Ezra 2:68-3:13: New Normal and Hope for a Better World

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 28 August 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay

 

 

We had a good time at the Rally Day: Picnic in the Park the other day. It was a really great mix of the parts of our Salvation Army group in the Valley. Many of you here today, of course, were there on Friday. There were a number of volunteers and their families; there were a number of staff and their families; there were a number of children we know from kids’ club and other places; there were customers from the store; there were some of our friends who use or have used our services over the years. It was even an outreach as some people just dropped by and I even saw one or two people I know from the community as well: it was great. It was really great to have people from these different parts of The Salvation Army family here have an opportunity to do something together and maybe get to know each other a little better.

For the second year in a row this Picnic in the Park doubled as our Rally Day. Rally Day is a word we use in The Salvation Army to celebrate the end of Summer and getting ready for the upcoming fall programs. When we get all the final dates set with all the different people involved, when we know, we will let everyone know when everything is happening. Some of the events already starting are Della’s groups: Wednesday coffee time, Friday morning walks. We just started coffee time after church again after a couple of years absence.

Before Covid we used to have a Monday hiking group too. I was reminded of this yesterday as Susan, Heather and I when to Fossli Park. That was a place that we went to with our group before covid. 

 

This year’s fall programs do feel a little strange. As with much of the word, we are still getting into the swing of things after 2 plus years of Covid. We need to update our phone and other contact lists as people have changed, just as circumstances have. Some of the typical church activities like Bible Study we haven’t done in a long time – it will seem very strange to do this again, a good strange but strange, nonetheless. Other things have changed a few times over the last 2 plus years – sermons have become much shorter as have services. Somethings – just like with many other organizations and businesses - we have even forgotten how to do parts of them. You see this with all the community events that are starting up here and all over our world after a couple of years break: people have forgotten how to do things we used to do all the time. We are getting back to normal and maybe it is a ‘new normal’ but it doesn’t quite feel normal yet.

We read from Chapter 3 of Ezra this morning. In the book of Ezra people are beginning to return to the way things were after a minimum 20-year break. We know how difficult it is trying to remember how to do things after a two year break, imagine returning to your old job after a 20 year break and trying to remember how to do everything or imagine returning to your church and having to set up the church calendar after a 20 year break or imagine returning to your old town (along with a few hundred other people) after a 20 year break and trying to find your old house, your old job, and trying to remember the way you used to do everything. Now, that 20 years is a minimum number. People who were the first to be deported could have been in exile from Jerusalem for anywhere from between 48 and 70 years, the full length of the exile.

This is what the book of Ezra-Nehemiah is: people trying to return to normal or a ‘new normal’, as we say now, but trying to make it as close to the old normal as possible – but instead of trying to pull everything together after a 2-year gap, they are trying to pull it together after a, in some cases, 70 year gap.

Now, I know that you haven’t all had the luxury of reading and reading about Ezra this week, so I’ll remind you of a bit more of the context and background. Israel was conquered by the Assyrians ca. 720 BCE and Judah was conquered in 597 BCE (586 BCE, the Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed) by the Neo-Babylonians/Chaldeans. By the year 539 BCE the Persians in turn had conquered both the Assyrians and the Chaldeans and this sets up the events in the books of Ezra-Nehemiah that tell the story of the exiles returning home from Babylon to Jerusalem, returning to the new normal.

Ezra and Nehemiah are two books in our Bible but they were actually written on one scroll called Ezra-Nehemiah and these two books, this scroll talks about many of the problems that the Judeans had returning to the new normal. In reading the book you get the feeling that some people may have thought that they could just go back to the way things were before, some people seemed to have an idealistic view, some seemed tentative, some practical, and others were afraid, very afraid.

All of these responses reminded me of people in our world, our country, our community, and our churches today. Now that the precautions and the measures adopted for Covid-19 are coming to an end, some people seem to hope that everything will return to an idealistic version of the old normal, the way things used to be – at least the good parts of the way things used to be. Some people remember times when all the churches in this country were full. Some people in The Salvation Army remember days of large bands and even large junior bands. Some people remember this and some people remember that. The longer ago the memories the more fondly we remember them too – but - at the same time we can’t quite remember the ways we used to do things just 2 plus years ago just before covid-19 struck. Sometimes it seems like we (or at least I) can’t even remember what we did yesterday.

The passage that stuck out to me as I was reading and re-reading the opening chapters of Ezra was 2:70-3:3:

The priests, the Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.

 

When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.

 

The people settled in their own homes – they returned to the new normal even though some of the people were very afraid; they met together and made sacrifices to the Lord. My friends there are some uncertain times still ahead here as we worship the Lord and as we return to our new normal. As we re-start Bible studies, coffee times, kids club, and other things, it will be a new normal. It won’t be they way things were 2 years ago; it won’t be the way things were 20 years ago or 70 years ago but we are returning to this new normal of worship and service and I invite you all to join us in whatever way you can as we figure out together exactly what is this new normal way of serving God in this time and place.

I want to share one more story with you today. This is from when Susan, the kids and I were in Victoria recently. I have always liked a picture my father-in-law had of Tommy Douglas and himself leaning on a fence. 

 

This is a great picture. Susan told me a little bit about the picture the other week. This picture was apparently taken at Susan’s grandma’s farm. She invited Tommy Douglas to visit one day when he was on the Island and he did. When he was there he had a good conversation with Susan’s dad – and it was during the conversation that Tommy Douglas convinced Bob Skelly to enter politics. Susan’s dad then went on to be a leader of the party and the longest ever serving MLA for this riding. It is a great picture. There is another poster at their place of Tommy Douglas with a quote that says, “Courage, my friends, it is not too late to make a better world”.  And that reminds me of a quote – almost the dying words of Jack Layton, “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.”

