My blog

Tag: Kings

  • Kings & Kingdoms

    Who is there among you of all his people?  His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD, God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. Ezra 1:3 NKJV

    Let’s look at the context of this verse. After Israel had three waves of their people exiled to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Persia held the Jews in captivity for seventy years. In the first two verses of Ezra chapter one, God gave the King of Persia, Cyrus, who followed Nebuchadnezzar, a sense of urgency to put out a proclamation in writing to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

    Verses 2019 07 08Cyrus was an ancient, cruel and pagan king. It’s interesting to me that this mighty king would proclaim the Jewish God, THE God and then give the Jews the green light to return to Jerusalem and build the temple to their God. This king ultimately allowed the exiled people to return to their homeland. 

    Based on Daniel, Ezra and many other major and minor prophets of the Bible, I believe God puts men and kingdoms in place to bring about His plan. Ezra chapter one verses one and two, tells us this. I believe it has been this way since the beginning of time.

     

  • God sees it all, anyway.

    Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;

    Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.

    Cease to do evil.  Isa 1:16 NKJV

    Isaiah is one of the major prophets in the Bible.  His name means “Salvation is of the Lord”. In Isaiah’s day, Egypt, Assyria and Babylon surrounded the tiny country of Israel, much like today, Israel is surrounded by Egypt, Iran, and Syria. In his day Israel was in the center of wars between those nations.  Again, much like it is today.

    By the time Isaiah came into Israel’s history, the Israelites had been in the promised land for almost 700 years. At first, they were one nation, but because of their pride, they wanted kings like the other nations instead of making God their king.  Thus, the nation of Israel, because kings were not after God’s heart, the nation was split.  To the North, the nation of Israel remained and to the south, the nation of Judah was formed. This happened around 720 BC.  The nation of Judah remained loyal to the God of Israel, Yahweh.

    In Isaiah 1:1, the prophet Isaiah receives a vision.  In verses 2-4, the text tells of God’s complaint against the nation of Judah.  In verses 5-9, the text speaks of the desperate condition of Judah. In verses 10-15, we are told how God hates meaningless religious ceremonies.  And that leads us to verse 16 that gives us a remedy to the first 15 verses.

    God wants us to repent from our sins, but isn’t that what we should do in our daily lives and not just toward God but toward our fellow man?  We should cease to do evil.  Whether in our homes, our workplaces, community or our nation.  Taking stock of who we are and shining a bright light on our frailties as humans is difficult.  It’s terribly difficult.  We don’t want to do it.  We don’t want to see how far we’ve come from that child-like innocence to corrupted adult.

    Turning away from sin—whatever that sin may be—is hard.  It can’t be done on our own.  We need the Lord to help us to do that.  And we will struggle with it for the rest of our lives but turning to Him is the only answer.  He loves us.  He loves you.  All you have to do is ask. God sees it all, anyway.  

    How has your life turned around?  

     

  • Kings & Kingdoms

    Who is there among you of all his people?  His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD, God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. Ezra 1:3 NKJV

    Verses 2019 07 08Let’s look at the context of this verse. After Israel had three waves of their people exiled to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Persia held the Jews in captivity for seventy years. In the first two verses of Ezra chapter one, God gave the King of Persia, Cyrus, who followed Nebuchadnezzar, a sense of urgency to put out a proclamation in writing to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

    Cyrus was an ancient, cruel and pagan king. It’s interesting to me that this mighty king would proclaim the Jewish God, THE God and then give the Jews the green light to return to Jerusalem and build the temple to their God. This king ultimately allowed the exiled people to return to their homeland. 

    Based on Daniel, Ezra and many other major and minor prophets of the Bible, I believe God puts men and kingdoms in place to bring about His plan. Ezra chapter one verses one and two, tells us this. I believe it has been this way since the beginning of time.