A Devotional Look at the Book #525

A Devotional Look at the Book #525

by Jesse Abel

A Thought for today by Papa “J”

Remember the days of the telephone party lines? We use to listen in and then “backbite” one another. No different today! The government has a party line and “wow” can they “BACKBITE”!

A DAY IN THE PAST, THE PRESENT OR THE FUTURE

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His Law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. Psalm 1:1-3; Could it be that “We the People” are no longer Blessed”? The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Ezra; the Book

Ezra 4:1-5 – The enemies of any country should be keenly aware of their opponent, there is nothing new under the sun as Solomon would say. Righteousness is an effort on one side of the street and unrighteousness plays havoc on the other side. Ecclesiastes 3:16-17. The enemy plays the friend and ally. If we are not careful as Zerubbabel and the other leaders are in these passages (when we do begin to rebuild, places like Dearborn) the enemy will use this vulnerable time to his advantage; he already has.

While the foundation of the temple only took five months to put down, the temple itself was not finished until 515 B.C. which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius. The command to rebuild the temple was given, if you remember by Cyrus in the first year of his reign in 538 B.C. Like any construction project, funding, material and construction workers are all required. While much of this was promised by the kings of Persia, opposition will always be poking around and slowing things down.

I do not know much about the following letters in Ezra that go back and forth between Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes but I am interested in taking a look at some of the commentaries on this historical period. I hope you will join me in this adventure. One note: The Hebrew Bible combines Ezra and Nehemiah as one book and even though this is the history of Israel and is the final word of Israel’s historical narrative, we must not forget that these books are inspired and inerrant just as the apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:16-21.