Introduction:
A. Ann Landers, former advice columnist, challenged her readers to come up with the world's 3rd
-biggest lie. She wrote, “The world’s biggest first two lies are: ‘The check is in the mail’ and ‘I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.’ Here’s a sampling from the thousands of suggestions of the 3rd biggest lies she received:
1. “It's a good thing you came in today. We only have two more in stock.”
2. “Ten extra pounds is nothing on a person of your height.”
3. “You made it yourself? I never would have guessed.”
4. “Of course I will respect you in the morning.”
5. “You don't look a day over 40.”
6. “Dad, I need to move out of the dorm into an apartment of my own so I can have some peace and quiet when I study.”
7. “It's delicious, but I can't eat another bite.”
8. “The new ownership won't affect you. The company will remain the same.”
9. “The puppy won't be any trouble, Mom. I promise I'll take care of it myself.”
10. “You don't need it in writing. You have my personal guarantee.”
B. Sometimes it’s hard to know who to believe and what to believe.
1. Sadly, many people and companies make promises that they don’t keep.
C. But I am here to tell you that the God that we read about in the Bible is someone who can be trusted.
1. I am here to tell you that when the God of the Bible makes a promise, He keeps it!
2. God zealously protects the integrity of His Word and wants us to have confidence in the Word.
3. And for that reason, those of us who believe in God have courage, and hope, and peace, because we trust in God’s promises.
D. Today we are beginning a new sermon series on the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
1. I’m calling the series: “Restoring and Renewing the People of God.”
2. In this series, we will witness how God restored and renewed the people of God back in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
3. And as we witness the way God kept His promises and worked in their lives, we will be assured that God will continue to keep His promises and work in our lives today.
E. As we begin our study, let me begin by saying that Ezra and Nehemiah are historical books.
1. Perhaps many of you enjoy studying history, others of you may find history to be boring.
2. Some people define history as the story of civilizations, or that history is the reciting of the rise and fall of peoples and nations.
3. All of this would be true, of course, but what I propose to do is to show that history is something more than the rise and fall of civilizations and the story of cultures and the recounting of wars.
4. History is the story of God’s sovereignty over the nations to accomplish His eternal purpose and to show forth His eternal glory.
5. History is truly the Lord’s story of His redemptive work, the display of His judgment, and the preservation of His people in every generation.
F. So when we come to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we see that their purpose is to give us more than just secular history – they reveal a spiritual history or a theological history.
1. What I mean by that is that they seek to show God’s providence over the nations.
2. They seek to reveal the redemptive history of God and God’s people.
3. While much of history offers slices of God’s common grace shown to obscure people or His judgments executed against wicked people, the most significant portions of history center on how God redeems a people for Himself.
4. The interplay of nations, wars, civilizations, economies, rulers, dictators, disease, conflict, and so much more has its ultimate focus in demonstrating the greatness of God’s love for His redeemed people and the certainty of His faithfulness in keeping a people for Himself.
I. Setting the Stage for the Story of Ezra
A. Derek Kidner, in his commentary, sets the historical stage well for us, identifying what is happening in the book of Ezra: It was a death to make way for a rebirth. A millennium before this, Israel had been transplanted to Egypt, to emerge no longer a family but a nation. Now her long night in Babylon was to mark another turning-point, so that she emerged no longer a kingdom but a little flock with the makings of a church. This is the point at which the book of Ezra begins. [TOTC: Ezra & Nehemiah, 13].
B. Let’s put the story of Ezra in its’ historical context. Let me give you a brief history of God’s people.
1. @ 2000 B.C. - God moved Abraham to Canaan
2. @ 1500 B.C. (500 years later) - God freed the Jews from Egyptian Captivity
3. @ 1000 B.C. (500 years later) - David was the second king of Israel. Israel’s best days were under the reigns of David and his son, Solomon.
4. 930 B.C. (70 years later) - The Kingdom divided: into Northern (Israel) and Southern (Judah) Kingdoms.
