Father, we do ask you from the bottom of our hearts that You
would go before us as we begin a new journey in Your Word.
We also want to give you all our thanks that You have consecrated
these Friday nights in this ministry to be an Oasis for our
souls. That's so many times we've been
able to come and be refreshed and to be convicted and to be
comforted and to be equipped because your word here is
proclaimed and we are not ashamed of it Lord.
And so we ask now that you would provide an awareness of the
anointing that is promised in first John that anointing within
that teaches us the truth and the deep things of God.
We we come in faith. Oh God, and we pray that the
delivery of this introduction would be Spirit empowered and
that our hearts would be prepared to receive everything
that you have in store for us this night.
Lord, we pray that you would apprehend every wandering
thought, every renegade emotion, anything that is outside of your
will. We pray that it would come in
total alignment with your desire for each of us.
We bless you Lord, we give you thanks in advance for what you
have planned through your word in our midst, Jesus name, Amen.
In 586 BC the Babylonian Empire completely conquered the Kingdom
of Judah, and you and I are well aware of the Old Testament in
that many places have described to us just how swift and just
how dramatic the destruction of Jerusalem was.
We also learned a few weeks ago that Babylon completely remove
the remaining people in the Kingdom of Judah, with the
exception of a few poor people in the prophet Jeremiah.
And so we have realized at the closing of Second Kings that
God's promise of an expulsion from the Promised Land indeed
came to pass, and even the Davidic dynasty was not exempt
from it. But along the promises and the
warnings of this exile were comforting words through the
same messengers of God who constantly reminded this people
who are now displaced that their exile into a foreign place was
not permanent. It would not remain that way.
In fact, the leading prophetic voice of that time, the prophet
Jeremiah, gave this wonderful assurance in the middle of his
prophetic book. In Jeremiah 29, verse 10, it
reads for Thus says the Lord, after the 70 years for Babylon
are completed, I will visit you, and I will fulfill my promise to
you and will bring you back to this place.
That was not the only time Jeremiah reminded the people
that this was an act of discipline, but it was not a
cancelling of God's covenant. And this prophecy in Jeremiah
2910 is ranked among the most precise and all of Holy
Scripture. It's a remarkable thing that we
find in our Bibles. And so paramount was it that
when it came to the fulfillment, God has given us two books in
great detail to tell us how it all came to pass.
And those books are Ezra and Nehemiah.
And it's going to be our great privilege to consecrate the next
few months to study these books with great attention and
excitement. So that's what we're here to do.
Now, some might be wondering why, after finishing Second
Kings, we're not going to 1st and Second Chronicles because
those books immediately follow Second Kings.
And the answer is quite simple, if you've been with us through
1st and 2nd Kings, we have frequently visited the
Chronicles right in a way to help complete certain stories
and accounts. And so I think it'll be more
helpful to revisit First and Second Chronicles at a later
time as a series. But for now, we are going to
enjoy the book of Ezra. And I invite you to turn there
with me, Ezra, chapter 1, because we are going to read a
few verses in a moment. But allow me to offer a few
introductory thoughts and listen again, if you're here, this is a
great time to be at Bible study. It always is a great time, but
especially when we start a new book because you get to start
fresh and you get to be right at the beginning of a study where
you don't get lost if you come later on or you feel like you
have to catch up. So really absorb this time and I
want to encourage you to be faithful in the coming weeks to
actually remain in this journey so that you can fully benefit
from it. So a few things to review in
terms of background of this book.
Ezra and Nehemiah originally are considered a single unit.
In fact, that is still the case in the Tanakh, which is the
Hebrew Bible. And though in our Bibles they
are identified as separate books, they complement one
another so well because both of these books cover the return of
the Exiles to their country. And the record of this journey
back is done so in incredible fashion.
Does anyone remember how many deportations it took for the
people to be removed from Judah NO33?
And interestingly, what we're going to find in our study is
that it will actually be three cycles of return from exile back
to their homeland. And these waves of return will
actually serve as a general yet helpful outline for these texts.
So if you're taking notes, this is a good place to put this in
your margins or wherever you put your thoughts.
