Ezra 4-6: Wait....You Thought This Would Be Easy?! (3)
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As we begin this morning, would you please turn in your copies of God’s Word to Ezra 5:3-5. It is on page 337 of the pew Bibles. Have that place book marked, we will read those verses shortly.
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?
If you have, based on what I see in Scripture, your “devotion” will be backed up by how you lead your life. You see:
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It is impossible to be devoted, without living a life of devotion, because devotion isn’t a spoken word, it is a lived out word.
Now, back to the Book of Ezra, we started by looking at 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. Next Slides
Ezra
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map
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.
After that, they began to lay the foundation for the temple, but soon, some of the inhabitants of the land wanted to join them, but this was nothing less than an attempt of the enemy 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, with the 2 prophets God sent, working side by side with the people, in rebuilding the Temple. So, let’s start there this morning.
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. As I mentioned last Sunday morning, I wonder if this wasn’t one of the ways God used to let them know that He was with them. Keep in mind that Scripture gives the picture of Christ followers being the hands and feet of God, in many ways this is what Haggai and Zechariah were doing.
But as we have already discussed in previous weeks, our enemy does not give up easily, here they are after 15 years of complacency, starting anew the rebuilding of the Temple, when we read in chapter 5 of a second attempt to stop them in their tracks.
At this, would you please stand, in honor of the reading of God’s Holy Word? Again, we will be reading Ezra 5:3-5. Next Slides
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.
Ezra 5:3-5
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. And most Biblical scholars believe that this attempt at discouragement, like the previous one, likely came from the ones who moved into the land during the Nation of Judah’s captivity. The ones the New Testament calls Samaritans.
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 took over the throne. 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. In fact many historians credit his greatest military campaign in Egypt more to his father, King Cyrus, than him. 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. Now Darius immediately appointed many area governors and gave them strict instructions to alert him of any potential conflicts, something his cousin failed to do.
That appears to be exactly what is taking place here in Ezra 5. Here we are in the 2nd year of his reign and one of his governors, Tattenai is alerted to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Tattenai isn’t about to take any chances. That is what we read in verses 3-5.
But I want to make sure we don’t miss what I believe is the key phrase of verses 3-5.
“But the Eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews”.
We see a similar picture in Psalm 34:15
15 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry.
and also in Psalm 33:18
18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness,
Ezra, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wants to paint a picture for the reader here, a picture of “the attentive care that one exercises in behalf of the object on their concern.” A modern day picture might be to use a baby monitor. Often times before new parents bing their baby home, they have already set up a baby monitor in the baby’s room. That first several months every sound they hear at night and they are out of bed rushing in to look on the baby. In some ways, their eyes on constantly on this one that they love. So too are the Eyes of God the Father, always on those Whom He loves.
Take joy and encouragement in knowing that God has His Eye on you.
Because “the eye of their God was on” them, the governor of the province did not force them to stop building. Instead, the next thing we read is that a letter was sent to the current King, 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. It was the response of the Jewish Elders to the governor of the Province. You see it in chapter 5 verse 12 where we read:
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12 ‘But because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.
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. 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;
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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.
You get the impression that upon reading the decree of King Cyrus, whom Darius respected greatly, Darius decided to one up Cyrus’s decree with one of his own. A royal “Anything you can do I can do better.”
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. I have said this before and I will say it again over and over again as we travel through the pages of God’s Word: 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, 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.
Moving forward we now see the dedication of this newly completed temple.
Comparing Celebrations. Ezra 6:16-17; 2 Chronicles 7:4-6
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 his 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. In other words, for every animal offered by the returning exiles, the Israelites in Solomons day offered 199! 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. But there is something else here I do not want us to miss. Something that I believe had a significant impact on God’s pleasure at the sacrifice of the returning exiles. It would be easy to miss. Look at the very end of verse 17. How many male goats were a part of the sacrifice? (12). And what was the purpose for the number of 12 male goats? (1 for each of the 12 tribes). Ok, now you may have to dig a little deeper to come up with the next answer. How many tribes were a part of the Nation of Judah? (2-Judah & Benjamin).
I believe that one of the things that brought God great pleasure was the fact that the returning exiles didn’t stop with 2 male goats. No way, they brought 12, one for each tribe. In my minds eye, I picture God bursting at the seams with joy at these 12 goats. 415 years earlier the Jewish Nation had split in 2, and it was anything but a gracious split. While they may have remained a part of the same family, their feelings towards each other, at times bordered on hate. But the Nation of Judah put those feelings aside and brought sacrifices representing the entire nation.
Would you mind if I make this a little personal for a moment? Do you have a former friend or family member that no longer have anything to do with? Something happened between you and you cannot fathom ever associating with them again. Take a lesson from the Nation of Judah here in these verses. Perhaps for you, the sacrifice may not be a goat. Maybe it is beginning to pray daily for them. Asking God to bless them, to be at work in their life, to be drawing them to Himself. Maybe the sacrifice you bring is a forgiving heart. Or just maybe....just maybe the sacrifice for you is going to them and seeking forgiveness and restoration.
Perhaps as I talk right now, a specific name comes to mind. If so, make this the week you take the needed steps to restoration. And by the way, this does not mean that if you have been deeply wronged by them, that you allow them to do the same thing again. Forgiveness and restoration does not mean you open the door to complete trust again, that you open the door for them to do the same thing yet again. It just means you have forgiven them, trust may come again one day, but for now, just forgive, and ask God to do a powerful work in you, as well as them.
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? Well I believe that 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 land 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 event, with Zerubabbel and Jeshua, 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 the past 3 weeks in 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.
This concludes the first half of the Book of Ezra. Historically, the Book of Esther falls directly between Ezra chapter 6 & 7, so we are going to spend the next 5 weeks or so looking at the magnificent book of Esther. I think you are going to love this beautiful Biblical account and will come away with a deeper understanding of God’s Sovereign control over all things.
Let’s close our time in prayer.
Benediction:
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.