Same Return Same Frustration

When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the families, saying, "Let us build with you because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the time of King Esar-haddon of Assyria, who brought us here."

But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other heads of the families of Israel replied, "You have no part with us in building a house for our God, since we alone must build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, as Cyrus king of Persia has commanded us."

Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build. They hired counselors against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, an accusation was lodged against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. (Ezra 4:1-6 BSB)

The people already living in the land when the Jews returned the first time tried to frustrate their plans. The people already living in the land when the Jews returned the second time also tried to frustrate their plans.

During the first return, the superpower of the day was Persia. For the second return, the superpower is America.

During the first return, the people already living in the land claimed that they worshipped the God of Abraham. During the second return, the people already living in the land also claimed that they worshipped the God of Abraham.

During the first return, the people already living in the land failed to frustrate the Jews and disappeared into the dustbin of history. It will be the same for the people already living in the land today.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV)

Leaves Are for Healing in the Kingdom of God

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing." (Ezekiel 47:12 NIV)

On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:2b NIV)

In Ezekiel, the river flow from the Temple in Jerusalem. In Revelation, the river flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.

I can understand why we may need healing during the millennium. But why do we need healing when we are living in the new heaven and new earth?

And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9 ESV)

Jesus The Only Way - 2

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6 NIV, BSB)

The Bible tells me that those who do not believe in Jesus as their saviour will go to hell when they die.

But some objected to this. They said that God is love and He will not do that.

I said that God sends everybody to death. So the same God also sends them to hell.

Those who objected says that death is a natural process. The loving God takes over after death and sends everybody to heaven.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NIV, BSB, CSB)

But from what I read from the Bible, death is not a natural process. Death is the result of sin. Those who sin go to hell after death.

The love of the loving God is manifested not by sending everyone to heaven, but by sending His Son to die for the sin of the world.

And whosoever who believes that He had died for our sin will not be punished but have everlasting life. And those who do not believe is condemned already.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18 KJV)