Wednesday

3-July

Ezra 3-4; Job 24; 2 Corinthians 6

Ezra 3: What was the priority in rebuilding Jerusalem?  What festival was first celebrated?  Why did the older people cry?

Ezra 4: What happened that affected the building progress?

2 Corinthians 6:  How do we take the grace of God in vain?

Journal Prompt:  Paul says he addresses the Corinthians with a heart wide open and he asks for them to have a heart wide open as well.  What do you think this means?  Would you consider your heart to be ‘wide open’?

Answers:

Ezra 3: The priority was rebuilding the altar so that sacrifices to the Lord could be made. Then the next priority was the Temple.  They celebrated the Festival of the Tabernacles. The older returning exiles cried when the Temple was finished most likely because it was nothing like the Temple that had been built by Solomon.

Ezra 4: The enemies of the exiles did everything they could to thwart the process and apparently they were successful for a while. They discouraged them, bribed officials and then under the rule of Artaxerxes they wrote a letter claiming that the returned exiles were trying to mount a rebellion and would not pay taxes.

2 Corinthians 6:  In my opinion, taking the grace of God in vain means to accept the salvation of Jesus yet doing nothing to change to be like Jesus.