The Book of Ezra
Study #4
(Ezra 1:5-11)
Headed Home!
Open It
1. How do you think your view of the church is different from your grandparents’?
* 2. When was the last time you felt there was something you “just had to do”?
3. What’s something you have rebuilt, restored, refinished, or fixed up?
Background
• In our last message, God used Daniel to get to the king.
• The king, at God’s bidding, issued a decree.
• There were two parts to his proclamation:
1. A Call to Go
2. A Call to Give
• In our text this evening we see the response to both parts of that call.
I. A Heart to Go (5)
NOTE: The parallel to the gospel call.
• All are invited.
• All may come.
• Sadly, not all will.
Invitations to Faith
Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Proverbs 1:20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Luke 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! 35 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Luke 14:12 Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. 13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: 14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. 15 And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. 16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
Invitations to Fellowship
Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
A. The Response (5a)
[5] Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised,
1. Patriarchs
• These are the heads of the various families that will be listed in chapter 2.
2. Priests & Levites
• Since this journey is for the express purpose of building the temple, the Priests and Levites are essential to the mission.
• PRIESTS - those who intercede to God in behalf of the people. Prior to Aaron, the head of the family or the tribe served in this role. Now, these are required to be the descendants of Aaron.
• LEVITES - descendants of Levi who served as assistants to the Priests in the worship system of the nation of Israel.
3. People
• This is so important.
• Not all the people decided to go.
• The MAJORITY decided to STAY.
• But the fickleness of the people did not stop the plan of the king and the leaders.
• Yes, all who were stirred, gladly went along.
• Here again, God’s people moved ahead, with far less than 100% of the people in favor.
ILLUS: In that motel room in Franklin, NC I remember telling our family that God might move us to Victory Baptist Church. My daughter Charis had an especially difficult time. But we were ready to go if God gave the green light.
B. The Reason (5b)
[5B] to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.
• It is not easy to leave all that is familiar.
• Many of these going to Jerusalem had never seen it.
• Yet there was a great Cause!
• To build the house of God!
• When God needs something done, he will have a man to see the big picture.
• As David when he went down to the battlefield where the Israelites were cowering before Goliath.
1 Samuel 17:28 And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. 29 And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?
• It is never easy when you are asked to take risks and sacrifice!
• But we must SEE THE CAUSE!
II. A Heart to Give (6-11)
A. From Their Communities (6)
I.e., From the Neighbor’s Hands
[6] And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered.
• God has provided for His people again.
• He does it in similar fashion as He had done for the Jews leaving Egypt.
• They had been given gifts for the Tabernacle.
Exodus 11:2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.
Exodus 12:35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: 36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
• Now, the Jews receive gifts from Jewish (and perhaps Gentile) neighbors for the Temple.
• It is no new thing!
• Great works for God require great funding!
B. From Cyrus (7-11)
I.e., From Nebuchadnezzar’s Hoard
QUOTE: The 2,499 articles counted in 1:9, 10 are only representative of the total of 5,400 mentioned in 1:11. (The MacArthur Study Bible)
[7] Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods; [8] Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. [9] And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives, [10] Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. [11] All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.
• Nebuchadnezzar took these items between 605 and 586 B.C.
2 Chronicles 36:7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
• Belshazzar took them out to “play” with them.
• This angered God!
Daniel 5:1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. 2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. 3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. 4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. 5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
• NOTE, that the name Darius mentioned in Daniel 5 is probably a title. The real name of this conquering king was Cyrus, who invaded Babylon in 539 B.C. (MacArthur)
• These articles were under God’s watch care.
Jeremiah 27:22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.
• Even as God was preparing to judge His sinful people, He was preparing to provide for their restoration!
• What a gracious God we serve!
Conclusion
• We can rest in the truth that God is all wise and all knowing. God has a plan.
• Nothing surprises God.
• When God is ready to move, He will move a man.
• We can trust with absolute confidence the Word of God.
• While not everyone will take advantage of God’s offer, it is in your best interest (earthly and eternally) to go with God!
• How marvelous that God allows His wandering children to come home!
Hosea 14:4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
Isaiah 48:9 For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
• One of my favorite passage of Scripture states that,
Jonah 3:1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time ...
Proverbs 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
APPLY!
• As with His people then, so with His people today, God is ready to welcome the erring child back home!
