Visions of the past, reality of the present
Let’s shout with joy, for the Lord is doing a new thing, says Chrishanthy Sathiyaraj
I have been mulling over Ezra, making time and creating space for the Lord to share His thoughts with me. The third chapter has leapt off the page time and time again. Some of the Jewish exiles from Babylon responded to God’s call and returned to Jerusalem to restore the temple. We read in Ezra 3:3 that “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”.
By Ezra 3:6 we know that the altar had been erected even before the foundation of the temple was laid (due to the fear that was upon them): “On the first day of the seventh month they began to...
We read on and arrive at verse 12: some “wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid [as they remembered the first temple], while many others [seeing the house of the Lord...
Are we, like the older priests and Levites and family heads, gripped by sorrow, remembering what was but potentially missing what is and what could be? Or are we overwhelmed with gratitude for...
