Mission Accomplished (Ezra 6:1-18)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A. Preliminaries
A. Preliminaries
Good morning.
We will continue our sermon series on the Book of Ezra this morning, and I would like to direct you to chapter 6 in your Bibles.
By way of reminder, let me help you recall what has happened. The Prophets Haggai and Zechariah have called the people back to the work, and they have restarted it. They get stopped by the governor of the region who sends a letter to the King of Persia asking him to check and see whether they are authorized to do this. The work resuming posed a possible threat to their overlords, sort of like a small nation developing a nuclear program. And so a letter of inquiry is sent to the King, to verify whether they have permission to do this.
That’s where Chapter 6 picks up
Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored. And in Ecbatana, the citadel that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written: “A record. In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits, with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.” “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God!
B. Transition to Sermon
B. Transition to Sermon
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the Temple for God’s people in the Old Testament. It was where God Himself dwelled in the days of Solomon. And the second temple, which they are rebuilding in Jerusalem is the symbol of God’s dwelling place.
God doesn’t need a temple to dwell with his people. You might remember the first New Covenant Martyrs, Stephen, in the book of Acts, who was quoting the prophet Isaiah moments before his death when he said
Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands...
And this is what leads us to our confidence that God cannot be boxed in. And yet, he chose to be. Twice in our opening passage this morning, this temple they are rebuilding is called the house of God (once in verse 3 and again in verse 5).
1. God is at Work in Providence
2. God is With His People
3. God is Worthy of Praise
Let’s Pray
O heavenly Father: Your law is indeed perfect, converting the soul; a sure testimony, giving wisdom to the unlearned, and enlightening the eyes. Enlighten our blind intellect by your Holy Spirit, so that we may truly understand and profess your law and live according to it. You have revealed the mysteries of your will only to the little ones; and you look to him who is of a humble and contrite spirit, who has reverence for your Word. So grant us a humble spirit and keep us from all fleshly wisdom, which is enmity against you. We ask this from you, most merciful Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
(Based on a Prayer by Martin Micronius)
I. God is at Work in Providence
I. God is at Work in Providence
So the letter comes back, and you heard what it said. The governor gets told to keep away.
“Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away.
They were already covered by the command of God, and now their rights have been reasserted you might say, as the original decree that sent them back to Jerusalem is reestablished.
And not only are they back to work, but because God has an undefeated sense of humor, they are working on Persia’s dime!
Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River.
So Jerusalem is going to build a temple and a wall, and Persia is going to pay for it! By way of general taxation of the whole province, no less!
And as it turns out this is a fulfillment of Haggai’s own words:
And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.
And the wording here in Ezra gets really interesting because we find out that it has been the words of the prophets that have kept them going
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;
Now notice the language there of how God works.
The Jews built.
They finished because of the decree of God, and because of the King of Persia.
This is a good reminder of a theological concept all of you should be familiar with called Compatiblism.
Compatibilism is a word for an idea that you already know. It means that God wills things and man will things, and they both get to the same goals. The classic text for this is Genesis 50:20
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Same word both times. You meant it. God meant it. There’s a similar idea here.
...They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia;
God decreed it. And the king decreed it.
So did God do this or did man? Did the divine will bring this about, or did the will of a king bring it about? And the answer of course is Yes.
This is why even when everything seems certain to be accomplished by human means, we still pray for it. When that medical procedure seems straightforward, we still pray. When that medicine is sure to work, we still pray. When that marriage seems strong and healthy, we still pray.
Because all things work together for those who love God and are called according to his purposes. God does not suspend the will of his creatures when this happens. They are 100% acting out their will, and, as it happens, they are 100% bringing about God’s will.
This is also an enormous comfort when things go wrong. Did I suffer that hardship because God willed it, or because I got in that car accident? Well, yes. And will you fight through discouragement and despair because you quote scripture to yourself and fight for your joy, or because God holds despair at bay? Well, yes.
Will this church grow because of sound preaching or glad-hearted hospitality, or faithfully bearing one another’s burdens? Or will it grow because God by His Holy Spirit gives growth? The answer is yes.
This should not tempt us to laziness. It should cultivate in us such a zeal, because Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Savior has given us every comfort of grace in the Gospel, and so we work as those who cannot fall outside his will. We can break his moral law, and we do, every day (this is why we confess our sins!). But we are not paralyzed by some fear of abandonment. Ours is the God who works all things after the council of His own will. So we work with the glad confidence of those who are loved by our Savior and are given all we need to do his work.
II. God is With His People
II. God is With His People
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; 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.
It is finally done. Fueled by the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, they finish the building of the temple.
In fact, we need to go to Zechariah to figure out what finally motivated them so. Because in Zechariah 6, he has a vision of something very curious.
And the word of the Lord came to me: “Take from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
Take the Exiles, go make a crown, and put it on the head of Joshua.
Wait. The priest? Put the crown...on the head of a priest? It would make sense of Zerubbabel got crowned, he’s the political leader. But instead, the priest gets crowned. This is very odd. Priests aren’t Kings. Well, until they are, apparently. Then what happens?
