Part II

When we have expectations that God should “high-five” our desires or choices in difficult times from outside of the Bible, rather than giving us peace for our decisions, it will negatively shape our discernment. In Ezra-Nehemiah, miracles are conspicuously absent. Yet, reading Ezra-Nehemiah in light of previous (antecedent) revelation, shows that Yahweh had made Himself King in Israel at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 12-24 (1446 B.C). During the time when King Yahweh resided in the Tabernacle/throne room, manifesting his presence in the Glory-Cloud, He often intervened immediately—miraculously—in the affairs of His people. He continued to reign and manifest is presence until 592 B.C. when the Glory-Cloud departed, as recorded in Ezekiel 11:22-23. With the Glory-Cloud’s departure, that theocratic arrangement was judicially abandoned. That departure signaled the end of the theocratic arrangement. While his presence departed, the Abrahamic covenant God made is unilateral and binding on God (Gen. 15:1-21; see also Hebrews 6:13-18). It seems the theocratic arrangement had to do only with the form in which Yahweh’s relationship to that people was administered. The significance of the Glory-Cloud’s departure was not that Yahweh would no longer honor His covenant relationship with Israel and protect it from its enemies; it was that He would do so mediately rather than immediately, providentially rather than miraculously.

Israel did not need miracles to “high-five” their decisions. They had God’s Word. All they needed was to obey and trust God. His word really is sufficient. It is sufficient for us as well.