Today’s reading in Ezra [Ch. 8] does not look at first very interesting with all its detail about those returning from captivity in Babylon.  It appears that Ezra himself wrote this chapter and the next. He led a company of Levites who were returning to Jerusalem and they had with them a great quantity of gold and silver, as detailed ...

We are naturally inclined toward the positive and encouraging matters we read in God’s word – and so it has been encouraging today to read of the faith and commitment of Ezra in leading many of God’s people back from captivity to Jerusalem.  We also read of Paul’s arrival in Rome and how “he lived there two whole years … ...