Promises Kept: Ezra 1-2

Victories: 1. Thank you/ great end of school bash 2. Thank you to the decor team

Prayer: First Baptist Church Pastor Mick Simpkins

Missionary Prayer: Jack & Iva Dean Henderson, Texas Pray for their years of service.

Intro

Exodus and Ezra. Today, we start a new book, and the interesting thing is how much it mirrors the book we just came from, or more correctly, mirrors the history of the Exodus. What we have is a second return from slavery. Joseph and his family entered Egypt around 1875 BC, and the Hebrews entered the promised land around 1406 BC, around 470 years later. The Jewish people then enjoyed around 475 years before the nation was divided in 931 BC. The Northern kingdom of Israel is completely dispersed during the next 300 years, so that very few members of the 10 tribes of Israel remain. However, the southern kingdom, made up of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, remains until 605 BC, when the southern Kingdom of Judah falls when they are conquered, and the first wave of exiles is sent to Babylon and other places. A second wave happened after the fall of Jerusalem in 597 BC, and the third wave happened in 586 BC. Ezra takes place around 70 years later, in 537 BC.

What makes this similar to the Exodus is the way in which they return. God heard their Cries. When the people were finally broken by their rebellion and turned toward the Lord, the Lord heard their cries, and He promised to save them, similar to how the cries of the Hebrews were heard in Egypt. God changed hearts. In Egypt, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh until He would release them, and in Babylon, God softened the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, toward them for their release. God plundered enemies. Just as Israel plundered Egypt, God allowed Israel to plunder Babylon by the king's decree. Israel was told to build the tabernacle in the wilderness from Egypt, and in the return from Babylon, the people were set to rebuild the temple.

Ezra, however, isn’t just about returning to the promised land; it is about resilience in the face of adversity, it is about learning to trust the Lord, it is about doing what is right even when it’s hard, and it is about obedience. God is in the business of rebuilding lives and renewing hearts, and only He can do it. The question we have to answer is: are we broken enough by our sin to seek the one who rebuilds and renews?

God Keeps His Promises

Bible Reading: Ezra 1:1-5

God promised His people that He would bring them back from exile. We see there in verse 1 that the word of the Lord would be fulfilled that was brought by the mouth of Jeremiah. What was this word? Jeremiah 16:15 “but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land, which I gave to their fathers.” The Lord was furious at His children because of their unbelief and their disobedience to Him as their God, and He sent them away from the land He had given them, in order for the land to rest from their wickedness. But God would bring them back home. Jeremiah 32:37 “Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely.”

God keeps His promises to His children. Yes, He was furious at their wickedness, but that doesn’t mean that God does not want to give His children mercy. And in keeping this promise, God can make miracles happen. It says that He stirred the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia. Cyrus is an interesting person in history. It is recorded that Cyrus was a brilliant military strategist who was able to conquer the Medes, who were the ancient Iranian people. and the country of Lydia, which is today modern Turkey. This meant that Cyrus became the ruler of all ancient Mesopotamia, but he wasn’t done, and he set his sights on Babylon. In 539 BC, Cyrus came to Babylon, and instead of fighting the people of Babylon, they just opened their doors to him, and when Cyrus and the Persian army entered, he was welcomed. The interesting thing about Cyrus that makes him really different from most other conquerors is that He didn’t rule with an iron fist and make those nations that he conquered follow the Persian Gods and the Persian ways. Instead, it was said of Him by the Greek author Xenophon, “He honored his subjects and cared for them as if they were his own children, and they, on their part, revered Cyrus as a father.”

This is not a normal remembrance for a Conqueror. Something different is happening here. It is almost like God superceded in History to place a ruler unlike any ruler before Him to actually have mercy and love for his subjects. Weird. But it is exactly what God did. Our God has a plan, and that plan will not be thwarted because our God keeps His promises.

God’s promises are for us and not against us. He wants us to thrive, even though we have been wicked and rebellious, we can turn toward our God who loves us and treats us as His children. This picture of a ruler who had his heart stirred up by God to release the exiles and return them to Jerusalem is a picture to us that God can and will stir our hearts toward His good works. It is a picture of just how far God will go to bring us back into a relationship with Him. It is a picture of a God who kept His Promise to the exiles of Israel and who still keeps His promises to us. We can place great confidence in the promise of Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” Do you believe it? Are you ready to have your heart stirred up by God? Let’s see what else God does for His people.

God Brings the Victory

Bible Reading: Ezra 1:6-11

God brought Judah back from exile in a miraculous way. I mean, there is just no other means this could have happened if it wasn’t from God. One day, they are in exile with no hope of release, and the next day, the King issues a decree freeing the exiles and rebuilding the temple. There can be no question that this is from God; only God could orchestrate such an action from a Gentile heathen king like Cyrus. God’s stirring in Cyrus not only made him declare the exiles free and the proclamation for the rebuilding of the temple, but Cyrus also paid for the temple to be rebuilt out of his own pocket. It is beyond anyone's wildest dreams and yet there it is. God does the impossible. It is like Balaam hearing his donkey talk to him in Numbers, or David facing down a Giant, or Jonah and the whale, or Paul on the road to Damascus. These aren’t times where anyone could say, “Yep, that was all me.” No. When God moves, there is nothing else to do but sit back and watch.

