Thursday November 4 Pentecost 23
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Psalm 74
About 600 years before Jesus, the Babylonians invaded Israel and the Jerusalem temple was completely destroyed. This was a time of deep despair, and many thought Judaism would disappear forever. The psalm asks God to remember what great things God did in controlling the forces of nature when God made the world, and how God rescued the people from Egypt, and to do great things again to rescue the people. They trust this is possible because God is in charge of the whole earth. We face similar issues in terms of the entire planet in our time.
Ezra 7: 1-26 What’s Ezra about?
This is a different account of how Jerusalem was rebuilt. Artaxerxes, a successor of Cyrus who had conquered the Babylonians, instructs Ezra to return and rebuild Jerusalem and provides money and material to help. This is a sign that the God of Israel is influencing the king of one of the largest empires in history, an amazing development in their concept of God.
Matthew 14: 1-12 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist is executed. To have a relative executed in the ancient world was to be in mortal danger yourself and prepares us for the ultimate attack on Jesus that is gathering strength.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
whose chosen servant Abraham obeyed your call,
rejoicing in your promise
that in him the family of the earth is blessed,
give us faith like his,
that in us your promises may be fulfilled;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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