Ezra – my summary

(Ezra 1:1) In order that word of the LORD by mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD STIRRED up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.

(Ezra 1:4-6) Then rose up the survivors, everyone whose spirit God had STIRRED to go up & rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.

(Ezra 1:7) Cyrus the king brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

(Ezra 2:1-63) A list of those returning from exile – each to his home town that had not been seen for 70 years, some had never been there.

(Ezra 2:64) Returnees include 42360 people + 7337 servants + 200 singers + 6720 donkeys + 1416 horses, mules, camels.

(Ezra 3:2) Zerubbabel & Jeshua rebuild the altar on the temple site and Israel celebrates Feast of Tabernacles.

(Ezra 3:7) Returnees trade food, drink and oil for word from Lebanon just as Solomon had done.

(Ezra 3:10-11) Music ministry re-established according to David’s directions. "They sang responsively, praising & giving thanks to LORD".

(Ezra 3:12-13) While most shout with joy as second temple’s foundations are laid, old men who has seen the first temple weep.

(Ezra 4:1-4) Samaritans ask to help build the temple but their request is denied and so they work to discourage and frustrate.

(Ezra 5:1-2) Zerubbabel and Jeshua begin to rebuild the temple with the support of the prophesying of the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah.

(Ezra 6:14) Temple completed by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes kings of Persia-Babylon-Assyria.

(Ezra 6:19-22) The returnees celebrate the first Passover back in the land after 70 years of exile. A theme in Ezra: great joy in worship.

(Ezra 6:21) People made up of returnees & Jews who had remained in land during exile & now joined with returnees, separating from Samaritans

(Ezra 7:6) Ezra was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the LORD the God of Israel had given. The hand of the LORD his God was on him.

(Ezra 7:10) Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

(Ezra 7:11-28) Ezra leads a second group of exiles back to the land. Persian king gives gold, animals for sacrifices etc.

(Ezra 8:1-20) A list of the heads of fathers’ houses who return with Ezra from exile in Bablon (457 B.C. First return was 539 B.C.)

(Ezra 8:21-23,31) Ezra’s company are delivered on journey because humbled and prayed and God’s hand upon them.

(Ezra 8:28) Ezra notes a connection between temple vessels and the people – they are both holy to God, belong in Jerusalem.

(Ezra 9:1-2) So much good in this book but ends sad with faithless intermarriage with the surroundings people.

(Ezra 9:3-4) Ezra’s grief – tore clothes, pulled hair from head, sat appalled. Others who trembled at God’s words gather to him.

(Ezra 9:5-15) Ezra’s prayer of confession and repentance on behalf of the remnant in their slavery & shame. They can hardly lift their heads

(Ezra 10:1-15) Covenant made to send away foreign wives and children, a drastic action.

(Ezra 10:16-44) Ezra began with good lists of returnees (evidence of God’s faithfulness). Ends with list of people who had been unfaithful.

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Sweetly Paint the Blessing of Christ as All

You ministers of Christ, behold your theme. So dreadfully denounce the curse, that you and yours may flee it. So sweetly paint the blessing, that you and yours may grasp it. So fully preach the Savior, that you and yours may be forever saved. Blessed are they, who, living, preaching, dying, make Christ their All.

Henry Law, The Gospel in Leviticus

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A Prayer

For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

(Psalms 38:4 and 3:3)

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Various quotes – Word, Providence, Sin

The Word is not only a guide to knowledge, but a guide to obedience. A holy reading of God’s Word, results in our fleeing from sins, and practicing the duties commanded. “Give me understanding, and I will keep Your law and obey it with all my heart.”

Source: Thomas Watson Psalm 119:34

“The Spirit of God must come, and make the letter alive to you, transfer it to your heart, set it on fire and make it burn within you, or else its divine force and majesty will be hid from your eyes.”

Source: C.H. Spurgeon

“Every event is the product of God’s providence; not a sparrow, much less a saint, falls to the ground by poverty, sickness, persecution, but the hand of God is in it.”

Source: William Gurnall (1617-1679) The Christian In Complete Armour

“…if ever the Spirit of God hath begun a sanctifying or comforting work, causing thee to hope in his mercy, he never is, will, or can be the messenger to bring contrary news to thy soul; his language is not yea and nay, but yea and amen for ever.”

Source: William Gurnall (1617-1679) The Christian In Complete Armour

“The Lord discovers a sight of men’s sin and misery to them, to chase them out of themselves, and to put them out of conceit of their own righteousness … therefore discovers to them so much of their sin and corruption … that they are made to … despair of relief in themselves; and …so … prize Christ highly, who alone can set the wretch at liberty.”

Source: William Guthrie (1620 – 1665) The Christian’s Great Interest

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Prayer

"Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,

Uttered or unexpressed –

The motion of a hidden fire,

That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,

The falling of a tear,

The upward glancing of an eye,

When none but God is near"

Source: James Montgomery

 

"Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view."

