Our Victory over the World

1 John 5 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah is a child of God; and whoever loves a father loves his child also. ²This is how we know that we love God's children: it is by loving God and obeying his commands. ³For our love for God means that we obey his commands. And his commands are not too hard for us, ⁴because every child of God is able to defeat the world. And we win the victory over the world by means of our faith. ⁵Who can defeat the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

The Witness about Jesus Christ

⁶Jesus Christ is the one who came with the water of his baptism and the blood of his death. He came not only with the water, but with both the water and the blood. And the Spirit himself testifies that this is true, because the Spirit is truth. ⁷There are three witnesses: ⁸the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and all three give the same testimony. ⁹We believe human testimony; but God's testimony is much stronger, and he has given this testimony about his Son. ¹⁰So those who believe in the Son of God have this testimony in their own heart; but those who do not believe God, have made a liar of him, because they have not believed what God has said about his Son. ¹¹The testimony is this: God has given us eternal life, and this life has its source in his Son. ¹²Whoever has the Son has this life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Eternal Life

¹³I am writing this to you so that you may know that you have eternal life--you that believe in the Son of God. ¹⁴We have courage in God's presence, because we are sure that he hears us if we ask him for anything that is according to his will. ¹⁵He hears us whenever we ask him; and since we know this is true, we know also that he gives us what we ask from him.
¹⁶If you see a believer commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray to God, who will give that person life. This applies to those whose sins do not lead to death. But there is sin which leads to death, and I do not say that you should pray to God about that. ¹⁷All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which does not lead to death.
¹⁸We know that no children of God keep on sinning, for the Son of God keeps them safe, and the Evil One cannot harm them.
¹⁹We know that we belong to God even though the whole world is under the rule of the Evil One.
²⁰We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we know the true God. We live in union with the true God--in union with his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this is eternal life.
²¹My children, keep yourselves safe from false gods!

Worship Begins Again

Ezra 3 By the seventh month the people of Israel were all settled in their towns. Then they all assembled in Jerusalem, ²and Joshua son of Jehozadak, his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, together with his relatives, rebuilt the altar of the God of Israel, so that they could burn sacrifices on it according to the instructions written in the Law of Moses, the man of God. ³Even though the returning exiles were afraid of the people who were living in the land, they rebuilt the altar where it had stood before. Then they began once again to burn on it the regular morning and evening sacrifices. ⁴They celebrated the Festival of Shelters according to the regulations; each day they offered the sacrifices required for that day; ⁵and in addition they offered the regular sacrifices to be burned whole and those to be offered at the New Moon Festival and at all the other regular assemblies at which the LORD is worshiped, as well as all the offerings that were given to the LORD voluntarily. ⁶Although the people had not yet started to rebuild the Temple, they began on the first day of the seventh month to burn sacrifices to the LORD.

The Rebuilding of the Temple Begins

⁷The people gave money to pay the stonemasons and the carpenters and gave food, drink, and olive oil to be sent to the cities of Tyre and Sidon in exchange for cedar trees from Lebanon, which were to be brought by sea to Joppa. All this was done with the permission of Emperor Cyrus of Persia. ⁸So in the second month of the year after they came back to the site of the Temple in Jerusalem, they began work. Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the rest of their people, the priests, and the Levites, in fact all the exiles who had come back to Jerusalem, joined in the work. All the Levites twenty years of age or older were put in charge of the work of rebuilding the Temple. ⁹The Levite Jeshua and his sons and relatives, and Kadmiel and his sons (the clan of Hodaviah ) joined together in taking charge of the rebuilding of the Temple. (They were helped by the Levites of the clan of Henadad.)
¹⁰When the builders started to lay the foundation of the Temple, the priests in their robes took their places with trumpets in their hands, and the Levites of the clan of Asaph stood there with cymbals. They praised the LORD according to the instructions handed down from the time of King David. ¹¹They sang the LORD's praises, repeating the refrain:
"The LORD is good, and his love for Israel is eternal."
Everyone shouted with all their might, praising the LORD, because the work on the foundation of the Temple had been started. ¹²Many of the older priests, Levites, and heads of clans had seen the first Temple, and as they watched the foundation of this Temple being laid, they cried and wailed. But the others who were there shouted for joy. ¹³No one could distinguish between the joyful shouts and the crying, because the noise they made was so loud that it could be heard for miles.

