Situation report: Israel and Judah had been overrun and the Jews had been deported wholesale to Babylon and across the Babylonian empire as a mechanism to prevent revolt. 2Chronicles, Jeremiah, Daniel & Ezekiel tell that story. In fact, Daniel was around at the time of Ezra ch1. Esdras is an apocryphal book covering the same period of history and copies large sections if Ezra.

So the situation was that the Jews were dispersed all over the known world, Jerusalem was in ruins. But God had promised to restore Jerusalem.

 The Storyline:

Ezra & Nehemiah are probably one book originally.

The main story line is of three returns to Jerusalem

 

RESTORATION under Zerubbabel – the man for the building 538- 516BC Ezra 1-6

---------------57 years interval-------------

REFORMATION under Ezra – the man of the Book                 458BC Ezra 7–10

---------12 year gap------------

RESTORATION under Nehemiah            - the man for the walls        445–432BC Nehemiah

 

Chapter1 of Ezra does not mention Zerubbabel, Ezra or Nehemiah . It is mainly about a guy called Cyrus and a Jewish prince called Sheshbazzar.  Sheshbazzar may be the Babylonian name of Zerubbabel or he may have been succeeded by Zerubbabel, we don’t know. 

 But what do we know about this man Cyrus?

First of all he is the subject of much prophecy. It says in verse 1

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil 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 also to put it in writing:

He is mentioned 20 times in the Old Testament, twice in 2Chronicles 36:22-23; 12 times in Ezra;

3 times in Daniel

but more significantly in Isaiah we have 3 references to him

 Isaiah 44:28

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.”’

Isaiah 45:1

“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 armour, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:

This is a unique verse in Scripture because it gives a non-Jew the title of Messiah – ‘the Anointed One.’

Isaiah 45:13

I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the Lord Almighty.”

BUT not in Jeremiah! Oops! Did the writer of this book get the wrong prophet?

Probably not. The Key to understanding the return from exile lies in two prophecies that Jeremiah was given. Jeremiah 25 and 29 both speak of the exile lasting 70 years.

Jeremiah 25:8 Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, ⁹ 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^[a] them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

¹² “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. ¹³ I will bring on 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. ¹⁴ 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.”

Jeremiah 29:10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 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. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 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.”

 Daniel spotted this and prays to God about it. In Daniel 9 we read:

 1 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus  (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian  kingdom- 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years . 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

The writer of Ezra (probably Ezra) sees Cyrus as fulfilling this prophecy.

 What happens when God goes about restoring his people?

First

 the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia

Let’s be clear , there is no evidence that Cyrus knew he was being moved by YHWH. He followed all sorts of Gods. The language of his proclamation sounds Jewish probably because Daniel might have had a hand in writing it! He is known as Cyrus II of Persia  c. 600 or 576 – 530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great and also called Cyrus the Elder by the Greeks, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire and he conquered all the known world except for Egypt which his Son Cambyses II conquered. His regal titles in full were The Great King, King of Persia, King of Anshan, King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Corners of the World.  But Cyrus the Great respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered. This became a very successful model for centralized administration and establishing a government working to the advantage and profit of its subjects which was a change from the usual despot mind-set. So this proclamation was typical of his approach to the conquered nations in his control. But that does not detract from the fact that God moved the heart of Cyrus. It is not too farfetched to grasp that the prophetic references as anointed one, shepherd and so on are reflections of the mind of Jesus. When the LORD moves the heart of anyone that you see is an expression of ‘the Radiance of the Father’s glory’ to quote Hebrews 1.

So there is no Jewish uprising, no charismatic leader to argue their case, God is working his purposes out.  Yes that means that God is working his purposes out in Europe over Brexit, England with the change of Teresa May versus Jeremy Corbyn  and here is the tough one in Syria as the nations line up to murder a population for a whole variety of political reasons. The moral bankruptcy of the nations and the failure of Islam is written large over the Middle East. The question is not Is God at work but are you willing to join in his expedition?

The Challenge 1 Build a temple. So God speaks to his people through a Iranian despot and challenges them to set up a temple building team

“‘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. 3 Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 4 And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”

.Notice it is pragmatic as well as imaginative. To rebuild the temple was a dream coming true. But Cyrus has it financed through the rest who did not return to Jerusalem and he provided the stuff that had been taken from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

 The response was two-fold:

everyone whose heart God had moved

5 Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.

In the Kingdom of God, the church, what matters most is our response to what God calls us to do. Just as Cyrus was moved to make his proclamation, so the Jews were stirred up by the Holy Spirit.

This was a real challenge. They were settled people across the empire, they had family connection, lands, they were mainly second generation immigrants so they were more versatile in the Babylonian language than Hebrew, Jerusalem was some journey time away, it was a wreck but the challenge was to build a temple not a housing estate. The reality of restoration was a downturn in economic terms, leaving the security of home for what? The opportunity to worship God is the way they understood God wanted. But their hearts were moved by God. That made all the difference.

 

 Challenge 2: responding to God’s call to give

All their neighbours assisted them with articles of silver and gold,

Not everyone’s heart was moved to go. Some people’s hearts were moved to give. This was a team effort. Everyone was stirred with the prospect of the Temple being rebuilt, some responded by going, others by giving. Those who stayed behind included Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah. They were not the lesser people of faith because they were not stirred up by the Holy Spirit to go. They were stirred up to give. Last Sunday evening Oli began the Hub by reading these words. From Exodus 35:20

20 Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, 21 and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.

