Ezra 6
Turn to Ezra chapter six, verses
one to 22, the whole chapter, Ezra six. As you’re making your
way there, I’ll point out a thing or two by way of a reminder.
Remember that Israel or Judah, the Southern kingdom, they returned
from exile in Babylon in the year 537. There was the decree
from Cyrus the great of Babylonia in 538. Go back build your temple
build your city Get back to living for Yahweh there. It was advantageous
for his empire building So that was the fall of 538 something
like that spring of 537 they go back They go back and they
build the foundation of the temple. They build the altar and then
They’re gonna go through about a hundred years of oppression
well where we are by the end of our chapter tonight is a Um,
let me see if I got this right in my head about 20, 20 years
in or say five 37 to about five 15, whatever that is, is it 22
years? Um, math is not my, my forte, but at any rate, after
we get through the end of tonight and we land next week in chapter
seven, you’re going to fast forward about 60 years to the time of
Ezra. And then at the end of Ezra,
you’re gonna fast forward during the time of Nehemiah to another
era. So a lot of stretch of history. And one thing to remember is
during a lot of the stretch of history, there was a ton of opposition.
Remember the church is in the world. The church is an outpost
of heaven, but it is in the world where Satan dwells. So there’s
always gonna be opposition. So we should take encouragement
from passages of scripture like this. So Ezra chapter six, beginning
at verse one, Then Darius the king made a decree and search
was made in Babylonia in the house of the archives where the
documents were stored. And in Ecbatana, the capital
that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which was
written a record in the first year of Cyrus the king. Cyrus
the king issued a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem.
Let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered,
and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be 60 cubits,
its breadth 60 cubits, with three layers of great stones and one
layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the
royal treasury, and also let the gold and silver vessels of
the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is
in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back
to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall
put them in the house of God. Now, therefore, Tatanai, the
governor of the province beyond the river, Shetharbozenai and
your associates, the governors who are in the province beyond
the river, keep away. Let the work on this house of
God alone. Let the governor of the Jews
and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I make a decree regarding
what you shall do for these elders of the Jews. For the rebuilding
of this house of God, the cost is to be paid to these men in
full without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province
from beyond the river. And whatever is needed, bulls,
rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven wheat, salt,
wine, or oil, as the priest at Jerusalem require, let that be
given to them day by day without fail, that they may offer pleasing
sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the
king and his sons. Also, I make a decree that if
anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house
and he shall be impaled on it and his house shall be made a
dunghill. May the God who has caused his name to dwell there
overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter
this or to destroy the house of God that is in Jerusalem,
I Darius make a decree, let it be done with all diligence. Then
according to the word sent by Darius the king, Tatanai, the
governor of the province beyond the river, Shethar Bosnai and
their associates did with all diligence what Darius the king
had ordered. And the elders of the Jews built
and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah,
the son of Iddo, They finished their building by decree of the
God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes,
king of Persia. And this house was finished on
the third day of the month of Adar in the sixth year of the
reign of Darius, the king. And the people of Israel, the
priest and the Levites and the rest of the returned exiles celebrated
the dedication of this house of God with joy. They offered
at the dedication of this house of God, 100 bulls, 200 rams,
400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel, 12 male goats,
according to the number of the tribes of Israel. And they set
the priest in their divisions and Levites in their divisions
for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book
of Moses. On the 14th day of the first
month, the returned exiles kept the Passover. For the priest
and the Levites had purified themselves together, all of them
were clean. So they slaughtered the Passover
lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priest and for
themselves. It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned
from exile and also by everyone who had joined them and separated
himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to
worship the Lord, the God of Israel. They kept the feast of
unleavened bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them
joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them
so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the
God of Israel. Amen. This is God’s mighty word
for us. Think back to three years ago
when we didn’t really know what COVID was. Maybe in February
of 20 and March of 20, we began to get a little worried. What
should we do? What should we not do? And then
a edict, I guess, in the spirit of our passage tonight, was decreed
by our governor, don’t have church. And so we squeezed one more Sunday
in. I think you weren’t supposed
to have it around the middle of March that year, but we squeezed
one more in and got away with it. And then we went eight Sundays
without church. That was weird. That was strange. I remember thinking to myself,
I have nothing to do. I don’t need to study cause I
don’t get to preach. I don’t need to study cause I don’t get
to plan services. I don’t need to go to the office
because there’s, well, we can’t have church. That took away a
lot. And you know, we, we got on the phone and called everybody
and you know, that, that doesn’t take that so long. And so I found
myself lying in the hammock and reading books and doing chores
around the house and trying like everybody else to figure out
how to live when you can’t go anywhere and you can’t do anything. Now looking back, we’ll never
shut down church again. That was probably a big mistake. It was the right thing at the
time because the governor said so. And the Bible says we should,
we should honor the King. It was the right thing to do
at the time because, uh, well, one of the commandments is not
to, not to murder, not to kill. We don’t want to unintentionally
harm others. And we, we, we didn’t know that
rulers said so. So we, We did what we should
have. But looking back, I don’t know
about ever doing that again. Thankfully, the Baptist in Winston-Salem
sued the governor and he lost and we could have church again.