The initial wave of return will happen between Ezra chapter 1
and Ezra chapter 6, and it will be through the leadership and
guidance of a man by the name of Zerubbabel, and we're going to
learn more about them in the coming weeks.
Zerubbabel, the second group of returnees, is described
described in Ezra 7 to Ezra chapter 10, under the direct
leadership of Ezra himself. Now here's what's interesting.
Ezra is mentioned and introduced to us for the first time in
Chapter 7. That's kind of strange, isn't
it, since the book is named after him.
So in the last three chapters of this book, do we see Ezra taking
center stage of the narrative? Now the final cycle, the final
round of Return is the entire book of Nehemiah, and it's going
to be through Nehemiah's leadership.
So the focus really of Ezra now as an overview is going to be
studying the first two significant recoveries of the
people as they make their way back to their home, rebuild
their community and more importantly, reestablish their
relationship with the living God.
Now let me make another mention here.
Those three waves are led by three distinct individuals.
And if you look carefully, they're they're all builders in
their own way. When Zerubbabel will lead the
people in the first wave, his primary responsibility is going
to be rebuilding the temple. He's going to lay the foundation
of the temple. We're going to look at that in
greater detail in the weeks to come.
Ezra follows. And when he comes back, he also
rebuilds something. Does anybody know what it is?
The people he's going to rebuild the people of God, he's going to
rebuild their faith. He's going to rebuild their
consecration. He's going to rebuild their
worship. And finally, Nehemiah will
arrive on the scene. And what will he rebuild?
The walls. And that observation alone is an
encouragement to us because God has his men and women who have
their distinct responsibility in building some part of God's
Kingdom. You don't have to be in
leadership. The leaders are very, very
paramount in this narrative. You don't have to be a leader to
play some part in contributing to the fortification, to the
sanctification, to the effectiveness of God's purposes
on the earth. Now, with this in mind, perhaps
you are wondering if Ezra is introduced to us in Chapter 7,
why is this book named after him?
And that's a good question. And the answer beyond Jewish
tradition attributing it to him, is that there is wonderful
internal evidence that shows us that he is indeed the author of
it. So generally, Ezra is written in
the third person, but a shift takes place once you come to
Chapter 7. Let's go there quickly.
Look at Chapter 7 and verse 27 with me.
I'll wait for you to turn there. Ezra 727.
Here's what we read. Blessed be the Lord, the God of
our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of
the king, to beautify the House of the Lord that is in
Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before the
king and his counselors, and before all the King's mighty
officers. I took courage for the hand of
the Lord. My God was on me, and I gathered
leading men from Israel to go up with me.
So now we're we're seeing it in the first person.
And this isn't the only place where this happens.
It actually reappears. Excerpts in the first person
will show up following Chapter 7 all the way to chapter 10.
So we're left with only two options concerning the author of
this book. You either have an anonymous
author who is, you know, just telling and recording what took
place historically and then included Ezra's personal
memoirs, or you have Ezra, who is indeed the one who penned
this book. And once the narrative shifts to
his inclusion and his leadership in this return speaks in the
first person. And that's what we believe that
Ezra indeed wrote this. In fact, Ezra seems to have more
authorship real estate in the Bible than one might actually
think. If indeed we do conclude that
Ezra wrote this, then we can actually say that he penned
First and Second Chronicles. Why would we say that?
Because the way Second Chronicles ends the last verses
is virtually identical to how Ezra begins, almost word for
word. And that alone may showcase to
us that the same writer was involved in both works.
And I encourage you to compare those texts at your own time
later. Now, there's so much more that
we can say about the background of this book, but I want to
transition with this final question, and it's an important
one. Is there an overarching theme to
the book of Ezra? There usually is with every
book, and there are more than one.
But I want to say that one of them jumps out at us at the very
opening of this book. The very first verse, actually.
So let's read it together in verse one, Ezra 1.
Verse one reads 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.
Look at that sentence there, that the word of the Lord by the
mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled.
That is a major emphasis in this remarkable historical account.
Whatever God says he will do, he will do.