The practice of giving is at the heart of discipleship because it in our pockets and our bank accounts where you see where our heart is responding. Its never how much you give by what drives you to give. In Ezra as in Exodus we here the same expression ‘whose heart moved them.’ We rarely talk of giving, in fact compared to most churches I have been you have to do a little work to recognise how to give. We do not have a preach about giving every week nor do we pass a plate or bag under your nose to remind you but God moves your heart and when he moves your heart at some point your money becomes part of your response.

 Challenge 3 God moves your heart to pray.

I am going to suggest a further response which is not in Ezra 1. That is those who heart is moved to pray. This church owes much in recent years to Mary Dowton. She lives in Bedford. But she prays for us every day. She is doing the priestly bit for us, reaching out holy hands for blessings to be poured out on this community.   And there are others doing the same.

 

The question is, Has your heart been moved, recently, by the Holy Spirit? If not, what can you do about it?

First, you cannot force God into restoration or revival or an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. All those terms amount to the same thing in differing circumstances.  But we can’t rush God. Jeremiah and then Daniel had to learn to wait. Jeremiah didn’t live to see the day, Daniel was too old, probably, or too tied up with State affairs to go. 70 years of waiting! Can you wait that long? That is a lifetime of waiting for God!

 But that is the first step. Waiting on God or waiting for God. But I want you to grasp a very important message here. God is moving hearts. The word for today is that God is on the move! Does that excite you? It should! Listen to C.S.Lewis on the subject. In the Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe, Jesus is a Lion called Aslan.

Read Extract page 64-65

The Holy Spirit of God is moving over the land. In particular over South Ruislip. This heavily populated area is full of people going about their daily lives without a thought of Jesus and yet God is moving among us. We are baptising more people than we have done for a long time. And these are the first green shoots of a mighty harvest. Maybe not in the lifetime of many of us, but we are part of something bigger than our area, our lifetime, the Kingdom of God is an eternal kingdom and has spread throughout the earth. For us, today, be alert to the signs of God at work. Get excited that a spiritual spring is ahead and who knows what that means.

 Second step: Active prayer. That was what Daniel did. Faced with the possibility that God had a plan, he prays. And today is a call to prayer. To pray for what we call renewal or revival or restoration. Pray that the wind of the Holy Spirit will sweep through this church and out into the community, that our hearts be moved and the hearts of many around us be moved.

 Third step: responding to the Holy Spirit.

Restoration, renewal or revival is a work of God not us. The excitement of  Cyrus’s proclamation would have got people going but the reality was that they were in for a long difficult haul. There is 102 years of struggle in Ezra and Nehemiah but there are also the high points. The first sacrifices on the temple site; the revival meetings under Ezra’s teaching; The completing of the temple; the building of the walls and their completion.  But you don’t ever see these things without the waiting and the struggling. But while some would have counted the difficulties and stayed at home, many counted the cost and considered the joy of a restored relationship with God worth every penny, every heartache, every setback.

Part of this responding to the Holy Spirit was that those who were called to stay in Babylon for now or even for life, did not just ‘let them get on with it’ They gave sacrificially. It says

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.

Two things here.

1.    The terminology implies non-Jews rather than Jews giving. If Ezra had meant Jews he would have used the term brethren, rather than neighbours. It reflects the Exodus where the Egyptians offered the children of Israel gifts as they left Egypt. This strange act was not demanded but a response from nations who were also on their way home but felt that the Jewish God, YHWH was to be worshipped in a gift to his people.

2.    There were freewill offerings from the Jews that remained. The kingdom of God or the church is a grace economy. We need to be understanding grace in our pockets and bank accounts as well as in the Spiritual realm. The fact that God was on the move in the hearts of Cyrus and the first wave of Jews returning from exile includes all the people of God, in fact, here all sorts of people. But we need to experience grace not only in receiving it but giving it. So as a church, when we received a large sum of money as a gift from the sale of West Way, we set aside £25 000 to bless others. A lot of that has already be given, even before we have worked out what to do with the rest. SRCF has received a blessing and has therefore blessed others. We make little of our collection but you need to see it as part of your reflecting the grace of God. But this is not just a plea to give to the church but to each other.

 Last week’s harvest was invested in the local foodbank who’s visibility locally is at St. Gregory’s. And we need to bless one another with expressions of grace directly. It is not just those ‘out there’ who are in need. As we move forward we are welcoming people whose situation is not as secure as many of us. In a society, increasingly hostile to immigrants and benefits receivers we can declare the glorious truth that God loves everyone by supporting ALL who are in need.

 So the first words from Ezra are that

God moves the hearts of men, get excited about it.

 God wants to move your heart, be ready to respond to him, willingly, not checking out all the difficulties and crossing all the bridges before you get to them but in the obedience of faith stepping out, knowing that God will not fail to fulfil his purpose.

 God wants to move your pocket to share the blessings  that you have as an expression of the grace of God.

I know there is a temple to be build but as we will see that is not the biggest priority. Spiritual renewal dominates the return from exile in Ezra/Nehemiah. We are considering re-developing the front of the church and by the grace of God we will. But that is not the priority, spiritual renewal is much more important.

 

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