Ezra 4-6: Wait....You Thought This Would Be Easy?! (3)
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Last week we continued our journey through the Old Testament Book of Ezra. So far in the Book of Ezra, we have seen just under 50,000 people from the Nation of Judah return from captivity for the expressed purpose of rebuilding the Temple of God in Jerusalem.
By the way, I didn’t point this out earlier, but I did want to take a moment to point it out now. There were likely 1 million plus Israelites in the Persian Empire at this time, but slightly less than 50,000 returned to Jerusalem. There is an important lesson here we all need to take notice of, and that is this; Next Slides
While it is God’s desire that all who are called His children would be fully devoted to Him, He does not force our devotion, He gives us the freedom to choose.
There will come a day, according to Philippians 2:10&11 that all will worship Him: Next Slides
Philippians 2:10&11
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
But for now, we are given a choice. The question for each of us this morning is, Next Slides
Have I chosen a life of devotion to Him?
Back to this mornings passage, we have seen the decree of King Cyrus, that the Nation of Judah return to rebuild the Temple of God, and that he was fulfilling a prophecy that literally named him, yet was written about 150 years before he was even born. The Nation took the 900 mile journey back to their homeland and not long after getting back to Jerusalem assembled a makeshift temporary altar to God. They were fearful of the people that had inhabited the land in the 70 years they had been gone and understood that if they were going to have success in their efforts at rebuilding the Temple of God, they needed God’s blessing on their efforts. Thus they gathered on the Temple mount and joyfully worshipped and sacrificed to God there.
Then, some of the inhabitants of the land wanted to join them in the rebuilding of the Temple, but this was nothing less than an attempt to water down their worship. Once they were not permitted to join in the rebuilding effort, they began to bribe government officials and they also brought verbal threats and soon, in discouragement, the returning exiles stopped building the Temple and that stoppage lasted for at least 15 years. As a wake up call, God sent 2 prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to move the people from their complacent lives, back into as life of service to God.
That is basically where we left off last week, so let’s start there this morning.
Turn in your Bibles to Next Slides
Haggai 1-Page 1005 in the Pew Bibles
In Haggai 1 we read:
“1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest... 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes...
8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little...the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain..
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God…And the people feared the Lord 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God..”
By the way, I want to make sure we don’t miss something very key here. When we read that the Lord said, “I am with you”, we need to understand that this had been the case every moment since they had returned. God did not abandon them when the attacks started. Had they continued to rebuild the Temple, as God had commanded them, He would have continued to give them victory. They quit without giving God a chance to prove Himself. Part of the proof of that is the fact that we do not see any new edict from the King at this time, there is no indication that the threats from their adversaries ended, they simply listened to the prophets of God and began the work again.
We have seen the prophesy of Haggai, let’s take a moment and look at what Zechariah had to say, just turn a few pages to Zechariah 4:4-7.
4 And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.”
6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ ”
Zechariah 4:4-7
Outnumbered
No walls
No army or weapons
Lord of Hosts
Get back to work.
The wakeup call from the prophets worked and the people once again began work on the Temple.
Turn in your Bible to Ezra chapter 5. Next Slide
Ezra 5-Page 496 in the pew Bibles.
5 Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. 2 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.
Having the 2 prophets, Haggai and Zechariah right next to them, working alongside them, encouraging them, supporting them, had to be a huge source of encouragement to Zerubabbel, Jeshua and the rest of the returning exiles. I am wondering if this wasn’t one of the ways God used to let them know that He was with them.
So, here they are, starting anew the rebuilding of the Temple, then we read in chapter 5 of a second attempt to stop them in their tracks. Next Slides
Ezra 5:3-5
3 At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus: “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?”
4 They also asked them this: “What are the names of the men who are building this building?”
5 But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it.
Now this attack is slightly different, probably meant more to discourage them than anything else, in fact in many ways this was more of a test than an attack. but we see in verse 5 that they didn’t give in this time, they had learned their lesson.
To give you an idea why I don’t believe this was an attack, we have to look into history for a bit. After King Cyrus dies, His son Cambyses, began to rule as King. Now Cambyses was nothing like his father and he never fully had the support of the people, and more importantly never had the support of the military. Finally, after 8 years of constant conflict, Cambyses committed suicide. The military appointed the next king, who was a strong leader and a distant cousin to Cambyses. His name was Darius. One of the first things Darius did was to stop any who were revolting against the rule of Cambyses. He also made sure that all of the governors around the Persian Empire knew to alert him and the first sign or any suspicious activities. It was at this time the Nation of Judah went back to work on the Temple of God. Is it any wonder that Tattenai was concerned? Tattenai isn’t about to take any chances. That is what we read in verses 3-5.
What took place next was that a letter was sent to the King Darius. Asking him to have someone look into the archives of King Cyrus, to see if he had issued a decree that the people should return to the land of Judah and rebuild the temple. We won’t read the entire letter they sent to him, but I do want to look at one very important part of the letter. You see it in chapter 5 verse 12 we read:
Next Slide
Ezra 5:12
12 But because our fathers had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia.
Did you notice what the Nation of Judah didn’t do? They blamed no one but themselves. They didn’t blame that nasty Nebuchadnezzar for their captivity. They took full responsibility. This is a very important lesson for us to learn. Our tendency is to look for someone else to blame when things don’t go our way or when we fall into sin or a life of sin. We blame our upbringing, our family, our spouse, our family heritage, our friends....we even say things like “The devil made me do it.” To push the blame on anyone else but ourselves. The lesson we need to take from Ezra 5:12 is this; Next Slides
When we sin, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
The sooner we learn that lesson, the sooner we will start to see great victories in our battle against sin.
