The Bible from 30,000-- Feet Soaring Through
the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Would you turn in your
Bibles to the book of-- Ezra. --Ezra? It's a short book-- 10 chapters, easy to cover,
a lot better than Isaiah. We'll get to that, but
we're in the book of Ezra. Ezra is called
the second exodus. The first exodus, of
course, is the Exodus, and it took place 1,000
years before this exodus. But it's called
the second exodus because, just as the children of
visual had been once in bondage to Egypt, and exited Egypt
and came to the promised land, they were, again, displaced
in Babylon this time, and they came back again
to the Promised Land. In the first exodus, they were
in bondage, if you remember, 400 years by the Egyptians. They were in bondage 70
years to the Babylonians, from the time they were exiled
to the time they returned. Now, when we talk
about Babylon-- and we've covered this, but
we've probably covered it a little fast in the
last several weeks, when we've been talking about
the captivity in Babylon-- the Babylonians came
against Jerusalem not once, not twice, but three
separate times. All three attacks, they
took people with them. So there were three different
exiles into Babylon, where a portion
of the population was taken captive,
brought back to Babylon, and then again and then again. The first was 605 BC-- if you're taking notes and
want to write that down-- the second, 597 BC, and the
final deportation and attack on Jerusalem was 586 BC. That third time, Jerusalem
was burned with fire by the Babylonians army. So three different exiles
in the Babylon, and as they were three different
exiles into Babylon, there were also three returns
from Babylon to Jerusalem-- the first under a guy by
the name of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is of the
lineage of King David-- the second under Ezra,
the priest and scribe, and the third under Nehemiah. Those three returns from
Babylon back to the land are covered in the books
of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra covers the first two,
under Zerubbabel and Ezra. Nehemiah covers the third,
the return under Nehemiah. The name Ezra is
a shortened form of the Hebrew word
Azariah, which is a name that means
the Lord helps me. It's a great name-- God helps me, or
God has helped me. Yahweh has helped me. It's a fitting name
for Ezra because he asks for the Lord's
help in prayer, and he says in his own
testimony in the book that the Lord has helped him and
helped them return from Babylon from the captivity
back to Jerusalem. Now, let me give you
the outline of the book. I like to make it simple. I've divided Ezra
into two sections. Section 1 is
chapters 1 through 6, and the second slice is
chapters 7 through 10. In the first section of the
book, the first six chapters, the emphasis is on
national restoration. The people are restored
to their nation. They're restored as a
people to their homeland. so it is national restoration. That's the emphasis of the first
half of the book, chapters 1 through 6. The second part,
chapters 7 through 10, is spiritual reformation. So we have national restoration,
spiritual reformation. Now, according to the Talmud-- Jewish commentary on the Bible,
the Old Testament-- according to the Jewish Talmud, the author
of the book of Ezra is Ezra. That's why we think it's
Ezra, because that's the source that we get. In antiquity, they
believed he wrote it. They also believe he wrote
the book of Chronicles. I mentioned that last time-- 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles. And I want to show you this. I mentioned it last
time we were together, but I didn't show you. You're in the book of Ezra. Go back to the last
chapter of 2 Chronicles. Are you there? Look at verse 22. "Now, in the first year
of Cyrus, King of Persia, that the word of the Lord,
by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be fulfilled, the Lord
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, so that he made
a proclamation throughout all of his kingdom, and he also
put it in writing saying, 'Thus says Cyrus,
the King of Persia.'" Let's just stop there. Go to Ezra chapter 1
verse 1, and notice, "Now, in the first year of
Cyrus, the King of Persia, that the word of the Lord,
by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be fulfilled, the Lord
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the King of Persia, so that he
made a proclamation throughout all of his kingdom, and also put
it in writing saying 'Thus says Cyrus, King of Persia.'" With just minor alterations,
it's the same text. So Ezra begins where 2
Chronicles leaves off, and the wording, in
general, is the same-- from the last paragraph
of the previous book to the first paragraph