So the fate, the faithfulness of God is, is very much a filter at
the outset of this text. And it's not only seen here in
God actually accomplishing the hopeful message that Jeremiah
proclaimed. You will be there for 70 years,
but you will come back. That's the word that's going to
be fulfilled. It is interwoven throughout this
book in micro testimonies where we see little stories and
anecdotes and we realize over and over it's compacted how God
is reliable, He is trustworthy, and what he says He will
actually do. And He's never late.
And I'm eager to discover these insights.
I'm, I'm so looking forward to see what every chapter has to
offer us. But with the plan tonight, we're
actually going to just stay in verse one, Ezra one, verse 1.
And I, I think and I hope and I pray really that by the end of
the study you will see why that is valuable not to rush.
I mean, it's only a few chapters.
This, this study is not going to be very long.
At least I don't anticipate it to be very long.
But we can't rush what we see here in the very first words of
this book. So here's what we're going to
do. Verse 1 is going to serve as a
launching pad to other Scriptures, but I want us to
read down to verse 4 just to get a more complete picture, and
then we will do what we are here to do.
Let's read again in verse one 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 that each
survival in whatever place he soldiers be assisted by the men
of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with
beasts, besides free will offerings for the House of God
that is in Jerusalem. The first thing that should
strike you and I is this individual that we are
introduced to by the name of Cyrus, who is the king of
Persia. What does the Kingdom of Persia
and its ruler have to do with the people of God who are
supposedly trapped in Babylon? The answer should be clear to us
that while the people were in exile, the Kingdom of Persia
replaced Babylon as a superpower in the ancient Near East.
There's been a shift of governance.
There has been a transfer of power.
Babylon no longer is the dominating force, it is Persia.
In fact, all the events in Ezra and Nehemiah take place under
the Persian government. This is a significant change,
one that is detailed to us in the book of Daniel chapter 5.
You remember that is precisely where we see this shift taking
place and history accounts to the reality of this.
It's an actually amazing thing to compare what we find here in
the Bible and archaeological discoveries.
But there's something DP here for us.
Looking at Cyrus, king of Persia here in Ezra and Daniel and
other mentions offers more than just how the Bible is
historically accurate. Here's what I want to propose to
you tonight. If you and I actually gather
everything the Bible has to say about Cyrus, then we will
actually come to the place of having one of the strongest
arguments for the divine authorship of the Bible.
In other words, if someone were to ask me why do you believe
that the Bible is divinely inspired, one of my answers
would be, and I don't say this was an exaggeration, I mean it.
I would respond with, have you ever considered what the Bible
has to say about one of Persia's most notable kings?
Here's what I mean. Long before Jeremiah prophesied,
when the people of God were returned to Babylon or or
Jerusalem, he actually had another prophet explain and
predict how it would happen. And that's where we need to go.
Isaiah, Isaiah 44. And look with me at the very
last verse, Isaiah 44, verse 28. You can't afford to miss this.
This has massive implications for the veracity of the Bible.
Isaiah 44, verse 28, Who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and he
shall fulfill all my purpose. This is God speaking, saying of
Jerusalem, she shall be built another temple, your foundation
shall be laid. The prophecy continues in
chapter 45. Let's look at verse one.
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 will go before you and level
the exalted places. I will break in pieces the doors
of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in
secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God
of Israel, who call you by your name.
For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I
call you by your name. I name you, though you do not
know me. To truly grasp how astounding
this prophecy is, you and I have to understand the timing of it.
There is no dispute that this was compiled.
This prophecy was given close to 200 years before Cyrus was even
born. Do you understand what we have
in our hands here? One of the most accurate and
robust prophecies in all of Scripture and all of Scripture.
Now let's try to let's try to understand the magnitude of
this. It would be like, just imagine
with me now, a pastor living in the days of George Washington
and this credible minister boldly proclaims on public
record for the whole nation to hear there is a president coming
by the name of George W Bush, who became president nearly 200
years after Washington. That's why I'm using it.
