WHAT’S MISSING?

DEVOTIONAL 8
EZRA 1:5-2:70

5 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. 6 All those about them encouraged them with articles of silver, with gold, with goods, with cattle and with valuables, aside from all that was given as a freewill offering. 7 Also King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods; 8 and Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. 9 Now this was their number: 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 duplicates; 10 30 gold bowls, 410 silver bowls of a second kind and 1,000 other articles. 11 All the articles of gold and silver numbered 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them all up with the exiles who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Back in the 1980’s there was a character that would show up on television shows, the back of cereal boxes, and books. This character’s name was Waldo and the idea was to find him. Often Waldo was hidden in plain sight where no one could find him right off the bat. Even though Waldo was often taller and dressed differently the person would have to spend a few minutes to find him and at times he was drawn in several different places.

Sometimes theology is like looking for Waldo. There are times when some important things are said when nothing is said at all. You know, like that look you use to get from your mom or dad when you would get in trouble. As we take our final look at this passage in this series we can see that there is something missing. Look at what is discussed in verse 6. It talks about the, “…articles of silver, with gold...” In verses 9 and 10 tells what those articles were and how many there were, “…30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 duplicates; 10 30 gold bowls, 410 silver bowls of a second kind and 1,000 other articles. 11 All the articles of gold and silver numbered 5,400…” But yet something of very strong importance is missing. Something which a Jew would have looked for and would have immediately noticed missing. That item of interest for this minister and for the Jews was the Ark of the Covenant. While studying this passage I noticed this and consulted about ten different, scholarly commentaries, no one even touched on this issue. Why? Because we would not think to look for it, we automatically assume that it is not there so we don’t look for it in the list. Personally I believe Shesbazzar did look for it. Now nobody knows what happen to the Ark of the Covenant. The Babylonians could have melted it down for the gold or it could have been left behind and later stolen. It could have been destroyed in one of the many raids on Jerusalem. The one thing I am confident of is that it is not in a church in Ethiopia.

Having noted all of this someone may ask the question, “What’s so significant about the absence of the Ark?” Well I’m glad you asked, because it marks the beginning of something new. Later in Ezra chapter 5 we will meet two prophets by the name of Haggai and Zechariah. Both prophets will give us more insight, but the idea is that the Old Covenant has passed. The Ark would have represented the Old Covenant. The people had foolishly placed their confidence in the Ark itself and not in what the Ark represented, a living relationship with God (1st Samuel 4:4-5:1). By doing this it often led to all kinds of disasters which cost Israel her existence as a nation of prominence. I also believe that the Ark was worshiped during the time when Manasseh, the son of king Hezekiah, placed idols in the temple mixing the worship of Yahweh with that of other gods (2 Chronicles 33). Regardless, the absence of the Ark meant that God was going to work in a new and beautiful way. The Ark of the Covenant represented the Law, theocracy, and often merciless ways of handling things ( read the book of Hebrews). It also represented something better and yet to come. So now the Jews find themselves without an independent nation, without the Ark of the Covenant, and without a king. What did they have left? A few items to go into the temple. Oh, yea at this moment, what temple. A promise from a pagan king to help rebuild, I wonder how many times they had heard that story. Technically they didn’t even have each other because they were scattered to the four corners of the earth. So what did they have? They had the promise of God and their faith.

What promises did they have from God? Well, Isaiah 53 comes to mind, the song of the suffering Servant. It is the promise of Messiah. God promised them a Messiah who would bare our grief and whom God Himself would strike (verse 4). He would “…be pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.” (verse 5). Why would Messiah have to suffer? Because, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” (verse 6). This passage is one of the richest passages in all of Scripture and held the greatest promise of them all to not only the Jewish people, but to the whole world.

Now they are left without an Ark which meant that a New Covenant was in the works. Now they are forced to look to God for their salvation and not their heritage, the Temple, the Ark, or anything else. It’s the same way with us. The covenant which God makes now is not with a nation, but with individuals. It no longer comes through a set of laws and regulations but from a relationship with Jesus Christ. No longer to we sacrifice bulls and rams for our sins, but rely on the grace (unmerited favor in a demerited situation) of God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. No longer do we yearly give thanks to God, but daily because of His bodily resurrection. You see the missing Ark was a signal of things which were to change. Even though it would be another four to five hundred years before Messiah would arrive, the Ark would no longer symbolize the covenant. No now the covenant is symbolized by a blood stained cross and comes through a relationship with the person who hung on that cross and three days later rose from the dead. All anyone needs to do is repent (turn from your sins) and believe by placing your total trust in Christ.

