“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers…What is man that You are mindful of him?” (Ps 8:3-4). Knowing long before it was written that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father” (Jas 1:17), Ezra declared: “Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such […]
“I cling to Your testimonies; O Lord, do not put me to shame! I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart” (Ps 119:31-32). Notice the strong verbs that David uses here. There is nothing passive or half-hearted about his commitment. When it comes to the Word of God—especially the […]
It took a mail bomb to demolish the resistance of his neighbor to hearing the gospel. […]
Be willing in your sacrifice. Be careful in your spending. Deliver fully in your service. And teach others. Artaxerxes’ letter is a masterpiece. He begins by calling himself “king of kings” (Ezra 7:12), which we feel most appropriately belongs to our Lord Jesus (Rev 19:16). However, this term was used by the Lord’s servants concerning these rulers […]
As they left, so they returned, in three waves: under Jeshua (538 BC), Ezra (458 BC), and Nehemiah (444 BC). Ezra did not come home alone. “Some of the children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes” (Ezra 7:7). Why […]
The temple was a masterpiece. But who knew the Owner’s Manual, explaining its use? Enter Ezra! Memorializing their freedom from Egypt, but now also in the joy of deliverance from Mesopotamia, they “kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month” (Ezra 6:19). It was also linked with “the Feast of Unleavened Bread” (v 22) which was […]
Read More… from March 26, 2025 — No To The Leaven; Yes To The Lamb
God will rebuild your ruins: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” —George Eliot So the four-year project (c. 520–516 BC) was finished, although the elapsed time since their return was 20 years. One can only imagine how “the descendants of the captivity… celebrated the dedication of this house of God with […]
Martin Luther came rather despondently to the breakfast table one morning. The menu? Humble pie, compliments of his wise wife. […]