There is a new leader who will arise by the name of George W
Bush, and not only does he name him by name, but he actually
explains what he will accomplish in his administration that will
actually bring about historical significance, a shift in
nations. What would that sound like for
those who would hear such a prediction?
It would be astounding. It would be amazing.
And for such a thing then to come to pass, well, it's, it's
hard to imagine what would transpire after that.
But that is the kind of precision foresight we're
dealing with an Isaiah's prophecy here.
This is not vague at all. It's naming names.
It's actually foretelling what's going to happen on a global
scale. History to this day can't ignore
it. And this is something for us to
consider. And we have to look at this
prophecy more carefully because the more familiar we've become
with it, the more confidence that we will have concerning the
validity of the Word of God. And I'm sure the the greater
your boldness will be in your preaching to the lost.
So let's look at this. Let's come back to chapter 45 of
Isaiah. Look carefully, verse one thus
says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus.
So Isaiah's prophecy is not just about Cyrus, it's a message for
him. It's to Cyrus, it's to this man
who is anointed. Now think about that.
Who was anointed in Israel? Kings, prophets, priests.
It's very rare where you have somebody who's a Gentile outside
of the confines of Israel who is told to be anointed.
Well, it's happening here. So this was something not just
for Israel to know about, though.
That's my main point. It's something for Cyrus somehow
to encounter. And it is widely believed that
Daniel was the prophet who exposed Cyrus to this prophecy.
That's what Jewish tradition claims.
And it's not so far fetched because we learned in the book
of Daniel that he knew Cyrus personally.
And more than that, we know that Daniel had copies of the
Scriptures. He had prophecies at his
disposal, did he not? How do we know that in Daniel 91
and two, while Daniel is in exile, while Daniel lived
through these transfer of governance, he says, I Daniel
perceived in the books the number of years that according
to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet.
What is he saying? I perceived in the books He had
books he was studying. And we have great reason to
believe that Daniel was very bold in the palace, that with
his great influence, he made known the truth of God.
And so it would not be a stretch to say that somehow, someway,
Cyrus was exposed to this scroll, to this message.
It came to him eventually. Now, whether or not Daniel was
the means by which Cyrus came to know this divine message, Ezra
confirms that he was aware of it.
We read that earlier. We'll see it again at the
closing of the study. What we do know for certain is
the essence of the message. Like Cyrus did What?
What's the summary of this? The whole purpose of this
prophecy is that once Cyrus is born, once he's raised up, once
he accomplishes amazing things, he would realize the God of
Israel has always known me, and He is the reason for my success
and my exaltation. This was to humble this man.
This was to move this man. This was for Cyrus to be
introduced to the true God. And I want you to imagine the
impact of coming across the writings of a prophet from a
different land who lived 180 to 200 years before you.
And in those records, your name shows up and your greatest
achievement in life has been predicted and fulfilled.
That's huge. That's massive.
And as personal as this account is, it conveys A broader truth,
one that would have challenged the hearts of the Jewish people
and stir the hearts of Gentiles at the same time.
What is it that God's compassion, God's power are not
limited to Israel. He works beyond those borders.
He actually can deal with the hearts of those who have no
understanding, no relation, no access to what Israel had.
And so yes, this, this prophecy, it profoundly displays the
sovereignty of God over kings and over lands.
But you can't miss the personal ambition in it.
Is God flexing His ultimate power over all things?
Is knowledge of all things? Yes.
But to what end? What's the goal?
Well, I want to make a case here so that people would not only be
introduced to including Cyrus, but that they would actually
know him, That they would be so moved by how this God has gone
out of his way to make himself real that they would then pursue
him in an intimate way. Look back at Isaiah 45.
Let's look here at verse 5. The Lord continues in verse
five. I am the Lord, and there is no
other besides me. There is no God.
I equip you, though you do not know me.
He's still speaking to Cyrus, but notice what he says in verse
6, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the
West that there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Highlight those words in the beginning of verse 6 that people
may know. I want people to know me, and
I'm going to call out a man who's not even born, that
doesn't even exist. I'm going to write out how he
actually is going to take over the world so that when those who
in his lifetime and beyond realize it, they would
understand that I am the true God.
