Restored Joy

Ezra 6 Page 462

INTRODUCTION:

WCF says - , “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

John Piper has helpfully modified that classic sentence: “The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever” (Desiring God [Multnomah Books], 10th Anniversary Edition, p. 15).

He also rightly says, “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him” (ibid., p. 9, italics his).

Thus if glorifying God is our highest aim, then finding joy and satisfaction in God must be our deliberate, lifelong, consuming pursuit.

To the degree that we fall short of fullness of joy in God, we fail to glorify Him as He deserves.

The joy that God imparts to His people is the theme of Ezra 6.

The chapter begins with the outcome in question.

The work on rebuilding the temple had stopped for 16 years due to opposition from the people in the land.

Then, under the ministries of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the work resumed.

But they barely got started again when Tattenai, the governor of the province that included Israel,

confronted the Jews with whether they had proper permission to rebuild the temple.

They told him about Cyrus’ decree.

Because God’s eye was upon them, Tattenai permitted them to continue construction until word got back from the current king, Darius, as to what to do (5:3–5).

In chapter 6, Darius makes a search and eventually finds the decree of Cyrus in the government archives.

He respects that decree and sends back a ruling that not only should the work go on, but also it ought to be supported by government funds.

Thus the temple was completed on March 12, 515 B.C.

The Lord’s people gathered to celebrate the dedication of this temple with joy (6:16).

This was followed by a celebration of the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread “with joy.”

Ezra explains the source of that joy: “for the Lord had caused them to rejoice, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to encourage them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel” (6:22).

We learn:

The key to a joyful life is trusting and obeying an almighty God

A Joyful person is one who:

Follows the Word of the God.

Ezra 6:18 “18 And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their divisions, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses.”

We know that Jesus and other Jews of his time used this expression to describe the earliest books of the Bible.

But didn't you know this expression was used even during the writing of the books of the Old Testament?

The later books of the Old Testament realizes these are books of Moses.

And they describe them as that. Ezra does here. Nehemiah will do that in Nehemiah, even in 2 Chronicles a couple of times. Those earliest books are referred to as the books of Moses.

The people of God were marked then by an understanding of the authority of the scriptures in their life together.

Just consider it, when they had lost their land and lost their temple, what had they kept hold of? Their Scriptures.

They kept them.

They took them with them.

They read them.

They brought them back with them.

And now they turn because they understand them to be God's Word written down.

So what did they do with the word of God that they kept with them and brought back to them.

They obeyed

Obedience brings Joy.

Well, something else about this obedience,

I do want you to notice, This obedience to God's commands was not a kind of sullen resolve.

No, it brought them a good and right joy.

Did you notice that in the passage? Like in verse 16. Look at verse 16.

Ezra 6:16 “16 And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.”

There we read that they celebrated the dedication of this house of God.

How did they do it?

With joy.

Or down in verse 22,

Ezra 6:22 “22 And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.”

why do we read that they kept the week-long feast of unleavened bread?

In verse 22, they kept the feast of unleavened bread, seven days, with joy,

for the Lord had made them joyful.

Good and right joy is a source of obedience, isn't it?

When we find our joy in the right things, it motivates us to live as God would have us live, as He made us to live.

In fact, doesn't this sound like Jesus? When you have shallower joys, then you follow the example of Christ, whom we read of in

Hebrews 12:2 “2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Why does it say, He endured even the cross for the joy that was set before Him.

The believers are to run the race to the end, just as Jesus completed his course.

Jesus endured the suffering and shame of the cross.

The shame of the cross was proverbial in the ancient world.612

He was fortified to bear up under the agony of such a death on account of “the joy that lay before him.”

Hence he could scorn and despise the temporary shame,

acting bravely since he knew something far better was coming. J

Jesus was rewarded for his obedience with the reign at God’s right hand.

Here is Jesus’ example to believers to obey. We are given joy as the source of our obedience.

What does He tell me to love, to desire, to rejoice in, and oh God how can I do that? Show me how I can do that.

Friends, that's what you want to do even with this time today. Obey God and everything He's told us.

Now Ezra is writing in the 450s of what had happened a couple of generations before him in the 510s,

and he was recounting the great acts of God to encourage the people of his own day,

and those of us since then, to listen to God, to obey God,

Follow Him, obey him and and true joy will follow. (even if it is not

Obedience identifies us as a follower of Christ.

Ezra 6:19-20 “19 On the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover. 20 For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. So they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves.”

According to the Bible, God is holy. That means he's completely, perfectly good. And we are not. We are not. Therefore, in order to follow Him, we must change. Or to use the Bible language, we must repent.

We must turn from our path of doing just whatever we want to doing what He has made us to do and instructs us to do in His Word. As we continue in this book of Ezra over the next several weeks, we'll see that there is material in this book that people badly misconstrue. That is, some misinterpret God's concern for His people's purity as if it were a racial concern rather than a spiritual concern.

