Ezra 3 – After
seven months, Jeshua, head of the priests, and Zerrubabel, set out to build the
altar of the God of Israel and to offer burnt offerings on it. They do it
fearful of the response of the neighboring people (3:3).
They kept the Festival of Booths [or Shelters - Sukkot] and
other offerings prescribed by the Law. They gave money to the masons and
carpenters to work on the foundations, food and drink to Sidonians and Tyrians
for the cedar they brought in ships. The second year after arriving, they “made
a beginning” (3:8). Levites oversee the work, and Jeshua and certain other
families “took charge of the workers in the house of God” (3:9).
Praise is offered up when the foundation is complete. “But
many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a
loud voice when they saw this house, thought many shouted aloud for joy, so
that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the
sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound
was heard far away” (3:12).
Ezra 4 – When the
enemies of Judah and Benjamin (Samaritans?) hear that the temple is being
rebuilt, they reproach Zerrubbabel for not asking them to help. They claim to be
worshippers of Yahweh too, but their offer is rejected. Then the landed people,
“people of the land” [Samaritan settlers] discouraged
the people of Judah from their efforts. So things are frustrated until the
coming of Darius in 522, it says.
Then it goes on to say that in the reign of Artaxerxes (much
later from 464-423), some of the adversaries of the returnees wrote to the
Emperor, complaining that they were “rebuilding that rebellious and wicked
city; they are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations” (4:12). The
petitioners encourage the Emperor to recheck the court records to see that this
is a rebellious people, not one that should be encouraged to rebuild. The
Emperor responds ordering them to cease the rebuilding. When Rehum and Shimshai
(Governor of Samaria, center of Persian government for the region, and his
Secretary) get this message, they go to Jerusalem and “by force and power made
them cease” (4:23). The work is discontinued until the second year of the reign
of Darius (4:24).A Jerusalem
Bible note says the delay in rebuilding occurs between 538 and 522 or
through the reign of Cambyses, not Artaxerxes. Haggai blames the delay on their
indifference. The Chronicler blames their opponents.
“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 3
Now Fox would never have described the
words of scripture in this way [analyzing the words
and meanings of the scripture narrative as a way of “opening” some inward
reality – kind of the way the “Life of Pi” describes]. The concepts were just not part of his
intellectual life in the 17th century. But I am convinced that the fundamental
experience of coming into those familiar words was the same in his life and in
mine. So what I want to explore here is
what early Friends did with respect to the scriptures—not what did they say, but
how did they use them to
encourage others to “enter into” the words.
One of the most revealing passages from
Fox’s journal on the scriptures goes into great depth on the problem as Fox saw
it. People approached scripture, according to Fox, “without a right sense of
them, and without duly applying them to their own states (Fox’s Journal 31).
. . .I saw the state
of those, both priests and people, who in reading the Scriptures, cry out much
against Cain, Esau, and Judas, and other wicked men of former times, mentioned
in the Holy Scriptures; but do not see the nature of Cain, of Esau, of Judas,
and those others, in themselves. And these said it was they, they, they,
that were the bad people; putting it off from themselves: but when some of these
came, with the light and spirit of Truth, to see into themselves, then they
came to say, “I, I, I, it
is I myself that have been the Ishmael, and the Esau”, etc.
For then they came to see the nature of wild Ishmael in themselves, the
nature of Cain, of Esau, of Korah, of Balaam and of the son of perdition in
themselves, sitting above all that is called God in them (Fox’s Journal 30).
The characters of scripture were not
merely historical personages, people comfortably distant from us in time and
place. They were exemplars of every kind
of spiritual condition and nature that one might have to contend with—inwardly
or outwardly. Those who envied and persecuted the godly were people who dwelled
in the nature of Cain; those who chose earthly goods over the heavenly promises
of God were in the nature of the earthly Esau. Those who rebelled against God
were in the nature of Korah, and those who traded in God’s wisdom for material
gain had the nature of Balaam. On the
other hand, those who
received the living Word of God in their hearts and responded to it were in the
nature of Abraham; those who saw into the pure law of God were in the nature
of Moses and those who
were able to see into the types and shadows had the nature of the prophets. This did not mean for Fox that the historical
Moses or Korah or Cain were imaginary.
It simply meant that they were more
than just human and historical; they represented spiritual realities we all encounter
either in ourselves or in others. So we should approach the characters
and events of the scriptures with an eye to “types” and “figures” they
represented, the truths they illuminated and the insights they gave us into our
own spiritual conditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment