Author: Nicholson

Nothing but precious vessels for the Lord’s house! It’s the same now. Are you a vessel of honor? (2 Tim 2:20-21).  It was time to pack up and head back to Israel. Jerusalem lay in ruins. The temple had been trashed and torched. It was with faith, mingling with hope, that Cyrus said to the […]

Read More… from March 3, 2025 — The Mystery Of The Missing Knife

Sometimes we need those people we least expect to remind us of our obligations to the Lord.  What did the majority of Judah’s kings have in common? They abandoned, desecrated, or destroyed the house of the Lord! A recurring motif in Scripture is that God would often turn from His chosen people to seek those […]

Read More… from February 28, 2025 — Don’t Forget Your Offerings!

Armies break things and kill people. But Cyrus wants the Jews to return, rebuild, and refurbish the temple.  Imagine this! Cyrus the Great was not only a king but an empire builder. His armies subjugated people, smashing their fortresses and pillaging their treasures. He had done it scores of times. According to Rüdiger Schmitt, professor […]

Read More… from February 27, 2025 — Cyrus The Contrarian

Cyrus welded together the world’s first true super-power. But this one letter was more important than that!  The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are parts of one continuous history. In fact, the Hebrew Bible had them bound together as one scroll. Although Ezra and Nehemiah seem to be doing very different work—one restoring the temple […]

Read More… from February 26, 2025 — Cyrus Sends A Letter

God had done everything to isolate His people from the nations. Now He had scattered them there!  “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia…” (Ezra 1:1). Right away we realize something dramatic has happened. Since the book of Joshua, the focus of the historical record has been the Promised Land, and, since David, […]

Read More… from February 25, 2025 — Ezra’s Place In The Bible