Wednesday Bible Study: Let the slaughter begin

The action in Ezra 3 is pretty straightforward. The priests build an altar and start up the sacrifices, then they lay the foundation for the temple. This does serve to remind us that the basis of this religion is the ritual killing of animals by a hereditary priesthood to propitiate a narcissistic deity. That ' s what he demands: kill animals and burn them. If you do different rituals to propitiate  other gods, he ' ll have you murdered en masse by other tribes. If your hereditary priests kill enough animals and burn them, he ' ll be good to them. That ' s the theology.3 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem.2 Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.3 Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to theLord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.4 Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day.5 After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of theLord, as well as those brought ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs