Hello, thank you for joining me today for Give Him 15.

And the title of today's post is, let's finish this.

I've been feeling strongly that for today's post, I need to warn against distraction.

There's so much news coming at us of violence, unrest, and other serious issues here and abroad.

It's possible to become overwhelmed.

This can produce various negative responses, including stress, weariness of heart, wavering in faith, and more. I want to encourage you to

remain focused on the Lord and what he is saying. As the book of Ezra opens, Cyrus, king of

Persia, allows a remnant of Israelites to return to Jerusalem for the purpose of

rebuilding their temple. Seventy years prior, because of their rejection of him, God had allowed

the temple to be destroyed and Israel to be taken captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

Later, they came under the rule of Cyrus when he conquered Babylon.

God then moved upon the heart of Cyrus, a pagan and idolatrous king, to permit this this return to rebuild the temple.

He even stirred Cyrus's heart to help the remnant raise the needed funds for rebuilding

and returned to them all the vessels and utensils Nebuchadnezzar had plundered from the temple.

This was amazing. A remnant returned to Jerusalem

under Zerubbable's leadership and began the work. Ezra, 3 10 to 13, from the message, tells us,

when the workers laid the foundation of the temple of God,

the priests in their robes stood up with trumpets and the Levites,

sons of Asaph, with symbols to praise God in the tradition of David.

All the people boomed out hurrahs the message.

Great translation.

Praising God as the foundation of the temple of God was laid.

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