The story found in Ezra 1-6 is one of my all-time favorites!! It’s a wonderful story that shows God’s sovereign redemption and overcoming power in the most beautiful way! If this story doesn’t get you excited about God’s character and God’s ways...I don’t know what will!
Our story takes place near the end of Judah’s seventy years of exile in Babylon. The known world is now under the rule of the Persian Empire. And the story begins with a most surprising, astonishing and wonderful verdict. To be fair, it shouldn’t have been entirely surprising to God’s people, since it had been predicted years previously by the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. But I still find it most amazing, and I am sure the Jewish people did too!
We are told that the Lord moved the heart of king Cyrus of Persia. He acknowledges Yahweh as the God of heaven from whom he's received his authority, and he issues a decree for God’s people to go back to Jerusalem and Judah and to rebuild the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel. Not only that, but he commands anyone who lives in the areas where the remnant of God’s people are, to send them with gifts of gold, silver, livestock and offerings for the temple. He also returns to them all the articles of gold and silver that had been taken from the treasuries of the Lord’s temple when the Babylonians had invaded Jerusalem.
I think it’s amazing that not only a pagan king, but the king who has been given all the kingdoms of the earth at his disposal, and who would have had every reason to keep the Israelites as his slaves, was moved by God to not only allow God’s people to return home to their own land, but to give them supplies to rebuild the temple of the Lord! It’s crazy to me that the project was initiated by the king of Persia, not a leader of Judah or Israel. I love how God can use anyone to accomplish His purposes, even the most unlikely of characters.
So a remnant of God’s people, “all those whose hearts God had moved,” gathered the supplies so generously given to them by king Cyrus and their foreign neighbors, and they made the return trip to the Promised Land, and the once great City of David. There were a total of 42, 360 people who returned, including the Levites, priests and temple servants. They were led by Zerubbabel (a descendant of the royal line of David) and the high priest Joshua. How exciting that after many long years in exile, without a home or national identity of their own, those who had remained faithful to the God of their ancestors are now returning to worship Him in their own land and to rebuild the temple for His dwelling place!
The first thing Zerubbabel and Joshua did once all the people were resettled in their own towns, was to simply reinstate the worship practices of the Lord their God. They rebuilt the altar of the Lord and began offering sacrifices and burnt offerings on it, and celebrated the Lord’s festivals, according to everything that was commanded in the law of Moses. And it says that they worshiped Yahweh despite their fear of the peoples around them.
Next, they began the work of rebuilding the temple. Once the temple’s foundation had been laid, they had a great celebration with music and shouts of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. But there were some priests and elders who remembered the glory of Solomon’s temple, and they wept with the realization that this one would never compare with its former splendor.
When their enemies living in the surrounding Trans-Euphrates area heard that the people of Judah and Benjamin were re-building the temple of the Lord, they were quick to stir up trouble. At first they came to them under the pretense that they wanted to help with the work, probably with intentions to either sabotage the project from within or to use it for their own political and religious agenda. When Zerubbabel wisely refuses their help, they do everything they can to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid of continuing with the project, even bribing officials to work against them and to frustrate the work on the temple. We’re told that this opposition continues from the reign of Cyrus through to the reign of king Darius of Persia.
In between, during the reigns of Xerxes and Artexerxes, these enemies throughout the Trans-Euphrates send complaints to the Persian Empire about the people of Judah. They write a letter to king Artexerxes, saying that the people of Jerusalem are a wicked and rebellious people with a history of sedition, and that if they are allowed to continue to rebuild, then they are sure to stop paying taxes to the royal revenue, and so for the good of the empire, they must be stopped. And sadly, Artexerxes is convinced of this, and sends orders for the temple project to be stopped immediately. So the Trans-Euphrates leaders force the work on the house of God to come to a standstill.