Opposition to the Rebuilding of the Temple

Ezra 4 The enemies of the people of Judah and Benjamin heard that those who had returned from exile were rebuilding the Temple of the LORD, the God of Israel. ²So they went to see Zerubbabel and the heads of the clans and said, "Let us join you in building the Temple. We worship the same God you worship, and we have been offering sacrifices to him ever since Emperor Esarhaddon of Assyria sent us here to live."
³Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the heads of the clans told them, "We don't need your help to build a temple for the LORD our God. We will build it ourselves, just as Emperor Cyrus of Persia commanded us."
⁴Then the people who had been living in the land tried to discourage and frighten the Jews and keep them from building. ⁵They also bribed Persian government officials to work against them. They kept on doing this throughout the reign of Emperor Cyrus and into the reign of Emperor Darius.

Opposition to the Rebuilding of Jerusalem

⁶At the beginning of the reign of Emperor Xerxes, the enemies of the people living in Judah and Jerusalem brought written charges against them.
⁷Again in the reign of Emperor Artaxerxes of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and their associates wrote a letter to the emperor. The letter was written in Aramaic and was to be translated when read.
⁸Also Rehum, the governor, and Shimshai, the secretary of the province, wrote the following letter to Emperor Artaxerxes about Jerusalem:

⁹"From Rehum, the governor, from Shimshai, secretary of the province, from their associates, the judges, and from all the other officials, who are originally from Erech, Babylon, and Susa in the land of Elam, ¹⁰together with the other peoples whom the great and powerful Ashurbanipal moved from their homes and settled in the city of Samaria and elsewhere in West-of-Euphrates Province."

¹¹This is the text of the letter:

"To Emperor Artaxerxes from his servants who live in West-of-Euphrates.
¹²"We want Your Majesty to know that the Jews who came here from your other territories have settled in Jerusalem and are rebuilding that evil and rebellious city. They have begun to rebuild the walls and will soon finish them. ¹³Your Majesty, if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, the people will stop paying taxes, and your royal revenues will decrease. ¹⁴Now, because we are under obligation to Your Majesty, we do not want to see this happen, and so we suggest ¹⁵that you order a search to be made in the records your ancestors kept. If you do, you will discover that this city has always been rebellious and that from ancient times it has given trouble to kings and to rulers of provinces. Its people have always been hard to govern. This is why the city was destroyed. ¹⁶We therefore are convinced that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, Your Majesty will no longer be able to control West-of-Euphrates Province."

¹⁷The emperor sent this answer:

"To Rehum, the governor, to Shimshai, secretary of the province, and to their associates who live in Samaria and in the rest of West-of-Euphrates, greetings.
¹⁸"The letter which you sent has been translated and read to me. ¹⁹I gave orders for an investigation to be made, and it has indeed been found that from ancient times Jerusalem has revolted against royal authority and that it has been full of rebels and troublemakers. ²⁰Powerful kings have reigned there and have ruled over the entire province of West-of-Euphrates, collecting taxes and revenue. ²¹Therefore you are to issue orders that those men are to stop rebuilding the city until I give further commands. ²²Do this at once, so that no more harm may be done to my interests."

²³As soon as this letter from Emperor Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai, and their associates, they hurried to Jerusalem and forced the Jews to stop rebuilding the city.

Work on the Temple Begins Again

²⁴Work on the Temple had been stopped and had remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Emperor Darius of Persia.

A Song of Praise

Psalm 92 How good it is to give thanks to you, O LORD,
to sing in your honor, O Most High God,
²to proclaim your constant love every morning
and your faithfulness every night,
³with the music of stringed instruments
and with melody on the harp.
⁴Your mighty deeds, O LORD, make me glad;
because of what you have done, I sing for joy.

⁵How great are your actions, LORD!
How deep are your thoughts!
⁶This is something a fool cannot know;
someone who is stupid cannot understand:
⁷the wicked may grow like weeds,
those who do wrong may prosper;
yet they will be totally destroyed,
⁸because you, LORD, are supreme forever.

⁹We know that your enemies will die,
and all the wicked will be defeated.
¹⁰You have made me as strong as a wild ox;
you have blessed me with happiness.
¹¹I have seen the defeat of my enemies
and heard the cries of the wicked.

¹²The righteous will flourish like palm trees;
they will grow like the cedars of Lebanon.
¹³They are like trees planted in the house of the LORD,
that flourish in the Temple of our God,
¹⁴that still bear fruit in old age
and are always green and strong.
¹⁵This shows that the LORD is just,
that there is no wrong in my protector.