SPIRITUAL DIARY For 07/04/2011
My Worship Time
Focus: The Return of
the Remnant Part-1 (The Treasure)
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezra 1:5-11
Message
of the verses: “5 Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin and the
priests and the Levites arose, even everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and rebuild the
house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem. 6 All those about them
encouraged them with articles of silver, with gold, with goods, with cattle and
with valuables, aside from all that was given as a freewill offering. 7 Also
King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the LORD, which
Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the house of his
gods; 8 and Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought out by the hand of
Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. 9 Now
this was their number: 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 duplicates; 10
30 gold bowls, 410 silver bowls of a second kind and 1,000 other articles. 11
All the articles of gold and silver numbered 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them
all up with the exiles who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.”
This section of Scripture is not
without some controversies of which I wish to begin with. The first one is about who this man
Sheshbazzar is. In John MacArthur’s
Study Bible he writes that there is no way that Sheshbazzar should be confused
with Zerubbabel however Warren Wiersbe gives some pretty good evidence that
they were the same person with two different names, something that was not
uncommon during this time of history, especially since many Jewish people were
given different names when they were exported to Babylon. “Ezra 5:16 states that Sheshbazzar laid the
foundation of the temple, while Ezra 3:8-13 attributes this to Zerubbabel and
Zechariah 4:9 confirms it.” I think that
I will have to agree with what Warren Wiersbe writes about this.
There is something else that needs
to be discussed and that is something that both MacArthur and Wiersbe agree on
and that is the total number of articles that were carried to Jerusalem from
Babylon. The total in verse eleven is
5400, while if you add up the number in the previous verses you come up with
2499. This was probably not a mistake by
the writer but some of the articles were not mentioned in the earlier verses
thus the total was 5400.
Now for the spiritual portion of
this section and that is seen in the last part of verse five, the highlighted
portion that shows that this entire goings on was part of the plan of God, and
also part of his prophetic Word. This
was also part of the Abrahamic covenant form Genesis 12:1-3.
Now I would like to interject
something from the MacArthur Study Bible that actually fits in with yesterday’s
SD but I read it this morning and thought it necessary to add. “The historian Josephus records an account of
the day when Daniel read Isaiah’s prophecy to Cyrus, and in response he was
moved to declare the proclamation of 1:2-4 (538 B.C.).” “2 “Thus says
Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the
kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in
Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 ‘Whoever there is among you of all His people,
may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and
rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in
Jerusalem. 4 ‘Every survivor, at
whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver
and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the
house of God which is in Jerusalem.’"
One more point to make and that has
to do with how the word “Judah” is used in this section, for it is not spoken
of concerning the people of Judah but rather a reference to a section or
providence that was with the Persian Empire where all the Jewish exiles lived.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I don’t
think it would be stretching the portion of verse five where it refers to the
Lord stirring up the hearts of the people to return to Jerusalem to say that
God still does the stirring of people today including me. I will make this brief, but any work that I
do for the Lord has been ordained for me to do in eternity past by the Lord or
for that matter for anyone’s works. (Eph. 2:10). In order for me to complete this work that
has been ordained for me to accomplish I am to abide (remain) in the Vine so
that His power will work through me and so that He will receive the glory for
the accomplishments. Jesus told His
disciples that it was necessary for Him to go away so that the Comforter would
come and then the works that His Church would do would be greater (in number)
than what He could do if He remained on earth.
I want to be one who is part of doing those works in order to bring
glory to the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1.
Psalm 139:23-24
2.
Ephesians 6:10-18
3.
Proverbs 3:5-6
4.
Philippians 4:11-13
5.
Romans 12:1-2
6.
Ephesians 2:10
7.
John 15:4
7/4/2011 9:48:39
AM
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