I think this is a very important reminder and a great encouragement for everyone and especially for us as we embark on our new normal. It is my hope that as we go forward in this new church season, we will remember “My friends, [that] love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.” For “it is never too late to make a better world”

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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1 Corinthians 10:11-13 (Ezra 3:1-21) Sign on the Staircase

Presented to TSA Corps 614 Regent Park, Toronto; 26 July 2015 and Alberni Valley Ministries, 27 August 2023, by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay

As many of you know we were at Boundless, the international congress of The Salvation Army in London and then we took our holidays: one week in England and another week in Scotland. (Susan and Sarah-Grace are still away.) It was a great time.

Our passage today, 1 Corinthians 10, addresses heritage among other things. When we were in the UK our family was able to explore a little bit of our family heritage. I believe that our family has been in North America for 200 to 300 years but originally the Ramsay side of our family was from Scotland. And so the tie I am wearing today is actually my family tartan from Scotland. I do have a kilt and I considered wearing that today but I thought that might be a little over the top when speaking with you for just second time.

It was great being able to see where the Ramsay family originally came from. We saw the ancient Ramsay castle at Dalhousie and Rebecca especially was good at finding family names in cemeteries, churches, and museums. I remember when we were looking for famous Ramsays (and other related family names) in one museum, I actually found a 'Captain Ramsay'. Since my name and title is also Captain Ramsay I thought this was great so I took a picture of the display with Captain Ramsay's name on it. Rebecca then pointed out that maybe I don’t want to share this picture as she read to me what that Captain Ramsay was famous for: He was a human trafficker. This was an anti-slavery wall and this Captain Ramsay was captain of a slave ship. So while I posted a lot of pictures on facebook, I decided that maybe that wasn’t the best one to share.

Obviously then, the Ramsay clan, just like the Israelite clans had some dark history, as well as some bright spots reflecting the light of God.  There are some more famous Ramsays people may know: There is Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay. I don’t know if that name means anything to anyone but he was the person in charge of the Normandy landings on D-Day. He was the one tasked with ushering in the beginning of the end of Nazi control of Western Europe even as Russia was driving the German forces from the East.  There was also a very famous artist Allan Ramsay. But the most famous Ramsay of all – of course – is that rather animated contemporary Scottish chef: Gordon Ramsay who does all of those kitchen shows. I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked if he is any relation. As far as I know I have no relationship to him other than the surname.

We saw some more of our family's Christian heritage there too: we saw the Ramsay Crest on a big stained glass window in what is historically Edinburgh’s main Christian Church. The family motto on our crest is ‘Prayer and Work’: a good motto to aspire to, for sure. We even saw the family chapel in the Ramsay castle at Dalhousie.

There were some other interesting things about exploring the old Ramsay  castle as well. They had falcons and owls that people could fly on the grounds; so Rebecca, Sarah-Grace, and Heather actually got to hold and pet a real live hunting owl – that was neat! We were even able to explore the grounds and take lots of great pictures. Our children were always very good about standing here and there so we could get their photos with the castle in the background – even once they quite accidentally stood nicely in a poison ivy patch – sorry about that Rebecca and Heather.  The castle was great. It even has secret passages: entrance ways and stairs hidden in floors and a secret doorway in a bookcase just like in some old movies. One thing I found particularly interesting was when we were exploring a back staircase at the castle: there was a sign that said, ‘turn left for the Spa, turn right for the dungeon/torture chamber. I would hate to make that wrong turn.

Warning us not to make wrong turns is somewhat what our pericope today is about. We would hate to walk the staircase of our life hoping for the eternal spa and turn into the eternal dungeon by accident. Now of course, God isn’t as arbitrary as that. He is not going to let us wander into an eternal dungeon by accident: He does a lot to point us to the freedom and Salvation that comes from Christ alone. He posts many such signs as the dungeon/spa sign on the walls of our lives.

1 Corinthians 10:11 tells us that one such sign pointing us away from the dungeon, towards the eternal spa is the experience of those who have gone before us. The Apostle Paul walks us through a little bit of our heritage as a people of God. (I understand a couple of weeks ago Calvin walked everyone through a little bit of that as well as he spoke about the heroes of the faith in the book of Hebrews.) As recorded in 1 Corinthians 10 here, Paul draws our attention to some of the warning signs that are the errors Israel has made, in the hopes that we will not make that same wrong turns in our life (10:6-10). God through Paul reminds us that 20 000 people died in a single day while involved in some sexual sin. He reminds us that on another occasion, people complained against God so grievously that even venomous snakes rose up, bit them and they died and kept dying until God lifted up the bronze Nehustan (as a foreshadowing of Christ) to save them as they cast their eyes upon him.

As well as these warning signs about the perils of the dungeon, Paul gives us signs of encouragement about how we can trust and follow God to the eternal spa even as we go through very difficult passages.[1] Paul draws our attention to the sign of the fiery cloud leading the Hebrews out of Egypt, the parting of the sea, the manna they ate and the water from the rock they drank in the desert (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). These are all signs pointing us to the spa, the grace of God we can experience now and forever as we walk with Him through our life.

That all being said, Paul knows– just like Iris reminded us in her devotional thought this past Wednesday on Philippians 4 – that sometimes the staircases we navigate in our life, sometimes these staircases get pretty tight. Sometimes the walk down the stairs of this life can be dark and scary and sometimes we need the encouragement of 1 Corinthians 10:12, to watch our step so we do not fall. Sometimes there is barely any room to move; sometimes these staircases can get pretty dark. Sometimes we have to squint and sometimes I know that there are times when some have wondered if they can even still see the light of God at all through the troubles, trials, and tribulations that can sometimes line the walls of our lives. Last time I was blessed to speak with you here, we chatted about the trauma that Noah and his family must have experienced as they passed through the flood even as they were delivered unto Salvation. 

