Ezra 1-6
Haggai 1-2,
Zechariah 1, 8
Before You Read - Background to the Reading: For the next three weeks, we will be
reading about the time period after the Israelites exile in Babylon.
It's a time period, to be honest with you, that I'm not very familiar with
myself. Sure I've read these parts of the Bible before, but I just don't know
them as well as other portions. Maybe it's because in school we always got to
this part of the Old Testament right before summer break. Or maybe it's because
there aren't the memorable miracles like Moses dividing the Red Sea or Elisha
raising a person from the dead. Either way, I needed a bit of an overview. So here’s
a helpful timeline:
At the very
end of our reading last week, there was a new world power that had taken the
stage: Persia. What had looked like the end of the story, we will hear this
week was just the beginning. With a new sheriff in town, so to speak,
the Israelites are going to have a chance to come home. After 70 years, things
are going to be quite a bit different. You can just imagine the grandparents
reminiscing during the trip home about "the good ol' days." We know
things hadn't been that good before they left, but now there was a chance at a
fresh start. That's exactly what we need sometimes: a fresh start.
Time to Slow
it Down - Middle of page 266 after Commentary: Well
the Israelites got right to work when they got home. No, things weren't
as glamorous as the days of Solomon's Temple: you can just picture
the chaos as some people cheer with excitement while others cry thinking how
wimpy the new temple is compared to the old. Yet it was a step in the right
direction: the people, moved by God's love, built a temple for his glory and
offered him their first fruits. It was exactly the fresh start they
needed.
But soon the
moment came to a screeching halt. The work on the temple slowed until
nothing was happening. Is there a building
project half finished that you drive by on a regular basis? What message do you
get as you pass by? You can just imagine kids who remember walking by the
temple ever since they were infants who are now teenagers, looking at the work
just sitting idle. There are saws and boulders just lying there. What message
did they get as they walked by? But like lighter fluid on a campfire
(which I do not recommend, for the record,) their desire was hot for a moment,
but soon fizzled until all that was left was a smoldering pile.
Can you relate? I can. How often I have started things with great zeal
only to let them fall idle. And what
kind of a message did that give to you in 2012?
What I needed at the end of the year was a breeze: gentle breeze blowing on smoldering coals. The Holy Spirit was
that breeze, working through the Word. As he spoke to the Jews in the days of
Zerubbabel, he spoke to me and perhaps he speaks specifically to you as well.
He asks us what is really important. Then with his words of love he
renews our zeal....
When You're
Done Reading - Thoughts to Ponder:
Interesting
how everything came together, isn't it? What spurred the people on to finish
the temple? A little opposition! What got the people the supplies they needed?
A little opposition! It's like the Lord had it all planned out...maybe that's
because he did!
So have you
hit opposition in your life? How did you respond? Even more importantly, have
you encountered opposition in your faith life? Has someone challenged your
faith or how you put your faith into action? Now is the time to put that faith
to work! Sometimes when we face opposition or we struggle in our faith, we may
feel like God is abandoning us. Yet as I look back in my life, it is usually
those times that the Lord is using whatever challenge that I face as
a catalyst to grow my faith.
The doctrines
of scripture that I've struggled with the most, are the very ones that I now
run to for comfort when I feel my sin. For example, for a long time I struggled
grasping how the Lord could work through water, bread, and wine in the
Sacraments. My faith was challenged whenever I tried to rationalize how God
could work through simple earthly things. Yet when I came to realize that what
made these earthy things actual Means of Grace was God's promise connected to
them, then the Sacraments became my source of comfort. Every time I go to the
Lord's Supper or see a reminder of my baptism, I find peace in God's Grace in
these Means of Grace. What doctrines have you struggled with? What truths of Scripture
have you found yourself debating with friends or co-workers? Use these
challenges as catalysts to dig into the Word.
The Lord wants
us to be happy. But I've come to know that his primary goal isn't that we are happy
just in this life, but that we have happiness forever with him in heaven.
Sometimes he shakes us up a bit so that we re-focus our priorities. Sometimes
the Lord needs to knock us on our backs for us to start looking up. Just as
Jesus would be the greater glory that would someday fill the earthly city of
Jerusalem, we have the promise that one day we will see Jesus' glory fill the
eternal city of God in heaven.
Hymn of the
Day/Prayer:
Words: Georg
M. Pfefferkorn, 1667 ; translated from German to English by August
Crull, 1923.
What is the
world to me,
With all its vaunted pleasure
When You, and You alone,
Lord Jesus, are my Treasure!
You only, dearest Lord,
My soul’s Delight shall be;
You are my Peace, my Rest—
What is the world to me?
What is the world to me?
My Jesus is my Treasure,
My Life, my Health, my Wealth,
My Friend, my Love, my Pleasure,
My Joy, my Crown, my All,
My Bliss eternally.
Once more, then, I declare—
What is the world to me?
With all its vaunted pleasure
When You, and You alone,
Lord Jesus, are my Treasure!
You only, dearest Lord,
My soul’s Delight shall be;
You are my Peace, my Rest—
What is the world to me?
What is the world to me?
My Jesus is my Treasure,
My Life, my Health, my Wealth,
My Friend, my Love, my Pleasure,
My Joy, my Crown, my All,
My Bliss eternally.
Once more, then, I declare—
What is the world to me?
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