Nathan Parker in CSB
Here's this week's Scripture passage! Wanted to give one more Thanksgiving-themed verse!
- Insight from Butler's Daily Bible Reading: Ezra 3—Piety After the Return. After the people had returned, they set about restoring worship at Jerusalem. This noble restoration is recorded here. •Convocation: this occurred in the seventh month and consisted of observing the feast of Tabernacles, building the altar, making sacrifices on the altar, and giving money to obtain material and hire workers to make a new Temple. •Construction: a year after the return, material and manpower were ready to start construction on the foundation of the new Temple. •Celebration: after the foundation was laid, a service was held which included singing (the Levite singers furnished the music); praising (the people “praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid” [v. 11]); weeping (the old timers who remembered Solomon’s Temple wept—for this new Temple was going to be much less in size and grandeur than Solomon’s Temple); and rejoicing (the younger people who had not seen Solomon’s temple rejoiced at the fact the Temple was being made).