Thoughts on Ezra

My initial thoughts:

I would love to have more background information concerning the history of the text and the history of the tribes of Israel.

Chapter 1: Two things that seemed to stand out throughout the chapter
- God stirring his spirit within the hearts of leaders
- The leaders taking that stirring and immediately becoming obedient

For my own heart I know I don't respond immediately when God stirs something within me. I either shrink back in fear because I do not know what it will mean or I thoughtfully disobey and sit back and let the stirring pass me by. In Chapter 1 Cyrus wastes no time between God's stirring and proclaiming the temple needs to be built. Then the leaders of Judah respond to God's stirring and Cyrus's leadership.

Chapter 2:
- Everybody coming together to build the temple of the Lord. Even people who we cannot find in the geneology of Jewish leaders and families decide to come together and work on the house of the Lord.

Chapter 3: I was fairly confused by this chapter and would love to hear different thoughts.

-My initial thought was the decision to worship before anything was built because of their fear and possibly because of their trust in the Lord to provide. I am not real sure if their hearts were in full trust and obedience mode or they just built the altar out of fear. It states that built it out of fear, but I believe their might have been an obedience factor that played in the construction of the altar.
-Once the foundation was built they stopped and praised the Lord. I believe they knew the Lord had given them everything they needed and were grateful for the provision (Last verse of Chapter One) and generosity of the Lord.

The historical context would play a huge role in understanding the weeping and mourning of people who had previously seen the temple. Maybe I will come to understand that later on, but found it fairly odd.