And we had it outside under the trees for a little time. And
then once the humidity came, we ventured back in here and
we’ve been taken care of by God ever since and happily ever after,
right? As you say, but what a strange,
strange, strange, strange thing to not go to church. In my mind,
it’s really all or nothing. This whole watching it on the
internet business, this whole, you know, if you’re at home and
you wanna take communion with the rest of your people, just
go to your fridge and get what you have and you know, thank
the Lord, our denomination last summer. Uh, and I think our Presbyteries
have ratified it, so it’ll, it’ll pass this summer. We are adding
a rule to our book of worship that virtual communion is not
legitimate. The Lord’s house on the Lord’s
day and the Lord’s people is a really important thing. And
can’t you imagine that our eight weeks pills in comparison to
their Well, it’s going to be 70 years in the year 516 when
this temple is completed. By the end of our passage tonight,
it’s going to be 70 years since Babylon came and destroyed the
temple at Jerusalem came and destroyed. that grand building
that had been built by Solomon. And so when they finished the
building, when they put all the finishing touches on it and they
opened the building up and have celebrations and worship and
joy and Passover, it will be 70 years since the last time
God entered with his presence into that house and met with
his people. through the mediation of the priest and the sacrifices.
This is a rather significant event in the life of the church.
And I think we’ve had a bit of a taste of what it must be like
to have no temple, to have no worship, to have no priesthood
active, to have no altar, to have no place. We were for a
time without pulpit, without the Lord’s Supper, without the
fellowship. And it was strange, it was weird,
and that it should have been. I don’t know if the American
church has recovered from COVID, the statistics of how many went
back. Church attendance was declining
beforehand, and I don’t believe many churches have recovered. But may the Lord watch over us
and keep us in the days and years to come. Well, as we think about
this passage tonight, it’s not just an exciting moment for them
to finish the temple and to worship in it. This is the end of an
era. They have been back in the promised
land for a little over 20 years. They’ve been fixing up their
houses. They’ve been laying the foundations of the temple. They
built an altar and reestablished the worship of God there. And
then they started on the temple. They hired all the lumber from
Tyre, the cedars of Lebanon. They hired the stone masons.
They had the money. The Levites were to watch over
this whole process. It was gonna happen. And then
they get into the 20 years of spiritual doldrums, 20 years
of spiritual apathy. Earlier today, I logged into
Sermon Audio to put our morning sermon up. And there on the front
of Sermon Audio was an advertisement for an old sermon by an older
preacher who’s famous. And the title of the sermon caught
my attention. I said, that’s gotta be from
Haggai. It said, God’s house is in ruins. What do you care? Remember that was the message.
That was the ministry of Haggai. You are living in paneled houses
while my house lies in ruins. You’re hanging your flat screens.
You’re putting in your petunias and the temple of God is not
being built. So there’s no presence. There’s
no priest. There’s no, uh, Sacrifices, there’s
no worship of God. And so through the ministries
of Haggai and Zechariah, the people of God are gonna finish
and complete the temple. And then we’re gonna jump into
the era of Ezra. So the temple is gonna be built.