And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” ’
As you well know, if you’ve been a Christian for a little while, prophecy can be stunningly mysterious. But not this one. This one couldn’t be more clear if God wrote “Jesus” on a 2x4 and hit you over the head with it.
By the words of a prophet, God ordains that a Priest become a King. And his name is Joshua, also translated Jesus.
And not only were they to put a crown on this priest-king’s head. But then, apparently, he took it off, and it stayed in the temple.
And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as a reminder to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah.
The Crown of the Priest King will sit i the temple and wait for its true owner to come and claim it.
What does this tell us? It tells us that God has a purpose in rebuilding this Temple, and it is so much bigger than the restoration of True Worship, vital as that is. God is building a Temple so that Jesus will be proclaimed as the king. The temple steps are the very ones Jesus would ascend some 550 years later to declare that the house belonged to Him, and it was to be a house of prayer for all nations.
You see, in the ancient world, temples were built because they were the place where God and man met together. And this is what all humanity has been chasing after. To be in God’s presence but not to get consumed. To be close to God without getting annihilated. To know our maker without being un-made. To be with God and to not be destroyed or banished.
And Jesus Christ comes proclaiming himself to be a temple, and he comes building a temple.
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Jesus called his own body a temple because in that body on the Cross, he would bring us to the Father. All the earthly hopes of a Temple, that we might actually have access to God be clean before him are realized in Jesus Christ who in his great love for us has brought us to the Father by way of the blood from his own veins.
A Temple was built in Jerusalem so that the people would hope for the true Prophet, Priest, and King, to bring them to the Father.
Jesus proclaimed himself to be a temple and he came to build one as well. For he has called us to be a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
And Peter says
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
So where is the temple today? It’s right here, brothers and sisters. This is why I have no hope for a third temple in Jerusalem. God has been building a temple for the last 2000 years that can never be moved or shaken, for he has chosen to dwell with his people and in his people forever.
And at the end of all things. Do you know what’s missing? A Temple. John, in his spectacular vision of the New Heavens and the New Earth says
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
In other words, the purpose of a temple is to be with God. So why would you need a Temple in the New Heavens and the New Earth where God lives with his people? The Temple in Jerusalem was always meant to point to a greater reality. And when you have the reality, what need do you have for the shadow?
This is why we confess that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not simply a way to get forgiveness from God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the gift of God Himself. In you, with you, beside you, behind you, with the promise that you will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
So fear not, little flock. For your Father has chosen to give you Himself. And therefore, of whom shall we be afraid? His forgiveness of you is full and complete. His love for you is secure and unmovable. You are not seeking after his presence, he is in you today, Christian, and he fill you up every time you gather here with his people to renew the covenant, hear from him in his Word, and meet him face to face as it were at his table. God has given you the greatest gift: the gift of Himself.
III. God is Worthy of Praise
III. God is Worthy of Praise
Let’s pick up at verse 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. They offered at the dedication of this house of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 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.
What do these closing words of Chapter 6 tell us? They finished, and they celebrated. Now the numbers here are important. We read 100 bulls. 200 rams. 400 lambs. Compare that to when Solomon’s temple (the first temple was dedicated.
King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
200 and 400 to 22,000 and 120,000. A smaller ceremony? Yes. Fewer resources? Yes. A smaller temple? Yes. The dimensions given in verse 3 are smaller than the first temple, probably indicating the limitations of what Persia was willing to subsidize.
So all those guys who were weeping back in Chapter 3 are apparently vindicated, right? Well, no, apparently not, because on this day, they celebrated, and there was no mourning.
They celebrated with joy because God had kept his promises, and they were witnesses. This is a good reminder for us, if you’ll pardon me bringing this down to a bit of a smaller scale, just to speak of the principle of celebration and feasting. We are a people called to rejoice together over what God has done for us. And this is why you hear an almost constant refrain from this pulpit about the importance of fellowship and singing and food together. We are, at bottom, a rejoicing people, because standing under a blood-stained cross—brothers, and sisters, what else could we be?
Derek Thomas, commenting on this text reminds us that
Punctuating the history of redemption are times when the provision of God is such that everything else must stop in order to provide opportunity for praise to God. In the life of the church there ought to be such days, too. There are times when it is appropriate to pause and collectively rejoice in the magnitude of God’s provision and faithfulness to his people.
—Derek W.H. Thomas from his Ezra and Nehemiah Commentary (REC, page 94).
(In other words, come to the Fellowship Feast next Sunday!)
So let your joy be full. Let your laughter be loud. Let your fellowship be frequent. Be present with God’s people, because we make a lot of excuses to be together and to be glad. There are times for mourning. We know how to weep. Our Savior wept and we are not afraid of tears.
But generally speaking, ours is a stout-hearted gladness that hell hates and trembles to see and constantly seeks to quench. So pursue joy in God. Let your children see it, let your neighbors see it, and lift up your voice to sing about it. For God is building a Temple that will endure forever, and he means to bring us rejoicing all the way home.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
