Bible Reading Challenge Blog

You need to understand that for the people of Israel to have a foreign government on their side was pretty unusual.  A decree was actually found that was proclaimed by King Cyrus, just like the people of Israel who had been challenged said.  Surprisingly King Darius honored that treaty and fulfilled it to the end.  In fact, he said to those who were pursuing this on behalf of the overseeing ruler in that local area, that they were  to let the Israelites alone.

Now, by itself this would have been unusual.   But as it is written in this Scripture, he also pronounced a curse on anyone who refused to honor this treaty.  This person would have a beam taken from their own house and they were to be impaled upon it.  Not a normal legislative action taken by the executive branch, but I guess it was effective since in the end the temple did end up being built.  It is so very important to see how the people of the land did allow the building and even contributed to the animal sacrifices which were to be made once the temple was built.  Also, the builders were to be paid with the taxes that were collected in the land.  Yes, the Israelites were foreigners in a land controlled by another power, but they were still treated with respect while they built the temple in Jerusalem.  

The remnant of people who came from captivity and were still  around celebrated Passover in the temple that year.  I am sure that it was a celebration which could have been even imagined a few years earlier.  What are some things that seem so far out of reach that not even God would be able to make it happen in our life?  In this situation God made it happen not through a miraculous power, but through  the collaboration of area nations.  This could be a miracle enough.

Did you notice the overlap of prophets in this chapter?  Ezra speaks about the prophets Haggai and Zechariah who came a long before him.  Now Ezra would have been around 458 and Haggai and Zechariah would have been about 70 years before that.  It is important to see Ezra within the time frame of history, while at the same time understand that the 5th chapter also demands a witness from history.

What we have happening in this part of the story is that there are those who do not want the temple built and so are asking those who are building it if they have a permit to build it.  Their response is that we have the permit of almighty God.  I’m not sure that would work for the Borough council, and it really didn’t work for the associates of the ruler of that day either.  They demanded that the ruler look back in the annals to make sure that they had a permit from King Cyrus for the rebuilding of the temple.  Otherwise, they should stop  the building.  There was a lot of church politics back then as well.

But the difference is that this was not internal church politics, but rather external.  There were outside forces wanting the temple to be stopped from being built.  We will see what happens as these pressures intensify.  

So as quickly as the building of the temple took place, so that quickly it stops.  It seems like the locals became upset because they wanted to participate in the building of the temple.  We read, and this is surprising, that those who came and asked to join in the building of the temple were also worshipers of the God of Israel.  They give a history that is shocking for the Scripture.  To find other people who have worshiped the God of Israel and who want to join in on the worship by the building of the temple, is simply surprising.

But the people of Israel say no, you cannot join us in the building of the temple.  This is not unusual because we have seen in previous chapters that there was a family that was thought to be a priestly family but since they could not trace their lineage they were stripped of their priestly duties and responsibilities.  Here, this is a similar situation.  There is a group of people which asks to be included, but the people of Israel say no.

As a result they turn on the new immigrants who have just come from Babylonian captivity and tell rumors about them and say that they are trouble makers.  The rulers of the land do a little research and find out that in the past the Israelites were a powerful nation.  As a result the king puts a pause on the construction and says that no one is to go forward with the building.  We continue to distrust those who are strangers and not of us and as a result we may find ourselves in difficulties for no reason at all.

There was a great emotional uprising because of the laying of the foundation stone for the temple.  Once again we are reminded that the house of the Lord had been destroyed, but now it is going to be rebuilt.  You know about the wailing wall.  You can find it below in a picture that John Faltin took four years ago.  

This Scripture describes the dichotomous feelings of those who were weeping with grief because they remembered the temple that used to be and those who were weeping with joy because finally the foundation of the new temple was being set.  There are mixed feelings in the crowd not because people didn’t want the temple built, but because they were inevitably drawn to the reality of their past which was so painful.  It was a past of multiple experiences of slavery: Egypt, Babylon…

As people of God when we approach the throne of grace we are fortunate because we know that wherever we may be, God is present and we can approach Him with humility and confidence.  What we are missing is a sense of what it means to be able to do that in the complete freedom that we have.  We are able to approach the throne because Jesus has died on the cross for us, and as a result we are able to have eternal life.  We don’t always remember the price that was paid for that eternal life.  If we did remember then we just might live our lives as ones of eternal gratitude and our actions would reflect that thanksgiving which permeates every action and every move.

This chapter begins an accounting of all those who headed back to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity.  The Persians were meticulous note takers, even to the point of counting how many from each family left the region now under Persian control to head to Jerusalem, also under Persian control.  

I love the detail about those priestly families whose records over time had been lost and so they were no longer considered clean.  They were considered no longer in the priestly class so could no longer serve the priestly duties.  There was nothing about ordination, it was all about in what family you were born.  It just takes us to a place where we do have to recognize that this was a sort of caste system.  This system was one where certain families had certain responsibilities and that could not be changed.  

Of course that is no longer the case in the church.  It is not a family run business, but there are certain responsibilities that certain people need to have.  