If you would like further information on knowing Jesus as your Savior please e-mail me at Bedevotedministry@att.net.
Lord bless,
Steven

THE YEAR 36; THE NUMBER 50,000,000

Congratulations! If you voted for Barack Obama you have just helped end 3,000 lives a day. If you are a Christian and voted for Barack Obama you are in sin. If you are not a Christian, regardless if you voted for Barack Obama or not, your in danger of eternal judgment.

Sounds kind of harsh doesn’t it. Well let’s start with the open truth of why I am opening up like this. Today (1/22/09) President Barack Obama moved this nation one step closer to the judgment of God. What he did today is an irreconcilable situation politically and morally. At this point all we can do is pray for our President, and as always continue to respect him as a person and the President. But I will not stand by and stay silent about what he did today. Today our President signed an executive order allowing our tax payer monies to be used for overseas abortions (www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/01/21/obama-lift-ban-funding-groups-providing-abortions-overseas/ ).

As many can tell I did not vote for President Obama, but at first I was willing to watch to see what he would do. It didn’t take long. While I had reservations at first, I knew it would only take a matter of time before something of a moral issue would arise. Like Bill Clinton in 1993, who opened the way for our tax payer dollars to be used in this manner (www.politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/19/sources-obama-may-use-executive-order-reverse-abortion-policy/ ). When I see things like this I have to ask, “Change? What change?” All I see are the same old liberal, socialistic tactics which have been used by socialistic Democrats in the past. Whatever happened to the strong, staunch conservative Democrats who use to stand for something, rather than fall for anything?

The President says he is against the blood shed of war, but he is for the bloodshed of millions of unborn babies. If you will read one of my earlier blogs (September 28, 2008) you will see that then Senator Obama who was running for President stated to Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church, that the abortion issue was, “above my pay grade”. He remarked it depended on whether the issue was approached from a theological or scientific view. In his inauguration speech he stated, “We will restore science to its rightful place…” (www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4877395 ). I know he is talking about the threat of global warming, which still has a lot of work regarding the theory, I believe President Obama is ignoring the science in regards to abortion.

I have not been this angry about this kind of immoral arrogance and lack of back bone in years. We as Americans cared more for our pocket book than we did the moral climate of our nation. Somehow the Christian population believes government can handle the issue of the economy better than God. Yet we ignored the issue of innocent life and abortion during the campaign. With Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state (www.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/clinton_confirmation ) you can be assured that this issue will not be ignored, but pushed onto smaller, poorer nations as an answer. China has had a one child policy for years, which has been exercised through forced abortions. As a result today they are having a population decrease problem because there are not enough females. Most of the babies who were aborted (with the help of U.S. tax payer dollars) were female (www.geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/onechild.htm ; www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html ). What do you think is going to happen if you get too many men and too much testosterone in one area for too long? If you ask me abortion doesn’t seem like too much of an answer. I know you clowns out there who think that it saved the population from starvation. The truth is that it was the Communist control which led to the starvation, not the population. If they would have allowed free enterprise and free trade then some of the starvation issues could have been eliminated. So the science of history proves President Obama wrong.

What about the science of neonatal-pregnancy? Well, since the 1980’s that area has grown and it has proven that what is going on in the womb is in fact a human being (www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3798/is_/ai_n24394963 ). Ronald Reagan in his State of the Union address on February 6, 1985 said, “…all the evidence so far comes down on the side of the unborn child being a living human being.” Again, our present President has ignored science.

So we are back to square one, “What should we do?” Well outside of a complete impeachment (which will not happen) we are stuck in this situation. The first thing which can be done is pray. God can change hearts and we need to pray that President Obama’s heart will be changed. Second, write you congressman and the President. Protest the action in e-mail, with phone calls and in letters. Key thought here is: “Be civil”. Third, start looking for a strong conservative to run in your district or for Senate in your state, if one does not already exist. Send a message that we do not want this kind of policy. Fourth, start looking for a strong conservative to run against President Obama in 2012. I believe someone else can win if we work the field. Last, pray! We just simply need to pray. Pray for the Presidents protection, for his policies and for his spiritual condition. Pray for revival of evangelism among Christians. Laws will not change this issue, only Jesus Christ ruling and reigning in the hearts of men will. Christians need to repent of their moral failure to stand up for truth and start being a voice of conscience for those who have no voice, whether they are unborn, poor, disabled, or elderly.

