The King that is Handled by God

Ezra 1:1 ESV

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

As those who hold to the orthodox Christian faith, something that every one of us should wholeheartedly believe and hold to is the absolute sovereignty of God over every last part of His creation.

As we’ve said before, the active sovereignty of God indicates that God not only rules over everything, but that He also actively governs everything, controlling every aspect of His vast creation.

But though this is a settled fact, still, so very often we are quite surprised when we see this evidenced in the scriptures, in the world, and in our own lives.

I’m always so amazed when I’m reading the scriptures, and I am reminded afresh of an unmistakable instance of the high sovereignty of God. I read these passages as though I read them for the very first time as God gives me fresh insight into His workings throughout scriptural history.

Or we see things happen in the world. We see terrible things happen both here at home and abroad, but then we are given insight that we didn’t possess beforehand when we are powerfully reminded that God had control even over those things that happened and that He in fact used those terrible things to accomplish His own purposes.

But even more, in my own personal experiences in life, I am sometimes graciously given knowledge of God’s gracious workings in my life. I arrive at a certain point, and I look back and I see how God was with me and working through everything that I had gone through to get me to the point that I’m at now.

And of course, I know that it’s not just me, we all experience that. We could all testify of how God worked through the hard times in each one of our lives and brought us to where we are. And when we are brought to those wonderful moments, we are in awe and amazement of what God has been pleased to do in and through the situations that we experienced.

And of course, when that happens, we often say, or others say to us that we shouldn’t be surprised when we clearly see that God is actively working in the world and actively working in our own lives. And no, we shouldn’t really be surprised at the fact that God really is sovereign, but still, the sovereignty of God should cause us to be in wonder and amazement.

And I really do think that invoking praise to God for His high sovereignty is one of the effects of recognizing His works within His creation. The worship of God comes about as we are left in awe and wonder of His mighty, majestic Being, and when we are reminded of how great His sovereign rule is, we are most certainly left in awe and wonder and thus properly worship Him.

We worship, because God is worthy of worship, and one of the ways that we are reminded of how worthy He is of our worship is when we are personally reminded of His eternally vast, sovereign rule.

The narrative that we are going to be working through this month in our series of sermons is one of those narratives that should most certainly cause us to evoke worship towards the almighty God of heaven and earth.

This narrative reminds me of the wise words of King Solomon in the book of Proverbs, chapter twenty-one, verse one, when he says:

Proverbs 21:1 ESV

1 The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

And if we don’t see this all throughout this narrative and especially in our reading for this morning, we’re just not going to see it anywhere, because in our reading, this truth uttered by Solomon is so clearly seen that it literally epitomizes that which Solomon wisely proclaims.

As we begin our exposition of this chapter which epitomizes the sovereignty of God, we need to point out first that what is recorded in the first two and a half verses of the book of Ezra is identically recorded in the last verses of the second book of Chronicles. This reveals to us that the book of Ezra is a continuation of the history recorded in the books of Chronicles.

And today, we will be breaking our reading, the first verse of this chapter down, and looking at it in four different sections. The first section that we look at comes at the very beginning of our reading, where we read:

Ezra 1:1a ESV

1a In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,

So, we are introduced here to a man named Cyrus who is described as the king of Persia and in order for us to see the relevance of Cyrus in the biblical epic, we need to refresh ourselves on some of the history that precedes what takes place here.

I’m sure that most of us are knowledgeable of the fact that in the books of Second Kings and Second Chronicles, we read of many of the people of Judah being carried into exile by the Babylonians after Babylon had conquered both Judah and eventually its capital city of Jerusalem as well.

Now, Cyrus, who is mentioned here, was the one who had founded the Persian Empire, which eventually conquered the Babylonian Empire, and having conquered Babylon, Persia now held sway over all of the lands and all of the people who had been under Babylonian rule.

This included both the people who had been exiled from Judah and the lands of Judah and Israel themselves. So, Cyrus ruled over both the people and the original homeland of the people.

So, having this context in mind, we observe the fact that what will take place in this first chapter of the book of Ezra, takes place within the first year of the reign of Cyrus as king over the Persian Empire. That this took place in the very first year of the king shows that this was one of the early acts, maybe one of the very first acts of Cyrus as king.