No other deity can do this and that.
From that place they would know me in a real way, in a saving
way. Can it really be?
Can it really be that this God who has proven that He knows
every detail of the future, who can even tell us in advance
about it in writing, wants all people, no matter your
background, no matter your race, no matter your education level,
no matter anything, to know Him? And yes, it is true.
And in case you doubt that there is a personal element to this,
look down a little bit further than verse 9, Isaiah 45, verse
9. Woe to him who strives with him
who formed Him a pot among earthen pots.
Does the clay say to him who forms it, What are you making?
Or your work has no handles. So what's happening here?
This is the Lord's way of reminding the reader how futile
it is for anyone to resist the future predicting, nation
shifting God. Woe to you.
Woe to you if you actually try to raise your fist against this
God. That's what he's saying here.
But there is an application contextually that speaks deeper
to the heart. It's almost as though this verse
is saying, why would you oppose this God who again, has gone out
of his way to provide a record of Him predicting the future
with specifics, and at the same time is inviting you to embrace
Him and to enjoy him and to walk with Him.
Why would you do that? And maybe that's a question for
some people here or who are going to listen to this in the
future. Can I ask you something, please?
If you're skeptic in this place, welcome.
But let me speak to your heart. What do you do with a prophecy
like this? What do you do about this actual
foretelling of a man named Cyrus 200 years before he existed?
What do you do with that? Do you just ignore it?
Do you just scoff at it? Are you not at least intrigued
to explore further? Like, do you, do you not
comprehend the potential ramifications, the consequences
if this conclusions is indeed true?
Where do you go with this? You just move on and grab a late
night snack After a study like this, what do you do?
I'll tell you what many have done because I wanted to know
what atheists and agnostics have done with this prophecy and I
wasn't surprised. Unfortunately, many refused to
believe that Isaiah appendix before the time of Cyrus and
doubters of the divine inspiration of God's word say
Isaiah must have wrote this after Cyrus came on the scene.
And you'll even have liberal theologians who will claim that
how convenient, how convenient. It's a sad thing what people
will do. And if that is you, this verse
in verse 9 is actually for you. Woe to him who strives with him,
who formed him. You were fighting against God.
You were intentionally resisting Him.
You were suppressing the truth. What more does God need to do to
prove that this book is from heaven?
Well, there's one more thing I'd like for us to take away from
this prophecy, and it's something that concerns the
people of God specifically. Look again at verse 4 of Isaiah
45. God says for the sake of my
servant Jacob and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name.
I name you, though you do not know me.
So OK, we we know that the Lord wants to reveal himself to all
people through this prophecy, but he actually now focuses in a
little bit more and he actually says Cyrus, the reason why I'm
doing this also is because I have my people in mind.
Here's a lesson God's sovereign governance over the rise and
fall of nations, the promotion and demotion of rulers, even the
rewriting of laws according to this is always tied to the
growth and the formation of his own people always.
You know, history reveals that when Cyrus actually made this
edict, I'm talking about secular history, there's actually a
cylinder that's been discovered, it's in the British Museum
called the Cyrus Cylinder. It's this clay kind of vase
looking thing with inscriptions on it and actually speaks to and
speaks of what we find here in Ezra 1.
It's a different vantage point, but it confirms what we find
here. And what we discover there is
that Cyrus actually made a proclamation to many displaced
nations, and he actually makes an invitation for all peoples to
return back to their homeland. This was a political strategy.
It was for him to stabilize the region, to win favour within his
empire. And so to the natural eye, what
you would have seen is, you know, this is just a human
rights policy. This is just, you know, a king
who's just a rose to power. And he, he just wants to kind of
introduce himself on the right path, right footing.
And so he just says everybody can go back home.
You go back to your gods, you go back to your families, you go
back to your land. But what is God's word reveal?
Here's what it reveals. This looks like maybe just a
benevolent man, a shrewd man, you know, just implementing
political strategy. But instead, it was all guided
by God with his covenant people and focus.
