The Providence Of God Series

The book of Ezra begins with the end of the exile.

• The Kingdom of Babylon has fallen to the Persians, and with the dawn of the Persians empire the subjects were asked to return to their respective homelands.

• The first wave of returnees took place in 538BC and that’s where the book begins.

• Ezra, the priest and author of the book, was not in the first wave. He would only appear in chapter 7 with the second wave of returnees, some 80 years later.

The book begins with a story of those who returned. Read Ezra 1:1-11.

The moment power was transferred to a new Kingdom (from the Babylonians to the Persians), God moved to fulfil His will.

• It was in the very FIRST year of King Cyrus’ reign that God acted to fulfil His promise.

• The 70-years in exile (counting from the first deportation, counting from the fall of Jerusalem would be about 50 years) was the discipline of God.

• The judgement was not an end in itself, therefore it would end, as the Lord promised.

The Jewish nation would be restored and the people renewed again to worship God in the land that God has given them.

• Therefore the very first line says in fulfilment of God’s word to Jeremiah, “the Lord MOVED the heart of Cyrus King of Persia” (Ezra 1:1) to release His people.

• Other versions put it, the Lord STIRRED UP the spirit of Cyrus.

It didn’t come from the Jewish people, not because they’ve shown a change in their attitudes or behaviours. They might have but it didn’t come from there.

• Strictly speaking, it did not come from Cyrus. The Persian Kings might have their reasons for doing so, but the truth is, it’s not a Persian thing but a God thing.

• God initiated it. He decreed it, actually. It was according to His Word spoken through Jeremiah. We can read it from Jeremiah chapters 29-33.

Quote the well-known verses - Jer 29:10-11 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfil My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

I was curious to know when the name CYRUS first appeared in the Scriptures. The very first mention of his name was in Isaiah.

• God prophesied through Isaiah in Isaiah 44:28.

Isaiah 44:24-28

24"This is what the LORD says - your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:

I am the LORD,

who has made all things,

who alone stretched out the heavens,

who spread out the earth by myself,

25 who foils the signs of false prophets

and makes fools of diviners,

who overthrows the learning of the wise

and turns it into nonsense,

26 who carries out the words of his servants

and fulfills the predictions of his messengers,

who says of Jerusalem, `It shall be inhabited,'

of the towns of Judah, `They shall be built,'

and of their ruins, `I will restore them,'

27who says to the watery deep, `Be dry,

and I will dry up your streams,'

28who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd

and will accomplish all that I please;

he will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt," and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid."’

He continued to describe Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1-7. See verses 4-6.

• Isaiah 45:4-6 4 For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honour, though you do not acknowledge me. 5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, 6 so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.

Isaiah was ministered in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah’s time in Judah. So that was some 150 years before Cyrus came into the picture.

• God spoke of Cyrus (even before he was born) as the instrument that He would use to bring His people back.

This is the PROVIDENCE of God. God is SOVEREIGN. He determines it and He acts to fulfil His will.

• On the basis of? His grace! That’s WHO He is. That’s the God we trust today.

• It has nothing to do with the Persian Empire, although it looks that way.

• It has nothing to do with the Persian Kings, although we need them.