Rebuild: A New Exodus
Notes
Transcript
Notes:
Notes:
Ezra 1:1-11:
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:
2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”
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.
7 Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.
8 Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
9 And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 10 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels; 11 all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.
Go where? Why?
Rediscovering who we are?
“Ezra pulled out his hair, Nehemiah pulled out other people’s hair.” Dale Ralph Davies
Ezra doesn’t hit the stage until ch. 7—80 years after these first 6 chapters.
How to build a Temple?
“Every letter needs an envelop.”
Persia:
Biggest fish in town.
Dale Ralph Davies: “They encouraged subject peoples to worship their own gods/goddessess, and, generally, they did not deport and relocate captive populations.” p. 11
Chapter 1 theme from Davies: “God moves history to give his people a future and a hope.”
October 29, 538: Deliverance Day:
Celebrations on D-Day in WW2, but not here…
Generations have called Babylon home!
Be careful where your home is.
vv. 1
“The Lord stirred up…”
Jeremiah 29:10 “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. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
October 539, Cyrus takes over Babylon
Year later, Deliverance Day!
Cyrus Cylinder: “Cyrus reported that Marduk, the god of Babylon, had chosen him and declared him to be ruler of the world.” Ralph Klein
“All the restored gods were to “pray daily to Bel and Nabu for my [Cyprus’s] lengths of days.” Klein 680
God was at work and always has been at work!
v. 7: “Nebuchadnezzar had carried away…”
Look up language in Daniel.
Jerusalem is mentioned 7x in this chapter. Coincidence? I think not!
Build a place for WORSHIP!
The Lord desires to commune with his people.
The Lord Stirs
The Lord Stirs the King
The Lord Stirs (some) People
Judah and Benjamin, and the Priests
What do do with the Prince?
“He was ‘prince’ and ‘governor’’ he was the person responsible for receiving the temple vessels and carrying them home, and his tasks included initial work on the Temple. But Sheshbazzar never makes a speech in the Bible, apparently delivered no law or performed any miracle. We do not even know how his career ended. And yet, without him, woud the community in Judah have every restarted at all? Such nondescript leadership is often significant for the people of God today.” Klein 681
OUTLINE:
God Fulfills His Word
Jeremiah 25:12 “12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.”
Jeremiah 29:10–11 “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. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
God Stirs Hearts
The King
Isaiah 45:13 “13 I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward,” says the Lord of hosts.”
Cyrus the Person: from his Cylindar:
“May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities ask daily Bel and Nebo for a long life for me …; to Marduk, my lord, may they say this: ‘Cyrus, the king who worships you, and Cambyses, his son …’”
Derek Kidner: “The homage paid in verse 2 to the Lord was doubtless a diplomatic courtesy, yet sincere enough in its way. It was important to frame the decree correctly for each repatriated group, and the God of heaven was how the Jews described their deity.”
The People
3 out of 12! Whittled down remnant. “Survivors”
God Restores
Stuff
Leadership
Priesthood
People
Daniel: God gives away
First things first, the furnishings of the Temple:
Takes back vessels
Haggai 2:7 “7 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.”
Take the initiative to get started! God provides the tools we need to get started!
2nd Exodus?
Isaiah 43:14–16 “14 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice. 15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” 16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,”
Isaiah 48:20 “20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!””
v. 6: Giving of Possessions from the Country of Origin
“Every piece of it a witness to God’s sovereign care and the continuance of the covenant. The political kingdom had perished, but not the ‘kingdom of priests’.
What to do with Sheshbazzar?
Another name for Zerubbel?
A no name leader?
All the ingredients for this nation to exist are all there, and they were all produced by God Himself!
Through the Lens of the Gospel
Introduction:
Rebuild problems
Pastor’s Pet Peaves:
Apathy towards the Spiritual
Determining how God acts in this World
“God told me…”
Red flags:
God’s always at work, but not always in the way you determine.
We are quick to confuse God’s Will of Decree with God’s Will of Desire:
Just because something came to pass, doesn’t mean that what came to pass was what God desired.
King Cyrus was used by God. God used him to execute liberation for God’s people, but we need to be careful to be too quick to judge everything about him.
Part I: Setting the Stage:
Where, When, why?
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:
586 BC: King Nebuccednezzar plunder Jerusalem and deport the Judah.
Displaced: Main characters during this time:
Daniel: A young man who was immersed into Babylonian Culture
Ezekiel: More countercultural than Daniel, lived in Babylon but prophesied to the Exiles
Jeremiah: Wasn’t deported, but sent letters to those in Exile re. Famous: “seek the wellbeing of the city.”
Throughout that time, the Persian Empire started to grow and it’s power and prominence started to eclipse that of Babylon:
Decisive victory at the Battle of Odis near modern day Bagdad in 539
That victory led the way for King Cyrus to march into Babylon without further resistance.