of this book. Now, Ezra was a priest. Being a priest, he was a
direct descendant of Aaron. So his lineage even is traced
in chapter 7 of this book-- We'll just look at a few of
the names, as we get there-- but it's traced through
Eleazar, Phinehas, Zadok, all the way back to Aaron. So he is in the priesthood. Not only was he a priest,
but he was a scribe. Now, if you're a New Testament
reader-- and I know you are-- that's not a great title,
because by the time we get to the New Testament,
you have scribes and Pharisees, and they were kind
of a bad bunch. And by the New
Testament, scribes are just sort of
legalistic and very, very narrow-minded, and against
Jesus, and against His mission, and always looking to trap Him. But originally, the
office of a scribe was an elevated position, and
Ezra is the most notable scribe in scripture. It was a noble profession
because a scribe would copy the text of
scripture from one scroll to another to another. And it was very exacting. It was very demanding. It was letter for letter. It was a little breathing
marked by breathing mark. It was written across
the page in translation and down the page. And at the end of a single
long parchment page, all of the lines would be
counted from top to bottom and from side to side. All the letters had
to match exactly. The total number of letters
had to match exactly. If they didn't
match exactly, even though he had painstakingly
copied one scroll to another, it would be ripped up. That page would be
shredded, and he would have to start all over again. So they did it with precision. They did it with care. Ezra was a scribe. Not only did he
copy the scriptures, but he taught the law. And if we had time to
really look at it in this-- we're just going
to skim over it-- one of the things
Ezra made sure he did was teach people
the word of God so that they might
apply it to their lives. And they were very
concerned, when they got back from
captivity especially, to apply the word of God
to their lives personally, because they-- remember,
idolatry and disobedience got them into captivity
to begin with. They did not want
to rinse and repeat. They wanted to do that
once-- we're done with it. Now, let's do what God says. Ezra was a big part of that. It is also believed
that Ezra was the founder of what the
Jews have historically called the Great Synagogue-- synagogue means assembly--
the Great Assembly of Jews, who were originally
responsible for formulating the canon of the Old
Testament scriptures-- so that the Old Testament
scripture, as we have it today, was formulated, codified, agreed
upon, and composed by the Great Synagogue. It is believed, in
Jewish tradition, that he was the founder of that. OK, so the book opens
with Jerusalem having been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The people were in captivity. They had been in
captivity in what country? Babylon Babylon. But Babylon is passed from the
scene, when we open this book. A new kid is on the block--
the Medo-Persian Empire. So Cyrus-- King Cyrus of
Persia is on the throne, when the book opens. He's on the throne on Earth. God is on the throne in Heaven. And I love that King
Cyrus is on the throne, but you know what
Proverbs 21 says, right? Verse 1, that the king's
heart is in God's hand, and like the rivers of
water, the courses of water, He moves it wherever He wants. Don't you love that scripture,
that even people in power have somebody over
them of greater power? And that is the Lord. So yes, Cyrus is on
the throne, but God is on His throne directing Cyrus. So we get, in
chapters 1 through 6, that first section
I told you about, and that is national
restoration. Let me give you three words
for the first six chapters-- returning,
rebuilding, resisting. Those three words sum up
chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. They sum up national
restoration. So they return back
to the land, they restore the place
of worship, but they resist the enemies who are of
the land that they are now in. In chapters 1 and
2, they return. in chapter 3, they
rebuild the temple, or they start to rebuild. And in chapter 4, 5, and
6, they resist the enemy. And it's going to be fascinating
how they resisted the enemy. They really resisted the
enemy through preaching. They preached their
way through it. At least the prophets did. The prophets will
come on the scene-- two of them you
have heard about-- and they will
preach in Jerusalem and motivate the people. So Ezra, I don't know
how it all happened, but he must have just
been kicking back one day in Persia, knowing
that a decree was being given by the
King for the Jews to return back to the land. And he probably
thought, I wonder if God wants me to
be among that group. I think the Lord is
