Today’s Thought “Making an Offer Not to Be Refused” G.Ward

 

“Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, even everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and rebuild the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.” Ezra 1:5

 

Israel, once living in Jerusalem as keepers of the sheep (as agriculturalists), became repeat violators of the commands set forth by their Creator. Their blatant refusal in remembering that same Creator delivering them from a horrific bondage in Egypt would take them away from a homeland (flowing with milk and honey = representative of limitless possibilities) to being enslaved in Babylon.

While in Babylon, sheep herding and agriculture wasn’t an option. For us on today, it would be as if without choice, we were compelled to live in the Sudan (void of capability in pursuing vocation), forced in becoming farmers. Although change is often uncomfortable, man’s ability to acclimate sociologically and culturally is astounding. In Babylon, these Jews (entirely out of their element), became prosperous merchants (i.e. store keepers). While totally encapsulated with this new life abroad, it was then that Holy God stirred their hearts in such a way to formulate a disdain for the very appearance of what the foreign land offered. Holy God knew of the insatiability man had with material wealth and how the very pursuit can drive him further away from his spiritual obligation (1 Ti.6:10). The Master needed to be honored through worship within the parameters of His Temple.

We now celebrate a dispensational era that has us in a foreign land (1 Pe.2:11-12) acclimating to the kinds of pitfalls once experienced by those Israelites. Ours currently, is without a commission in building a temple unto Himself; because God has supernaturally imposed His Son unto us that made us His temples (1 Co.6:19). Will we respond in the affirmative (cf. Mt.6:19-21), or continue selling our goods and services, oblivious to the calling to fulfill? Happy Wednesday!