The Jewish Levites were servants to the priests; the Gentile Nethinim were servants to the servants! According to University Hospitals’ website “The Science of Health,” the top five most stressful life events are the death of a loved one, divorce, a major illness or injury, job loss, and—moving! In the days of Ezra, it was […]
Read More… from April 2, 2025 — We Can’t Make It Without Levites?
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” —John C. Maxwell As we examine the list of those who accompanied Ezra back to Jerusalem, we should notice the arrangement. “These are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me […]
If you have a heart for people, you’ll rejoice with Jesus over these amazing rescues. […]
“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 […]
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