Blowing The Shofar – Part 2.

Ezra and the Return of the Babylonian Exiles.

On my second day of blowing the shofar, God led me to read the book of Ezra. He gave me a deeper revelation of what life he desired from his children. This book begins with the exiles coming back to Jerusalem from Babylon. Here we see Ezra gathering select leaders to go back with him to rebuild the ruins of Jerusalem.

6 this Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law (the five books) of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given; and the king granted him everything that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him. 7 Some of the sons of Israel, with some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants also went up [from Babylon] to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.

Being a musician and worship leader, I couldn’t help but notice the significance of the added singers who were chosen to accompany him.

I wondered at the significance singers played in the culture of Israel and why they were needed for the rebuilding of the wall. I did some deep digging into the role musicians and singers played in ancient Israel and discovered that in David’s day he appointed 4000 musicians to attend the daily temple sacrifices.

These sacrifices were done every single day! These sacrifices massed thousands of animals per day and the musicians and singers … trumpeters were there to lead people in worship to the Lord.

The praise and the worship were obviously for God, but the music, singer, and trumpeters were there to draw the people into the worship as a community.

I came across an article online that goes into great detail about the life of the Levites and their role in the temple and the ritual use of music in the daily life of the temple. Mainly it states that musicians were a huge part of the daily temple life and were responsible for drawing in the presence of the Lord with praise and worship. This heightens my ideas of the role that we, as modern day musicians in the church, play. We are essential to drawing that God, and drawing the people into community.

I have a copy of the article in a zip file HERE.

Getting back to my vision from Part -1, Blowing The Shofar in Today’s World, what I was seeing with the men in the streets of Israel and the trumpeters lined up on the street were likely part of the daily sacrifice and bringing the presence of God to the streets and city.

That would account for the presence of God I felt residing there.