Pressing On (Ezra 5:1-17)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A. Preliminaries
A. Preliminaries
Good morning. We continue our sermon series this morning on the Book of Ezra.
If you would please turn with me in your Bibles to Ezra 5:1-2
Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God!
Now, you might notice that our text is only two verses. I started off wanting to preach the whole chapter. Earlier in the week, that was the target. Then I narrowed that to the first five verses, and eventually these first two.
And I will now tell you why.
B. Recap
B. Recap
What is the target of Ezra?
Rebuilding of the Temple
You might remember that the work on the Temple had been brought to a halt. Israel’s enemies had been successful with their political maneuvering. They made sure that as far as the courts of Persia were concerned, this rebellious city of Jerusalem could not be trusted.
Now when we rejoin the people of Judah, commentators reckon it has been sixteen years since they laid the foundation. And the work is nowhere near done. So as we just saw in our text, two prophets are called forward to speak to the people and to motivate them to carry on with the work.
Who are these prophets? What did they say that rallied the people after 16 years of inaction? What have they been doing with all that time? We will see in a moment.
What does God do when the hearts of his people grow cold toward the work he has put before them. He confronts them with His Words.
Let’s Pray
O Lord, make your Word a swift Word, passing from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip and conversation; that, as the rain returns not empty, so neither may your Word, but accomplish that for which it is given. Amen.
(Prayer by George Herbert)
C. Transition to Sermon
C. Transition to Sermon
So there are at least three things I want to point out to you this morning from just two verses. We will explore together what Haggai and Zechariah had to say to God’s people. They gave the people what they needed most—the words of God.
They were
I. Hard Words
II. Hopeful Words
III. Holy Words
I. Hard Words
I. Hard Words
So here we are introduced to Haggai. Now I doubt most of you have read Haggai outside of a Bible Reading Plan, and that absolutely still counts. But I would be surprised if any of you have done something like a Bible Study on Haggai or listened to a sermon series on Haggai. The Minor Prophets tend to be the parts of our Bible that get the least attention.
So, I want to briefly sketch out Haggai for you, he was, of course,a post-exilic prophet, he came back to Jerusalem with the exiles, and the book of Haggai is focused on four months of his prophetic work in Jerusalem.
Haggai contains four sermons in that four month period, two of which are preached on the same day. And the first one gets straight to the point—that the people have given up on the work.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”
And you have a sense of the question there—who authorized you to say that? In the words of Bob Vincent, the people of Israel were practicing the Reformed Doctrine of Procrastination.
In fact, there’s an almost comical moment from the life of Augustine, where he asks God “Give me chastity, but not yet.”
“Make me pure in heart, Lord, just not yet.”
Derek Thomas comments that they were “Waiting for the right moment when the work could be done.”
Have you ever had work to do, and you’ve been waiting because oh, it just doesn’t seem like the right moment yet. I think we all know that impulse. But in Israel’s case they were excusing their inactivity. And they had done so for sixteen years.
So here’s what Haggai says
“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
So in other words, what was not in question was their ability to build things. Their homes were up, and their homes were looking really good. In fact, here’s the interesting part. They were living in paneled houses. Which might seem like nothing, until you consider words like those from Jeremiah
“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages, who says, ‘I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,’ who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.
Typically paneling was done with cedar. Where would cedar have come from? Well, Lebanon, as you might remember. That was wood that they had ordered and cut for the purpose of building the temple. And they decided to...re-purpose it. So Haggai calls them out
You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
Your life is simply about earning money. Just about earning money that’s it. And how quickly it goes because you refuse to be full. You are constantly just feel empty and needy because nothing can satisfy your soul.
This should remind us of our Lord’s words in Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Money has a special temptation as a potential idol because money tells you to trust it. To put your trust in it. To find in it your hope and happiness, significance and security.
That is not to say that money itself is evil, we are told in Jesus’s parable of the talents to invest and make a return on what we have been given. The gifts are not evil, but money presents a strong temptation to trust it.
So what happens? The people are convicted by Haggai’s words.
Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.
This is good! But then the people face some discouragement and opposition and Haggai once again tells them to be strong and fearless and keep going.
Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
This is consistent with the rest of scripture—that God’s strength, and God’s presence go together. And notice that God’s presence with us is always tied to his Covenant. Because of his promises, he calls us to strength, and this is actually good news because God always gives what he commands.
So sometimes, there we are tempted to quickly move away from the command to the provision. We say “Well, yes God calls his people to be strong, but you know Paul said he was weak, so I think God just wants me to be weak too. And talk about my weakness all the time.”
Now there’s a time to acknowledge our weakness which reveals God’s strength. But Paul also talks about his weakness so that people will know it is God who is giving strength to this weak man. Not imaginary strength, but actual strength.
God strengthens us by himself being with us. By keeping all his covenant promises to us. By his Holy Spirit being in us and in our midst.
And by giving us hard words to bear. Haggai also says this to the people
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’ ” The priests answered and said, “No.” Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.
In other words, according to Old Testament rituals, if you set apart meat for holy use, does touching that meat make you holy. No. Touching holy things does not create holy people.
But if an unclean person touches anything, does it become unclean. And the answer is yes.
