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.
• It has nothing to do with the exiled Israelites.
• They were simply the recipients of God’s grace. Not that they have chosen God; God has chosen them!
Why would Cyrus, a pagan king, issue a decree for the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild their Temple?
• We got to know the Persian’s motivation for this from history.
• In the 19th Century, an ancient clay cylinder was discovered with the inscription of Cyrus’ decree, among other information.
• It’s now called the Cyrus Cylinder and we can find it in London’s National Museum.
• And it reveals that Cyrus had a policy of restoring people to their native lands and religions, asking them to pray to their gods on his behalf.
• A portion of the inscription reads, “May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities ask daily Bel and Nebo for a long life for me.” (Kidner p.21).
So on a human level, you have a polytheistic King following his program of religious tolerance, superstitiously asking his subjects to pray to their gods for his well-being.
• But that’s just human history. Behind it all, as our Scripture says, is the work of our sovereign God in moving the heart of this King to fulfil His purpose.
• Prov 21:1 “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases.” He turns it wherever He will.
We cannot lose sight of this, and the author emphasized it.
• 1:1 “the Lord MOVED the heart of Cyrus to make a proclamation…”
• 1:5 “everyone whose heart God had MOVED – prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.”
• Even with the green light, the people might ask, why would we want to return? What are they returning to? God prepared their hearts.
• Clearly this whole enterprise was from God and of God! There can be no other human explanation for this. God was the only reason for it.
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Think for a moment, after 70 years in Babylon, with Jerusalem and the Temple in complete ruins, how could a small group of returnees do anything?
• Even with a royal edict permitted them to return to the land, there would be many other needs.
• This whole enterprise looks impossible. It is, without God. It is impossible without God – without God’s providence and provision.
What man could not do, God did.
• 1:6 “All their neighbours assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.”
• Beside these voluntary gifts, there have also pay-outs from the Persian royal treasury (cf. Ezra 6). Cyrus provided funds from the royal treasury.
• We know this from Ezra 6 where we have the record of King Cyrus’ memo.
• Ezra 6:3-5 Memorandum: 3 In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide, 4 with three courses of large stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid by the royal treasury. 5 Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of God.
• Ezra 6:8-10 8Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God: The expenses of these men are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop.
• 9 Whatever is needed-young bulls, rams, male lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem-must be given them daily without fail, 10so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons.
Cyrus was not doing this for God but himself. Yet God uses it to supply the needs of His people.
• This reminds me of EXODUS. It’s an echo of the same needs when the Israelites first left Egypt.
• Exo 12:35-36 “The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. 36The LORD had made the Egyptians favourably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.”
This divine provision was the act of God. No one could have manipulated this. God orchestrated it.
• This support did not just come from one Persian King (Cyrus) but over the next few Persian Kings.
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And we see the safe return of the Temple vessels taken away by Nebuchadnezzar.
• The 2,499 in verses 9-10 probably refers to the bigger and more valuable items, whereas the 5,400 in verse 11 is the total of all the items.
• These consecrated items were preserved, by God’s providence. They were not destroyed.
• The political kingdom can be destroyed - the facade, the houses, buildings, walls, but not the sacred items, this “spiritual” aspect to the Kingdom of God.
These sacred articles belonging to the Temple are essential items for the worship of God.
• On the surface, this stock-taking might look like a business-like hand-over of Temple items but to the author Ezra, a priest, who recorded it, it was momentous.
• This small act signalled the first step towards the restoration of the Temple of God, and of course, the worship of God for the people of God.
Don’t lose sight of God’s providence in our lives. He is sovereignly in control always, at all times, under any circumstances. This is our spiritual vantage point.
• If God has not promised restoration, no amount of human effort can make it happen. If God has promised, then no amount of human obstacles and oppositions (which we are going to see in this book) can stop God’s will from being fulfilled.
• God will make it happen. And God will graciously provide all that is necessary for His people to come back to Him.
We believe in God’s providence and provision. We believe He is in control of the details of our lives and our family. God is fulfilling His purpose for our lives.
