the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been in building, and it is not yet finished.” The Altar has been repaired √, the foundation completed √ — and now under the watchful “eye of their God” there will be a new temple “and it is not yet finished.” Stay tuned, there’s drama to come.

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Posted in Ezra, Light, Old Testament, Sunday

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The Sower

Posted on June 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

Old Testament cross references are added by current evangelical scholars and pastors but they’ve made it possible to see how influential those “old” resources were to the New Testament and to Jesus in particular.  I’m playing the role of “traffic light” today. I’ve copied the NLT cross references to this parable in green and added them in order of their appearance in the text.  You can tap on the link an it will open the reference for you.  Jesus’s familiar words are in red letters.  It’s a fairly new experiment for me to read Old Testament references as the “go-to” truth that backs up the New Testament, then “stop” and ponder how that old evidence is what makes both Testaments of the Bible one “whole.” The whole truth is Jesus spent his life learning the evidence of those old truths and based His simple stories for us on them…wrapped in the mystery of thought.  

The Parable of the Sower:
Luke 8:4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 (Isa 55:10 & Amos 9:13)“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among (Jer 4:3) thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded (Gen 26:12)a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so (Isa 6:9 & 10)that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it (Isa 58:2 & Ezek 33:31)with joy. But these have no root; they (Hos 6:4)believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and (Hos 14:8)bear fruit with patience.

The Simple Mystery…
The sower has a source that supplies good seeds. Once given those seeds can’t be returned.  They must either produce fruit or they will be wasted.  Ground that may seem useless can be made to produce fruit that fulfills the purpose of those seeds; growth and nourishment.  Sowers can learn to prepare soil for the seeds and when that happens “The time will come,” says the Lord, “when the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested…” There is one little catch that is the mystery behind the simplicity of this story.  It’s more than the simple repetition of the familiar activity of sowing and reaping that results in the growth that produces blessing. The mystery requires the sower giving conscious and purposeful attention to all the details of the process of preparing the soil to produce an abundant harvest.  The secret of the Kingdom of God is His good seed becomes mature fruit that blesses both the sower and the reaper with more good seed.  “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.“

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Posted in Amos, Ezekiel, Genesis, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Light, Luke, New Testament, Old Testament, Parables, Wednesday

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The Big Restoration

Posted on June 4, 2023 | Leave a comment

4:1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”  4 Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build 5 and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.  6 And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

Seventy years have passed in exile and now the “people of Israel” who have lived through the punishment of exile and years of slowly being assimilated into a foreign culture are finally “home.”  By the good grace of a king, Cyrus, they can rebuild the temple and once again be able to offer the sacrifices of their heart to God in His dedicated house.  Now they’re faced with a new problem; who are the foreigners here?  The “people of the land,” the who have occupied this place for 70 years are accusing them of being the foreigners and disputing the edict of the king that made their homecoming possible. The years of exile have resulted in the loss of their identity as “the people of Israel” in the eyes of their adversaries.  Now they are only “the people of Judah.”  That’s a subtle and discouraging slur.

Some who still remember witnessing the destruction of that first Holy temple have returned with hope that rebuilding this temple will restore God’s glory to all Israel while others born during the time of exile have only heard the stories of that historical glory and have come longing to finally experience God’s glory for themselves in a proper place of worship.  They’re “home” now but discouraged, outnumbered and surrounded by occupiers on all sides.

It’s true, they’ve  returned to rebuild the temple, but the big restoration God has planned for them is more than a new building on this holy site.  It’s purpose is greater than walls that identify their territorial rights as the “people of Israel.”  God has restored these exiles to establish this new temple as a visible sign to the people of the land that the glory of God is made visible through their efforts to reveal their true identity as the “people of  the Lord, the God of Israel.”

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Posted in Ezra, Light, Old Testament, Sunday

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Good News!

Posted on May 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:  2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”  5 Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. 6 And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered. 7 Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. 

My Cliff Notes:
That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.  He made a proclamation and also put it in writing:  Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him.  Let him go up to Jerusalem and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel.  Then rose up everyone whose spirit God had stirred and all who were about them aided them with all that was freely offered.  Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem.

Interesting things I learned:
God used one pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar, to punish the Jews and another, Cyrus, to return the exiled people to Jerusalem to restore their temple. It’s an odd bit of Good News that the success of Godless men does not affect the Sovereignty of God’s complete authority over all men despite their manipulative intent, despite hostile power grabs and despite distance and time. 

God returned His people to the very place His son must be born and to His Temple in the city where Jesus would come in order to accomplish His plans for the salvation of many.   Thanks to a small footnoteª I read these words, also from Jeremiah 29:10, “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”  It was curiosity that ‘stirred up’ my spirit to see a new connection between Old Testament history and the only verse I could quote from Jeremiah; the very next one after the one Ezra 1 references. It’s just one additional verse but it confirms the centuries old desire from the heart of God to His people that is still true today.  You probably know it too. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  That one more verse makes Ezra more than history, it’s Good News for today!

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Posted in Ezra, Jeremiah, Light, Old Testament, Sunday

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