A few years ago my sisters and I got together to celebrate the middle sister's 60th birthday. We spent time visiting a few of the homes we lived in while growing up. It was interesting to see the places now, to try and understand why the house seemed to big then and so small now. While it was fun to take this trip down memory lane, the truth is, you can never go back in time and recreate feelings, or even conjure up accurate memories. Time has changed everything. That is not necessarily a bad thing.
Ezra 1:2 (NIV)
"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."
They were going home. After seventy years the Israelite people were being released from captivity and were able to return to their homeland. They were going back to rebuild the temple. What would they find when they arrived home? How would they feel, because most likely it is the sons and daughters of the captives who would be returning. Probably the original inhabitants passed away by now and it is their children who will inhabit the land and rebuild the temple.
Their memories will consist of the stories that had been passed down from the previous generation. This week we will explore Chapter 19, The Return Home. Let's consider a time when we tried to go back home and get a feel for just what this would have been like, the challenges and successes God's people would experience. Would history repeat itself?...
Read Ezra 1 here
Listen to Ezra 1 here
No comments:
Post a Comment