stirring up my heart. And I'm sure he prayed about it. I'm sure he read Jeremiah 25,
which says, after 70 years, they'll return. And in all of that--
the word, and worship, that man of prayer-- something stirred
in his heart, and he wanted to be one of the leaders
that would lead people back on this dangerous trip. But I'm ahead of myself,
because he doesn't do it for several years. At first, it's a group
under Zerubbabel. Ezra will come later on. You've heard of DL Moody, yes? DL Moody was a
pastor in Chicago-- started the Moody Bible Church. And a moody was sort of a
country guy, country bumpkin kind of a guy, but a
very fiery preacher. And it is said that he
was having a conversation, I think-- I believe it was in Ireland-- with a guy by the
name of Henry Varney. And Henry said to
him, the world has yet to see what God will do through
one person totally devoted to Him. When Moody heard that
sentence, in his heart, he said, by the grace of
God, I will be that man. And that fueled him to
come back to America and preach in a whole
new way, in a way that would see
thousands of people make commitments to Christ. Ezra was such a guy. In the world has yet to see
what God can do through one person totally devoted to Him. He devoted his heart
to the Lord's work. Ezra chapter 1 verse
1 begins thus, "Now, in the first year of
Cyrus, King of Persia, that the word of the Lord,
by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be fulfilled, the Lord
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the King of Persia, so that he
made a proclamation throughout all of his kingdom, and
put it in writing saying, 'Thus says Cyrus,
King of Persia.' All the kingdoms of the
Earth, the Lord God of Heaven has given me. And he has commanded me to
build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah." Very strange thing for
a pagan king to say. I'm going to give you a hint
as to perhaps why he said that in just a few moments. But what he effectively does
is he lets the Jews go back to their homeland,
which causes a lot of us to scratch our
head in puzzlement. Why would he let them go back? The Jews were captured
and brought to Babylon. Now, they're in Babylon. Why would the next
kid on the block, the head of the Medo-Persian
Empire, let them go back? Well, he had a different policy. Let me explain. In 722 BC, the
Assyrian policy was to take the 10 northern
tribes out of their land to foreign lands, and
repopulate the land with other people they had
captured from other countries, and mix it up a bit. That would sort of
demoralize the people. They wouldn't want to
get together, or be able to get together and
have a common leader, a common ideology, a
common worship system. So you just had a mixed bag,
a pluralism in that culture so that they really couldn't
get together on anything. That was the policy of
Ashurbanipal and Esarhaddon, the rulers of Assyria. And then, when
Babylon comes along, under Nebuchadnezzar, or
Nabonidus, Nabopalassar, and the rest of those dudes
from Babylon, same idea. What they wanted to do is take
the people from their land, and they thought, if we keep
them as slaves and captives, there won't be any
problems with them. But the Medo-Persian
mentality under Cyrus was totally different. He thought, let's let them
repatriate their land, go back home, rebuild, make
them a vassal state of ours, showing benevolence to
them, may win their heart, and they'll stay loyal to us. So his policy, along with
the Medo-Persian Empire's, is to let them go back. So 539 BC is that first edict,
that first trickling back of the Jews to Jerusalem. Now, if you remember,
the Medo-Persians took over the Babylonian
Empire, and it was a night you'll
remember, it was a night when a King of
Babylon was getting drunk in his palace, and he
decided, let's take some of those vessels that we
have from the Jerusalem temple. Let's bring him in here, and
let's party hardy, and poor booze into those things, and
we'll drink from God's vessels. And that night, as Belshazzar
was getting a little tipsy, he saw a man's hand
appear in front of him and write on the walls of
Babylon "many, many Tekel Upharsin and you've been
weighed in the balances, and found lacking." And God is going to take
over your kingdom tonight, Daniel the prophet told him. And they did. In one night the,
Medo-Persians came in. Let's keep going, and
I'll come back to that. Verse 3-- "Who is among
you, of all his people? May his God be with him. Let him go to Jerusalem,
which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God, or Yahweh, the God of Israel." Now, notice this. Do you see the parenthetical
statement in that verse? See what it says? What does it say? He is God. Listen to the edict of the pagan
king, the Medo-Persian emperor, the king of the
world at the time, who says, "Who's among
