The Sovereign Hand of God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I want to take the next several weeks and walk through the book of Ezra. There are several reasons for this. Ezra is a great story that highlights and details the process of the rebuilding the nation of Israel after the 70 years captivity by the hand of Babylon. And this story takes us through the long and slow, often painful process of what it means to rebuild, to revive, to restore, especially after tragedy strikes.
There’s no doubt that we are in a place that needs to be rebuilt. Society is crumbling. Church is even crumbling. Experts are predicting perhaps a 30% decline in attendance in the church since the pandemic. WE need to rebuild. And, my prayer is that we as a church will lead the way, that we will begin the process of rebuilding, of seeing God work and move even in this community, here in our local area and around the world.
The first thing we want to see today is to talk about what it means to live with the understanding and realization that God is sovereign and He is on the throne, and he knows what he is doing.
Divine Sovereignty refers to God’s all-encompassing rule over the universe.
Lexham Theological Wordbook Concept Summary
The divine sovereignty of God is a central theme throughout the Bible. God delegates authority, establishes kings and kingdoms, and brings to ruin any king or kingdom that fail to submit to his authority. The Bible presents Yahweh as the Creator God, with a sovereign right to rule over all creation (Psa 104). Yahweh is the “great king (מֶלֶךְ, melek) over all the earth” (Psa 47:2) who “reigns (מָלַךְ, mālak) over nations” (Psa 47:8).
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
This becomes so evident when you look at the opening few verses of this book.
I. The Background Setting of the Text.
I. The Background Setting of the Text.
In order to fully appreciate what we see in this story, we need to first examine the background of what is going on here.
God had originally brought Israel out of the slave markets of Egypt in the Exodus (ca. 1445 B. C.). Hundreds of years later, before the events of Ezra, God told His people that if they chose to break their covenant with Him, He would again allow other nations to take them into slavery.
The Babylonian captivity or exile refers to the time period in Israel’s history when Jews were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. It is an important period of biblical history because both the captivity/exile and the return and restoration of the Jewish nation were fulfillments of Old Testament prophecies.
God used Babylon as His agent of judgment against Israel for their sins of idolatry and rebellion against Him. There were actually several different times during this period (607-586 B.C.) when the Jews were taken captive by Babylon. With each successive rebellion against Babylonian rule, Nebuchadnezzar would lead his armies against Judah until they laid siege to Jerusalem for over a year, killing many people and destroying the Jewish temple, taking captive many thousands of Jews, and leaving Jerusalem in ruins.
Under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II, the Babylonian Empire spread throughout the Middle East, and around 607 B.C., King Jehoiakim of Judah was forced into submission, becoming a vassal to Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:1). It was during this time that Nebuchadnezzar took many of the finest and brightest young men from each city in Judah captive, including Daniel, Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach) and Azariah (Abednego). After three years of serving Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiakim of Judah rebelled against Babylonian rule and once again turned to Egypt for support. After sending his army to deal with Judah’s revolt, Nebuchadnezzar himself left Babylon in 598 B.C. to deal with the problem. Arriving in Jerusalem around March of 597 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, taking control of the area, looting it, and taking captive with him Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin, his family, and almost all of the population of Judah, leaving only the poorest people of the land (2 Kings 24:8-16).
At that time Nebuchadnezzar appointed King Zedekiah to rule as his representative over Judah, but after nine years and still not having learned their lesson, Zedekiah led Judah in rebellion against Babylon one final time (2 Kings 24–25). Influenced by false prophets and ignoring Jeremiah’s warnings, Zedekiah decided to join a coalition that was being formed by Edom, Moab, Ammon and Phoenicia in rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 27:1-3). This resulted in Nebuchadnezzar again laying siege to Jerusalem. Jerusalem fell in July 587 or 586 BC, and Zedekiah was taken captive to Babylon after seeing his sons killed before him and then having his eyes plucked out (2 Kings 25). At this time Jerusalem was laid to waste, the temple destroyed and all the houses burned. The majority of the Jewish people were taken captive, but, again, Nebuchadnezzar left a remnant of poor people to serve as farmers and vinedressers (2 Kings 25:12).
In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.
And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
This is the way that the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah wound up in exile, wound up in captivity to Babylon.
