Construction
Ezra / Nehemiah
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/Construction.html
Last time we looked at the Captivity of Israel. Now the 70 years are up and they are returning home...in 3 stages:
· Under Zerubbabel – 536 BC
· Under Ezra – 455 BC
· Under Nehemiah – 445 BC
The prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi speak to this generation.
About 50,000 Jews went home in the first wave w/ Zerubbabel. That’s only about 10% of all that were in Babylonian captivity. Why? They had grown too comfortable there in Babylon. The world and its attraction held them there, far from home.
We cannot allow geography or finances mask the voice of God from our ears. I love the south and the west, hills and mountains. But more than that I want to do God’s will. He may want me here or in a foreign country...and it’s not about my comfort but His direction. We should never put down roots too deep for God to be able to get us to ‘branch out’ according to His will. Actually, nothing in this world should be home to us!
David Livingston: “I had rather be in the heart of Africa in the will of God than on the throne of England out of the will of God.”
Ill.--May our lives be more like a channel than like a river. A channel is straight, cut out with a purpose, and it goes places quickly. A river meanders, following the path of least resistance, and takes much longer to go anywhere, and uses up a lot of resources and area in getting there.
Joke—teenage boy wanted to bring a goat home. His mother objected to him having this pet. “Where will you keep him.” He said, “In my room.” “You can’t!” “Why not?” “The smell, son!” The boy answered, “Oh mama, he’ll get used to it!”
The Jews who remained were geographically backslidden, and spiritually as well, happily at home in the place of sin.
Another place we want to avoid is the place of complacency. I’m talking about when we don’t care about our situation. It’s one thing to not have a prayer life, and it’s another thing to not care.
[Bible reading / witnessing / serving]
And some lost people know they are lost...and don’t care! Some sit thru invitations, and each one gets easier to listen to and overlook.
90% didn’t want to go back. But the 50,000 who did go back wanted to rebuild from the ashen heaps remaining. Solomon’s temple was a big pile of rubble. [later Nehemiah’s group went back to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem]
Anytime the people of God say let us rise up and build the devil and his forces rise up in opposition. The only way you can know you are going in the opposite direction of the devil is when you meet him face to face!
The devil uses: discouragement and compromise [Ezra 4:1-3]
These were unbelievers who said, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. They were trying to join in and be a part, but they weren’t believers in the one true God. They would have added to their numbers and labor force, but would have insured ruin and disaster. We need not hold hands with the world to do God’s work. We must do God’s work in God’s way.
v. 4-6 The devil also uses slander. “If we can’t have our way then we’ll make sure you don’t get your way.”
Haggai and Zechariah were who God sent to be cheerleaders saying, yes, you can rebuild...you can do it, and God will help you!
Haggai 1:1-14
1 ...the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel ...saying, 2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built. 3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? 5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. 7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. 9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. 12 Then Zerubbabel ... with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD. 13 Then spake Haggai the LORD’S messenger in the LORD’S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD. 14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel ... and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God...
Check out the groundbreaking ceremony:
Ezra 3:10-11 It’s a celebration!
v. 12-13 The young shouted as the old wept. The elder were children when the old temple was destroyed. This new one doesn’t compare. It’s 1/10th the size and cost! It’s a pup tent of a temple to them.
Haggai comes on the scene and says, old folks, wipe your tears, for the biggest and best temple is yet to come. He was talking about the 3rd Jewish temple to come in the end of the world.
Haggai 2:7-9
7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. 9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.
Solomon’s temple was incredible, but Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it when the captivity began in Babylon. Now in Ezra the 2nd temple, Herod’s Temple it would be called in Christ’s day, is being built. It would be destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. But a 3rd one is yet to come!
Revelation 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
The 3rd temple is in planning and preparation even as we speak! Instruments, articles, furnishings, clothings...it’s all being fashioned right now. They are just waiting for the right moment to make their move on the temple mount. The Dome of the Rock [Muslim] is there now. What must happen? It could be destroyed in that volatile area at any time. But this doesn’t have to happen. There’s plenty of room on the temple mount for the new temple...as long as you leave off the court of the Gentiles!
The rapture could come before the temple is built. It need not be completed until the mid point of the tribulation [after 3.5 years]
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So, Zerubbabel led the first wave of returning Jews back home. 78 years later was the 2nd wave, led by Ezra himself.
He was a revivalist and a reformer. He loved God’s Word and hated sin. He was encouraged to lead another group back by the Persian King Artaxerxes.
Ezra 7:11-13
11 Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Israel. 12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time. 13 I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.
God put this in his heart to do this.
Proverbs 21:1
The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
The jokers in Washington think they are running the show, and are trying to take over more and more control, but God is sovereign and is ultimately calling the shots.
Ezra 7:27-28
27 Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem: 28 And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.
Ezra took about 5,000 people back with him. The Temple had been built by Zerubbabel. But the people were back to the ways of sin. They were marrying pagans and mixing beliefs. It broke Ezra’s heart. He prayed an incredible prayer...
Ezra 9:5-10
5 And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, 6 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. 7 Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. 8 And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. 9 For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. 10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,
The result of this prayer was revival. The result of prayer IS revival. May we pray for it!
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The final expedition was led by Nehemiah. In 52 days they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. They had resistance, ridicule, many obstacles, discouragement, intimidation, discord, slander, fear. We’ll do an entire study of Nehemiah soon.
Here’s a chart to help understand the OT prophetical books, their chronology, and who they were talking to:
CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF THE PROPHETS
ACCORDING TO USSHER
I. Prophets Before the Exile
(1) To Nineveh
Jonah, 862 B.C.
(2) To the 10 tribes of “Israel”
Amos, 787 B.C.
Hosea, 785-725 B.C.
Obadiah, 887 B.C.
Joel, 800 B.C.
(3) To Judah
Isaiah, 760-698 B.C.
Micah, 750-710 B.C.
Nahum, 713 B.C.
Habakkuk, 626 B.C.
Zephaniah, 630 B.C.
Jeremiah, 629-588 B.C.
II. Prophets During the Exile
Ezekiel, 595-574 B.C.
Daniel, 607-534 B.C.
III. Prophets After the Exile
Haggai, 520 B.C.
Zechariah, 520-518 B.C.
Malachi, 397 B.C.
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Next we move into the NT for the last 9 Cs in this series...
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/Construction.html