I can imagine that the exiles there in Babylon had a pretty good pity party for a long time as they felt like God had abandoned them. And for a few years they may have actually felt like they were right in doing so. How dare God tear them away from their home. Where was God at when Babylon showed up at their doorstep and carted them away. You see I can understand exactly how they might have felt because I have at times thought or said some of the exact same things when things aren’t going my way. But the truth is my pity parties don’t last long before I realize that I am the one to blame. The exiles were in Babylon because they were at the end of a long line of people who had rebelled and disobeyed God over and over again. They were the ones to blame.

Friends, it is really easy for us to get discouraged to see all that we have yet to do, all of our failures, and all of our weaknesses. We can feel as though life is just one big disappointment after another. Oftentimes, we place the blame for those disappointments on God. We blame Him for not acting, not doing enough, sometimes doing too much, or for allowing bad stuff from happening. The thing is, God is a pretty good scapegoat for all our disappointments because we can get our problems off our chest, and we can feel justified because it isn’t our fault, it’s God’s. However, what if instead of blaming God, we actually put the blame where it is due, on us, and instead of telling God how bad of a job He is doing, we should ask for forgiveness and pray for reconciliation. What if we believed that God actually wants us to thrive, and then believe that He can and will cause us to thrive? What if God wants to show you the victory? Are you ready to stop your rebellion?

You see, as believers, we need to stop living our lives as though we are already defeated. We aren’t! We are the children of the risen Lord, and He already has the victory. Friends, your life is victorious simply because you know Jesus. Do you believe that? When life is at its lowest, can you confidently say, as the author of Hebrews said, Hebrews 13:6 “So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”” or as Paul said in Romans 8:37–39 “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Life is hard, but knowing Jesus means that all of your enemies are already defeated.

God Knows and Loves His People

Bible Reading: Ezra 2:1

God isn’t just generally aware that some of those people down there in Babylon at one time called themselves Jewish. No. God knows them by name, and He numbered them. If we were to read through the rest of chapter 2, which is name after name after name of the families who went into exile, each and every one is named because God knows them and He plans to bring them back home. I find such great confidence in from this passage because of how much God loves these people. He knows them and is not OK with leaving any of them behind. It reminds me of how God has even our hairs counted, as Jesus said in Luke 12:7a “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” or how God knows everything about us in Psalm 139:1–3 “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.” There is nothing that God doesn’t know about you, and that isn’t cringe it is freeing, because we don’t have to hide our true selves from God. That’s right, Everything. Everything. Sit with that for a while. Think through all that that might mean. Yep, God knows that too. And here is why that is great. He still loves you.

That is one of the coolest parts about how God, He knows everything about his people and yet still takes care of us. He showers us with His plenty. When Israel left Egypt, God put it on the hearts of the Egyptian people to give them all their valuables. Exodus 12:35–36 “Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus, they plundered the Egyptians.”

Can you believe that? They asked for it, and the Lord put it in the Egyptians' hearts to just give it all over to them. I mean, this is way cooler than Obi-Wan telling the stormtroopers, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” This is, “Hey, would you go into your house and bring me everything of absolute value out so that I can have it, instead of you?” and they do it, “Yep, Yep, sounds good! I can do that.” That is what God was willing to do for His people and that is the God who loves you and me. He wants to show us this kind of love. God wants to show you that you are loved.

For all of you who might be here and you don’t know God in this way, and you’re pretty sure He wouldn’t be counting your hairs or knowing your sitting down and rising up, what are you waiting for? Stop blaming God. Stop trying to do all of this on your own. Surrender to a God who loves you for there is a God out there who loves you and knows you and wants you to know Him. He knows you, He knows everything about you, and yet He still loves you. He wants to count you as part of His family. Are you willing to give up your sin and all of its consequences to be with this God who keeps His promises, who is already victorious, and who loves you despite yourself? Well, let me tell you how to do that.

Gospel

Jesus died for our sins, and because He did, we can place our belief in that sacrifice. 1 John 1:9 says, “we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We have the promise of God that if we ask for forgiveness and believe in the saving power of Jesus, we will be saved. And from the saving power of Jesus, we become new creations. 2 Cor. 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” This means that as Christians, we get a fresh start, we aren’t who we used to be, and we have the power of God behind us to change who we are becoming. Glory to God in the highest, for He has saved my soul, and He can save yours too if you will let Him. If you aren’t sure, then you can confess Him as your savior. If that is your desire today, you can say this prayer with me. Bow your heads.

Dear Lord, I know that I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin, and I ask you to forgive me. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I repent of my sins, and I ask you to come into my life and take control. I make a commitment to follow you, and I trust you as my Lord and Savior.

Friend, if you prayed that prayer today, I ask that you come and speak to me after the service.

Benediction: Revelation 5:13“Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” AMEN