Reformation And Not The Protestant vs Catholic Reformation

Reform By God Not Man

Ezra 3

God

 

 

 

   

"3 And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.

² Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
³ And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening.
⁴ They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;
⁵ And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the Lord.
⁶ From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
⁷ They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.
⁸ Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the Lord.
⁹ Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites.
¹⁰ And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.
¹¹ And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
¹² But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:
¹³ So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off. "  Ezra 3:1-13

     The entire and simple overall theme and subject of the Book of Ezra, is the return of the remnant of the Hebrew people.  There are other books and prophets that are contemporaries to Ezra, and parallels of the story and prophecies.  Haagai,  Zecharaiah, and Malachi.  Two Hundred years before this prophecy would be fulfilled, Isaiah wrote about it.  Hardly a coincidence by any means in the Christian or Judeo worldview.  The King of the captive nation, Cyrus the secular ruler whom God used to judge Nebbuchanezer  for his pride,  insolence,  and hard hand against Israel and other fallen nations, issued the decree to set the Hebrews free

     Yesterday we discussed that 49,897 men, women, and children returned to Judah and Jerusalem with the appointed governor Zerubbabel, and only 2,000 more would return with Ezra eighty years later.  Some of the people had just completely fell in love with Babylon  and [symbol of the world and its system, sensuality, and no God] and would not come back to their first love.  Sound like our own American Republic?  Yesterday we spoke of the names listed in Ezra 2, and how they were the allegory of the names in the names in the Lamb's Book of Life.  If your name was not listed in the register of geneologies, showing that you had remained Hebrew in marital relationships.  Not in the book?  You were put out [divorced] from the congregation.  This is a foreshadowing of the "wheat and tares" Jesus warned about.

     The foundation of the Temple was laid, and old men wept, and the young men rejoiced.  Men who knew the former glory of the Temple and worship of Yaweh, and the young who only read, and heard stories of such things.  The Temple would be completed in 515 B.C. and the 2,000 would return in 458 B.C.     During the rebuilding of the Temple, worked ceased for two years.  Two main factors were trouble and strife in the form of opposition, and self pursuit of the people building their own homes and lives.  As with any ordained work of God, there is always opposition.  If there isn't, one may want to double check and make sure the project, work, or ministry is God's and not our own design and intentions.  The preaching and leading of Malachi, and Haagai led to the finishing of the Temple. 

 

     Ezra was a ready scribe who knew the Torah well.   When Ezra returned to Jerusalem, he was indignant and astonished at the physical and spiritual state of the City of David.  He knew the Word, so he was definitely discerned when things were not as God would have them.  This is another lesson for we Christians, when we walk in the Word of God, the more apt we are to discern that something is not in line with or of God.  The things Ezra saw that broke his hear were the Temple not being completed, and inter marriage of Hebrew and Gentile.  This is the application to us, when our walk isn't in line with God, our Temple [our bodies in service to Christ] is in a state of incompletion.  When we marry an unbeliever, we are unequally yoked, and are committing sin by doing so.

     Drastic measures were implemented to repent, reform, and realign with the ways and paths ordained of God.  Our Father in heaven is no cosmic killjoy, who desires to control us and not allow us "happiness" for a lack of better words.  He actually has our best in design for our heart, mind, soul, and relationships.  That is why He warned of intermarriage, or unequally yoked in marriage.  Think I am mistaken?  Look at today's divorce rates, in society, in the church, and compare them to contemporary Jewish marriages in America or Israel.  Look at the chemical dependency and immorality among our society and our church.  The Temple and relationships matter.  Ezra led the nation in the divorcing of the unlawful marriages in the nation of Judah.  Yes, unlawful, unscriptural marriages, which held no legitimacy before God, in the eyes of man yes, but God said NO!  And His authority was adhered to.  When this occurred, Judah began to prosper financially, she was becoming a nation, and the foundation was being laid, and history moving towards the Messiah coming.  Greece would come, and then Rome and Jesus.   All laid out before the beginning. 
 
  
^"15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
¹⁶ And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
¹⁷ That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
¹⁸ And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice"  Genesis 22:15-18
     Here we see the benefits of obedience in all matters. And in Ezra, we see the results of picking up the pieces of prior disobedience.  Choose this day whom we will obey.  Self?  Satan?  Or Christ?
Please share with the Saints beloved and have a blessed a Memorial Day and lift up in prayer those whom have lost their loved ones in service to our nation.  Love in Christ Jason!



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