The reading for July 8 is Ezra 4-6 -- the Jews will not let the people of the land help build the temple; they make grief for the Israelites by writing letters to each new Persian ruler in turn; they finally succeed with Artaxerxes who temporarily stopped the building (ch 4); at the word of the prophets Zechariah and Haggai, the Israelites start building again; when challenged again, they send a letter to Darius appealing to the original decree of Cyrus that started the project in the first place (ch 5); Darius makes a search of the records and finds the decree of Cyrus; he sends a letter to the Persian administrators in the region and recommends they help the project along in any way possible, ending the letter: "whosoever shall alter this word, let timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged thereon, and let his house be made a dunghill for this"; so the work continued and the house was finished; they had a big celebration with lots of sacrifices; they kept the passover feast and the feast of unleavened bread (ch 6). The New Testament reading is Acts 18 -- Paul comes to Corinth and stays with Aquila and Priscilla; Paul preaches in the synagogue until opposition arises, then moves next door, taking the head of the synagogue with him as a new believer; the Jews bring Paul to the deputy, Gallio, who immediately dismisses the case; the new synagogue leader gets a beating for his troubles; after a long stay at Corinth, Paul goes with Priscilla and Aquila to Ephesus; Paul wants to get to Jerusalem for a feast, so leaves and lands at Caesarea; he "went up" and saluted the church (at Jerusalem?) then "went down" to Antioch; he sets out on a third journey; meanwhile at Ephesis, Apollos appears, knowing only the baptism of John; Aquila and Priscilla instructed him more fully; he then moves on preaching the gospel boldly.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 15:01:04 +0000
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