The God of the End and the Means

Ezra 1:5-6 ESV

5 Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. 6 And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered.

There is an old saying that I know we are all familiar with, that saying being, “Where there is a will, there is a way!”. That saying means that if someone is determined enough to achieve something, they will indeed achieve it.

Oftentimes, whenever I think of that saying, I think of a flower sprouting up out of a well-walked sidewalk. Think of let’s say, a well-walked sidewalk in downtown Chicago.

It’s been several years, but I’ve walked down some of the sidewalks in downtown Chicago. I’ll never forget the first time that I went to Chicago as a child. My family and I walked through downtown, and I remember thinking that I have never seen buildings so big and so many people at one time, especially walking down the sidewalk.

Now, I think of a plant trying to push itself up, not only through a crack in the concrete, but also amid so many shoes stepping on it, but somehow, someway, it makes its way to the top and shows itself to the pedestrians walking by.

Now, many have looked at a scenario such as that and have said, “If you put your mind to it, you can do it! Where there’s will, there’s a way!”. But what makes us willing? And furthermore, what makes us able?

And you know, that is a good question, a question that can’t really be answered by atheists or agnostics or even very works-based Christians without them being forced to admit that there must be a power greater than themselves that makes them not only able, but also willing to accomplish whatever it is that they eventually accomplish.

Well, I hope that none of us here this morning can be identified as atheists, agnostics, or works-based Christians who are forced to admit this reality. Rather, it is my hope that we all will freely, intellectually, joyfully subscribe to the fact and freely confess that God is sovereign, and thus, God not only makes us able to do what we do, but that He also makes us willing to do what we do.

And as we continue in our exposition of the first chapter of the book of Ezra this morning, we do indeed see that where there’s a will, there’s a way, but that God Himself makes the way and establishes the will.

As we open our reading for today, we begin our exposition by looking at verse five, which reads:

Ezra 1:5 ESV

5 Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.

So, the first thing that we notice here is a period of time, identified by the word “then”. “Then” obviously indicates a period of time which follows a previous period of time.

Last week we saw how Cyrus had made a proclamation, inviting all of God’s people, particularly those from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to leave where they are currently living and to rebuild the temple, the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, where they can then make their homes.

And to make it possible for these to make their way to Jerusalem, to establish their homes there, and to build the temple of the Lord, provisions would be needed. And these provisions, Cyrus decreed in his proclamation, would be freely provided to those who chose to make their way to Jerusalem.

So “then”, after Cyrus had made this proclamation, after it had been published, and after it had been received by those whom the king had it sent to is where we find ourselves in our reading for today.

We read of three groups of people hearing and responding to the king’s proclamation in our reading. The first group of people who heard and responded are identified as “the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin”.

That these were “the heads of the fathers’ houses” signifies that these were among the leaders of the different families and clans of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. This response of the various heads of the families and clans would result in their households responding in a similar manner.

The next group of people who heard and responded to the king’s proclamation are identified as many of “the priests”. Those from this group are among those priests of the orthodox faith who had been exiled. They would play an indispensable role in strengthening the people and in leading worship.

And the third group of people spoken of here are identified as “the Levites”. The tribe of Levi was the priestly tribe, and being the priestly tribe, they had no inheritance of land like the other tribes. Instead, they were found all throughout Israel, from the time of Joshua, all the way to the time when the kingdom was divided.

Having no inheritance of land, they instead had their own cities within the bounds of existing tribal territory, possessed by other tribes. So, within the bounds of the land possessed by every Israeli tribe, there were cities where Levites, those from the tribe of Levi lived.

But when the kingdom was divided in the time of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, many Levites from the northern kingdom made their way to the southern Kingdom of Judah, especially in light of the idolatrous practices that had been instituted by Israel’s king.

So, with all of that in mind, we can see why there would be Levites amongst the faithful from Judah and Benjamin.

But concerning these three groups of people, we read that when the proclamation of the king was read and published, that they “rose up”. That they “rose up” signifies that they responded positively to the invitations to return to Jerusalem.

