06.14.2014 Old Testament: Ezra 6.16–18

To read the Bible in a year, read Ezra 6–8 on June 14, In the year of our Lord 2014

By Don Ruhl

If you had been a Jew who had returned from Babylonian captivity, and you and your brethren rebuilt the temple, how would you have responded? I have no doubt that it would have resembled something like what the Jews did,

Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. And they offered sacrifices at the dedication of this house of God, one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. They assigned the priests to their divisions and the Levites to their divisions, over the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses (Ezra 6.16–18). 

They celebrated the occasion. They offered sacrifices. They put the priests and the Levites to work.

The church is the temple of God, and Jesus died to purchase the church with His own blood, and now you and I can serve as priests in His temple. Is that any reason for celebrating? Does that move you to sacrifice for the sake of the church? Are you functioning as a priest of God?