Look in our chapter at verse 21. Look at who it says kept the Passover.

Ezra 6:21 “21 It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by every one who had joined them and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.”

Okay, we understand that first group, the people of Israel who had returned from exile, but they weren't alone.

Look who joined them in this feast of their identity as God's specially delivered people.

Ezra 6:21 “21 It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by every one who had joined them and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.”

Okay, who is this second group?

Would it include the Jews of the land who had not been carried into exile? I think it would. They were together with these returnees, embracing their identity as the delivered people of God. But a couple more questions.

Would it have included all the Jews of the land? No.

Neither among the returnees, nor the Jews who had been living in Judah throughout,

would any of them be welcome to keep the Passover, who were still associating with the uncleanness of the peoples of the land.

They were not welcome to keep the Passover.

What did that mean?

Well, that meant those people whose obedience to the distinctions that God had given for His people had vanished,

who didn't circumcise their male children,

who didn't keep the Sabbath,

who didn't keep the food laws,

or those who did join in the worship of local pagan deities.

None of these Jews would be welcome to keep the Passover.

What's more, we read back in the books of Moses of non-Jews joining God's people, becoming part of them, not by birth but by choice.

We read in Exodus 12 verse 48 at the original Passover, the very first observance in Egypt itself.

Exodus 12:48-49 “48 If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49 There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.””

A couple of years later, in the second Passover in the wilderness, as the people are nearing the promised land in numbers nine, this is repeated. If a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the Passover to the Lord according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule so shall he do. You shall have one statute both for the sojourner and for the native.

So friends, understand this. I don't know how your understanding of the Old Testament has been.

Maybe it's been Old Testament people of God ethnic, New Testament people of God That's kind of true if you don't press the details.

But if you press the details in a situation like this when you begin to see, actually in the Old Testament, it wasn't strictly ethnic.

There was a kind of ethnic core to it,

but there were those of that ethnicity who were not part of the people of God by the way they related to God,

and there were those who were not of that ethnicity that joined the people.

So most comprehensively, you couldn't say that the basic distinction of the people of God in the Old Testament, even in the Old Testament, was not race. It was grace.

People misunderstand the book of Ezra when they think it's only about race.

And with all due respect, those people are just not reading it very carefully.

They're not putting it in context of the Old Testament.

They're not seeing what's really going on here.

What's really going on here is God is continuing to refine His people.

He's continuing to find those whose hearts are soft to His Word as He creates a people who will hear and believe His promise like our father Abraham did. And will act on it.

That's what distinguishes God's people from the people around them, OBEDIENCE.

We'll talk a lot more about this when we get to Ezra chapters 9 and 10.

But these passages that have been pressed into this terrible service against interracial marriage in the past have entirely misunderstood what's going on here.

And they haven't really understood the nature of the separation that God was calling his people to have from the nations.

It was not finally an ethnic or a racial separation.

It was a moral and spiritual separation, which reflects the nature of the people of God today.

The reason why obedience is so important is, because it is the very thing that identified you as a follower of Jesus.

The identifier of a Christian is not birth into a Christian Family, nor baptism, nor going to church, but it si the deires to follow and obey the commands of their lord and savior Jesus Christ.

John 14:15 “15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

So Obedience Brings us Joy and it also shows our identity, but it also

Obedience helps us progress in godliness.

The temple was finally finished, about 20 years after the foundation was laid, and just over four years after the rebuilding began again under the ministries of Haggai and Zechariah.

Ezra 6:14-16 “14 And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia; 15 and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. 16 And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.”

the temple was finished and the people rejoiced at its dedication (6:15–16).

While we can and should rejoice at the completion of a building project,

we should find much greater joy when we see the Lord using us in the building of His spiritual temple, the church.

There is great joy in heaven when one sinner repents (Luke 15:7, 10).

As the father of the prodigal explains to the grumbling brother, “We had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found” Luke 15:32).

Paul calls the Philippian church his joy and crown (Phil. 4:1).

He says the same thing to the Thessalonians, that they are his joy and crown of exultation, his glory and joy (1 Thess. 2:19–20).

I admit that there can be a sense of frustration in ministry to people, in that the “project” is never completed, and there are many setbacks.

You can’t step back and say, “Ah, look at that person: Complete in Christ!”

Or, “Look at this church: Harmonious, mature, fruitful—the work is done!”

But while that is so, we can rejoice in the progress in godliness that we see in others’ lives as God uses us in ministry to them.

We can rejoice in that our work in the Lord is never in vain (1 Cor. 15:58).

When we glorify God by bearing much fruit, our joy will be full (John 15:8, 11).

A Joyful person is also one who:

Trusts in the Ways of God.

We again see the sovereignty of God. This character of God is one that can be mined over and over again and we would never come up wanting. His control over all creation has so many applications for our life.