Now, I know that there are many of us here who have gone through some really serious trials, temptations, troubles, and test. Some comparably minor tests for Susan. the children, and I arose even as we were at the conference in London and then on our furlough in the U.K. When we arrived in a strange city, in a strange country, in a daze after an all-night flight and with three children in tow, our hotel had given our room away. We had no place to stay. Even though we had booked it months in advance, even though we had called to confirm more than once, even though we had even sent email to confirm our room in writing, they gave it away and here we are in a foreign city, in a foreign land with no place to stay and when we try to call for help we can’t even get our phones to work! Then as we are trying to rent a car and as we are trying to get some food to eat and other things, neither our credit cards nor our debit cards will work! so here we were in a foreign city, in a foreign country with no transportation, no money, and no place to stay.[2] So what did we do? We prayed... and I called my mother.

God took care of us.  We also contacted Patricia and Iris, whom we had just met, and others to pray for us and God led us to Major Linda Budgell, whom we have never met before, and she knew of a room that a single Salvation Army Officer was unable to use and the hotel was gracious enough to let us fill up every free space on the floor of that small room with extra beds so that all five of us could fit there until the conference was over.

Now we were staying in London for another week beyond the length of the conference so when the conference was over we were in the same predicament: homeless, nowhere to go. God took care of us. I ran into Captains Curtis Cartmel and Rachelle Lamonte, whom I had never met before, and they told us that Majors Al and Karen Hoeft –are staying at an apartment rented by The Salvation Army in Barking, London. They were leaving London the very same day that we were without a place to stay and, Nigel Shultz, the Corps Officer from Barking, whom we had never met before, told us that we could use it for the rest of the time we were in London – for Free! God took care of us.

And there is more: our bank cards and credit cards: they still wouldn’t work. The computer chip technology they use in the UK is incompatible with our cards and VISA was no help and we certainly did need access to funds to survive. God took care of us. Even as I couldn’t use debit, PTL, my bank card still worked in some machines and our credit cards would work so long as they entered them in by hand. We were okay. God took care of us and when Susan and the Sarah-Grace were stranded and we couldn’t get our phones to work to reach the hotel in Venice where they were headed, God took care of us. We couldn’t reach the hotel from Scotland but my mother could from Victoria in Canada here; so she spoke to the hotel on our behalf and they held the room to the last possible moment and just as they were about to lock up for the night, Susan and Sarah-Grace arrived safe and sound. God took care of us.

Now as harrowing as our time was, I know for others here there have been even more harrowing times. I was chatting with John this week about a friend he is planning to visit in prison. I know that as I have visited friends in prison some of my struggles suddenly seemed minor compared to some of theirs and I know that as I was reading the Words of Life – a devotional book written by Major Bev Ivany – She spoke about a murder that affected many in this 614 community a while ago. Calvin shared with us on Thursday about his friend who has just had a terrible stroke and now is only able to speak two words: yes or no, in Japanese. Calvin spoke of the comfort that the Lord offered through the Psalms at this time. This week also I listened to a maiden speech by a SNP politician who referenced her friend who was struggling to survive so much so that he even passed out from hunger when going to see a government welfare worker and then the result of his seeking government help after a this long ordeal: they financially penalized this man who already couldn’t even afford to eat. I know that there are real struggles that real people are really going through everyday but we don't need to be tempted to give up, to throw in the towel. We don't need to be tempted to wander in the dungeon.[3]

It is in this very serious context of our real life that we are really given some very real hope both for eternity and today as well. 1 Corinthians 10:13: 'No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing He will also provide the way out so that you may [you will!] be able to endure it.'[4] Like with the stories we've shared today of God helping us in and through our struggles and there are many more even this week. One example I don't have time to share relates to the miracles surrounding the girl from Oklahoma who suffered the burn but God provided for her and her team mates the way and strength to get through and in miraculous fashion too! The Lord gives us hope in the midst of even adversity in our life.

The hope is that the Lord will comfort, sustain, and even transform me completely and totally even as I experience all of the trials that are part of my life. This hope is that the Lord will comfort, sustain, and even transform you completely and totally even as you experience all of the very real trials that are part of your life. This hope is that the Lord will comfort, sustain, and even transform each of us completely and totally even as we experience all of the trials that are a very real part of each and every one of our lives. And this hope is that the Lord will comfort, sustain, and transform even this whole country as we experience all of the trials that are a very real part of each and every one of our lives. And this hope that the Lord will comfort, sustain, and transform even the whole world completely and totally even as people everywhere experience all of the trials that our part of our life. And our hope in the Lord does NOT disappoint! And as we are faithful and follow Him we will be a part of that hope that He offers to all people.[5]

A picture that I love is on a wall in my in-laws home. It is of the Reverend Tommy Douglas; it says, “Courage, my friends; 'tis not too late to build a better world.” Another quote that resonates strongly with me is from Jack Layton’s farewell letter to Canadians; he wrote “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.” The Apostle Paul offers us this same encouragement and more and I promise you that as difficult as the staircase of our life may be at times that there is no testing that has overtaken us that God has not already escorted someone safely through before; so as dark as our life may seem at times, we can keep on keeping on, serving God through loving our neighbour because God is faithful and He will see us through even the most difficult circumstances of this life. And as we serve Him in the midst of our very real struggles I know that He will comfort and sustain us and I believe that, as recorded in Isaiah 61:1-4, He will use even us to transform the whole world; rebuilding the ancient ruins, restoring the places long devastated, and renewing the ruined cities that have been ruined for generations.

Let us pray.

 www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Cf. Cf. Harold W. Mare, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Corinthians/Exposition of 1 Corinthians/VII. Paul's Answers to Questions Raised by the Church (7:1-14:40)/B. Instructions Concerning Christian Freedom: Its Privileges and Responsibilities (8:1-11:1)/4. Warning: Israel's lack of self-restraint (10:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2

[2] Cf. NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, Kentucky, USA:WJK, 2004), 128 and Simon J. Kistemaker, 1 Corinthians (NTC: Grad Raoids Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 331.  The temptation to grumble or have faith is key to understanding this pericope, I believe.