you, of all of his people? May his God be with
him and let him go to Jerusalem,
which is in Judah, and build the house of
the Lord God of Israel. He is God." Quite a statement. He is God, which
is in Jerusalem. Now, either this is an
editorial comment by Ezra-- who just writes his own, by
the way, he's God-- or it is a statement originating
from Cyrus himself. And I tend to believe that. Verse 4, "And whoever is left
in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help
him with silver, and gold, and goods, and livestock,
beside the free will offerings for the house of
God, which is in Jerusalem." So let's subsidize it for them. "Then the heads of the fathers
houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests,
and the Levites, with all whose
spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build
the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem." By the time we get to Isaiah
the prophet, Isaiah chapter 44-- which was written way before
what we're reading here-- I know chronologically,
it comes later, but it comes before
actually in chronology. So in Isaiah 44, God
mentions Cyrus by name-- get this-- 150 years
before Cyrus was even born. He's mentioned in scripture
before he was born-- a century and a half
before he was born. Isaiah 44 says this-- I'm reading a couple
versus-- verse 26, "God confirms the
word of His servant, and performs the counsel
of His messengers, who says to Jerusalem, you
shall be inhabited. To the cities of Judah,
you shall be built, and I will raise up her waste
places; who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, he shall
perform all my pleasure; saying to Jerusalem, you shall
be built, and to the temple, your foundation shall be laid." Now, this was given,
this was written, this was spoken by the prophet,
while Jerusalem was still standing. But by saying that he's
going to rebuild the city and rebuild the
foundation of the temple indicates this temple, which
was standing at that time, would be destroyed for it
to be rebuilt. You follow? Josephus-- you've heard
me mention him for years-- a Jewish historian hired
by the Roman government around the time of
Jesus, wrote this. "Now, Cyrus learned this, as
to the building of the temple, by reading the book that Isaiah
had left of his own processes. These things Isaiah foretold
140 years before the temple was destroyed, when Cyrus therefore
read them and had admitted their divine character,
in impulse and emulation, seized him to do
what was written." So according to Josephus,
somebody approached Cyrus with the writings of Isaiah to
say, dude, your name's in here. And this was penned
150 years before you were born, 140 years before
the temple was destroyed. That's chapter 44 of Isaiah. A chapter later, Isaiah
chapter 45, God calls-- well, he calls Cyrus his
shepherd and his anointed. Isaiah 45, verse 1-- "Thus says the Lord
to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose
right hand I have held, to subdue
nations before him, to loose the armor of kings"-- now listen carefully-- "to open
before him the double doors so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make
the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces
the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I give you the treasures of
darkness and hidden riches of secret places." The night that
Babylon was conquered by the Medes and the Persians,
one of the generals of Cyrus by the name Ugbaru, it was late
September, and by October 12, the Babylonians took it over. But by late September,
just about a week and a half before
the final takeover, upstream of the
Euphrates River, Ugbaru figured out a way to
take the Euphrates River and diverted into a
different channel of water, so that the water was receding
in the city of Babylon. You remember the
Euphrates ran right through the middle of town. So what happened on an evening-- October the 12th,
as the city receded, or as the water receded lower
and lower under nightfall-- and according to the
Greek historian Herodotus, it was the height
of a man's thigh-- the army waded through the
river into the city of Babylon underneath the two huge
gates, and from within, opened them up, allowing
the armies to come through and conquer
the city of Babylon. So predicted in scripture
150 years before Cyrus was even born. Now, Cyrus tells the Jews to
return, rebuild their temple, and while they're
at it, pray for him. Pray to your God for
protection for me. He tells the
neighbors of the Jews to give them money to
help subsidize their work. He orders all of the
articles that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from God's temple
in Jerusalem to be given back and returned. And now, in chapter 2, he lists
all of the people who go back. And what is striking