That perhaps is the most basic lesson of all in this chapter.

It's simply that God rules.

And if that is so, what does that teach us as those who are His people?

That we should trust Him.

We see God's rules so clearly throughout this chapter.

In This section of Ezra we see...

His providential care for us.

God’s remarkable providential care for His people underlies this entire account.

Tattenai had sent his letter to Darius, expecting the king to send back orders to shut down this work at once.

God’s providence is seen in the very fact of the king finding the decree of Cyrus from some 18 years before.

They did not find it at Babylon, but rather in the fortress in Ecbatana, Cyrus’ summer residence.

God’s providential care is further seen in that Darius did not say, “I don’t care what my predecessor said. I command you to stop this rebellious work at once!”

Rather, he not only told Tattenai to keep away from the project (6:6),

but also to fund the project out of his tax revenues (6:8–9)!

And, to add some motivation,

he decreed that anyone who violated his edict should be impaled on a timber drawn from his house,

and the house should be made a heap of rubble!

He added the wish that the God who has caused His name to dwell there would overthrow any king or people who attempted to destroy this house of God (6:11–12).

God’s providential care is further alluded to in the mention that the building was completed according to God’s command, and also “the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes” (6:14).

Why does Ezra mention Artaxerxes, who reigned about 50 years after the completion of the temple?

Probably he did it for political protocol, in that Artaxerxes was the reigning king when Ezra wrote.

Since he had been kind enough to issue a decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls,

Ezra wanted to give him credit in case he read this account.

God’s providential working is directly stated in Ezra 6:22, “22 And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.”

It is unusual to refer to the Persian king as the king of Assyria.

Perhaps Ezra did this to remind Israel that Assyria, Israel’s former enemy, had been conquered by the Persians whose king was friendly toward Israel (Stan Evers, Doing a Great Work [Evangelical Press], p. 64).

Behind all these remarkable events was God’s mighty hand, turning the king’s heart like channels of water wherever He wishes (Prov. 21:1).

Do you see and rejoice in God’s providential care for you in every little as well as major thing that happens to you?

Jesus told us that not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father, and that He even knows the number of the hairs on our heads.

Therefore, we should not fear, but should trust in God (Matt. 10:29–31).

Since we are the living stones with which Jesus is now building His temple, the church,

we can rest assured that He orders all things for our ultimate good.

He will not discard or forget about His chosen people.

His provision for us.

Ezra 6:13 “13 Then, according to the word sent by Darius the king, Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did with all diligence what Darius the king had ordered.”

Tattenai and his colleagues did not diligently carry out the king’s decree to fund the rebuilding of the temple out of his tax revenues (6:13) because they thought it was a great idea!

They did it with all diligence because they didn’t care for the alternative of being impaled on a timber from their houses.

God used the decree of a pagan king to provide the materials for the temple and even the animals and other items for the sacrifices (6:9).

King Darius was trying to cover all his bases by having the local people pray to their gods on behalf of him and his sons (6:10).

But God used the king’s religious superstitions to provide for His people.

The Lord does not usually use pagan governments as the main source of material support for His church.

But however He provides, whether through the tax breaks we receive from our government as a charitable, non-profit organization, or through the generous giving of the Lord’s people,

God is the one who provides for His church as we wait upon Him through faith and prayer.

And when we see God’s provision, we should be filled with joy. In 2 Corinthians 8 & 9 we see Paul brimming over with joy in the Lord at the generous gift of the Macedonians for the poor Christians in Jerusalem.

He points out how our generous giving not only meets the needs of others, it also overflows through many thanksgivings to God, resulting in God being glorified (2 Cor. 9:12–13).

We should rejoice daily not only in how God provides for the work of His church, but also in how He provides for our personal needs.

Conclusion

Songwriter Wendell Loveless told of a 64-year-old woman who had been confined to her bed for more than 16 years.

She was in constant pain and unable to move her limbs.

Yet she was one of the most thankful people Loveless had ever met.

She rejoiced that God had left her a great blessing—the use of her right thumb.

Her other hand was stiff and completely useless.

But with a two-pronged fork fastened to a stick, she could put on her glasses, feed herself, sip her tea through a tube, and turn the pages of a large Bible. Although it took great effort, everything she did was with the use of just one thumb.

She once told a visitor, “I have so much to be thankful for.”

When asked why, she replied, “Now that my sins are forgiven, I can lie back and daily drink in the great love of Jesus my Savior.”

Asked if at times she became despondent, she replied,

“I’m perfectly content to lie here as long as the Lord keeps me in this world,

and I’m also ready to leave whenever He calls me.” (“Our Daily Bread,” May, 1993.)

She knew the joy of God’s provision!

Friends, this whole chapter, in fact, the whole book of Ezra just screams out for us to trust God when we don't fully understand.

The Joy is not necessary find out why, but joy comes when we We should trust and Follow Christ.