[3] Cf. NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, Kentucky, USA:WJK, 2004), 128 and Simon J. Kistemaker, 1 Corinthians (NTC: Grand Rapids Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 331.  The temptation to grumble or have faith is key to understanding this pericope, I believe.

[4] Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, JKP, 1997), 166 and NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, Kentucky, USA:WJK, 2004), 129

[5] Cf. J. Paul Sampley, 1 Corinthians, (NIB: Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002), 915.

2 Chronicles 36:11-23: Stop it!

Presented to Swift Current Corps 29 August 2010
By Captain Michael Ramsay


We watched this wonderful video at Officer’s camp about counseling that I thought that I would share with you because I think it relates to the text that we are looking at today – John you’ve studied some different counseling theorists and techniques than I have in my training. Let me know if you have encountered something similar to this:[1]




2 Chronicles 36:15-17:

15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. [He told them to stop it!] 16 But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. [They wouldn’t stop it!]. 17 He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. [God stopped it for them!] God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar.

God totally wipes out the nation-states of first Israel (which should have been a warning to the southern kingdom) and now -in our text today- Judah because, Verse 14: “ …all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the LORD, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.”[2]

God told them to stop it. He sent them many prophets who foretold the events of our text today including Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah who is mentioned by name in Verse 12: “He [King Zedekiah of Judah] did evil in the eyes of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the LORD.”

The country’s leader, Zedekiah -as we just read here- and the country’s religious leaders and the general population – as we read in Verse 12 – they did not humble themselves before God. God sent His prophets to tell them to stop it and they wouldn’t listen to Him. ‘They mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets’ (Verse 16). They believed that they could just keep on sinning and it wouldn’t matter. They believed that no matter what they did that they couldn’t lose their independence, their salvation, because God lived in their country, in their temple. They believed God chose them so no matter what they did, none of them would not lose their inheritance in the promised land (See TSA Doctrine 9)[3] and as a result of this false belief, ‘ …all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful…’ (Verse 14). Instead of being faithful to God, they put their faith in earthly powers (2 Chronicles 36:2-13), their election and their temple building – which they end up defiling anyway in their contempt for and rejection of the LORD.

They were very wrong to put their faith in people and symbols rather than God. Verses 15-16: 15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, … 16 But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.

The people, the political, and the religious leaders - instead of following God - seemed by their actions to believe that because of who they were (the ‘chosen’ people) and where they lived (Jerusalem, God’s city) that they were safe and they believed that nothing could change that. They seemed to believe that it did not matter what they did since they controlled the land around God’s temple they seemed to believe that in that they controlled God or at least that He would protect his temple and that those who were put in charge of taking care of it – even if, verse 9, they themselves were even defiling the temple. God told them again and again through the prophets to stop it but they didn’t and so He stopped them, removing them from His temple which they defiled.

He is likewise telling us to stop it! In our society what have we been following instead of God? Some denominations and churches tell us that the fact that we have money shows that God approves of us. Nothing else matters if we have money. This prosperity heresy, which is very prevalent in North American culture says that the fact that you have money shows that you are doing well. That viewpoint is not a Christian one; it is a capitalist one: 'he who dies with the most toys wins'. There are also large denominations in North America that tell us that it doesn’t matter what we do, we all sin all the time so don’t worry about it – that stands in direct contrast to our text today. There are still other denominations in Canada that tell you that the Word of God is no longer relevant and it is just a guide book and there are people who tell you that everyone will ‘get into heaven’ as long as they are just nice and don’t kill anyone. These are a sampling of the contemporary teachings of people and an example of how, as verse 14 records, ‘ …all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations’. Our country is becoming more and more unfaithful and quickly turning our back on the commitment of our nation's founders to ‘peace, order, and good government’ and Psalm 72 – the verse that our cultural identity in this country was founded upon. How far we have strayed: Now we can’t even read the Bible and pray in our schools! All across this country, we seem to be more and more, as it says in verse 16, mocking God’s message and His messengers. I think we would be very naïve to think that we will not suffer consequences just like the people of Judah did in our text for turning their back on a God who loves them. He also loves us.

How about each of us individually: Do we ever fall into that same trap of turning our back on God? Do we believe that if we don’t do anything: if we don’t serve God; if we don’t read our Bible and don't pray; if we don’t take care of the marginalized in society; do we believe that we will still be on His team and by extension experience His salvation (Cf. Matthew 7:15-21, 25:31ff; cf. Numbers 21:4-9, 2 Kings 18:4)? It is interesting in Greek the most common word for faith and faithfulness are the same (ek pisteōs). Our beliefs and our actions are necessarily linked. James puts it quite succinctly where he writes that faith without deeds is dead (James 2:17; see James 2:14-26). The Salvation Army’s ninth doctrine states ‘We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.’

If we say we have faith in God but are not faithful than our actions prove our words to be a lie (cf. Matthew 7:15-21; 25:31ff.). It is then the righteous who will live by faith. And this faith is both, as the theologian James Dunn declares, “the initial act of receiving the gospel and the continuing process toward salvation.”[4] Faith is a result of righteousness (Romans 3:22; 4:5, 9,11,13; 9:30; 10:6) and righteousness is from God (Romans 3:22, 24; 10:3, 17; cf. 5:19; Psalm 72:11; Isaiah 46:13; Isaiah 61:10; Joel 2:23) for it is God who is righteous (Romans 3:5; cf. Psalm 35:24; 48:10; 50:6; 51:14; 65:5; 71:19; Isaiah 5:16) and it is His righteousness that enables us to be righteous, just as it is Christ’s faithfulness that enables us to live by faith. If we serve God then we will be faithful (Matthew 7:15-21). God is faithful. If, however, we reject the opportunity to faithfully serve God then we will not reap the benefits of faithfully serving Him. He has already won the war against sin and death. He has already secured our salvation. It is just our choice as to whether we want to experience it or not.

