Sunday, 16 August 2020

Three lessons from Ezra

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Question of the day: What 3 things are we going to talk about today?

Answer: Here they are. I'll even number them for you.

1. What is the "take-away" lesson from Ezra 3:6? Ezra 3:6 "From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to Adonai, though the foundation of the Temple of Adonai had not been laid." This is something the Lord has spoken repeatedly to me over the last year and a half. "Do what you can with what you've got!" The rebuilders of the Temple didn't wait to have a Temple, they immediately prepared an altar and began to sacrifice on it. The altar is the place of commitment. It's the place where life is given over to the service of God. What are we waiting for?

2. What is an occasion of joy to one may be an occasion of sadness and grief to another? Everyone saw the beginning of the restoration of the Temple. Some cried with sadness as they realized the rebuilt Temple would never have the grandeur of Solomon's Temple. Others cried with delight at the privilege of building the House of God in their day. Ezra 3:13 "People could not distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of the people's weeping. For the people were shouting so loudly that the sound was heard far away." Which will we be, the people who are glad or the people who are sad? I vote for glad.

3. We must be wise concerning who builds with us. Everyone who offers to help is not really there to help. Micah 4:4 "Then the people of the land began discouraging the people of Judah and making them afraid to build." There is no end to the "trouble makers" in this world. There are always those who want to interfere with the work of the Lord.

Blessings, Rabbi Michael