about chapter two-- and you can see all the names--
we're not going to read them, we're just going to
get a summary verse-- it's not a very large amount. In fact, it's under 50,000. Less than 50,000 Jews return. Go down to verse 64. Let's skip all the names. "The whole assembly
together was 42,360, beside their male and female
servants, of whom were 7,337, and they had 200 men
and women singers." Now, why so few? After all, we believe
that, at this time, there were 1 million
Jews in Babylon. A million Jews? At the time of Jesus,
just over a million Jews were still in Babylon? If the king says,
go back and rebuild, why do just under a million
estate, and only 49,000 or so-- under 50,000 returned? All I can tell you is they
got really comfortable. They got used to Babylon. It was home now to them. If you remember a
letter, Jeremiah 29-- I know you remember it, because
you love the quote 29:11 so frequently-- "I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, says the Lord," right? We quote that. But the whole chapter
kind of goes like this-- the prophet says, look,
you're now in Babylon. Make the best of it. Settle down. Build houses and live in them. Plant vineyards and
eat the fruit of them. Get married. Have children. Pray for the peace of the city. So they did, but they kind
of did it a little too well. They got so comfortable
that they thinking, man, I don't want to go rebuild a
bunch of ruins and rubble. I've got it made here now. I've got a family here and
I've got a home here now. I've got vineyards. I've got fruit. So they settled down and
did not want to go back. Verse 70, "So the priests in
the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the
gatekeepers, the Nephanim-- those are workers
in the temple-- "dwelt in their cities"-- now watch this-- "and all
Israel in their cities." Did you see that little
phrase, "all Israel"? Now, I'm bringing
that up for a reason. All Israel. How much of Israel? All. All Israel. How many tribes were there? 12. 12 tribes. 722 BC-- remember I
gave you that date-- the Assyrians took
the northern kingdom, the 10 tribes
captive to Assyria. Years later, 586
BC, the Babylonians took Judah and
Benjamin to Babylon. Now, there has been
talk over the years by certain religious
groups about the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Ever heard about that? Oh, they're lost
tribes, they say. Well, really they're not
lost, and here's why. Yes, 10 were taken
to Assyria, and then Babylon took two
tribes to Babylon, but then Medo-Persia
came and took over everybody and everything. And the 10 tribes that
were taken into Assyria and the different places
they were populated were all merged and
assimilated into the group that was in Babylon later on. So by the time we get
to Ezra chapter 6, the priest makes an offering-- a ram, an animal offering-- 12 animals, one for each of
the tribes of Israel, all 12 of them. So all of the 12 tribes were
accounted for, to some degree, in Babylon. By the time we get to revelation
chapter 7, in the end times, there are going to
be 12 tribes sealed by God during the
tribulation judgment period. Now, people say, but
they're lost tribes-- nobody knows what tribe they're from. So? They might be lost to you. You may not be
able to figure out who's from Zebulon, Asher,
Issachar but not to God. God knows exactly genetically
who's from each tribe. So God didn't lose them. And Ezra and Nehemiah will be
very careful for the people who come back, especially
the priest, to be able to show, to prove
their lineage, their heritage to be able to serve
in the temple. Chapter 3 is the
rebuilding of the temple-- chapter 3 verse 1-- "When the seventh
month had come"-- that's late September
in the Jewish calendar-- "and the children of
Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together
as one man to Jerusalem. Then"-- now watch this name,
and I'll get to it at the end-- "Jeshua, the son of Jozadak"-- he's a priest-- "and his
brethren, the priests, and Zerubbabel"-- isn't that a fun word? Don't name your son
Zerubbabel, by the way. It's a good name, but it's hard. "And Zerubbabel, the
son of Shealtiel"-- that's another name--
stay away from that one-- "and his brethren arose
and built the altar of the God of Israel." First thing they did
is to build the altar. Why? To offer burnt
offerings on it, as it is written the law of
Moses, the man of God. Verse 4-- "They also kept
the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written and offered
daily burnt offerings." Verse 5-- "Afterward, they
offered the regular bird offering, and those
for the new moons, and for the appointed
feasts of the Lord that were consecrated." Why the altar first? Because that's the center
