The Freewill offering

 

February 22, 2021

 

Ezra 2:1-2; 64-70

 

The List of the Exiles Who Returned

Now, these are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive to Babylon (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to their own town,  in company with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah):

The list of the men of the people of Israel:  (Note: I’m not listing the many verses of the numbers of each group.  You also must understand this the number listed of the total does not include women and children.)

 The whole company numbered 42,360,  besides their 7,337 male and female slaves; and they also had 200 male and female singers.   They had 736 horses, 245 mules,  435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

When they arrived at the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site.   According to their ability, they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priestly garments.

 The priests, the Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants settled in their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.

The old is forever new is clear in that we the Church, still have many who do not choose to give freewill offerings to support the work of the ministry.  The other thing is it has been 70 plus years and each group of people settled in their towns and began to live for the first time as free people.  

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice