Tag: Jewish
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Do Not Add To His Words
6Do not add to his [God’s] words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.–Proverbs 30 Beware the trap of leaning on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). You may be really smart and your thoughts about Scripture may be indeed highly nuanced. But your commentary on the Bible is not more important than…
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It Is Through the Grace
9“He [God] did not discriminate between us [Jewish] and them [Gentile], for he purified their [Gentile believers’] hearts by faith. 10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11No! We believe it is through the grace…
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God Shows No Partiality
34So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. –Acts 10 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)…
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A Very Great Assembly
1While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly.–Ezra 10 Ezra had been corporately confessing for the entire nation. His confession involved his inside and also his outside.…
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I Am Ashamed and Blush
“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens…”–Ezra 9 Ezra was confessing sins publicly and corporately for his people. Ezra felt shame and embarrassment when faced with his sins…
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I Took Courage
27Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem, 28and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage, for the…
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For the Lord Had Made
22…for the LORD had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king…–Ezra 6 This little phrase grabbed ahold of me this morning. Judah was in a place where joy might have been lacking. They were allowed to return and rebuild, and then they had to stop. All hinged on the decree of a foreign…
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The People of the Land
4Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build 5and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.–Ezra 4 Just as soon as the building started, Judah faced frustration and opposition.…
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The Foundation of the House
11…And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.–Ezra 3 When the Babylonians carried Judah into exile, the Temple was destroyed. Imagine how that felt. What questions they might have secretly asked. Not only was the nation defeated, but was God? Now…
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Each to His Own Town
1Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. –Ezra 2 The return from exile wasn’t just a prophecy. It wasn’t just one of those…
