Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
Both the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were written by Ezra, the priest during the 5th century B.C. The northern tribes of Israel had been taken captive by Assyria. The Assyrians had repopulated northern Israel and had intermarried with the people. This is where the Samaritan people originated. The Babylonians had conquered southern Israel or Judah and most of the people had been carried away captive. Judah was mostly unpopulated for the 70 years they remained in captivity. The Babylonian Empire was captured by the Persians while the children of Israel were in captivity and the Persians began to allow them to return to their homeland to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.
The book of Ezra begins here and in the Hebrew Bible Ezra and Nehemiah are combined into one book. The first wave to go back went with Zerubbabel . He took about 50,000 with him to work on the reconstruction of the temple. Ezra later followed with about 2,000 more to aid in the rebuilding of the temple. Nehemiah followed to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem.
I love Ezra because he was such a shepherd to the people. He stood on the word of God and really cared for them spiritually. It was not all about the building project. He wanted the people to remember why they went into captivity in the first place and encouraged them to obey the word of God so as not to make the same mistake twice. Ezra was an outstanding leader and led by the word of God.
Next installment...verses 1-4 of chapter 1 that are to me some of the greatest apologetic in the Bible.
Love
Mom
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Remember Your Resting Place
In those days and in that time,” says the LORD, “ The children of Israel shall come, They and the children of Judah together; With continual weeping they shall come, And seek the LORD their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, With their faces toward it, saying,‘ Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD In a perpetual covenant That will not be forgotten.’My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; They have forgotten their resting place--Jeremiah 50:4-6
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
Sometimes it is good to stop and remember. Today as I read through Jeremiah 50 and 51 describing the judgment and destruction that God would bring upon Babylon, I stopped short at this verse and remembered where my resting place is. My resting place is in God, my Savior. He is my shelter.
As God speaks judgment against Babylon, He remembers His people. His people who were in Babylon because of their sin of idolatry...their sin of forgetting Him. Here He predicts blessing for them in verses 4-7 and then again in verses 17-34. He will not forsake Israel...Restoration is coming...sin will be pardoned and they will return to their own land. Destruction, however, awaits Babylon with no promise of restoration or rebuilding. God used Babylon as His instrument of judgment to Judah and now it will experience the Lord's judgment.
Verses 4 and 5 in this chapter of Jeremiah speak to the contrast between how God's people went into captivity...in pride and sin and how they returned. We see them returning with tears of godly sorrow...unlike the worldly tears they shed as they went into captivity. They would now seek after Him and not after idols. Hebrews 12 speaks of this as the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
There is such evil out there today girls...I think of the Philadelphia and the slaughter of innocents for 30 years...I think to the link I just posted where planned parenthood is aiding in the trafficking of young girls for prostitution. Our government is turning a blind eye...we are Babylon. Judgment is coming...evil surrounds us. Where do we find rest...
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Rest in Him...find peace in Him.
You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah --Psalm 32:7
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. --Psalm 91:1
Love
Mom
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
Sometimes it is good to stop and remember. Today as I read through Jeremiah 50 and 51 describing the judgment and destruction that God would bring upon Babylon, I stopped short at this verse and remembered where my resting place is. My resting place is in God, my Savior. He is my shelter.
As God speaks judgment against Babylon, He remembers His people. His people who were in Babylon because of their sin of idolatry...their sin of forgetting Him. Here He predicts blessing for them in verses 4-7 and then again in verses 17-34. He will not forsake Israel...Restoration is coming...sin will be pardoned and they will return to their own land. Destruction, however, awaits Babylon with no promise of restoration or rebuilding. God used Babylon as His instrument of judgment to Judah and now it will experience the Lord's judgment.
Verses 4 and 5 in this chapter of Jeremiah speak to the contrast between how God's people went into captivity...in pride and sin and how they returned. We see them returning with tears of godly sorrow...unlike the worldly tears they shed as they went into captivity. They would now seek after Him and not after idols. Hebrews 12 speaks of this as the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
There is such evil out there today girls...I think of the Philadelphia and the slaughter of innocents for 30 years...I think to the link I just posted where planned parenthood is aiding in the trafficking of young girls for prostitution. Our government is turning a blind eye...we are Babylon. Judgment is coming...evil surrounds us. Where do we find rest...
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Rest in Him...find peace in Him.
You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah --Psalm 32:7
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. --Psalm 91:1
Love
Mom
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