Maga

Ezra 3: 1 – 13

MAGA

3 And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brethren, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 Though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries, they set the altar on its bases; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and evening burnt offerings. 4 They also kept the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings in the number required by ordinance for each day. 5 Afterwards they offered the regular burnt offering, and those for New Moons and for all the appointed feasts of the LORD that were consecrated, and those of everyone who willingly offered a freewill offering to the LORD. 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, although the foundation of the temple of the LORD had not been laid. 7 They also gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the permission which they had from Cyrus king of Persia. 8 Now in the second month of the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem, began work and appointed the Levites from twenty years old and above to oversee the work of the house of the LORD. 9 Then Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah, arose as one to oversee those working on the house of God: the sons of Henadad with their sons and their brethren the Levites. 10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the ordinance of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel.” Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off.

MAGA stands for ‘Magnify Almighty God Again’. You thought it was a different meaning, didn’t you?

In our last study we discovered after 70 years in captivity our Precious Holy Spirit listed the second Exodus of His people. In 70 verses our Holy Comforter gave us the names of those inspired to leave Babylon and go back to the Promised Land.

We will see that like the first group of Israelites, whom our Great and Majestic God Yahweh freed from the slavery of Egypt, faced many enemies along the way and once in the land which God promised them. The new group of travelers will come across similar enemies.

There were people from other nations that were forced to move into the land by the Assyrians. They developed a blend of worship the only real and living God, YHYH, with a whole variety of pagan gods.

The returnee Israelites had learned a lesson in their captivity of forsaking our Precious Father God. They did not want to make the same mistake now being allowed to come back home. So, they wanted to worship One God and His Is Yahweh. They would not allow those who worshiped anyone other than the God of Israel. So, their position of ‘Magnifying Almighty God Again’ did not win friends and influence the other dwellers in the land to see their way. Thus, the development of serious oppression was started by these non-Israelite residents.

It is probable that this is the first of the major feasts that the freed Israelites had been able to celebrate. The seventh month’ was in Israel a month of feasts. First would come the feast of trumpets on the first day of the month, then the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the month and then the feast of Tabernacles, which continued for seven days, commencing on the fifteenth day of the month (Leviticus 23.23-36).