uly 4
Ezra 3, 4
Luke 3
Ezra 3 describes a bittersweet time for many of the older people who returned to Israel from Babylon. When the foundation of the new Temple was laid, the younger people shouted for joy, but many of the older people wept -why? Weren’t they happy the Temple was being rebuilt?
The older people remembered the way things used to be. They remembered the beautiful Temple that had been built by Solomon and, maybe for the first time, they really came to terms with the fact that that Temple was truly gone. Have you ever experienced something like that? Maybe your childhood home has been knocked down and an office building has been built in the years since you lived there. While you might know in your head that this has happened, it doesn’t become a reality for you until you actually walk down your old street and the tree you used to climb and the place on the lawn where you had the big wreck with your bike (after your sister warned you not to do it – trust me, I know this place) is just…gone. I think that might be something similar to what the returning captives were feeling. Ezra records that the sound of their weeping mixed with the sound of the others’ rejoicing and it was so loud no one could tell where the weeping left off and the rejoicing began.
In Luke today, the genealogy of Jesus is listed and we see God’s marvelous providence. Though the women’s names aren’t given in his list, we know that Ruth was the wife ofBoaz who, by her willingness to leave her home for a land she’d never seen because of her great devotion to her dead husband’s mother, became an ancestor of Jesus. There too is Rahab, wife of Salmon, who became King David’s grandmother and also an ancestor of Jesus. Interesting, isn’t it, that the book of Ruth and the story of Rahab are included in the Old Testament? It shows so clearly that nothing – no human action, no event – is a surprise to God.
a 5, 6
Psalm 77
“The work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia” because of a lie told to the King of Persia by the enemies of the Jews. They said, “no more taxes, tribute or duty will be paid, and the royal revenues will suffer” if the King allowed the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem.
Chapters 5 and 6 record several letters and I got a little lost at first sorting it out, but it appears that many of the Jews simply ignored the order to stop working. Their enemies sent another letter to the King reporting what the Jews had told them when they were asked why they were ignoring this king’s orders. Incredible as it sounded, a previous king, Cyrus, had ordered the Jews to do it. What?! A search of the archives followed and the scroll with the original order was found. King Darius said, in the strongest of terms (including a death threat) that no one was to stop this work – the rebuilding must continue.
It could only have been by God’s grace, mercy and power that these foreign kings became so dedicated to the cause of rebuilding the city and the Temple. Humanly speaking, I often think things are “impossible”. I pray sometimes for people but I think, “there is no way that person is going to come to salvation”. I need to remember these kings and always remember that nothing is impossible for God.
Psalm 77 is the cry of someone in deep distress, “at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted.” I have been so upset at times in my life that I didn’t even know what to pray for. Sometimes I’ve just prayed “Help, send help”. Matthew Henry’s commentary on this psalm says, “Days of trouble must be days of prayer; when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek him till we find him. In the day of his trouble, the psalmist did not seek for the diversion of business or amusement, but he sought God, and his favor and grace.” Would I remember to pray as earnestly if all my days were smooth and trouble free? Would you?
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