All of this, all of this movement is orbiting around the
well-being of his own people. And you and I always have to
remember that as a Church of Jesus Christ beneath everything
that is happening. Listen, in this very city, in
this nation, across the globe, what you have to remember is
that God is orchestrating every piece in order to ultimately
listen to this position. His church in a manner where she
will be sanctified and most effective for His purpose.
I'm not sure if we believe that, but here's a text to remind us
of it. As followers of Jesus Christ,
God has not changed. Yes, this is the old covenant.
Israel was in focus. We are in the new covenant.
We are the Church of Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile
combined. As one new man, has God changed?
No, he's not. In fact, what we learn here is
that the Lord will accomplish such purposes even through kings
like Cyrus who don't know God, and yet will use such a man to
display and shower favor towards his people.
But listen, that truth remains, even if governments are unjust
and cruel towards God's own. And one of my favorite examples
of this is something that we covered briefly a couple
conferences ago. It's in Acts 18.
Let's be reminded of that. I want you to see it again in
Acts 18, verse one. This is when Paul left Athens
and went to Corinth. Look at this example once again,
Acts 18, verse one and verse 2. Here's a New Testament example.
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a
Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy
with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the
Jews to leave Rome and he went to see them.
What if I'm fascinating about this tax is that the Holy Spirit
could have simply told us that Paul met this couple, but he
doesn't just do that. He chooses to inform us how he
met Aquila and Priscilla. How did it happen?
You know how it happened? It was through an anti-Semitic
law. It was through the ruler there
in Rome who banished all Jews from the country.
Now put yourself in their sandals for a second.
Imagine that one day you get a knock at your door from
officials saying you have to leave.
You have to leave your business, you have to walk away from your
family. You have to abandon your church
for something that you can't even control.
How disorienting is that? How?
How frustrating would that be? I mean, who are you going to
call? The police?
The police is escorting you out. So you can imagine the tension,
you can imagine the anger, you can imagine the sadness, you can
imagine the tears. They have no choice.
You're being uprooted. And yet it's this very edict
from a secular, God hating Pagan government that would serve as
the catalyst for this couple to meet the apostle Paul in Corinth
and from there to form a relationship that would bless
the early church. In fact, you know this very
well. This couple is one of the most
esteemed in all of the New Testament and they became one of
Paul's closest companions. Where did it all begin?
The Holy Spirit tells us, Claudia is saying, you Jews,
you're out of here. We don't want you here.
So whether it's a pro Jewish leader like Cyrus or an
anti-Semitic rule like Claudius, what do you have the same truth?
God is in control. God is in control.
He's moving, he's orchestrating, he's he has his people in mind
with all of this change with favour or unfairness.
And that is something, listen, you have to believe for your own
life, especially if you are part of the Church of Jesus Christ.
So I really hope we got a taste here of just how significant
this man Cyrus was. And I want to encourage you to
never hesitate to reference him and to use him in your witness
to those who may challenge the reliability of the Bible.
Get more familiar with Isaiah 45, put it together with the
rest of history and ask somebody who would doubt who it's that
Bible is written by man. Yeah, we know that it was
written by man. But God moved by the Holy Spirit
through these men to give the message that he wanted to give
for all humanity. And he moves in history and he's
made prophecy about history made known to us so that what all
people would know him cyber listen to this.
Cyrus has been selected and inscribed in divine revelation
for that very purpose so that anybody who would learn about
him would realize God is real. God is real.
I don't remember the last time I've ever considered using Cyrus
in my evangelistic efforts, but here we are now.
There's so much more that we can say, but we're going to come
back to Ezra one verse one and look at a final thought before
we close Ezra one verse one. Let's read it one more time.
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, we learn just a
little bit about him. Continues here to say 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. See that phrase there?
The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia.
That is very important in our understanding of this section of
God's story. As we continue in this series,
we're going to see a lot of stirring of spirits in the very
chapter. We're going to see in verse 5
that God is going to stir the spirits of some of the remnant
to return. When it comes to the building
project of the temple. God's going to stir the spirits
of the leaders of the leaders, including Zerubbabel and those
who have followed His lead into Jerusalem.
