In yesterday's writing I had a quote from Alexander Macleran, this is a man I think I would have liked to have known. And this is based solely on reading this one quote from him.
“There cannot be a temple without an altar, but there may be an altar without a temple. God meets men at the place of sacrifice, even though there be no house for His name,” Macleran.
I was just so taken by this quote. Every now and again we are given the opportunity to be a part of something that is so much greater than what we are used to being a part of, and this is the case for me in this one statement. It is such a precisely spoken statement. And frankly there are few people that can and do speak so succinctly as this.
We must remember the the Jews do not believe that Jesus is the son of God. And there are many other reasons for this as well...but that is a whole other subject. For us, as born again believers, we have Jesus as our sacrifice, the Jews had to bring offerings to the alter for the the forgiveness of their sins. And in the portion of the quote where Macleran speaks of God meeting men at the place of sacrifice, he is referring to the alter. I am really glad that I don't have to go to an alter in order to speak to God...I can if I want to, and there are times when I am at church that I do go to the alter to seek out God. But in reality I could just stay in my seat and speak to God.
Okay now we will move on to chapter 4...
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the LORD God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do;
Yes they wanted to be a part of, this rebuilding effort, because they did worship the Jewish God, but the Jews knew that they also worshiped other gods (small g)....but at this point Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the fathers proved their abilities in politics...the said no, we will build the temple completely ourselves as commanded by King Cyrus, they maybe should have spoken more truthfully, that this would have gone against the will of God...but in my view they were speaking to quill any possible dispute before it could occur. However the others were not happy about this result at all and did their best to hamper the Jews efforts in the rebuilding process, I am sure that some building went on, but perhaps not as much as could have, had they not been constantly harangued...this went on throughout the reign of King Cyrus and throughout the reign of Darius...
“There cannot be a temple without an altar, but there may be an altar without a temple. God meets men at the place of sacrifice, even though there be no house for His name,” Macleran.
I was just so taken by this quote. Every now and again we are given the opportunity to be a part of something that is so much greater than what we are used to being a part of, and this is the case for me in this one statement. It is such a precisely spoken statement. And frankly there are few people that can and do speak so succinctly as this.
We must remember the the Jews do not believe that Jesus is the son of God. And there are many other reasons for this as well...but that is a whole other subject. For us, as born again believers, we have Jesus as our sacrifice, the Jews had to bring offerings to the alter for the the forgiveness of their sins. And in the portion of the quote where Macleran speaks of God meeting men at the place of sacrifice, he is referring to the alter. I am really glad that I don't have to go to an alter in order to speak to God...I can if I want to, and there are times when I am at church that I do go to the alter to seek out God. But in reality I could just stay in my seat and speak to God.
Okay now we will move on to chapter 4...
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the LORD God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do;
Well as you can plainly see there were other people who hadn't been part of the captivity, that had been in residence in Israel during the time that the Jewish people were in their captivity, we must remember that the Jews were gone for two generations, that is a long time, and these new residents wanted to help. Well apparently these were not necessarily the most savory individuals, they were actually early Samaritans, they were the people who had remained after the captivity and from the time when Israel was under the command of Assyrians, and there had been marriages and pro creations as a result. We all remember that Samaritan's were not looked on kindly, people avoided them, pretty much at all costs. And during the ceremonies at the end of Chapter 3, apparently this was a rather loud celebration, and the now resident heard the noise and realized the the returning Jews were really serious about reestablishing themselves in Israel....don't you think they would have realized this right away?
Again we have a quote from Macleran... “The proposal to unite in building the Temple was a political move; for, in old-world ideas, co-operation in Temple-building was incorporation in national unity. The calculation, no doubt, was that if the returning exiles could be united with the much more numerous Samaritans, they would soon be absorbed in them.”
Yes they wanted to be a part of, this rebuilding effort, because they did worship the Jewish God, but the Jews knew that they also worshiped other gods (small g)....but at this point Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the fathers proved their abilities in politics...the said no, we will build the temple completely ourselves as commanded by King Cyrus, they maybe should have spoken more truthfully, that this would have gone against the will of God...but in my view they were speaking to quill any possible dispute before it could occur. However the others were not happy about this result at all and did their best to hamper the Jews efforts in the rebuilding process, I am sure that some building went on, but perhaps not as much as could have, had they not been constantly harangued...this went on throughout the reign of King Cyrus and throughout the reign of Darius...
Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Well we gotten thru verse 5 and that is were we will pick up next time.
Be a blessing.....
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts on what is written here.