When they heard the proclamation, they were willing to do what the proclamation invited and urged them to do. But why? Why were they willing? How was this accomplished that they were pleased and willing to leave the place that they had established as their new home so that they could go to Jerusalem, to a place that many of them had never even seen before?

We see how this was accomplished as our reading tells us that God had stirred their spirits to do so. We read back in verse one, in the first sermon of this series that God had stirred the spirit of Cyrus. And we read there that when God stirred the king’s spirit, Cyrus had been made willing to issue his proclamation and then effectively did so.

Well, here, we answer the question that we asked earlier when we asked why the people were willing, when we asked why they were so willing to leave their, by now, long established homes to go to Jerusalem. They were willing because God made them willing.

But what makes this all the more remarkable is what God made them willing to do. When these rose up as a result of God stirring their spirits to do so, it wasn’t their intention to go to Jerusalem to freeload. It wasn’t their intention to take advantage of the situation at hand so that they could personally profit. But rather, we read that their intention was to “rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem”.

This is most certainly a clear evidence of divine grace at work. It’s at work as it not only makes those who hear the proclamation willing to leave their homes and go to Jerusalem, but also as it makes those who go to Jerusalem willing and able to rebuild the temple of God.

And God not only made the people willing to leave, but He also made those around them willing to assist. We see this in verse six, which reads:

Ezra 1:6 ESV

6 And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered.

In the fourth verse of this chapter, one of the verses from our sermon from last week, we see Cyrus decreeing what is written here to take place. So, what we see here is the active fulfillment of that portion of the decree as we see that “all who were about them”, both Jews who remained in Persia and their heathen neighbors “aided them”.

The version of the Bible that I read and preach from, the ESV says that these “aided them”, but I actually prefer how the King James renders it here when rather than they “aided them”, it says, that they “strengthened their hands”.

I think that that rendering communicates better that God worked through those who gave what follows to those who made the exodus so that they may be “strengthened”, made able to not only survive the journey, but to also be settled, and even more than that, to rebuild the temple of God.

It is remarkable how much this mirrors the Israeli exodus from Egypt so many centuries before! There we read of how the Egyptians all came and willingly gave what they had to the departing Israelis, and why did they do this? Because God made them willing to do it. And why do the people in our reading come and give such costly items to those departing? Because God made them willing to do so.

You see, God is sovereign over all. He is sovereign over both the end and the means. And because He is sovereign over both the end and the means, that means that He ordains both.

When I was a kid, I liked to play with dominoes. And what I would do with those dominoes was set them all up in a line, push the first domino down into the second domino and watch all of the dominoes fall in succession until the final domino falls.

So, I may set twenty dominoes up and it is my goal to knock down the twentieth and last domino. That is the desired end. But in order for that to happen, I need to push the first domino into the second so that the rest will fall until number twenty is also fallen. And so, while knocking down number twenty was my desired end, I needed to use numbers one through nineteen as the means to meet my desired end.

Well, God works in a similar, but much more infinite manner. God ordains both the end and the means, and this cannot be more plainly seen than in the narrative found in this first chapter of the book of Ezra.

We can confidently say that it was the will and purpose of God for the temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt, that was the end that God had ordained.

But God had also ordained the means to accomplish that end.

He stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, who politically, was the most powerful man on earth, to make the official proclamation for the temple to be rebuilt. He also stirred up the spirits of those who would build the temple by making them willing to leave and do so. And last of all, He stirred the spirits of those around them, making them willing to part with some of their costliest possessions and give them to the ones departing to rebuild the temple.

Indeed, beloved, where there is a will there is indeed a way! But it is God Himself Who determines the end, Who makes the way, and Who makes us willing.

This is no small matter… Our God is an awesome, powerful, sovereign God! His ways are beyond finding out. What we have read and talked about throughout this series of messages doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of God’s wise determinations. But what we have seen has caused me and I hope that it has caused you to be awestruck with wonder and amazement that this is our God!

May we reverently, with the deepest adoration, glorify and worship our God.

Amen?