God Bless,

Steven

MY THOUGHTS ON THE 2009 INAGURATION

We now have a new president by the name of Barack Obama. He is a man who has come from a very mixed background; a father who left him (something I feel he still struggles with), raised by a single mother along with his two committed grandparents. He is a man who was shaped by the dream of Martin Luther King and is now the embodiment of that dream. He is a man of extreme intelligence, great ambition, and thoughtful analysis. He was raised in Hawaii, taught in private school, educated at Harvard. He has been a man committed to the value of helping others by being engaged in community organizations which helped those who appear to have no help. He was an Illinois state senator and later ran for the Senate of that state only to run for President of the United States two years later and win. There are many good qualities which President Obama appears to hold, one of which I believe is his faithfulness to his wife and the role model he continues to be to his children. In many ways he is a true role model of family life for the African-American community. Perseverance is another quality I believe he shows. During the campaign against both Clinton and McCain perseverance showed up more than once as the campaign became a grueling task of swaps that were made back and forth. I believe that President Barack Obama is a person of moral character. He has done or said nothing which says otherwise.

However, having said that I believe that historically we are in the greatest danger we have ever been in during our two hundred plus years as a nation. I believe we are in more danger than we may have been during the Civil War. Why? Not because of President Barack Obama, but because of our own selfish ambitions. We have allowed desperation to become our key word. Our forefathers believed in independence and hard work. Today we live in an overwhelming society of “give me’s.” We constantly want more for less without giving anything. President Obama is not only the embodiment of Martin Luther King’s dream, but is also the embodiment of the great American tragedy.

President Barack Obama is more like Franklin Roosevelt than Abraham Lincoln. Franklin Roosevelt came to power as president during the turbulent times of the Great Depression. He was charismatic, thought provoking and was ushered in by a public who was tired of prohibition and high taxes. Basically the people wanted the roaring twenties to return and the ability to toast the night away without worrying about law enforcement ruining the party. The problem was that a repeal of the 18^th Amendment or Prohibition did not ease the suffering nor did it bring back prosperity. Neither did the New Deal which ambitiously placed the Federal Government as an employer. In 1933 when he became president the unemployment rate was 23% but in 1937 it fell to 14.5% which sounds good. But in 1938 it raised to 19% only to continue climbing to the eve of the December 7^th, 1941 the Pearl Harbor attack. In fact the New Deal was so intrusive that in 1947 it interfered with the private sector being able to start up the creation of new jobs causing the nation to go through a sever recession which almost plunged it back into the Great Depression. This new form of socialism brought with it a hefty price tag as well. Federal taxation on people went from 25% in 1930 under President Hoover (who raised taxes on the people in 1930 as the Depression deepened) to 79% in 1946 under both Roosevelt and Truman. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123215398370892313.html?mod=googlenews_wsj )

Under President George W. Bush we have enjoyed to pretty strong economics, while not as strong as the late 1990’s under President Bill Clinton. Either way the economy was strong and it was constant. However I believe that President George W. Bush and his staff started taking us down a road that President Obama will continue. It was a path toward greater socialism through the financial bailouts of our banking system in the fall of 2008. President Barak Obama will not call his intrusive policies the New Deal, but it could be called a “New Day.” At least that is the constant rant that he quotes. I believe that President Obama will be a one term president much like Jimmy Carter. There have already been signs of tension in the Democratic leadership which threatens unity. (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/08/key-senate-democrats-blast-obama-tax-proposals/ ) Our new President has made a huge amount of promises which he may not be able to fulfill, as do most presidents. However, this President ran on style not substance. I go back to one of my pre-election blogs where I stated that those who were ushering our President into office were acting more like 3^rd grade playground kids than logical, thought provoking adults. I’m still looking around wondering if we are in 1982 again and if I’m still in high school where the prettiest girl gets voted in as class president, not the smartest.

I worry about his moral convictions regarding abortion and the homosexual movement. He is very post modern in his approach which, at times, makes me a little uncomfortable. It appears that he is gaining a stronger view of many of the military and intelligence issues, even thought I still worry about those issues as well.

So what do we do in this situation? Simple! Pray! Pray for our new President, for his health, safety, salvation, and understanding of the issues. Pray for his family that he and they will continue to enjoy the grace of our Lord while being our leader. Pray that God will turn his and our Vice-President’s heart in the right direction. Pray that we as Evangelicals will be a light to our President, always speaking the truth in love. Even then pray for each other, that we will stand on our convictions from Scripture first and foremost. Pray that we will be willing to oppose the President when necessary, but never neglect to treat him with respect as a person and as our President. Who knows maybe God will use him in a way that we could never imagine.

Steven