Chapter 19 - The Return Home

Ezra 1-6

Haggai 1-2,

Zechariah 1, 8

Introduction to the Reading: First of all, I have to start off with an apology. For those of you who have been following these posts, you'll notice that I failed to write something last week. It's been crazy busy. I've been working extra hours at work. I'm training for a triathlon, so I've been rather busy working out. As some of you know, we just closed on a house. And we've had a number of family events going on. It seems like the summers just fill up. Every moment there is something going on.

Before You Read - Background to the Reading: For the next three weeks, we will be reading about the time period after the Israelites exile in Babylon. It's a time period, to be honest with you, that I'm not very familiar with myself. Sure I've read these parts of the Bible before, but I just don't know them as well as other portions. Maybe it's because in school we always got to this part of the Old Testament right before summer break. Or maybe it's because there aren't the memorable miracles like Moses dividing the Red Sea or Elisha raising a person from the dead. Either way, I needed a bit of an overview. So I made myself a timeline:

At the very end of our reading last week, there was a new world power that had taken the stage: Persia. What had looked like the end of the story, we will hear this week was just the beginning. With a new sheriff in town, so to speak, the Israelites are going to have a chance to come home. After 70 years, things are going to be quite a bit different. You can just imagine the grandparents reminiscing during the trip home about "the good ol' days." We know things hadn't been that good before they left, but now there was a chance at a fresh start. That's exactly what we need sometimes: a fresh start.

Time to Slow it Down - Middle of page 266 after Commentary: Well the Israelites got right to work when they got home. No, things weren't as glamorous as the days of Solomon's Temple: you can just picture the chaos as some people cheer with excitement while others cry thinking how wimpy the new temple is compared to the old. Yet it was a step in the right direction: the people, moved by God's love, built a temple for his glory and offered him their first fruits. It was exactly the fresh start they needed. 

But soon the moment came to a screeching halt. The work on the temple slowed until nothing was happening. Is there a building project half finished that you drive by on a regular basis? What message do you get as you pass by? You can just imagine kids who remember walking by the temple ever since they were infants who are now teenagers, looking at the work just sitting idle. There are saws and boulders just lying there. What message did they get as they walked by?  But like lighter fluid on a campfire (which I do not recommend, for the record,) their desire was hot for a moment, but soon fizzled until all that was left was a smoldering pile. 

Can you relate? I can. My admission of guilt at the beginning of this post was more than an apology. It was also an admission that I'm not that much different than the Jews of our lesson. When I started the Story, I was excited. I wanted to get back into the scriptures. I wanted to worship him by spending time admiring his love. It was exactly the fresh start that I was looking for. Like the Jews on the temple, I went right to work. Yet, I'll admit, my excitement has waned. I still want to read...it's just that other things have somehow taken priority. But what message does that send you? Have those other things that were so important, made me any happier? Were they really as important as I had made them out to be? 

What I needed this week was a breeze:  a gentle breeze blowing on smoldering coals. The Holy Spirit was that breeze, working through the Word. As he spoke to the Jews in the days of Zerubbabel, he spoke to me and perhaps he speaks specifically to you as well.  He asks us what is really important. Then with his words of love he renews our zeal....

When You're Done Reading - Thoughts to Ponder:

Interesting how everything came together, isn't it? What spurred the people on to finish the temple? A little opposition! What got the people the supplies they needed? A little opposition! It's like the Lord had it all planned out...maybe that's because he did!

So have you hit opposition in your life? How did you respond? Even more importantly, have you encountered opposition in your faith life? Has someone challenged your faith or how you put your faith into action? Now is the time to put that faith to work! Sometimes when we face opposition or we struggle in our faith, we may feel like God is abandoning us. Yet as I look back in my life, it is usually those times that the Lord is using whatever challenge that I face as a catalyst to grow my faith. 

The doctrines of scripture that I've struggled with the most, are the very ones that I now run to for comfort when I feel my sin. For example, for a long time I struggled grasping how the Lord could work through water, bread, and wine in the Sacraments. My faith was challenged whenever I tried to rationalize how God could work through simple earthly things. Yet when I came to realize that what made these earthy things actual Means of Grace was God's promise connected to them, then the Sacraments became my source of comfort. Every time I go to the Lord's Supper or see my Baptism certificate, I find peace in God's Grace in these Means of Grace. What doctrines have you struggled with? What truths of scripture have you found yourself debating with friends or co-workers? Use these challenges as catalysts to dig into the Word.

The Lord wants us to be happy. But I've come to know that his primary goal isn't that we are  happy just in this life, but that we have happiness forever with him in heaven. Sometimes he shakes us up a bit so that we re-focus our priorities. Sometimes the Lord needs to knock us on our backs for us to start looking up. Just as Jesus would be the greater glory that would someday fill the earthly city of Jerusalem, we have the promise that one day we will see Jesus' glory fill the eternal city of God in heaven.

Hymn of the Day/Prayer:

Words: Ge­org M. Pfef­fer­korn, 1667 ; trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Au­gust Crull, 1923.

What is the world to me,
With all its vaunted pleasure
When You, and You alone,
Lord Jesus, are my Treasure!
You only, dearest Lord,
My soul’s Delight shall be;
You are my Peace, my Rest—
What is the world to me?


What is the world to me?
My Jesus is my Treasure,
My Life, my Health, my Wealth,
My Friend, my Love, my Pleasure,
My Joy, my Crown, my All,
My Bliss eternally.
Once more, then, I declare—
What is the world to me?