Ezra 1-2
I wish I knew the back story of Cyrus king of Persia. What did God do in Cyrus’ life to position his heart to make the declaration that he did during his first year of reign? It sounds like Cyrus acknowledged God as God, but there is no telling if he fully devoted his heart to Him or not. Whatever the case, God clearly used him for His purpose, as prophesied many years before. I am just always curious if we will see any of these foreign leaders mentioned in the Bible in heaven.
Genealogies were important to the Jews, especially for the priests and the Levites, as they had to be descendants of Levi in order to serve in those roles. It was also how they proved their rights to their inheritance from God. I noticed one of the New Testament letters from the apostles that we read recently mentioned genealogies. They were associated with those who teach false doctrines in opposition to the doctrine of faith. This is part of God’s new covenant of grace through Jesus Christ. We no longer need to have the right bloodline in order to be in God’s presence and receive an inheritance from Him. All we need is to be covered by Jesus’ blood.
1 John 4
I always think of the antichrist as a physical person who rules in the last days. And maybe he is. But John said that the spirit of the antichrist was and is present in the world today. He basically defines this as any spirit that does not confess Jesus as God in the flesh. Such people and teachings are against Christ – anti Christ. He goes on to say that anyone who is against Christ is from the world. You cannot love God while standing in opposition to Him. Christ is the love of God, so anything anti-Christ is also anti-God and the spirit of truth is not in them.
It seems John wrote this letter to help his readers discern between God’s truth and the lies of false doctrines. In fact, I see a lot of that theme in all of the apostles’ letters. It doesn’t take much looking around to see the need for such teaching is still great today. There are so many lies out there today, from slightly twisted truth to outright defiance of all sensibility. It is sometimes difficult to look at the mess and tell what’s right and what isn’t. Which is why we need to look to God and to stay in His word. The clearer the truth is to us, the more the lies will stand out.