Ezra is gonna come rebuild their hearts through the preaching
and teaching of the law of God. Well, remember last time that
Tatanai, the governor of the province beyond the river, which
includes Jerusalem, Judah, they came snooping. Remember big brother,
come look at Israel. What are you doing? Who told
you to do this? What are your names? He’s got his clipboard out and
he writes to, writes to Darius, the king, they
say they’re supposed to be building. So they look back into the annals
of Cyrus, the king previously. And what we hear tonight is,
yes, make it happen. They’re supposed to be doing
this. And he even gives them an extra good boost. So we want
to think about the passage tonight. It covers about four years of
time. It covers three major events. And what we want to see from
our scripture tonight is that God works out his purposes for
our good and his glory, even under duress, even under hardship,
even under persecution. The first section of this scripture,
verses one through 12, it’s the confirmation. It’s the confirmation
that God had indeed decreed the temple to be rebuilt through
Cyrus, the king of Persia. It’s good news arriving by post. It’s good news arriving by courier. In fact, it’s better news than
they ever could have imagined. Remember, several weeks ago,
we looked at the Hundred Years War. We’re 20 years into that
Hundred Years War, where the people of God will be constantly
under attack from the peoples of the land and from outside
enemies. And Darius, the king of Persia,
orders a search, and he goes to the summer house of Ecbatana,
That’s where Cyrus, I think, liked to live. He had his chair
out on the deck where he could get his suntan. And, you know,
he sat out by the pool drinking the fruity drinks and those sorts
of things. And so it was found after a great
search at Ectbatana, the summer home of Cyrus, it was found of
this decree. And it was just as the elders
of the Jews, it was just as the governors of the Jews had told
the Tatanai and to Shethar, Bozani, and all their associates. Yes,
indeed, Cyrus did decree that we could come, we could build,
and we could worship our God under the headship, under the
authority of the king of Persia. And isn’t it wonderful to see
that after a stretch of hard time, God’s grace comes to them
through answered prayers. God’s grace comes to them and
the complaints, the attacks, the persecution literally just
disappears. It goes away like a vapor because
God is sovereign and these things were written in the books. And
I think it’s an encouragement for us not to lose heart. I mean,
after all, this was little bitty Judah, little bitty Jerusalem,
little bitty temple, little bitty Israel, perhaps 50,000 people
under this mighty empire of Persia. And yes, they’re being persecuted.
Yes, they’re being discouraged, but what does God do? He does
two things for them during this stretch of time. He sends Haggai
and Zechariah to minister to the word. Remember last week,
the picture, it’s like me following all y’all around on work days
and harassing you, except I’m dragging hoses and bringing you
Windex. They got their Bibles out. Build, work, trust the Lord. Don’t lose heart. Ignore the
enemies. And remember, it’s going to keep
on coming for years to come. What is going to be the posture
of the people of God under Nehemiah’s ministry? They’re going to work
with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. And so for years to come, even
into our day, isn’t that the posture of the church? We are
the church militant. The saints gone before us into
heaven are the church triumphant. But we work with a sword in one
hand and a trowel in the other. And I can’t help but think in
the days to come, the years to come, before the end of my ministry
and definitely in the life of my children, we will be probably
more strongly, more fiercely bearing the sword and the trowel
at the same time. It’s going to take guts to be
a Christian. and the next remainder of the
century in which we live. But God is working out his purposes
for our good and for his glory. And so the complaint that was
sent to Darius is returned all as well. The books confirm the
words of the Jews. You need to support them. And
did you see the insult to injury? You need to give them some money
out of your treasury. I’m sure Tat and I and Shethar, Boaz and
I, and all those aptly named Persian beyond the river governors
and their associates, I am sure they had some pork barrel spending
on their minds. Don’t you imagine? It’s not just
unique to America. But you know, they had some government
programs. And what does Darius the King
say? Well, Cyrus said to build it.
Cyrus said to pay for it. And so I’m telling you, don’t
hold back. whatever they need. Now, this temple is not as grand
as Solomon’s temple. This temple is not as magnificent
as Solomon’s temple. And Judah is certainly not as
wealthy as Solomon was. So how is God building his temple?
The wealth of nations is entering the house of God. It’s like the
Israelites, when they left Egypt, they were to plunder the Egyptians.
Give us your gold, give us your jewelry, give us everything.
And when they got into the wilderness, Each of them gave to the work
of the tabernacle, the gold and the silver and the tapestries
and the cloth and all that was needed to build. And here we
are again in need. And should we ever doubt that
our good God can provide for us, even under hard circumstances,
we’re all worried about the 2024 election, but God isn’t. We’re
all worried about, can the church survive? As if it depends on
who gets elected. And doesn’t this passage show
us very loud and clear, it only depends on God. because the hearts
of the king are in the hands of Almighty God. We could have
a far worse prince or king than has ever been seen on the face
of the earth, and God will still rule and protect and provide
for his church. If you don’t believe that, read
the prayer on the front of your bulletin from Psalm 10. The God
who can take chaos and bring order is at work. And so this, work of the house
of God that is at Jerusalem is confirmed by the search of the
Persian documents and they’re to build there to be provided
for. But did you notice the curse?
