It took a year to read the Bible, then almost 9 months to read the Apocrypha. Now, I'm going to try to offer reflections on the Narrative Lectionary. But, I won't be posting daily--at least, for a while.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Last Days Instructions, a reflection on 2 Esdras 14;1-26

On the third day, as I was sitting under an oak, suddenly a voice came from a bush and said, "Ezra, Ezra!" I answered, "Here I am, Lord," and I rose to my feet. The Lord said, "When my people were in bondage, I revealed myself in a bush when I spoke to Moses. I sent him to Mount Sinai where I told him many wondrous things and declared to him the end of times. I told him which worlds he could repeat openly and which were to be kept secret.

And now, I say to you "Remember the dreams and their interpretations that you have heard for you are to be taken to live with my Son and with those that are like you until the times are ended. Get your house in order and reprove your people; comfort the lowly and instruct the wise.  And now renounce whatever in your life that is corruptible (referring to the body). The world is nearing the end.

I answered, "I will do what you have commanded and reprove the people who are now living, but who's going to be able to warn those that are born after I am gone?" Send the Holy Spirit into me so I can write down everything that has happened from the beginning, the law so they'll know how to find the path, and that those who want to live in the last days may do so."

The Lord told him to tell the people not to look for him for forty days added, "Get some writing tablets. Take with you the face who are trained to write rapidly, I'll light in your heart the lamp of understanding which will not be put out until the writing is completed. And when you are finished, you may relay some of this to the wise."

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