In our world today we know that even though the battle still rages, God has already won the war. Sin was defeated between the cross and the empty tomb. We know that the war is over and we are just waiting for our Lord to return and that it is only those of us that keep playing, those of us that keep pressing on towards the goal (Philippians 3:14; 1 Corinthians 9:24; Cf. Colossians 2:18); those of us who don’t give up; those of us who those of us who make it our goal to please God and Jesus who has already won the victory. If we stay with Christ we will claim the victory. But the sad thing is of course, some people do – like the political and religious leaders and the people of 2 Chronicles 36 here; and it seems like the leaders of and many people in this country and like some folks that each of us probably know and love here; the sad thing is many of them -it seems- will choose to reject God and die. This is sad. It grieves God’s heart.

But just when they are at their worst, just when everything seems to be lost, as the nation suffers the consequences of its sins (Romans 6:23), just after the chronicler in 2 Chronicles 36:1-21, retells the tragic story of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, and the exile of the people; in Verse 22, he tells us, as in Ezra 1:1 that God moves the heart of Cyrus[5] and God rebuilds His temple so that God’s people can go there to worship God again (cf. Isaiah 44:28; 45:1ff).[6]

This is exciting. Even when God’s chosen people choose to reject Him; even when they are faithless, God is faithful (Romans 3:3,4). Those that rejected God suffered the natural and logical consequences of their sin, they were deported and they even saw their holy temple destroyed. They rejected God’s offered salvation and so they didn’t experience it BUT God is still faithful and take a look at 2 Chronicles 36:23: ‘This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.' Even though the evil generation died in its sin, God offered another generation the same opportunity to worship Him in a Holy Temple dedicated to His Glory (see Ezra 1-6). God is faithful even when we are faithless. But for us to experience the joy of our salvation and His faithfulness – pertaining to our bad actions that come from rejecting Him – God, like Bob Newhart, says. ‘Stop it!’

God loves His people, He is faithful when we are faithless and He commissions King Cyrus to build a new temple. Now this new temple we know was eventually destroyed too as future generations -when it came to their bad faith and actions, refused to 'stop it' - and thus declined their salvation as well but God is still faithful even when we are faithless and an exciting thing happened when the final pre-Christian temple was destroyed in 70 CE, followers of our Lord never rebuilt it because God had already by then sent His only begotten son to live and die and rise again and to –himself- stand as the new temple of the new covenant. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus the purpose of the Temple has been fulfilled –And this is neat too: if we flip to Revelation 21, we will note that when all is said and done, at the end of the end, when Jesus does come back, when God recreates the heavens and the earth anew and when the New Jerusalem descends here to earth there is NO TEMPLE in it at all. We don’t need it. Christ now fulfills that roll: He is the new Temple.

Christ lived and died so that we may all be saved and all of us who – pertaining to our bad actions and rejection of Him – ‘Stop it!’ will indeed experience the paradice of worshipping God for always through the Temple of His risen Son, Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.

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[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1g3ENYxg9k
[2] Other reasons for their removal from the land include their contempt for Him, and their disrespect for the land (Leviticus 25:1-23), and the poor, the widow, the immigrant (Cf. Exodus 23:6,11, Leviticus 19:10,15, 23:22, 27:8, Deuteronomy 15:7, 15:11, 24:12-15, 1 Samuel 2:8, Psalms. 22:26, 34:6, 35:10, 82:3, Isaiah. 61:1, Ezekiel 16:49, 18:12, 22:29, Amos 2:7, 4:1, 5:11-12, 8:4-6, Zechariah 7:10.); and their disregard for His very important covenant (Cf. Genesis 12-17; Deuteronomy 4-26, 31; Leviticus 25:1-23; Jeremiah 52:4-27; Amos 3-4; Lamentations 4; Ezekiel 21,22; Joel 1-2:10). The people are removed from the land, just like the Lord told them they would be if they disregarded His covenant and they are removed for the period of time that God told them that they would be removed for disregarding His covenant (2 Chronicles 36:21; Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10). God told them that they would earn the loss their territorial inheritance if they continued to sin but they continued so they earned the wages of their sin (cf. Romans 6:23). They did. This was a traumatic time and it caused a lot of people to lose their faith and even their identity – the whole concept of the ‘missing tribes of Israel’ relates to the deportations starting with Assyria and some of these deportees’ descendants never did come back home. Cf. Donald E. Gowan, Amos. (NIB 7. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1996), 347, 383. Cf. also Thomas E. McComiskey, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Amos/Introduction to Amos/Theological Values of Amos/The doctrine of election in Amos, Book Version: 4.0.2 and Edwin Yamauchi, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Ezra/Introduction to Ezra and Nehemiah/Background of Ezra and Nehemiah, Book Version: 4.0.2: Deportation began with Tiglath-pileser III, who attacked Damascus and Galilee in 732 (2 Kings 15:29), carrying off at least 13,520 people to Assyria (ANET, pp. 283-84).
[3] Salvation Army’s Doctrine 9: ‘We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.’
[4] James D.G. Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38A: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 1988), 21.
[5] Cf. Derek Kidner: Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1979 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 12), S. 36: According to Josephus, however (Ant. xi. 1), Cyrus had been shown the prophecy of Isaiah 44:28, which names him, and was eager to fulfil it. While this is not impossible, it has no corroboration; and Cyrus’s own inscription shows that any knowledge he may have had of the Lord was nominal at best. Isaiah 45:5f. insists that to know the Lord involves acknowledging no god beside him.
[6] Cf. ‘Cyrus Cylinder’ in Ancient Near Eastern Texts edited by J. B. Pritchard, 1955, page 316. Cf. also Derek Kidner,: Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1979 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 12), S. 16 for a discussion of the Persian leaders’ position on religious tolerance and diversity.

Ezra 1:1-2 (2 Chronicles 36:22-23): You Can’t Go Home Again.

Presented to Swift Current Corps, 21 August 2010
by Captain Michael Ramsay

“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: ‘This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.”