of everything, man. That's the center of worship. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. That is the problem. Since the temple
has been destroyed, after the time of
Jesus Christ, the Jews have had no remission of sins,
no sacrifices, no temple. So Ezra new-- man, the priests
knew-- build that altar. Let's get the animal
sacrifices going. We sinned against God. Let's get back to the covenant. And so the first thing we
want to build in this temple are not the walls, not the
roof, not the pillars front, but the altar. By the way, sacrifice is still
the center of our worship. That's why the Lord,
concerning communion, said, take these elements. Do them often. Do them often in
remembrance of Me. I never want you to
forget the sacrifice. I want you to remember it. I want you to take
these frequently so that your mind always goes
back, not to the Passover, but to the ultimate Passover. Then in this chapter, the
Feast of Tabernacles is kept. Money is donated. It's given to the
people who go back, especially the priests given
by the king in verse 7. The people celebrate joyfully. It's party time. They're back. They're sacrificing. They're starting to
build the temple. But not everybody's happy. Some people, it seems, are
still living in the past. Look at verse 10 chapter 3-- "When the builders
laid the foundation of the Temple of the
Lord, the priests stood in their a with
trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph with
symbols to praise the Lord according to the ordinance
of David, King of Israel. And they sang responsively"-- that means one group would sing. The other group would sing
in response to a phrase. They'd sing their part. "They sang responsively,
praising and giving thanks to the Lord"-- and here's what they
said-- "for He is good, for His mercy endures
forever toward Israel." Then all the people"--
not some of the people-- not just the worship
team, not just the band-- "all the people shouted
with a great shout, when they praised the Lord,
because the foundation of the house of
the Lord was laid." Worship is always meant to
be a participation activity. Everybody does it. Everybody is to take part in it. It is not a spectator sport. It's a participation activity. You join in. The congregation is
not the audience. God is the audience. Well, where's the choir? I'm looking at them. You're the choir. I don't sing very well, you say. Good. Make a joyful noise unto
the Lord, the Bible says. You can do that. I've heard some of you. And the Lord loves it. And if somebody next
to you sings horribly, then you, who sing
beautifully, sing louder. Tried to drown each other out. "But"-- verse 12-- "many of the priests,
and the Levites, and the heads of
fathers houses"-- old men-- "who had
seen the first temple wept with a loud voice." Wait a minute, wept? They're back, man. The temple is being built.
The foundations are built. They wept with a loud voice when
the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes,
yet many shouted for joy. So you've got weeping and shouts
of joy in the same assembly. "So that the people could
not discern the noise of the shout of
joy from the noise of the weeping of the people." Are they worshipping
or are they wailing? Sort of hard to tell. "For the people shouted
with a loud shout, and the sound was
heard afar off." It seems that, compared
to the first temple that Solomon built-- that the Babylonians destroyed
586 BC-- that first temple, that was the standard. This new temple is
obviously less impressive. And this is what it means
in the book of Zechariah-- and this is why it says
this-- you'll remember it-- in Zechariah, it says, this
is the word of the Zerubbabel. You should not despise the
day of small beginnings. He was referring to the
temple that was built, and some of the people going,
it's not like it used to be. It used to be so awesome
here, but it's not like that. I don't like these songs. I don't like this temple. They just got all out of joint. It's hard to move forward, when
you're always looking backward. And some people just always
want to live in the past and never looked to the future. If you want to be a
miserable person-- and I doubt most of
you do-- but if you do, I can give you the recipe. Always look back
over your shoulder. Always compare now to
what it used to be like. In Philippians,
Paul had a motto. He said, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forward to
those things which are ahead. If we always
compare to something that happened previously,
here's what we're going to get into trouble. I think the work the Lord is
doing here and has done here is pretty awesome. But if I'm to compare this
to the day of Pentecost, I'm going to get depressed. If I'm going to compare
this to the Great Awakening in
American history, I'm going to get pretty despondent. But if I forget