As we continue on in Ezra, and moving now to chapter 6, we see that Darius had the archives searched, and low and behold he found the decree by King Cyrus.
By the way, Persian law dictated that once a King made a decree, it was permanent, even after that King died, all following Kings had to obey the decree also. That is why Darius made a search of the archives.
I love what he does next. He tells Tattenai to leave the people alone, and that he is to see that the cost of the rebuilding of the Temple be paid for from the taxes he collected in that region! That’s what I call a move of God! And just in case anyone tries to cause any problems, Darius adds one more decree. We see it in verse 11 of chapter 6;
Next Slide
Ezra 6:11
11 Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.
So, what we see here is that God gave the returning exiles a very important job to do, but as He always does, He made sure they had everything they needed to get the job done.
He does the same with us today. Next Slide
When God Calls Us to Do Something, He Always Give Us Everything We Need to Accomplish the Task.
With the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah working alongside them, encouraging and supporting them, with help from The LORD of Hosts, Jehovah Nissi, we see in Ezra 6:15
15 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.
4 1/2 years after they started rebuilding the walls again, they were able to complete the rebuilding of the Temple.
Look now at Ezra 6:16-17
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. 17 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.
At first glance, this is a pretty impressive sacrifice, they offered 712 animals in sacrifice to the Lord that day. But let’s take a moment and compare their sacrifice to that of the Nation of Israel when Solomon completed the temple. Next Slides
4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord.
5 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.
6 The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the Lord that King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord—for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises by their ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood.
Zerubbabel and the returning exiles offered 712 animals compared to the 142,000 offered by Solomon. You would think that God would be more pleased with the sacrifice of King Solomon, compared to the sacrifice of Zerubbabel. But that was not the case. For proof, let’s look at Haggai 2:9 Next Slide
Haggai 2:9
9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”
So what do we see here? What we see here is that not only was God very pleased with this sacrifice of Zerubbabel and the returning exiles, it appears that He may have been more pleased with this sacrifice than that of Solomon.
Zerubbabel and the returning exiles gave their very best to God that day, and that gift was pleasing to God. That brings us to the next key lesson for us this morning. Next Slides
It’s not the amount of the sacrifice, but the heart behind the sacrifice that pleases God.
Our tendency is to look at people like Billy Graham and think that his reward in heaven will make anyone else's reward look pretty small. I don’t believe that is the case at all. I’m betting that the heavenly rewards of men like Doug Mills will compare favorably to that of Billy Graham. Doug Mills is Pam’s dad and from the time he trusted Christ to the day God called him home all he wanted to do was tell people about Jesus, and while he never worked in the full time ministry, he took everything God gave to him and used it for the glory of God. Something tells me that his reward in heaven will be right up there with ?Billy Grahams.
Here is the lesson for you and me. God is not expecting Billy Graham type things from us anymore than He was expecting the returning exiles to sacrifice 142,000 animals to the Lord at the dedication of the Temple of God. What He wants from us, is that we take everything He has given us and use it for the glory of God.
This brings us to the last key I want to make sure we don’t miss this morning. We see it in Ezra 6:19-21. Next Slides
Ezra 6:19-21
19 On the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover.
20 For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. So they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves.
21 It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by every one who had joined them and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.
Particularly look at verse 21. Did you notice where Ezra wrote; “and also by every one who had joined them and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.”
So who are these people? These are people who inhabited the land before they returned from exile. Remember last week when Zerubabbel and Jeshua refused to allow the inhabitants of the to assist them in the rebuilding of the Temple? They refused because they realized these people didn’t have a heart for God and God alone and that they would push them to a watered down worship of God. That took place around 21 years earlier. Well something happened over those 21 years and it appears that many of those inhabitants had put away their idol worship and were now worshipping God and God alone. Chances are God’s light was seen in the returning exiles and that brought about a revival in the hearts of many that formally had given themselves over to idol worship.
So what is the lesson for us? Simply this, Next Slide
Even in the midst of persecutions and outright attacks from the enemy, God still wants to shine through us.
In fact many times it is how we live for God during those hard times that He uses the most in reaching those that haven’t surrendered their lives to God.
So, what are the keys for us today from Ezra chapters 4-6?
1. We need to understand that the devil knows all of our weaknesses, and that is the first place he will attack.
2. Much of the time he uses wolves in sheep’s clothing for his attack. These people give you the impression they are on your side, but if you look closer, you will see they are not godly at all, oh they may wear a spiritual mask from time to time, but the life they live is no different than the rest of the world.
3. God has not called us to live inconspicuous lives. We are to be like that city on the hill we read about in Matthew 5:14.
4. We need to stop playing the blame game when it comes to sin in our life. When we sin, there is no one else to blame but ourselves!
5. When God calls us to do something, He supplies Everything we need to accomplish the task.
6. It’s not the amount of the sacrifice, but the heart behind the sacrifice that pleases God.
and last:
7. Even in the midst of persecutions and outright attacks from the enemy, God still wants to shine through us.