And so, knowing who this is speaking of and when it took place, we then read in the next section of this verse why what follows took place when we read that what follows took place, so:

Ezra 1:1b ESV

1b that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled,

So, this took place so that the word of God which God had spoken through His prophet Jeremiah would be fulfilled. It happened so that God would make good on the promise that He had made through Jeremiah.

This word spoken through Jeremiah is in reference to Jeremiah, chapter twenty-nine, verse ten, where we read:

Jeremiah 29:10 ESV

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

So, speaking to these exiles from Judah in Babylon, the Lord says through Jeremiah that He will bring them back to their homeland by “visiting” them, that is, through effectively working and bringing to pass what He has determined concerning them, and that He will do this “When seventy years are completed for Babylon”.

Now, many Bible teachers throughout the years have said that this “70 years” is in reference to the number of years that the Judean exiles were in Babylon until the time when Cyrus made this proclamation, but that cannot be the case, for that is closer to around 50 years than to 70 years.

What I have come to conclude in my own personal studies is that these 70 years are, as Jeremiah says, “completed for Babylon”. Therefore, I believe that these 70 years are in reference to the time from the domination which Babylon exerted and extending to its fall at the hands of Persia. This in fact does total approximately 70 years.

Furthermore, we read of what God is accomplishing here and who He accomplishes it through in Isaiah, chapter forty-four, verse twenty-eight, which reads that God:

Isaiah 44:28 ESV

28 …says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”

What is so remarkable about this is that these words were uttered many years before Cyrus was even born, yet God, speaking through Isaiah, calls Cyrus by name. Many believe that Daniel had shown Cyrus this prophecy that had been recorded so many years before he was born, and it moved him greatly.

And this may be in connection with what we read next, where we see even more evidence of God sovereignly working to bring His word to pass in the third section of our reading, which says that:

Ezra 1:1c ESV

1c the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia,

There were many things that were happening in those early days of the Persian Empire politically and otherwise that moved Cyrus to make his proclamation, but all of those things were set in motion by God so that the spirit of Cyrus was “stirred up”. And of course, these things being set into motion by God indicates that it was not the events which stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, but rather, it was God Himself.

Through the events which God had set in motion, God was actively stirring up the spirit of Cyrus, working upon the heart and the will of the king. And as God worked upon the heart and the will of the king, God pressed the king to perform His good pleasure, making him not only willing, but even eager to perform it.

So, we plainly see that this is the active, sovereign working of God. Indeed, we plainly see that what caused this to come to pass originated in God stirring the spirit of Cyrus.

Indeed, here we plainly observe the words of Solomon: “The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” Indeed, this could not be clearer than it is right here!

And because God worked upon the heart and the will of Cyrus, because He stirred the king’s spirit, we then see the result of this stirring in the fourth and final section of our reading, which says that God stirred the spirit of Cyrus:

Ezra 1:1d ESV

1d so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

Now, we are going to look in detail at the words of the proclamation of the king in our sermon next week, but here we read an important detail of the certainty of this decree of Cyrus.

In saying that Cyrus made a proclamation, what is revealed to us is that Cyrus had sent heralds out to the various Jewish communities throughout his vast empire to orally communicate his decree to them.

And in putting this decree in writing, the king supplied undisputable proof of his decree so that anyone who would seek to suppress the Judeans from leaving and returning to their homeland would be silenced as attempting to thwart their departure would equal attempting to thwart the king’s official decree.

This, my friends, is the powerful, sovereign working of God. Indeed, we say again that the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord, turning it wherever He wills to turn it.

Oh, little flock, fear not, for your life is in the hands of the God Who lovingly chose you to salvation before the foundations of the world. He has willed for you to be saved from His wrath. He has willed for you to receive a glorious salvation. He has willed that all things work together for your good, for your preservation in this salvation. He has willed to bring you to glory. And His will must come to pass.

While powerful, worldly men work hard and strive against the God of heaven and earth, all of their hard working is being used to stir up their hearts to accomplish the purpose of the God that they vehemently oppose.

We need not fear them. We need not fear those who can only take our lives and our freedom. We need not fear them because our God is ever upon His throne, and our God is ever for us.

Amen?

*Communion