Famous Cyrus Cylinder:
Claims himself as a LIBERATOR!
Cyrus II would eventually be known as Cyrus the Great
Little Did King Cyrus know that the Lord was orchastrating these events…
One year later: Within a year of Babylon’s downfall, King Cyrus presents this decree:
In verses 2-4:
2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”
Remarkable Statement
Use of God’s covenantal name: The LORD=Yahweh
Recognizes the Lord has given him all these kingdoms.
Repetition of Jerusalem:
Old Testament influences:
Like Solomon: Called to rebuild a Temple
Like Exodus: Given silver, gold, goods, cattle, and offerings.
King Cyrus is a conundrum: Clearly a wonderful letter: Shockingly orthodox coming from a guy who has been known to worship other deities.
Cyrus Cylinder: Describes a Cyrus who worshipped other gods.
“All the restored gods were to “pray daily to Bel and Nabu for my [Cyprus’s] lengths of days.” Klein 680
“May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities ask daily Bel and Nebo for a long life for me …; to Marduk, my lord, may they say this: ‘Cyrus, the king who worships you, and Cambyses, his son …’”
Commentaries: theories about how to reconcile this letter in Ezra and the Cyrus Cylinder:
Derek Kidner: “doubtless a diplomatic courtesy, yet sincere enough in its way. It was important to frame the decree correctly for each repatriated group.”
Dale Davies frames it this way: Cyrus assigned someone from Office for Jewish Affairs to draft the document. “Cyrus intends to express a political policy, and his Jewish editor helps him confess orthodox truth.”
538 BC: Year after Persian Empire ends the Babylonian Empire, on October
October 29, 538: Deliverance Day from Captivity!
Where is God at work in this passage?
Preaching tip: PAY ATTENTION TO THE GOD VERBS!
God Stirs a New Exodus
God Stirs the Heart of King Cyrus
“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…
Compare that with how God worked through the heart of Pharaoh.
Exodus 4-7: 9x it says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart
Sometimes God hardens hearts, sometimes he stirs!
Dale Davies: “It was more than Persian policy—it was Yahweh’s providence, a ‘political’ providence.”
God stirred, and Cyrus executed a plan of Liberation for God’s people.
God worked through Cyrus, this pagan King, to execute one of the most significant developments in HUMAN HISTORY!
Such a remarkable moment: Setting the Stage for Judah, Benjamin, and Levites to return back home and set up shop again for the coming Messiah!
God Stirs the Souls of God’s People
15 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.
Israel was to go to the Promised Land and take it over.
Now, Judah, Benjamin, and Levi were to return to the Promised Land to Rebuild!
God not only moves in the heart of a King, he stirs in the hearts of the people!
Motivation to move!
Grace in that motivation!
Because one can imagine a scenerio where if God DIDN’T stir in their hearts, that they would have been just content staying in Babylon!
God stirs another Nation Plundering
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.
Just as Israel plundered Egypt, there’s a bit of a New Exodus feel to these words.
This time, God gives them a Head Start!
9 And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 10 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels; 11 all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.
Daniel 1:2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.
God takes back what is rightfully HIS!
Point wasn’t to plunder the land of Canaan in this New Exodus, the point is WORSHIP!
God Stirs Today
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Don’t want for the Spirit to stir, He is already stirred!!
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”
“To equip”
“I am waiting for God to tell me what to do?”
Two separate issues:
Spiritual Malaise:
I DON’T KNOW IF WE REALLY DO BELIEVE THAT GOD REMAINS AT WORK TODAY.
October 29, 538: Deliverance Day:
Celebrations on D-Day in WW2, but not here…
Generations have called Babylon home!
Be careful where your home is.
“I don’t have direction in my life?”
Spiritual Malaise:
“The Pastor in a Secular Age”
“Spiritual Malaise”
Coping mechanism=busyness.
FOR THOSE OF US WHO DO ARE TOO QUICKLY TO JUDGE HOW GOD IS AT WORK IN THIS WORLD!
“In a secular age, many have lost the ability to imagine or believe in a God who acts directly in the world. This leaves many feeling that God is "omni-impotent" and makes ministry feel like a human-centered, performative task rather than a divine one.”
“The waiting that God invites us into is not a dull void but an invitation to participate in God’s own life.”
― Andrew Root, Blair D. Bertrand
“Rarely does the Spirit come to the hurried who are seeking more and more.”
― Andrew Root, Blair D. Bertrand
STOP SAYING YOU’S SO BUSY, stop fill your time with stuff and activities…
Should the church be a resource hub?
Should the church be an entertainment hub?
Encounter with the Transcendent!
