Look Inside. Look Around. What do you See? Show me! #14

 

When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. 4 And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, 5 and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. 7 So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia. (Ezra 3)

Yesterday we talked about Chronicles and all the ways God's people were to look back, at their present, and to their future and know that God was not done with them; He still cared about them. These next two books demonstrate that. First, today, In Ezra we have one of the ways we see that: the rebuilding of the Temple.  God wanted to meet with them; He wanted that constant reminder He was with them, so He moved government officials to pronounce and help pay for that rebuilding - just as he used pagan punishments to chastize His people, He also used them to bless them.   Throughout the book we find all sorts of lists: of people and objects, and also all sorts of formal documents - letters and invoices, which were evidence that God was at work.  What kind of evidence will you see today around you that God is at work, that He is using people and events to build the future for you: geneologies, picture books, letters, marriage licenses - even bills or speeding tickets - that show God is on the move.  Take a pic, think about what God is doing: Show me! Post it. Send it. May God bless your day!.