As we begin a new book of the Bible it is important to know where we are historically in this book.  A great link which gives you some background can be found here: https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/introduction-to-ezra/

I find it amazing that the leader of a pagan nation would allow the Israelites to go free after years of captivity.  Granted that the captivity was under the Babylonians and that the Persians had just conquered the Babylonians so this people were not really their people.  But it goes further than that.  The king of Persia, Cyrus, is said to have his spirit stirred by the Lord.  As a  result he not only lets the people go but gives them a particular task which is to rebuild the temple of the Lord.  Now Ezra may have written this book of the Bible but he was not alive when this happened.  According to the timeline on the link above he does not enter Jerusalem until 458 BC and Cyrus gives out his decree in 586.  

The people of Israel were exiles and were brought out of Babylon, which is now Persia in this writing, and sent to Jerusalem not only to inhabit it but actually primarily to rebuild the temple.  The entire book of Ezra is a recounting of this building.  In this portion the king of a foreign nation, a pagan king at that, takes the initiative in ensuring that the work of the Lord be done.

This chapter deals exclusively with those things in our lives which we dedicate and devote to the Lord.  I know, I hope all of you are saying that you thought everything that we have and all that we are should be from the get go dedicated to the Lord.  Actually, that is more than correct.  But back in Moses’ day there were specific things that were actually dedicated to the work of the temple and for the well being of the priests, including people.  So they were actually given over to the Lord.  When we say that Jesus is Lord of our lives we mean that he rules that which we do.  Here in this instance the people would actually hand over certain things so that the religious priests would take ownership of it.  Not just metaphorical ownership, but actual ownership.

This chapter begins by explaining that those people who are dedicated to the Lord are worth a certain amount if you wanted to redeem them, if you wanted to get them back from the work of the temple.  If for some reason you gave back a blessing to the temple and you wanted that blessing back, there was a provision for that.  You could pay a certain amount and redeem, or reclaim that person, that animal, that field, or whatever it may be.  But it did come at a cost.  

This brings Leviticus to a close and it takes us to the end of the book and we are going to dive into the prophets now, Ezra will start us off.  Leviticus can get a bit heavy, but not nearly as repetitive as Numbers which we will not be looking at for this study.  On to the prophets.

The basic premise in this chapter is the Lord telling the people that if you do what you are supposed to do then I will reward you.  If you do not do what you are supposed to do then you will be punished.  Jesus comes at it with a bit of a different perspective when he says in Matthew 5:45: that the rain will fall on the good and the bad.  That has always been my theological approach.  I know that if we make bad decisions and we sin consistently in a way that is unremorseful then we are going to have to deal with the issues that come around because of those decisions.  

That is a bit different from saying that if we sin then God is going to punish us.  That would be a God that is definitely more hands on, but not really a God that I see as being consistent in the New Testament.  I agree that we do see that message promulgated in the Old Testament.  If you obey me then I will give you victory in battle, I will bless your crops, I will bless your families.  If you disobey me then I will abandon you as you have abandoned me.  This kind of direct correlation between the grace of God and the obedience of humanity would exclude the act of grace on the cross.  

Remember we read Paul tell us that even while we were yet sinners, even then God died on the cross and was involved in the most redemptive act, and undeserved act on the part of the receivers, ever known in human history.  God treats us as we don’t deserve is a strong underlying theme in the New Testament.  But that breaks pretty directly from what we read here in the Old Testament.

The year of Jubilee is described in this chapter.  This was a big deal back in Italy when the Roman Catholic Church declared a year of jubilee for the year 2000.  The door into St. Peter’s Basilica was opened and then closed again.  Here is the door that I am talking about.

The year of Jubilee is not just a party.  It is a time to set the slaves free, it is a time to forgive debt, it is a time to return home after you have been away.  If you go through this chapter you see that there are very specific rules on what is to happen on the year of jubilee.

Now, we don’t follow the year of jubilee any longer, but what would happen if we forgave everyone’s debt on the year of jubilee.  What if every 50 years lending institutions said: “Okay, this year, we are going to wipe the slate clean.”  Yeah, I don’t see it happening either.  But do you notice that in this chapter there was also a provision, or it was more of a commandment, that you are not to lend to a member of the tribe with interest.  You are simply to help them out and not expect anything in return.  Again, that would be something significant if we were able to enact that as well.  

We find the law of Moses again being spelled out but this time in a particular example.  We read that back then if someone took the Lord’s name in vain then they were to be stoned to death.  It is interesting that Moses makes sure that the people knew that there is a same  law for those who are part of the tribe of Israel and those who are outside of it and happen to be living within the Israelite community.  So regardless of who you are, there is no one above the law and the law is applied equally. 

We find in these verses, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, the saying an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  The significance is that back then there was a state sponsored death penalty which would be enacted if someone murdered another.  If someone maimed them, then they were to receive the same punishment and the same maiming by the authorities.  I wonder how that would be carried out.  But Jesus, when he comes upon the earth, institutes another law.  He says: “You have heard it said…but I say to you.”  That happens frequently when he is about to change something that the law had commanded all along, but now with Jesus and the covenant in place there is a new law.  

For this law Jesus says turn the other cheek, offer another cloak, walk another mile.  Capital punishment is no longer Scriptural, it is against the will of God.  It also just makes so much more sense for the nature of God to be one that he is a God of grace and glory and forgiveness, and everlasting love, and …  That is just who God is.