The Scripture for today, March 13, Is Ezra 3:13 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.”
Solomon’s great temple had been destroyed and the Jews forced to go to Babylon. Now, 70 years later, they were back and had rebuilt the temple. The older Jews who had seen Solomon’s temple wailed in grief because it was not nearly so grand as Solomon’s. The younger ones shouted for joy because at least they now had a temple again. So the laughing of the young people and the crying of the old people mingled.
Today, sometimes the laughing and crying around us get too loud and put our lives in confusion. We don’t understand what is going on. Sometimes the laughing or crying is our own. Sometimes we need to get away from the loud laughing and crying.
Turn off the television. The radio. The phone. The computer. Don’t answer the door. Go into a room where you can be alone in complete silence. Then pick up the Bible and begin to read Luke about the life of Christ, or Philippians about peace, or the Psalms about overcoming adversity, or James about the direction your life is going. Read the whole book in one sitting.
Be still. Hear it now?
It is God’s heart calling your heart.
.
”Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
“No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.”