Now, what you can take from this at face value is the obvious,
that this just confirms once again that God can influence the
hearts of even kings and that he can miraculously work in and
through him to accomplish his own purpose, right?
We know this, but there's a deeper truth.
It's as though Ezra by the Spirit wants us right away the
reader to understand that what's about to happen.
It's not because necessarily of the goodness of this Pagan king.
Cyrus in this moment will be an agent of Judah's renewal, of
Judah's healing, unless the people fall into the temptation
of giving the credit of their restoration to him.
Ezra wants to let us know the true source, the true power at
work behind the man who is making it happen, God, the
Spirit of God influencing and impressing upon the conscience
and the deepest parts of this man.
Cyrus, for what reason? So that you and I, including the
people that Ezra immediately wrote to, would understand God
is the one who's ultimately restoring us.
What's the lesson? Here's the lesson.
Another theme of Ezra really is about restoration.
What we can take from this? Is that true?
Restoration can only take place through a work of God.
Let me narrow it in. True restoration, that sense.
Of contentment in your. Soul, that realization that you
actually, you actually can testify.
I feel complete. That can only happen.
Through God, only God and the. Sooner you and I.
Believe that and realize that the quicker we will enjoy and
capture the reason why we exist. And the more we doubt.
That and entertain other thrills and ideas, the more you'll be
disappointed the mending. Of your spirituality.
Your identity, your purpose can only be found in him.
It was the. Lord, who stirred up the.
Spirit of Cyrus, it was the Lord who ultimately is reeling his
people back to who they were created to be, you know?
What verse came to mind? And here is where we're going to
end. The last part of the book of.
Lamentations. Lamentations is rarely brought
up in churches. It's not an easy book to talk
about. It's a book of lament, intense
lament. Most people believe it was
Jeremiah who wrote it. Very likely so.
Jeremiah wrote Lamentations as his personal response to the
tragedy of the destruction of Jerusalem.
And he says something at the end.
It's a Lamentations 521. Notice it with me.
Restore us to yourself, O. Lord, that we may be restored,
Renew. Our days as of old.
You see this you? See how precious this text is?
Restore us to yourself. So what?
What? For what reason, O Lord, that we
may be restored? What's Jeremiah bringing up
here? What we're seeing here in Ezra
one true completion, healing, renewal, satisfaction, identity,
purpose can all be known on the path of reconciliation with God.
Reconciliation with God is the sole path to restoration of our
true selves. And here's the thing you have to
understand. You can have your finances
restored, your health restored, your relationships restored on a
horizontal level. But if everything is going well,
if everything else is intact, if everything else is flourishing
but not your relationship with God, you will never be truly
restored. Restore us to yourself so that
we will be restored. It's exclusively and totally
found in God and how you engage with Him.
You always be an empty shell, you always be broken, you always
be wandering as long as you are not connected to God.
This is what we. Find here in the beginning.
Of Ezra, true restoration at the very first verse comes from the
one who made you and died for you.
Lord, we thank you for this brief introduction.
We bless your holy name. Lord, we have indeed tasted the
goodness of your truth, and we are longing to continue in it
until then. Lord, may these things that we
have heard marinate in our hearts, may seep the deepest
parts of who we are. And may truly translate into.
Transformation, Lord, we. Now respond to your voice.
And we acknowledge that you, who know all things and can do all
things, strangely desire us. You actually delight in us that
for those who are broken hearted.
Who are weary and heavy. Laden.
You have the remedy for it, and you invite us to.
Yourself. So Lord for the person.
Here, who thinks that? That fantasy?
Is going to satisfy. Them that those drugs and
supplements are going to soothe them that.
Buying the latest clothes? And putting on this kind of
makeup is going to make them feel fulfilled and beautiful.
Lord, if you. Were not.
In the equation of us being saved and us being satisfied,
please rescue us from our own deception.
And help us remain with you. Because true restoration.
Is in you alone. We give you thanks for this
truth and these reminders. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Let's stand. Let's worship the God who called
a man named Cyrus and knows your name and mine.