After Chronicles comes Ezra, and we enter a new stage of history that we call the Post-exilic Period, or as The NRSV Daily Bible calls it: The Chronicle of the Homecoming. After a relatively short exile in Babylon, the Israelites return to the land promised to Abraham. What they encounter on their return is heartbreaking. The city and the temple lay in ruins and they are faced with the enormous task of rebuilding not only the city and the temple, but their lives as well.

The end of Ezra 3 includes an interesting note regarding the laying of the new foundation for the temple. At its completion, the people gathered and, as Ezra tells us, some sang and others wept and it was impossible to distinguish between the two. I love this image of how our songs and tears mix and blend together and become almost one. Isn't that how life is sometimes; the perpetual movement in and out of rejoicing and grieving?

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Just when you thought you might not be able to go forward with one more king and one more failure, here comes Ezra like a breath of fresh air. The stories we read of rebuilding and returning to the disciplines of faith may be instructive to us as we continue our discipline of daily reading. May you be encouraged. Read on faithful one. Read on!