I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezra 1-2.

    This is another one of those passages which I would probably just skim over if I was not writing this blog. At first glance (and second and third) it is just a dry account of the names of the first wave of returned Exiles. However, when you spend some time seeking how this passage matters to living our faith today you start to see some things. For me the key element here is how God used, and blessed, Cyrus. Cyrus was not a “believer” (he was neither Jewish, nor a convert to Judaism), but he still chose to honor God. After Cyrus conquered Babylon he went all in on returning Jews to the land of Israel, but he did not do so forcibly. Cyrus could have just issued an edict allowing the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, but Cyrus went beyond that. The first step beyond just allowing them to return was that he encouraged them to do so. Then he called upon their neighbors where the Jews were living in Exile to provide them with financial assistance for relocating back to Jerusalem and the land of Israel. Finally, he removed items which Nebuchadnezzar had dedicated to other gods, which had originally come from the Temple, from the temples of those gods and gave them to the returning Exiles to take to Jerusalem. It is worth noting that the neighbors of those Exiles who chose to return generously aided them in preparing for their journey.