Oh, what a terrible curse. We don’t, we don’t curse people
so well. Uh, this is a good curse, isn’t it? If you, if you stop
the work, we’re going to come in your house and we’re going
to pull out the board that holds up your den, right? Your flat
screen’s gonna fall to the floor, and we’re gonna impale you on
it. Isn’t that terrible? And it doesn’t
stop there. We’re gonna make your house a
dunghill. What a curse, right? We just, you know, sneer at people. This is a big deal. And I don’t
know if you caught it, but it says anyone, any king who alters
this decree, anyone who attempts to harm the temple or the worship
of almighty God. And I think of what’s coming
down the line in history. There’s going to be Antiochus,
as he called himself, the Epiphanes. Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greek,
I believe, who is going to desecrate the temple according to the prophecy
of Daniel. He’ll be cursed by God, and then
there will be Nero, who in AD 70, after the death of the Apostle
Paul, and after the death of Christ, and the death of many
of the apostles by that point, will destroy the second temple. not the Solomonic temple that
was destroyed by Babylon, but the second temple that will be
finished in our passage and then added onto by Herod and others,
it will be destroyed. And God, through the decree of
Darius says they too will be cursed. Well, he ends his little
confirmation speech with, leave them alone. let them build and
our passage says, they did so with all diligence. What a humiliating,
what a humiliating. point for the enemies of God.
Never underestimate God’s goodness, God’s power, God’s sense of humor.
He works out all his purposes for our good and for his glory.
So that’s the confirmation that comes in this passage. But now
we want to think about the completion of the temple. And remember this
chapter six is about four years of hard work. The people of God
are energized by Cyrus’s decree or the original one. And now
by Darius confirmation of it, They are supported by the preaching
of Haggai and Zechariah, and they get to the building of the
temple with diligence. And by mid-March of about the
year 515, about 22 years after they first came back to Jerusalem,
mission impossible is now mission accomplished. They have built
the temple. They have prospered under God’s
mighty providences, and they have completed the temple. I
don’t know if you’ve ever built a house or maybe been involved
in the building of a church, but it takes years, right, to
plan it, to get the architects, the engineers, the city, the
inspectors, the stamps, and all the rest. And then you get under
construction and it rains, or you get under construction and
there’s a material shortage. You get under construction and
there’s a, well, somebody quits the job, or you get under construction
and the bank doesn’t come through on the loan in time or whatever. God uses all those discouragements
in the life of the people of God here to show them how great
and how mighty he is. This is a big, big deal to get
this new temple, this smaller but Great temple built. Did you catch the cubits? Those
are 18 inches. 60 times three is 180. Did you
catch the thickness? Three stones wide. If you ever
go to Jerusalem and you see those stones, they’re really whoppers.
I mean, this was not anything like this. This was greater,
bigger, more grand. We don’t get a lot of the details
of the rebuilding of the temple. But what we do get is that it’s
a big deal that the returned exiles are resourced by Persia. They’re resourced by God Almighty
to build the dwelling place of God, the place of worship, the
place of sacrifice, the place of privilege, the place that
points them to the new Jerusalem and the new heavens and the new
earth, where God will dwell with his people uninterrupted, no
sin, No sinners, no enemies, a place of safety and a place
of beauty and a place of worship. Remember God said, how do you
see this temple? It’s smaller. How do you see
this temple? It’s not as grand as in Solomon’s day. How do you
see this temple? Maybe it’s as if it’s nothing
in your eyes. But he says, maybe in our own
modern day language, you ain’t seen nothing yet. And we remember
the little promise, the little glimpse that the greater glory
of God will enter this temple. And it’ll come in the form of
a little boy who’s presented in the arms of his mother, who
is the Christ child. He is the Messiah and the glory
of God will again, enter this temple and his presence among
us will be great and mighty and forever life-changing. And so
after the confirmation of the decree, after the affirmation
of the, the king of Persia and pushing the governor to do the
right thing, this temple is completed. And so now there’s this third
section. It’s a section of celebration. They dedicate the building. They
dedicate this house of God. They, they, they blow their trumpets.
They wear their vestments. They get in their orders. They,
they do all their little things. They do. This got me thinking
this week about the book of common prayer from the church of England.