those comparisons and just enjoy where
God is taking us, then I can get really excited. I can move forward. [APPLAUSE] So the foundation was laid. The temple was being
built. According to the Babylonian Talmud-- remember the Talmud,
that commentary-- there were five things
lacking in the temple rebuilt by Zerubbabel-- five things
that were not in that one, that were in Solomon's
Temple-- number one, the Ark of the Covenant. That's a whole other study. Don't have time to get into it. But it's a fascinating one. He said there was no Ark of
the Covenant in this temple. There was no holy fire,
that fire that was-- always kept burning all the time,
that lit the altar of sacrifice in the outer courtyard. There was no Shekinah glory that
came down on Solomon's temple to inaugurate, that cloud
that filled the temple. Also, it says there was
no spirit of prophecy. And number five, there
was no Urim and Thummim. Do you know what the
Urim and Thummim is? Those two stones--
black and white stones priests used to find out the
will of God in difficult cases. Those things, according to the
Babylonian Talmud, were absent. Nevertheless, they're back. They're rebuilding. God's promises are
being fulfilled, and those that are rejoicing,
man, they got the hang of it. I remember the height
of what we used to call the Jesus movement. I remember on the west
coast, kids coming off, drugs coming off the
streets, getting radically saved, radically change,
this incredible revival. And I meet some of
my compadres from way back from time to time-- oh man,
remember the Jesus movement? And yes I do, and
yes it was awesome, and yes it was cool and
glorious, but guess what-- Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He's still moving. [APPLAUSE] So chapters 1 through 3,
they returned, they rebuild. And now, chapter 4, 5, and
6, they resist the enemy. Sir Isaac Newton came up
with the laws of motion. His third law of motion
is that every action brings an equal and opposite-- Reaction. --reaction. Third law of motion-- every action, equal
and opposite reaction. That's a spiritual law, as well. You serve God,
the King of Kings? You will have a reaction
from the prince of demons. You serve Heaven? Hell will not give you
a standing ovation. You give your life to
God and you aim high? The forces down low
will be able to get you. They come to build
the temple, there are some people who aren't
excited about the building of the temple, so
get used to that. So by the spring of 535 BC-- 70 years after 605 BC-- 70 years after that captivity-- the foundation was laid,
and the trouble comes. The trouble comes in form
of hostility by neighbors. Now, here's what complicates it. Cyrus, the guy on the
throne, the king, he's dead. He died. And in his place is
a guy named Cambyses, also known as has Ahasuerus. His name comes to us
in Ezra chapter 4. So that guy's on the throne. The people of the land, where
the temple is being rebuilt, aren't so excited. They sent a letter
back to Cambyses to get this thing stopped. Chapter 4 verse 1,
"When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard
the descendants of captivity were building the temple
of the Lord God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and the
heads of the father's houses and said to them, let us
build with you, for we seek your God as you do, as
we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon
and the king of Assyria, who brought us here." Let me just quickly wrap
it up without giving you a long explanation,
because of time. Yes, they worshipped
Yahweh, along with all of the other gods and goddesses
from all the different places they were brought. This is a method of worship
called syncretism, where I take God, and I worship
God along with Buddha, and Muhammad, and all--
they just kind of put them all together. And they're all the
same, and we would just call them different things. That syncretism. So they're not worshiping
Him exclusively. And I bring that
up because you need to know that so
you'll understand the response of the builders. But Zerubbabel, and
Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the fathers
houses of Israel said to them, you may do nothing with us
to build a house for our God, but we alone will build
to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the King of
Persia, has commanded us. And now, we're going to
see that these people were so happy to help really
didn't want to help at all. It was an ulterior
motive to stop it. "Then the people
of the land tried to discourage the
people of Judah. They troubled them in building." I have more to say, but I
don't have time, so let's go. 5, "and hired
counselors against them to frustrate their purpose
all the days of Cyrus, the King of Persia, even