So a holy objects cannot rescue unholy people. But unholy people can create unholiness in the camp. And God is saying “What you are offering is unclean. Even if what you are offering is what I commanded you to do, your hearts are unclean.”
There is a word for us here today. The things we do on Sunday morning are indeed holy things. Speaking Scripture to each other. Singing Psalms. Confessing our sins. Hearing of our forgiveness. Gathering around the table of our Lord Jesus.
But it is easy for us to become contented with simply outward forms, and an external religion. Perhaps we show up, but we really want to be somewhere else.
But this is a reality that has been true since the Old Testament—God is after your heart, not just your mechanical actions. God is after your heart. God wants your heart. And one of the ways he wins your heart is by showing you how cold your heart is and saying “Do you not see how the sins your protect are keeping you from me? Do you not see how your love of money or your besetting sin of lust or your constant anger or bitterness is poisoning your worship? There are times where God will use hard words to awaken us. He disciplines those he loves. Our Heavenly Father is not afraid to give us a spanking as it were, to wake us up and discipline us, and this itself is a magnificent grace.
II. Hopeful Words
II. Hopeful Words
We also hear from Zechariah
Now Zechariah’s book is a bit harder to read than Haggai’s. It’s in the genre of Apocalyptic Literature, so it’s far more like the Book of Revelation than other kinds of prophecy. But his opening words are memorable. He says
Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
Relationship has been broken by their laziness and disobedience. Zechariah is calling them to repentance.
He says also
So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.
Zechariah like Haggai is calling them back to their duty. But he does more than simply call out their sin. He offers strong words of hope. Zechariah was preaching about the glory of the Temple, and how it would point to the glory of Another. Tell me if these texts, penned about 500 years before the birth of Jesus, might remind you of anyone.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
And also
Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter.
And also
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
And also
“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered...
What you start to see in Zechariah (who is preaching to Ezra’s people—the people who have come back from exile!) is that they need the motivation to keep on doing God’s Work. And so Zechariah says “Ready your hearts, the King is coming. Let us prepare him room.”
Now, in Zechariah’s day, did he mean building the temple or preparing their hearts? And the answer is Yes.
Zechariah is calling the people back to faithfulness, calling them back to their promises, calling them back to their work by fixing their eyes on what is yet to come. A Redeemer-Shepherd who will be their rescuer and deliverer and messiah.
Zechariah looks forward to a day when there will be a fountain fit to cleanse us from all our sin.
“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
And this fountain would not come from the blood of an animal but from the hands, feet, and side of the Son of God.
III. Holy Words
III. Holy Words
So I want to spend the rest of the sermon this morning illustrating a broad contrast for you between Haggai and Zechariah. They brought two different kinds of words to God’s people, although the contrast is not at all perfectly sharp and consistent. The lines can be blurry in places. But here’s what I mean
Haggai is primarily a prophet of law. He comes to the people with hard words of law. Haggai is mainly saying “Wake up you sleeping fools. What are you doing with all your time and all your resources and all the wealth you have built up? I will tell you what you are doing. You are worshipping it. You are replacing God with it. So rise up, repent, and get to work! And he closes with words of hope.
On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”
The closing words of Haggai are words of hope because they are words of the love of God. I have chosen you to do this, and I have made you like a signet ring. Like a mark on my hands, you might say.
Is this appropriate for a prophet to say? Strong words of conviction and hope? Yes. They said it all the time.
But what about Zechariah?
Zechariah starts with hard words of law. Right out of the gate
“The Lord was very angry with your fathers.
He starts with anger and moves to words of Messianic hope, about a coming King, riding on a donkey. He moves to words of betrayal and a Shepherd who will be pierced.
Taken together, these two prophets are delivering words of law and words of Gospel, and both words are meant to be words of hope.
We tend to think of the law as bad and the Gospel as good, but the biblical reality is that both are good and God’s people need to hear both.
And I have to note, both are given before total repentance is confirmed. Haggai’s flashes fire for most of his book, and gives the word of hope, because that is his responsibility. Zechariah calls them out of their laziness with a vision of hope, indeed a vision of the True Temple, the Lord Jesus Christ who will come as our fountain, as it were filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
So what awakens us out of our stupor to serve the Lord and to worship him with glad hearts?
Every word of law and command, and every word of Gospel hope and forgiveness. Both do the job of awakening our hearts to the glory of our Emmanuel.
We don’t give words of law, and then withhold gospel until we make absolutely sure that everyone is sorry enough and has repented enough, and feels bad enough.
In the words of Jonathan Fisk, a Lutheran minister I have grown to appreciate, “We don’t keep the Gospel from the Sheep just to make sure that the goats feel really bad.”
No, we are called by God to be honest with ourselves and others about the roots of our sin, the acts of our sin, and the fruits of our sin. “Here is what is happening (disobedience) and here is why it is happening (your hearts are far from God).”
And we are also called, to gladly say “But God has drawn near to you, to forgive you. To restore you. To set you right. To cause your heart to walk in his ways. Trust him! Come to him. Don’t wait until you are in the right frame of mind, come because of your need not because you are ready.
Come ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power.
Come, ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall; if you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all.
So come to the True Temple, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is building for Himself a temple made of human stones as it were. A place for Himself to dwell, which will stand forever.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
