Saturday 23rd May
Read Ezra 8:24-30
“Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests, namely, Sherebiah, Hashabiah and ten of their brothers, 25 and I weighed out to them the offering of silver and gold and the articles that the king, his advisors, his officials and all Israel present there had donated for the house of our God. 26 I weighed out to them 650 talents of silver, silver articles weighing 100 talents, 100 talents of gold, 27 20 bowls of gold valued at 1,000 darics, and two fine articles of polished bronze, as precious as gold.
28 I said to them, ‘You as well as these articles are consecrated to the Lord. The silver and gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your ancestors. 29 Guard them carefully until you weigh them out in the chambers of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem before the leading priests and the Levites and the family heads of Israel.’ 30 Then the priests and Levites received the silver and gold and sacred articles that had been weighed out to be taken to the house of our God in Jerusalem.” (NIVUK)
When the Spanish conquistadores subjugated the Incan empire to remove their gold they extracted and exported to Spain well over 100 tonnes. It was one of the largest economic windfalls arising from conquest in history. This dwarfs the amount of silver eventually extracted, at well over 125 000 tonnes. However there was nothing noble or worthy about this Christian nation’s behaviour.
The movement of wealth described by Ezra is deliberately described as consecrated and freely given. Ezra claims to have weighed it himself so that nothing was lost. The weight of silver and gold transported was more than 25 tonnes which renders the prayer and fasting just mentioned all the more salutary. Sometimes the movement of wealth can be both nobly done and worthy of God.