Source: Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Chronicles – My summary

My summary of 1 and 2 Chronicles click here.

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Caleb’s Lamb and a Mysterious Providence

The lamb must have fallen over the edge, Caleb decided … It was impossible to know just what had happened but one thing was sure. The thorns that had imprisoned the lamb had also saved his life [protecting him from predators]. …

"Stop struggling," Caleb cried, as the lamb’s own efforts got him more and more entangled and hurt. "Can’t you see I’m trying to help you? You’ll die if you stay here."

The lamb did stop struggling after a while, not because he was no longer frightened but because he was too exhausted. Long before Caleb was able to reach and free him – gasping with pain as his own hands were torn by the thorns that held the lamb prisoner – he had shut his eyes and given up the fight.

Source: Helen Santo, Caleb’s Lamb, Chapter 2

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Sin and forgiveness in 1 John

(1John 1:9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(1John 2:1-2) My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

(1John 3:5) You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

(1John 3:20) … for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

(1John 4:10) In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

(1John 5:1,4) Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God … For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.

(1John 5:17-18) All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

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Song of Songs – my summary

(Song 1:2) She says: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For his love is better than wine.

(Song 1:13) She says: My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts.

(Song 1:16-17) They imagine the green grass they are lying on to be their bed and the cedar trees are the beams of their house.

(Song 2:3) With great delight she sits in his shadow and his fruit is sweet to her taste.

(Song 2:7) She adjures the daughters of Jerusalem by the gazelles and the does of the field not to stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

(Song 2:14) He calls her his dove, desires to see her face and calls the sound of her voice sweet.

(Song 2:17) She says: Until the day breathes & the shadows flee, turn and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the cleft mountains (breasts)

(Song 4:5-6) Your breasts are like two fawns grazing among the lilies. _ I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense

(Song 4:11-15) Girl’s body is a garden of fruit & spices. She has a well of running water. Honey & milk under tongue. Smells like Lebanon.

(Song 4:16) The girl invites him to blow like the wind over her garden, enter garden and eat its choicest fruits. He does in Song 5:1.

(Song 5:16) His mouth is most sweet,and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

(Song 6:13) Desire is expressed to have the Shulammite girl return so that she might be looked upon as she dances.

(Song 7:1-2) He gazes upon her feet (in sandals), rounded thighs, navel (as a rounded bowl full of wine), belly (heap of wheat with lilies)

(Song 7:3-5) Breasts like two fawns, twins of gazelle. Then neck, eyes (pools of water), finally hair which captivates with its tresses.

(Song 7:7) She is like a palm tree and her breasts are like clusters. He climbs the tree to take hold of her fruit.

(Song 7:9) Kissing described in terms of mouth as being like the best wine going down smoothly gliding over lips and teeth.

(Song 7:10) I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.

(Song 8:3) His left arm is under her head, and his right arm embraces her!

(Song 8:6-7) Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm. Love is like the fire of the LORD. Flood waters cannot quench love.

(Song 8:14) She urges him: Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

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Ecclesiastes – my summary

(Ecc 1:2) A breath, a breath, everything is just a breath – momentary, light, transitory. Life is a chasing after the wind.

(Ecc 1:5-8) The sun rises, sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows south & turns north ever returning on its course.

(Ecc 2:24-25) Nothing better than eat, drink and find satisfaction in work. This is from the hand of God without him who can find happiness?

(Ecc 3:1) There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven e.g. a time to weep and a time to laugh.

(Ecc 3:12-13) Nothing better than to be happy and do good, eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all one’s toil–this is the gift of God.

(Ecc 4:6) Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

(Ecc 4:10) If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

(Ecc 5:19-20) God gives wealth & possessions. Enables acceptance of one’s lot, happiness in work, gladness in heart–this is a gift of God

(Ecc 6:7) All man’s efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.

(Ecc 7:2-3) Better a house of mourning than a house of feasting – take this to heart. Sorrow better than laughter, sad face good for heart.

(Ecc 7:14) When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.

(Ecc 8:8) No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death.

(Ecc 8:15) So enjoy life, nothing is better for man than to eat and drink and be glad in all the days of life God has given him under sun.

(Ecc 9:6) When we die our love, hate, jealousy vanishes and never again has a part in anything that happens under the sun.

(Ecc 9:7-8) Eat food with gladness, drink wine with joy, be clothed in white, anoint your head with oil. It is now God favors what you do.

(Ecc 9:9) Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun.

(Ecc 10:1) As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

(Ecc 11:9) Be happy young man, follow the ways of your heart and eyes in giving you joy but know that God will bring all things to judgment

(Ecc 12:11-12) Be warned of adding to the one Shepherd’s wisdom. Of making many books there is no end and much study wearies the body.

(Ecc 12:13) Now all has been heard. Here is the conclusion of the matter-Fear God & keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man

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