But the good news is this. Even in the midst of Israel’s rebellion, even in the midst of their persistent backsliding, God was preparing the way, not just for the exile, but for their return.
II. How God Was Preparing the Way for Israel’s return.
II. How God Was Preparing the Way for Israel’s return.
During the rebellion, and subsequent exile into Babylon, God had not given up on His people. A prophecy went out, 150 years before this writing by Ezra by the prophet Isaiah.
who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ”
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
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.
here is what is amazing about this passage. Isaiah prophesied during the 700’s B.C. He prophesied some 150 years before the return back to Jerusalem.
And it wasn’t just Isaiah. Jeremiah prophesied later than Isaiah, in fact he prophesied right around the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. Here is what he prophesied about this fall.
“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. 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.
The point of this is simple. 150 years, 70 years before the captivity and return back to Jerusalem, God was preparing for the return of the people of Israel back to the land. God was moving in His sovereignty.
III. The Implementation of Isaiah and Jeremiah’s Prophecies.
III. The Implementation of Isaiah and Jeremiah’s Prophecies.
This brings us to the text we read this morning. Listen to it again. e
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:
“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. 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.
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.”
To reset the scene, the Jews, from the time of Solomon, had been in rebellion against God and eventually are dispersed and conquered by the king of Babylon. However, Jeremiah prophesies that this conquest would only be about 70 years and then they would be allowed to return to their home land. And then we read these words in Ezra, and also in
Now 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: “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. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’ ”
There is something fascinating to learn about this. I want to show you a historical artifact, in the British Museum.It’s called the Cyrus Cylinder and it is a writing of Cyrus’ decree to restore the people of Israel to their land. Here is a description of this cylinder.
Inscribed with cuneiform script, the Cylinder records the conquest of Babylon in 539 B.C. by the Persian king Cyrus the Great (ruled 559–530 B.C.). Even before its discovery, Cyrus had been renowned as a benevolent and noble ruler. The Greek historian Xenophon (about 430–354 B.C.) presented him as an ideal leader in his Cyropaedia, while Old Testament texts praise Cyrus for bringing an end to the Jewish exile in Babylon. The Cylinder provides a valuable complement to this legacy, for it records — in Cyrus's own words — how, on taking control of Babylon, he restored religious traditions, and permitted those who had been deported to return to their settlements in and around Babylonia.
What’s fascinating is, if you read the text in Chronicles and Ezra, it makes it sound like Cyrus was stirred by God to specifically help the Jews. A Damascus road experience. But, this cylinder tells us that Cyrus did this for all of those who had been conquered by the Babylonians. In other words, it was his own political maneuvering and strategy to do this thing. And yet, God uses it to fulfill prophesy and to restore the people to their land.
God’s rule of his people was prominently illustrated in his providential control over foreign nations and kings. The very first verses of Ezra refer to God’s powerful stirring of Cyrus’s heart. God directed Cyrus’s thinking so that the king gave the people of Judah permission to return to their land and build a Temple to their God in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1–4). This was consistent with Persian government policy to send all the people the Babylonians had exiled back to their original land and allow each group to rebuild its local temples. The Persians expected that the gracious way they dealt with these nations would cause them to pay their taxes and be loyal to Persia. But this did not all happen just because of Persian policy; it was God’s sovereign plan to return the people after the Exile. This was announced through the prophet Jeremiah long before the rise of King Cyrus (Jer 29:10). God promised that the return to Jerusalem would happen after a 70-year captivity. In fact, the prophet Isaiah even announced that the name of the king who would help the Hebrews rebuild Jerusalem was Cyrus (Isa 44:28–45:1). God knew how he would work out all these details over 150 years before they happened.
The point is, God was working, all the time, working for the good of the people of Israel, for the Jews.
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
IV. The Application for our Lives today.
IV. The Application for our Lives today.
Obviously, we know that there is no prophecy in the Bible telling you how to vote or who to vote for, etc. But there is still some solid, truthful points that you need to grab a hold of.
A. God is still on the throne and still in control.
A. God is still on the throne and still in control.
This is the first day of fall, last day of summer and I thought about this illustration.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
B. God is concerned about the details of your life.
B. God is concerned about the details of your life.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
C. God is working the details of your life for your good and for His glory.
C. God is working the details of your life for your good and for His glory.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.