5. 724 B.C. (206 years later) - The Northern Kingdom (Israel) was taken into Assyrian Captivity
6. For 150 years, Judah withstood by the Lord’s kind hand, the assaults of those that would bring them down. But finally, Judah, the southern kingdom, had disobeyed the Lord, hardened their hearts, and given way to the idolatrous ways of their neighbors.
7. @ 605 B.C. (119 years later) - Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took away about 10,000 of the brightest and sharpest of Judah. Daniel was in this number
8. Judah stood against Babylon, so Nebuchadnezzar assaulted them until the city of Jerusalem was held hostage, death filled its streets.
9. 586 B.C. - The Southern Kingdom (Judah) was taken into Babylonian Captivity
10. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, burning everything that could be burned, tearing down walls and buildings. The temple was part of the destruction. The Jews had long held to the temple as though it were a lucky charm in their midst. While the temple existed, they thought, no one could conquer them. Their trust was in the temple in a superstitious way; the Lord was far from their eyes.
11. Nebuchadnezzar ruled dictatorially except for the 7 year period where he learned that he had to humble himself before the Lord God.
12. During the reign of his grandson, Babylon the Great fell to the Persians under the leadership of Cyrus in 539 B.C.
13. 538 B.C. (1 year later) - King Cyrus’s first year (Ezra 1:1-4), Cyrus’ heart was stirred by the Lord to send the Jews back to Jerusalem.
14. The “seventy-year” exile under the Babylonian captivity ended. The promise of God that they would return and rebuild began to unfold.
C. There are three personalities and three stages of development that we find in Ezra and Nehemiah.
1. The books were considered as one book for centuries due to the progressive historical development in them.
2. They chronicle the three stages of rebuilding according to God’s promise.
3. The first phase, found in Ezra chapters 1-6 (with digression in 4:6-23) chronicles the rebuilding of the temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest, and Haggai and Zechariah the prophets starting in 538 B.C. and was completed in 516 B.C..
4. The second phase is about sixty years later in 458 B.C. under the leadership of Ezra.
a. His purpose was not for building buildings but rebuilding the spiritual life of Israel.
b. He called for reformation. His leadership begins in Ezra 7.
5. The third phase in this chronicle of Israel was when Nehemiah returned in 445 B.C. to rebuild the broken down wall of the city. His story is told in the book bearing his name.
D. Today, we begin with the first phase, the rebuilding of the temple, for the first step in reestablishing the people of God was to rebuild their spiritual lives and reestablish the centrality of worship.
II. Ezra Chapter One
A. Ezra chapter one, verse one reads: In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
1. In the first verse, we are immediately confronted with the prophetic basis for the unfolding details in Ezra.
2. These details took place because God had purposed to accomplish them, having told the specifics to His prophets who in turn passed it to the people.
3. The historian Josephus records an account of the day when Daniel read Isaiah’s prophesy to Cyrus, and in response, Cyrus was moved to declare the proclamation of Ezra 1.
B. This historical event is one of the best examples of fulfilled prophesy in the Bible.
1. There are three Bible texts that are vital in understanding this event – let’s look at each of them.
2. The first important text is from Jeremiah 25:8-14 and it was given to Jeremiah before the exile.
a. Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the LORD, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the LORD, “and will make it desolate forever. I will bring upon that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”
b. How scary is God’s judgment?!
c. How sad and dark must have been the thought of losing their nation and homeland.
d. The important things we learn from that text include:
1. God’s judgment on Israel through His servant Nebuchadnezzar.
2. God places limits on the severity of the judgment, ending in 70 years.
3. Babylon would then face judgment for their sins and be finally destroyed.
3. The second important text is Jeremiah 29:1-14 and was given to Jeremiah during the exile.
a. How wonderful that God didn’t leave them in despair, but gave them hope.
b. This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.) He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said: This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD. This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
c. How comforting these words must have been to the Jewish people!
d. From this text we learn a number of important things.
1. God confirms the certainty of exile and gives them instructions: live in the land; do not expect a quick release as some of the prophets falsely foretold; become part of the citizenship until the day that the Lord returns you to the land.