But God sends the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to encourage and challenge Zerubbabel and Joshua, and to urge them to boldly continue the work of rebuilding the temple. If you have not recently read the books of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, I would highly encourage you to do so. They are some of my favorite books of prophecy and they are filled with so many messages of hope and Messianic promises. As a very general summary, these prophets challenge Judah’s leaders to re-prioritize the presence of God in their midst, to depend on God’s Spirit and not their own strength, and to trust in the promises that one day God would cleanse them completely from sin, that His presence in their midst would be even more glorious than the splendor of Solomon’s temple, and that He would make Jerusalem a city without measure filled with peace and prosperity where all the nations would gather to worship the Lord. And so, encouraged with renewed strength and motivation, Zerubbabel and Joshua take the words of the prophets to heart and lead the people in continuing the rebuilding project.
Needless to say, the governors of Trans-Euphrates are greatly displeased by this. “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and finish it?” they want to know. So the Jewish leaders explain that king Cyrus of Persia was the one who had issued the decree for them to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. So the Trans-Euphrates leaders write another letter, this time to king Darius, asking him to verify if the royal archives had any record that king Cyrus did in fact issue such a decree. And of course, king Darius finds that he did!
So Darius issues a decree of his own: that the people of Trans-Euphrates are not to interfere with the work of the temple and that they are to allow them to continue with the project. Furthermore, every expense that is needed for the temple is to be paid out of the revenues of Trans-Euphrates AND anyone who has a problem with that will be impaled on a pole and their house made into a pile of rubble.
And so, with the help that their enemies are forced to provide, FINALLY the temple is completed, and there is GREAT rejoicing in all of Judah!!! They celebrate the Lord’s Passover and give thanks and praise to God for what He had done!!
Isn’t that the most wonderful story?! I LOVE the way God sovereignly works even in the midst of great opposition and seemingly impossible circumstances to bring victory in the lives of His people and restore them to Himself. Years before king Cyrus was even born, God had already determined how He would use this king’s decree to bring success to His people, and to use their enemies’ schemes to work in their favor.
Because of Jesus’ completed work on the cross, we too have been given freedom from exile in “Babylon” (a biblical symbol for sin and worldliness), and the gift of being restored to a covenant relationship with the God who loves us. He is calling us to return to Him and to build ourselves as a temple/a church body/a people that is devoted to worshiping Him and seeking His manifest presence in our lives. One day, we will get to see the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecies of Haggai and Zachariah when we all worship together in the New Jerusalem (Heaven!) as a people of every tongue, tribe, language and nation. And we will forever be in the awesome Presence of God in His holy temple! What a glorious day of rejoicing that will be!!!
But in the meantime, we will face fierce opposition from the enemy. We will be hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. We will be persecuted, but not abandoned. We will be struck down, but not destroyed. The enemy of our souls will do everything in his power to sabotage and frustrate the work of the building of God’s kingdom. But in the end, God will use the very things Satan has tried to use against us to give us the ultimate victory! I bet Satan was pretty pleased with himself when Jesus was crucified. But just when he thinks he’s made a fatal blow, God stages a resurrection!! My friends, we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through Christ! That means that we not only stop the advances of the enemy, but we use his tactics to our advantage. There is nothing Satan can do that God will not redeem for His glory and our good. So take heart! In this world, you will have trouble. But Jesus has overcome the world! His sovereign plan will not be thwarted, and the day is coming when we will celebrate with great rejoicing all the ways that He used the enemy’s plans in our favor.
But until that day comes, we can receive the same encouragement that Zerubbabel and Joshua received through the prophets: if we are seeking to be in God’s presence and to build His kingdom, and if we rely His Spirit not on our own might or power, if we trust in His promises, and let Him purify us from our sins, then we have a most glorious hope and inheritance to look forward to! So when the enemy is attacking from every side to discourage and dishearten you, seek to worship the Lord despite your fears of the enemies around you. And you will find that even when circumstances feel impossible, and it seems like you will never finish the good work God began in you, He is at work behind the scenes, and in His loving sovereignty, He is weaving a beautiful tapestry of redemption in the story of your life. We can always count on Him to supply our every need, often in the most unsuspecting ways.
So be encouraged, and persevere in the work of the building of “the temple” and the kingdom of God until the Lord brings it to its completion in Christ Jesus!
Comments