You know, if you flip through that thick prayer book, uh, have
my great grandmother’s copy of it from the, I think from the
forties and you flip through it and they got a prayer for
everything. I mean, they got a prayer for
dogs and cats and whatever else. Um, but they have a little service
for the dedication of buildings. And in this church of England,
Episcopal service, they walk around and they bless the, the
font and all who will be baptized in those waters. They bless the
pulpit and all the gospel proclamation and all the comforting and building
up of the saints. They go around and they bless
the pews and who will sit in them. They go through and bless
the doors and all who will enter. And on and on the little service
goes. And it’s kind of interesting to see and to read how special
the house of God is to God’s people throughout all the ages.
I think Gene maybe was the only one here when this building was
built and dedicated. And what a special time that
must have been in 1966, late 1966, when this building was
built. But they have a celebration and
they get up and running. They get up and running under
the direction of Moses and they offer the sin offering. They
offer the atonement offering, the, what was it, 400 lambs.
How many oxen and then the 12 goats sent out for the atonement. They’re back in business. It’s
a small place. It’s a smaller temple. Fewer
people gathered there, but they’re looking to the future with joy
and they’re worshiping according to the commandments of Moses
given by Almighty God. And you read through this passage
and you catch some little details of interest. First of all, they
serve the Passover. And did you catch that there
were some foreigners who identified now with the people of God. They
identified with the people of God and they no longer identified
with the people outside the people of God. They quit identifying
with the nations and the pagan worship. And they said, we identify
with Yahweh and Israel. They must have looked in like,
like Rahab and heard and seen what God had done and said, whatever
it takes, I want to be part of the family of God. They looked
at the work of God, prospering the temple of God, and they said,
we want to be part of that. And so hearts changed. Gentiles brought in, it must
mean. And so they kept the feast. They remembered their affliction.
under Pharaoh. They remembered their hasty departure
where they were told by Pharaoh, up, get out of the land. And they went off into the desert,
walked across the sea on dry land. And they stated, they sang,
the Lord has made us full of joy. The Lord has made us a people
of joy this day. I think one of the most significant
things that takes place, and it’s not mentioned in the passage,
but it’s obvious that it happened by the descriptions. The blood
of sacrifices began to flow again through the city. There was so
much blood shed on those Jewish altars. It ran down the channels
and it ran somehow out of the city and probably into the one
of the surrounding valleys. And so back in business again,
the temple, the cultic practices, the sacrifices, the blood of
bulls and goats and beasts, and that blood was flowing down the
altars and down the channels and out of the city. And I can’t
help but think these people had the picture in their mind of
the preaching of Zachariah. For Zachariah prophesied to his
people during that era of building is he and Haggai went around
and encouraged the builders. And he said, there will come
a day before your very eyes, where a fountain will be opened
to Israel. And that fountain will be the
cleansing fountain. We sing of it often in the church. There is a fountain filled with
blood, which flows from Emmanuel’s veins. When sinners are plunged
beneath, they lose all their guilty stains. And that’s the
thing that they had to look forward to. We now look back on the blood
of Jesus shed abroad for the remission of the sins of the
people. And really that’s the point of
church, isn’t it? It’s not about bricks and buildings and plaques
and windows and pulpits and, you know, my pew and their pew
and offering plates and Sunday school classes. It’s to come
before the presence of God through the blood of Jesus. We who are
far off have been brought near. And he brings us near now. The
proximity we have is wonderful in this life, but we will be
so near forever in heaven. I love the description of the
death of, is it Lazarus in the scriptures? Not the one Jesus
raises from the dead, but is it Lazarus and the poor man?
He went directly to Abraham’s bosom. What a sweet God we have
to, to do all that it takes, even through hardship for our
good in his everlasting glory. Let’s do look to him in prayer.
Our father, we thank you for a glimpse of the end of an era
in Israel where you were faithful to your people. Times were dark. Things were hard. It looked like
the answer was going to be no, but you, you worked your wonders,
you worked your ways. And even the enemy of God’s people
had to serve, had to give, had to sacrifice in order that your
temple, your place might be built. Lord, help us never to lose heart
in this life. It’s a dark world, a crooked
and depraved generation. These are, these are wicked times
in which we live, but you know it better than we do. We don’t
put our trust in politics or princes. We don’t put our trust
in the coffers of the church or our ability to be good apologists
in this world and argue well. We put our trust just completely
in you, the God of heaven who sent his son to save. We bless
you now and ask for your help and grace as we live life in
this world. We pray it in Jesus name, amen.