2. God promises that after 70 years, they will be returned to Judah; they receive assurance that this is all according to God’s plans, therefore they have “a future and a hope.”
3. They are to thus seek the Lord; He promises that He will be found by them.
4. The final important text is Isaiah 44:24-45:6.
a. Keep in mind that Isaiah lived and prophesied 200 years before God’s people would go into exile.
b. “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, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, 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,’ who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,’ who 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.” ’
“This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. 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, 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.”
b. Isn’t that amazing! Two Hundred years before Cyrus’ birth, God spoke through Isaiah the prophet saying that Cyrus would be the one to let the Jewish people return from captivity and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.
5. From all of this, we see very clearly that God has the power to fulfill His promises.
a. God promised that if they did not repent, they would be sent into captivity.
b. God promised that that captivity would be for 70 years.
c. God promised that a king named Cyrus, who did not believe in God would release them from captivity, and that that king would command them to return and rebuild.
d. All that God had predicted and promised came true in the exact time and in the exact way that God had said.
e. God is the Lord, and there is no other!
C. Let’s go back to the beginning of the book of Ezra: In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you--may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ” (Ezra 1:1-4)
D. If there’s one truth that we must catch at the onset of this book it is this: the Lord dictates history for His glory.
1. The proclamation by Cyrus that acknowledged “The Lord, the God of heaven,” was probably written by Jews in Cyrus’ court.
2. Perhaps even Daniel had a part in this proclamation since Cyrus himself was certainly no believer.
3. History reveals that Cyrus had a different approach to subduing people than Nebuchadnezzar.
a. He had the policy of allowing conquered people to return to their homelands and rebuild temples and sanctuaries to their gods.
b. An ancient artifact called the “Cyrus Cylinder,” (now in the British Museum) contains historical information about Cyrus and a description of his resettlement policy.
c. They Cylinder reads: “May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities ask daily Bel and Nebo for long life for me...; to Marduk, my lord, may they say this: ‘Cyrus, the king who worships you, and Cambyses, his son...’ ”
d. Obviously, Cyrus’ policy had selfish purposes, but God used it nonetheless.
4. All of this took place so that the Jewish exiles might return to Jerusalem and Judah and begin the rebuilding process, just as the Lord had promised.
Conclusion:
A. How does this affect the way that you look at God and history?
1. Do you see history as the unfolding of God’s decrees for the sake of His kingdom and especially for the sake of His redeemed? That’s the point that Ezra makes for us.
2. What does this do to our worrisome times?
3. Does this change the way that we consider present day issues?
4. Is the Lord any less at work for His redeemed people today than in earlier history?
B. Consider that the prophecy concerning Cyrus took place two centuries before his birth and that Jeremiah’s specific prophecy took place 70+ years ahead of time while living under the iron certainty that Babylon would be around for generations.
1. Do you find yourself fearing tomorrow or next year or the next few years?
2. Who, ultimately, controls history and the future?
3. The Lord does not control history for sport but for the sake of His people whom He loves and whom He has redeemed through the blood of His own Son.
4. If the Lord invested so much in Judah who had yet to know the Messiah then does it not make sense that He will invest even more in His Church whom He has redeemed at such a great price?
C. Let me leave you with this question: What promises of our promise-keeping God do you need to put more of your faith in?
1. Our God can be trusted! Our God is a God who keeps His Word; Who keeps His promises!
2. Next week, Lord willing, we will look into the first group who returned and began to rebuild.
3. But for today, I want us to simply marvel at a God who makes promises and keeps them, and can even use evil, unbelievers like Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, to carry out His will for His redeemed people.
4. Will you take your stand on the promises of God?
Resources:
Ezra-Nehemiah, by Mark Throntveit, Interpretation Commentary Series, 1992
Ezra & Nehemiah, by Derek Kidner, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1979
Ezra, Nehemiah, & Esther, by J. Vernon McGee
God and History, Sermon by Phil Newton, southwoodsbc.org
