{"id":6221,"date":"2019-11-13T20:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T03:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=6221"},"modified":"2019-11-10T20:10:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T03:10:58","slug":"ezra6_1-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ezra6_1-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Answer is in the Royal Treasury of God’s Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ezra 6:1-22 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ezra 6:1-22.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/span><\/p>\n

Ezra 6:1 (NIV)\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0King Darius then issued an order, and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-12:\u00a0\u00a0King Darius is in need of guidance on an issue: are the Jews authorized to rebuild the temple or not?\u00a0\u00a0Further to the suggestion of Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates and another official Shethar-Bozenai in chapter 5, King Darius searches the archives stored in Babylon\u2019s royal treasury.\u00a0\u00a0There he discovers a memo from a king who came before him \u2013 King Cyrus \u2013 who clearly authorized the rebuilding of the temple as a place to present sacrifices (v3), decrees the size of the temple (v3b-4) and commands that the costs of the rebuilding be paid by the royal treasury (v3-4).\u00a0\u00a0King Darius found the specific answer to his question by searching the royal archives.\u00a0\u00a0Based on that, he decrees that no one interfere with the Jews\u2019 rebuilding the temple, and further commands that whatever the Jews need is to be provided by the royal treasury (v7-12).<\/span><\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like King Darius, you are royalty.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0You are a member of God\u2019s royal family (1 Peter 2:9; Romans\u00a08:17) and part of your inheritance is to rule and manage a part of God\u2019s kingdom (the talents and relationships God has given you) for His glory.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like King Darius, you have access to a royal treasury: the treasury of God\u2019s Word.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0When making decisions, search the royal treasury of God\u2019s Word for guidance.\u00a0\u00a0There in the archives, you will find the words and instructions that the King who came before you wrote down.\u00a0\u00a0Use them to guide your actions and inform how you will decide the issues you face.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0King Darius commands that anyone who disobeyed the king\u2019s command and who interfered with, or did not support, the rebuilding of the temple would \u201cbe lifted up and impaled on a tree\u201d (v11).\u00a0\u00a0This reminds me of how\u00a0Jesus was without sin yet for our sakes and in our place Jesus was lifted up and nailed to a tree<\/strong>, taking on the punishment for our failure to obey the commands of our king God Almighty.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ezra 6:16-17 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\n16\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0Then the people of Israel–the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles–celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.\u00a0<\/span>
\n17\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0For the dedication of this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 13-22:\u00a0\u00a0Now with the support of the governing officials (v13), as well as the encouragement of preachers Haggai and Zechariah (v14), the Jews complete the rebuilding of the temple (v14-15).\u00a0\u00a0They celebrate and dedicate the temple with great joy and sacrifices (v17), install the priests for service (v18), and celebrate the Passover (v19).\u00a0\u00a0The celebrations that concluded the building of this new temple were not nearly as large and extravagant as when Solomon finished building the first temple (see for example 1 Kings 8:63 where King Solomon sacrifices 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats).\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s because it\u2019s a very different time: when Solomon finished building the first temple, Israel was at the height of its prosperity.\u00a0\u00a0But here in Ezra 6 those celebrating have just returned from exile with very little materially.\u00a0\u00a0Still, they celebrate with what they have and much joy accompanies that celebration.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0God is a God of celebration.\u00a0\u00a0He likes to throw parties.\u00a0\u00a0So when God helps you to accomplish something great, celebrate it!\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t worry about how it compares to others or to the past, for God has a unique purpose and destiny for you and the current time you are in.\u00a0\u00a0So when something good happens, be sure to celebrate it in some way.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, as a member of Your royal family, whenever I have issues to decide on, thank You that I can search the archives in the royal treasury of Your Word for my answer.\u00a0\u00a0And thank You for being a God of celebration.\u00a0\u00a0May I not hesitate the celebrate the great things we get to accomplish together, no matter how they may compare to others.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ezra 6:1-22.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Ezra 6:1 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0\u00a0King Darius then issued an order, and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-12:\u00a0\u00a0King Darius is in need of guidance on an issue: are the Jews authorized to rebuild the temple or not?\u00a0\u00a0Further to the suggestion of Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates and another official Shethar-Bozenai in chapter 5, King Darius searches the archives stored in Babylon\u2019s royal treasury.\u00a0\u00a0There he discovers a memo from a king who came before him \u2013 King Cyrus \u2013 who clearly authorized the rebuilding of the temple as a place to present sacrifices (v3), decrees the size of the temple (v3b-4) and commands that the costs of the rebuilding be paid by the royal treasury (v3-4).\u00a0\u00a0King Darius found the specific answer to his question by searching the royal archives.\u00a0\u00a0Based on that, he decrees that no one interfere with the Jews\u2019 rebuilding the temple, and further commands that whatever the Jews need is to be provided by the royal treasury (v7-12).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6224,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6221\/revisions\/6224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}