The Duty of Every Day Required

“…as the duty of every day required” - Ezra 3.4

The above says, “as the duty of every day required…”.  The word “duty” there has a very long definition!  It basically means anything and everything that might possibly need doing!  “Duty”.

It is the sort of word that has been in famous speeches I think.  “Duty”.

What a privilege.  To actually be a part of anything and everything that might possibly need doing!

In the Book of Ezra it is specifically speaking about the people who served at the temple, the Levites, and it says, “They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;”  (Ezra 3:4)

You see, for 70 or so years they hadn’t been able to do their “duty”.  They had been in captivity.  But now, day in and day out they had a job to do!  A job no one else was qualified to do.  They served at the Temple, at least where the temple was being rebuilt, and they did anything and everything that needed doing… “as the duty of every day required”!

Remember what is was like to be a captive to sin?

Remember what is was like to have nothing of eternal value to do?

Remember when Sundays were for sleep and play?  No responsibilities.  No duty?  No “anything or everything that needed doing”.  How sad.  How empty…  Then Monday came… then Tuesday… the “rat race”... pointless without Christ…

So much better for us to get on with it and DO “as the duty of every day requires”!

(P.S. “the feast of tabernacles” was when the Jews lived in “booths” (tents) for a week Leviticus 23.34-43)   Pastor