We are going to spend the next couple of weeks looking at the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Did you know that some scholars consider that they are actually one book? Ezra-Nehemiah has two distinct sections pertaining to 1) the Temple (Ezra 1-6) and 2) Holiness (Ezra 7- Nehemiah 13)[1] and some people even lump them together with 2 Chronicles as one whole work – if you flip back to the last two verses of 2 Chronicles you will notice that Ezra begins – with overlap – right where 2 Chronicles leaves off.[2]

I used to be a teacher once upon a time. When I was going through my teacher training many years ago, we were always advised to establish prerequisite knowledge prior to commencing a unit. There are a number of ways to evaluate what people know about a subject; can anyone tell me what one of the easiest (for the teacher) and most effective ways to find out what people know about a subject? [a test]

I am going to give us an introductory test about Ezra and Nehemiah[3]

1) In what Testament are they contained: the NT or the OT?
2) Is E-N a part of the Pentateuch (the Law, the books of Moses), the Prophets, Wisdom, or History?
3) Who is the primary figure in the book of Ezra (esp. the last half)?
4) Who is the primary figure in the book of Nehemiah?

By the time of the events in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah (middle of the 4th Century BCE),

5) Persia was the foremost superpower of the day and they controlled Palestine, who was its leader recorded in Chapter 1 that we read from earlier? (You can look it up, verse 2)
6) Israel (721-721 BCE) and Judah (586 BCE) prior to the time of Ezra were conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians respectively and many of their people were deported and the city of Jerusalem was totally destroyed (because of the people’s contempt for God among other things Chronicles 36:15-21; cf. 2 Kings 25:1-21 and Jeremiah 52:4-27; cf. also Leviticus 25:1-23, Amos 3-4).
6a) There are 2 key parts of Jerusalem that are being rebuilt in Ezra and Nehemiah: what is Zerubbabel, in the book of Ezra concerned with rebuilding? (hint: Ezra 1:2)
6b) Bonus marks: what is Nehemiah concerned with the rebuilding of…? There is a famous one now in China and one was torn down in Berlin near the end of last Century.

You can imagine this situation then with me if you can. God totally wipes out the nation-states of Israel and Judah because of their contempt for Him, and their disrespect for the land (Leviticus 25:1-23), and the poor, the widow, the immigrant (Cf. Exodus 23:6,11, Leviticus 19:10,15, 23:22, 27:8, Deuteronomy 15:7, 15:11, 24:12-15, 1 Samuel 2:8, Psalms. 22:26, 34:6, 35:10, 82:3, Isaiah. 61:1, Ezekiel 16:49, 18:12, 22:29, Amos 2:7, 4:1, 5:11-12, 8:4-6, Zechariah 7:10.); and their disregard for His very important covenant (Cf. Genesis 12-17; Deuteronomy 4-26, 31; Leviticus 25:1-23; Jeremiah 52:4-27; Amos 3-4; Lamentations 4; Ezekiel 21,22; Joel 1-2:10).[4] The people are removed from the land, just like the Lord told them they would be if they disregarded His covenant and they are removed for the period of time that God told them that they would be removed for disregarding His covenant (2 Chronicles 36:21; Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10). God told them that they would earn the loss their territorial inheritance if they continued to sin but they continued so they earned the wages of their sin (cf. Romans 6:23). They did. This was a traumatic time and it caused a lot of people to lose their faith and even their identity – the whole concept of the ‘missing tribes of Israel’ relates to the deportations starting with Assyria and some of these deportees’ descendants never did come back home (cf. Ezra 1:5).[5] This destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple that we are talking about today all happened about 70-100 years before the events of Ezra Chapter 1 (2 Chronicles 36:22-23). For the people who were heading ‘back’ to Jerusalem, which is through whose eyes Ezra is written, then it would be quite something.

In our own time, we remember the Berlin Wall (1961-1989). It was erected during the Cold War to separate the East Germans from the West Germans. It went up quite stealthily and as a result families were split apart and there was a lot of personal tragedy. The whole of Germany was actually split into two separate nations by their conquerors for much of the 20th Century (1949-1990) and I don’t know if you remember but when they were reunited there were a lot of difficulties because life had gone in those places. They had grown apart and all of a sudden were thrown back together. This is sort of what is happening in our text today but add to the mix a whole bunch of migrants.

I was just in Victoria, BC and they had a new batch of Tamil migrants in the news a lot there. Were they in the news here? A boat of people, who by the looks of things barely survived their trip all the way across the Pacific Ocean looking to be processed (as per international and Canadian law) as refugees show up in Canada and we promptly take the people and… throw them in prison. Some British Colombians are scared of the new arrivals (not without some reason, I suppose) and they are reacting.

The time of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah combines the sentiments of both these situations: German reunification and Tamil migrants. There are still people living in Palestine (probably with direct family ties to the exiles, like with East and West Germany) and now the superpower of the day has relocated 50 thousands of people who left Israel generations ago to Jerusalem. Can you imagine if thousands of people whose great grand parents lived in Saskatchewan all of a sudden showed up here to live in Swift Current? It would be the same thing. This would be quite a bit of a shock to both the people living in Palestine (the Samaritans, named after Samaria, the capital city of Israel) and those immigrating (the Jews). This is the setting of Chapter 1 of Ezra (and 2 Chronicles 36:22-23).

Can you imagine how things would have changed for the Jews returning to Israel? Susan, the girls and I just returned to Vancouver Island where we are from originally. My oldest two girls were very young when we left and, of course, our baby is returning to a home she’s never seen before (much like the people returning in our scripture today). Now we hadn’t been gone nearly as long as 70 years so there was a lot that is still the same in my old hometown. At nighttime when baby wouldn’t sleep, I would often drive around the city at night and reminisce, as I would see all the places that I used to live and work and play. It was neat for me. Of course baby was oblivious: it meant nothing to her necessarily.

