Scripture Daily

Context No. 1139 of 4322 · Ezra

Context · Reflection

Ezra 2:64-70: in context

64The whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty, 65in addition to their male servants and their female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven; and they had two hundred singing men and singing women. 66Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six; their mules, two hundred forty-five; 67their camels, four hundred thirty-five; their donkeys, six thousand seven hundred twenty. 68Some of the heads of fathers’ households, when they came to the LORD’s house which is in Jerusalem, offered willingly for God’s house to set it up in its place. 69They gave according to their ability into the treasury of the work sixty-one thousand darics of gold, five thousand minas of silver, and one hundred priests’ garments. 70So the priests and the Levites, with some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants, lived in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.

The list of returned exiles closes with a grand total, forty-two thousand assembled, plus servants, singers, and their animals. And then a telling note: when they came to the site of the ruined temple, some of the heads of families gave freely, out of their own resources, toward rebuilding the house of God on its foundations, offering gold, silver, and priestly garments according to their ability. Then the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, and the rest of the people settled in their towns.

The detail worth catching is the freewill offering. These people had just made a long, hard journey back from exile to a ruined city, and the first thing some of them did, on arriving at the wrecked temple site, was give, out of their own resources, willingly, to rebuild the house of God. No one compelled them; the text says they offered freely, according to their ability, each giving what they could toward a work larger than themselves. There is something beautiful in that first act of the returned community, that before they had even settled into their own homes, some of them opened their hands for God's house. It shows where their hearts were: the rebuilding of the place of worship mattered enough to give toward it immediately and gladly. And the phrase according to their ability is gracious, honoring both the large gifts and the small; what mattered was not the amount but the willingness. The willing gift, offered from a heart glad to see God's house restored, is a mark of a people whose priorities have been reordered by their return to God. First, the house of God; and they gave to it freely.

When something of God's is to be built or restored, do I open my hand freely and gladly, according to my ability, or do I settle my own house first and give only what is left?

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