Ezra 6 – The
records are searched and the proclamation is found wherein Cyrus told the Jews
to go back and rebuild their temple. Tattenai and the others are instructed to
leave the alone, and in fact to assist them by paying the costs of the
rebuilding “in full and without delay, from the royal revenue” (6:8).
If “anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of
the house of the perpetrator, who then shall be impaled on it. The house shall
be made a dunghill” (6:11). It is done as the Emperor directed. The temple is
finished on the third day of the month of Adar in the 6th year of
Darius’ reign (516? Jerusalem Bible note
says April 1, 515). The people, priests and Levites celebrate the
dedication; they offer a hundred bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs and 12 male goats
as a sin offering (according to the number of tribes).
The priests and Levites are organized again, and Passover is
celebrated. “With joy they celebrated the festival of unleavened bread seven
days; for the Lord had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king
of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work on the house of God, the
God of Israel” (6:22). It is this Temple that will be
remodeled by Herod the Great. It is in use for 585 years and is finally
destroyed by Titus in 70 AD.
“Friends and Scripture”
Introduction: This
article is one I wrote some years ago and it was eventually part of the book I
wrote called Leadings: A Catholic’s
Journey Through Quakerism. My plan here is just to include a few paragraphs
of the chapter each day.
Part 5
As we did what Abraham did, we too
would find the redemptive part of their story unfolding within us—not in every
outward detail but in substantially the same way. So
you will find early Friends seeing themselves as “spiritual Jews” being rescued
from bondage and led to freedom.
. . .in his infinite
love and tender pity and compassion [He looked] down upon us, whilst in the
land of Egypt, and house of bondage spiritually, and [did] send forth his light
and truth, to give us a sense inwardly of the deplorable states of our souls in
the separation from, and depravation of the enjoyments of the Lord, which sense
and sight begat in us living breathings and a holy cry after the knowledge of
him we saw ourselves ignorant of . . . (Charles Marshall, Early Quaker
Writings, 32)
You will find Friends seeing themselves as dead
spiritually being brought out of graves like Lazarus or Christ himself.
“Wait to see the law
set up within . . .and the rebellious nature yoked [earthquakes and
thunder]. Wait in patience for the
judgment, and let the
Lord’s work have its perfect operation in you; and so as you turn to him who has
smitten and wounded you; he will bind up and heal. And give up all to the great slaughter of the
Lord, to the Cross. . .And as the earth comes to be plowed up, the seed which
is sown comes up; and, the rocks broken, the water gushes out. You so will see that some promises will arise
in you to the Seed which is coming up out of the grave, and so the love of God
will appear in you, and you will be stayed, and see hope in the midst of
calamity . . .And as you come to be redeemed from under the bondage of sin, and
come above the bonds of death, and the pure principle lives in you, there will
be a delight in you to do the will of the father, who has redeemed you from sin
and its law to righteousness and its law. (Francis Howgill, Early Quaker
Writings, 177)
This was what they meant when they said you had to enter
into the Spirit that gave the scriptures forth—to “see” the same work being
carried forth in your own life.
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