I remember at some point my wife or my mother or someone sends me to the pharmacy to get something. I think this will be fun, I know all the back roads and the traffic lights, I think; I’ll see how quickly I can get there and if I can avoid stopping at any of the lights. Well, I am doing quite well. I am cruising along the shortcuts that I know and if I see a red light I just make a right turn and continue along my path. I still know my old hometown pretty well - I don’t think I needed to come to a complete stop even once in getting across that whole section of the city. I am making really good time. I get to almost where I am going in no time flat, turn the corner to where the parking lot is supposed to be and almost run head-first into a Wall – Mart. Apparently in the four years since our family last lived in Victoria, they have gone a built Canada’s biggest Wall-Mart directly in the path of where I want to go. I then spend the next 5-10 minutes navigating this maze of streets, box stores, skyscrapers, and apartment buildings that is brand new since I last lived there. I don’t recognize this area at all and this very strange neighbourhood that I have all of a sudden arrived in is the very same neighbourhood where we used to work and where I used to live when my oldest two daughters were born. Things have changed quite a bit in just a few years. What’s the old expression: ‘you can’t go home again.’

There was more that changed too: next to the house I grew up in there was a potato field where the neighbourhood kids would often work in the summer and where we would always cut through on our bikes when we wanted to head in that direction – its gone now. There was another field of blackberry bushes that we used to cut through at the end of the street when we wanted to head in another direction – can’t do that any more. My old high school - I can’t walk there any more because the field I used to cut through to get there is now a subdivision and what makes that even worse is that that field was the athletic field for my old elementary school which is no longer a school. Even though my old elementary school is right next to low income housing for young families, they decided to close it down and sell off all the land to developers. This same thing happened to a building I used to work as well – SJ Willis. They took the property and sold it (for $1, I believe to some developer). I left Victoria less than a decade ago but a lot has changed very quickly. When we were leaving town too, we went to stop by a park that was very special to Susan where she used to be able to go and play in the tidal pools by the ocean - but the access to the ocean there is now completely eliminated. Things change. I don’t know if any of you have grown up elsewhere and returned home to explore or not but things change. ‘You can’t go home again.’ Time makes the place different.

If there was anyone in the time of our text today who did live long enough to remember Israel before the exile, I can only imagine what their shock would be because remember their whole city was destroyed by the superpower of their day – the Babylonians. It would be like someone who lived in Hiroshima before the superpower of our day, the Americans, dropped the Atomic bomb on all the people there – if they were returning home now for the first time now (1945-2015 will be 70 years). Everything is different. This is sort of what it is like in Ezra Chapter 1 (and 2 Chronicles 36:22-23) – things change; you can’t really go home again. It is as if a whole boat full or a flotilla of boats full of 50 000 migrants of families who used to live in Hiroshima showed up on their shores with a letter from their rulers telling them to rebuild a Temple that used to be very important to everyone.

This Temple – this is the other key to understanding the book of Ezra and a key to understanding all of Judaism - before it was completed with Christ and the final Jewish temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. I don’t know if you know it or not but there have actually been 4 temples on this same site:

1) Solomon’s Temple (ca. 957-586 BCE),
2) The temple that is being built in Ezra (Zerabbubel’s Temple, 516-19 BCE; cf. Josephus, Antiquities xi. 4,6; xv. 11,1),[6]
3) Herod’s Temple (19 BCE-70 CE),
4) and by far the longest Temple, The Dome of the Rock (692-present), is unrelated to Christianity. It has been on this location for more than one thousand three hundred years. [7] The Dome of the Rock is that Muslim temple that is on the site today is as important to Muslims as the earlier ones were to first Israelites and then Judeans.[8] (NB: If you want to learn more about the Temple in pre-Christian Judaism and what it must have been like, you might want to look at the Muslim Temple worship - particularly in Mecca).

In our text today the only temple that the people had known here was the first one; Solomon’s Temple that was commissioned by God and it was quite something. From its completion and dedication this temple was thought of as where heaven and earth meet (cf. 2 Samuel 7; 1 Kings 5:3-5, 8:17; 1 Chronicles 22, 28:1-29:9; Joel 3:5). There were four things that were very important to God’s covenant people before His covenant was completed through the death and the resurrection of Christ. These were the non-negotiables:

1) Moses, the leader and Law-giver
2) Election, the fact that the Israelite people were chosen for a specific purpose: to share the gift of salvation with the world (Genesis 12:3)
3) Torah: the books of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament.
4) The Temple

Solomon’s Temple, contracted by God, was an impressive structure. It took 7 ½ years to build (1Kings 6:1,18), and thousands of labourers to build it (1 Kings 5:16, 9:23; 2 Chronicles 25:18); the walls were made of hand-cut stone, the roof of cedar and the floor of cypress wood (1 Kings 6), inside was a giant molten sea of bronze (1 Kings 7:23-39; cf. 1 Kings 8:64, 2 Kings 6:14, 2 Chronicles 4:1, 15:20) and the whole interior of the building was overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6, 2 Chronicles 3:7-10). It’s estimated cost in today’s dollars to build is $174 billion USD. By comparison, the world’s tallest building today – the Burj Dubai only cost $800 million USD.[9] Even with all of this, what is most important was that Solomon’s Temple was thought by many to be where God lived so no matter how much the people disobeyed God; they thought He could never destroy Jerusalem and the holy Temple because He lived there. They were wrong. Like they say, you can’t go home again: God destroyed the Temple and God destroyed the City and God deported the people (2 Chronicles 36; cf. for ex. re: God’s providence Genesis 50:20; Isaiah. 10:5ff.; Acts 2:23, 3:17f., 4:27f., 13:27) and many people thus lost their faith in God.

