The First Return - Preparation
Notes
Transcript
Timeline
Timeline
Okay, so let’s again talk timeline.
Ezra 1 is the beginning of the first return of the people of God back to Jerusalem
Before we read I want to give a quick background so that when we read the first verse, we can all go “ah okay I know where we are” and move into the meat of the text
So we remember from last week the overall timeline of events and we looked at the end of those events leading into now
I want to quick jump to the beginning of that timeline and talk about 2 nations that are going to be mentioned here in this text, again so that we don’t get confused be go “ah, I got it.”
When the people of Israel were taken into Exile it was by the nation of Babylon. They came, conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the city and led the people into slavery in exile for 70 years just as the LORD had instructed would be the case if they failed to follow His commands.
One of the prophets who called out to the people to tell them that discipline was coming in the form of Exile into Babylon was the prophet Jeremiah. So if you read the book of Jeremiah, you are reading the events leading into the Exile.
Once the people are lead into Exile, we can read of what was happening in the Exile in Babylon. One of those authors is Daniel. So if you read the book of Daniel you are reading about the people in Exile.
Now Daniel begins with the people under the rule of Babylon but it does not end this way. But rather, as God speaks through Daniel, we learn that Babylon is actually going to be conquered by The Medes and the Persians. This event, as prophesied, takes place and now the people of God are under the Rule of the Medes and Persians
Now with that little bit of background let’s jump into our text
Text
Text
Ezra 1
In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and to put it in writing:
This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. Let every survivor, wherever he resides, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.”
So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had roused—prepared to go up and rebuild the Lord’s house in Jerusalem. All their neighbors supported them with silver articles, gold, goods, livestock, and valuables, in addition to all that was given as a freewill offering. King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had placed in the house of his gods. King Cyrus of Persia had them brought out under the supervision of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. This was the inventory:
30 gold basins, 1,000 silver basins,
29 silver knives, 30 gold bowls,
410 various silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles.
The gold and silver articles totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought all of them when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Message
Message
God’s Plan: Rouse The King
God’s Plan: Rouse The King
Ezra 1:1-4
In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and to put it in writing:
This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. Let every survivor, wherever he resides, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.”
Now when it says that the LORD “roused” the spirit of Cyrus its a very interesting word that is used.
In this particular context, it is meaning that His spirit was agitated (but not like upset agitated more like if you were to agitate a liquid, like moved about or stirred up
So what is going on here, because you might be thinking, Cody I thought you said Jeremiah was proclaiming this bad news and discipline upon the people but this says in order to fulfill what Jeremiah said, they were getting sent back now?
YES! It is both! This is where we can finally understand the purpose of Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Those plan, did involve a hope a a future and in the end they were not to destroy the people totally so that there would be nothing left, those plans however while proclaiming hope and a future, also involved the exile
God proclaimed both the exile and the return.
Both the discipline and the restoration
And here we see God fulfilling what He promised. Because God will always follow through on His promises. They may not have the same timeline that we think or may not look like what we think it should be....but He always follows through on His plans.
This rousing of a kings heart for God’s purposes is not unique to just this moment.
God in the opposite way, roused Pharaoh's heart in Exodus not to let the people go so that God could demonstrate His power
God also roused the heart of Nebuchadnezzar to take over Jerusalem
We read this in proverbs that...
Proverbs 21:1
A king’s heart is like channeled water in the Lord’s hand:
He directs it wherever he chooses.
We have to come to this understanding, that even though we could see all of the personal benefits to the people of Israel returning to the land and rebuilding....it is actually for God’s purpose and God’s glory that it is happening.
Re-look at the contents of what Cyrus says and who is the main figure in all of it? Ask yourself are the people the main figure in this? Is Cyrus the main figure in this? Or is it The LORD??
Notice the LORD:
Rouses Cyrus
Gave Cyrus the Kingdoms on earth
Appointed Cyrus to send the people back to rebuild
The LORD is God is Israel
Not only rouses Cyrus, but Cyrus to says that the people should be helped with gold and goods and animals for the journey and return!
Where in any of this is there room for anyone to get glory other than God!
But we not only see that God rouses the heart of the King but...
God’s Plan: Rouse the People
God’s Plan: Rouse the People
Ezra 1:5-11
So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had roused—prepared to go up and rebuild the Lord’s house in Jerusalem. All their neighbors supported them with silver articles, gold, goods, livestock, and valuables, in addition to all that was given as a freewill offering. King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had placed in the house of his gods. King Cyrus of Persia had them brought out under the supervision of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. This was the inventory:
30 gold basins, 1,000 silver basins,
29 silver knives, 30 gold bowls,
410 various silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles.
The gold and silver articles totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought all of them when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
I want you to think about how crazy of a decision this is.
Much like what happened in Egypt, the people have been living under someone else’s authority for so long, that now, they are to leave that security, to walk for 4 months straight over a period of 900 miles to return to rubble.
There was nothing waiting for them on the other side....at least in Babylon they have food and houses right?
But that’s the thing about humans and comfort
We are really good and adapting to hard situations and making ourselves comfortable
This issue is, when we get comfortable, we will not, on our own accord, make ourselves uncomfortable
This is why I mentioned Egypt because in the book of Exodus, the people actually complained about leaving a nation that held them as slaves because, in their words ...
Exodus 16:3
The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”
But here, similar to Egypt the people are being called out of another nation to come back home.
The courage it must have taken to make that step and say “me and my family. we will go and rebuild what once was.”
Proverbs 20:24
Even a courageous person’s steps are determined by the Lord,
so how can anyone understand his own way?
This is what I referenced in the last sermon, as the people of God, we cannot run away from and abandon broken things.
No, see as Christians we return to broken things, we seek to rebuild broken things, we remove the sin that lead to the broken things, and we restore those things back into right relationship with the LORD
And we see that God not only provides a way back in the Declaration by Cyrus, but He also provides the means!
The people come back with 5,400 articles of silver and gold on top livestock and other supplies.
This wasn’t just supplying the people for their need…but causing them to recognize it is not another God who does this but only the LORD
The thing that lead the people into exile was the worship of other gods
This is moving to reset their minds to remember that our God provides because He is the One True and Living God, there is not other God than the LORD
And in the greatest way, in the ruin of our sin, God provides a way back. That way is through the Gospel. That when our lives looked like the city of Jerusalem as a result of our sin, God provides a way to bring restoration and new life to our lives through the perfect life of Jesus, His sacrificial death on our behalf, and His physical resurrection giving us:
Fulfillment of God’s standard of perfection
Payment for our sin
Ability to walk in new life
And I believe much like God had roused the spirits of Cyrus to send the people back, and roused the spirits of the people to return, that He is rousing the spirits of people to follow Him.
And maybe for the first time, that’s you. Or maybe your life has been off track and you need to return to Him again. I pray that you would because you will find restoration and healing only in Jesus.