Do we ever fall into that same trap? Do we ever forsake God to worship the Temples in our life? (Cf. Number 21:4-9, 2 Kings 18:4) Do we ever put our faith into things or people and then when they fail us, blame God. Do we ever try to go home again to a home that doesn’t exist? I know more than one person who has left the church because they were disillusioned by the sins of the Christians in it. I don’t know if you remember the 1980s but it seemed like every week then another famous US televangelist was falling from grace taking many innocent people with him and how about the sex abuse scandals that have rocked churches across this country? How many times have we or our loved ones put our faith in people (like televangelists or pastors) or institutions (like residential schools or churches) and lost our faith in God when people let us down. Lamenting our lives, cutting off our nose to spite our face, and bemoaning the fact that we can’t return home again because the Temples in our own life have been torn down.

This is what it was like between the last chapter of Chronicles and the first chapter of Ezra. It had gotten so bad that many people even elected not to return with the exiles at all – they turned their back on the city, they turned their back on the Temple and they turned their back hopefully not on God (Ezra 1:5; cf. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XI:1-3). Things change. The good old days of Temple worship are gone. You can’t go home again.

But just when they are at their worst, just when everything seems to be lost, just after the chronicler in 2 Chronicles 36:1-21, retells the tragic story of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, and the exile of the people, in Verse 22, he tells us, as we read today from Ezra 1:1 that God moves the heart of Cyrus[10] and God rebuilds His temple so that God’s people can go there to worship God (cf. Isaiah 44:28; 45:1ff).[11]

And in more recent history, when the final pre-Christian Temple was destroyed in the 1st Century CE, followers of our Lord never rebuilt it again because God sent his only begotten son to live and die and rise again and to –himself- stand as the new temple of the new covenant. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus the purpose of the Temple has been fulfilled – we can’t go home again to a time before our Lord, praise the Lord. And this is neat too: if we flip to Revelation 21, you will note that when all is said and done, at the end of the end, when Jesus does come back, when God creates the heavens and the earth anew and when the New Jerusalem descends here to earth there is NO TEMPLE in it. We don’t need it. Christ now fulfills that roll.

Likewise when the symbols we use to worship God, or the wonderful Christians we look to for leadership when they fall or when their time is completed, it doesn’t matter because Christ fulfills their roll too. He is our raison d’etre. He is our reason for living. He is our all in all. It is Christ and Christ alone.

Let us pray: Lord we thank you for all the symbols of worship that you have provided us with traditionally in the church. We thank you for all the people that have gone on before us. We thank you for the heroes of the faith that have run the good race. And Lord if there is any person – a pastor, an author, a spouse, a televangelist – or any tool of worship – communion, the mercy seat, the Sunday meeting – that we value more than you, that we worship instead of you, Lord please forgive us, and please tear down its distractions in our lives just like you tore down the temple and build us anew as new creations so that we may worship you and you alone.

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[1]Cf, Derek Kidner,: Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1979 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 12), S. 16. The second section can be further subdivided into Holiness and the Law (Ezra 7-10), Holiness and the Wall (Nehemiah 1-13).
[2] Cf. Sara Japhet, “The Supposed Common Authorship of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah, Investigated Anew,” VT 18 (1968), 330-371. and Ralph W. Klein, “The Books of Ezra Nehemiah” (NIB III: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1999), 663-664.
[3] 1) OT 2) History 3) Ezra (also Cyrus and Zerubbabel) 4) Nehemiah 5) Cyrus 6a) Temple 6b) Wall
[4] Cf. Donald E. Gowan, Amos. (NIB 7. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1996), 347, 383. Cf. also Thomas E. McComiskey, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Amos/Introduction to Amos/Theological Values of Amos/The doctrine of election in Amos, Book Version: 4.0.2
[5] Edwin Yamauchi, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Ezra/Introduction to Ezra and Nehemiah/Background of Ezra and Nehemiah, Book Version: 4.0.2: Deportation began with Tiglath-pileser III, who attacked Damascus and Galilee in 732 (2 Kings 15:29), carrying off at least 13,520 people to Assyria (ANET, pp. 283-84).
[6] Cf. Hugh Claycombe, ‘Zerubbabel’s Temple’ in NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Zondervan Publishing, 2002), 674.
[7] Cf. P. Alexander, ‘Temple’ in Lions Encyclopaedia of the Bible (Herts, UK: Lion Publishing, 1986).
[8] The Temple: Some people even believed that God lived in the Temple. because among other things the site that it is built on is believed by some to be the sight where Adam was created, where Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, where the venerated ‘cornerstone’ is located (cf. Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17), where the rock that Jacob slept on and the one that the Muslims believe Mohammed ascended from towards heaven. The Temple there today is very important to Muslims, just like the earlier temples were very important before the purpose of the temple was fulfilled in Christ (cf. Matthew 4:5-6, Mark 13:1, Acts 3:1-11). If you want to learn more about the Temple in pre-Christian Judaism and what it must have been like, we should probably look at the Muslim Temple worship (particularly in Mecca). As opposed to contemporary Judaism which has abandoned much of its historical beliefs and practices around the temple, the Muslims still have all the important animals sacrifices and similar rituals to that which the people of God were supposed to partake in prior to the advent of Christ. Christians have of course moved on. We know that through the death and resurrection of Jesus the purpose of the Temple has been fulfilled and that if we flip to Revelation 21, you will note that when God creates the heavens and the earth anew and when He makes the New Jerusalem there is NO TEMPLE in it. Christ fulfills that roll.
[9] ‘The Temple’ in The Masonic Trowel. Available on-line at http://www.themasonictrowel.com/
[10] Cf. Derek Kidner: Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1979 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 12), S. 36: According to Josephus, however (Ant. xi. 1), Cyrus had been shown the prophecy of Isaiah 44:28, which names him, and was eager to fulfil it. While this is not impossible, it has no corroboration; and Cyrus’s own inscription shows that any knowledge he may have had of the Lord was nominal at best. Isaiah 45:5f. insists that to know the Lord involves acknowledging no god beside him.
[11] Cf. ‘Cyrus Cylinder’ in Ancient Near Eastern Texts edited by J. B. Pritchard, 1955, page 316. Cf. also Derek Kidner,: Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1979 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 12), S. 16 for a discussion of the Persian leaders’ position on religious tolerance and diversity.