until the reign of Darius, the King of Persia. In the reign of Ahasuerus, in
the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation
against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem." So let me sum up the letter. The people of the land
write a letter to the king and they say, look,
these Jews have a long history of
rebellion, and now they're building this
temple because they want to gain power and
strength, and they're going to rebel against
you in the future. So the new king
of Persia orders a stop to the building
of the temple. Verse 24-- "Thus the work
of the house of God, which is that Jerusalem, ceased." It stopped. And it was discontinued
until the second year if the reign of Darius, King
of Persia, which is 520 BC. What that means is
between chapter 4 and 5, there is a gap of 16 years. 16 years, the work of God in
the building of that temple stopped. They're not doing it anymore. 16 long years--
nothing, no building. Well, what is God going to do? Easy-- send preachers. Sends two prophets to them,
one by the name of Haggai-- he's one of the minor
prophets in your Bible-- and the other by the
name of Zechariah-- also one of the minor
prophets in your Bible. Haggai-- if you remember
that little book of the minor prophets-- Haggai preaches four
messages just to Zerubbabel to inspire him,
and to Jeshua-- so to the political leader
and the spiritual leader. Chapter 5 verse 1, "Then the
prophet Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo,
prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were
in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of
Israel, who was over them." Now, what is going on
is there was enough flak from the people
in the land will make them stop and turn all
of their energies inward to themselves, their
families, their own lives, their private world. Forget the work of God
and building the temple. I'm going to build my little
house, my little kingdom, my little estate. So in the little
prophecy of Haggai-- chapter 1 verse 2-- he quotes them. They say, the time
has not come to build the temple of the Lord. The time has come for us
to build our own houses. And so Haggai unleashes
on them, and says, really? It's time for you
to get selfish? It's not time to do God's work? It's always time
to do God's work. So verse 2, "Zerubbabel,
the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son
of Jozadak, rose up and began to build the house
of God, which is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God
were with them helping them. What does that tell us? That the word of God
does the work of God in the hearts of
the people of God. When you face
adversity, get somebody who can give you God's truth
to frame the situation so you understand it from a spiritual
perspective, which will give you courage to move forward, and
not go backward or stay still, but to go forward. So they do that. Chapters 5 and 6,
again the enemies write a letter, this
time to a new ruler by the name of Darius,
to tell them to stop. Now, Darius, the present
king of Medo-Persia, decides to search the
archives of his kingdom to see if, indeed, Cyrus
did tell them they could-- the Jews could go back. So he goes through-- there's a city there
called Ecbatana. You who have studied
archaeology, you know that it was a treasure
trove of archaeological find. They found the Cyrus
Cylinder there. But in Ecbatana, which
that's the place where all of the records were
kept, the annals were kept. It was sort of the storehouse
for all the royal decrees. So they search in
Ecbatana, and they find the ruling of King Cyrus
to, indeed, let the Jews go back and for the
government of Persia to subsidize the building of it. He finds it. This is the third king
from the first guy. So he sends a letter
back to the people of the land who are
getting bummed out, and he adds his own decree. Chapter 6 verse 8,
"Moreover, I issue a decree as to what you shall do for
the elders of these Jews, for the building of
the house of God. Let the costs be paid
at the king's expense from the taxes on the
region beyond the river. This is to be given
immediately to these men so that they are not hindered. Now, the governor
of that land of-- what we call Israel
at that time-- is a guy by the name
of Tattenai he's the governor of Samaria
and the central region, and doesn't like the Judah
is building this temple. When Tattenai gets the letter,
this cuts him to the heart, because it means that
money he collects for taxes is going to be given
to the Jews, the very people he does not want to
build the temple. Now, he has to
help subsidize it. Love it. Verse 9, "And
whatever they need, young bulls, rams,
lambs, for the burnt offering of the God of Heaven--
wheat, salt, wine, and oil. According to the request of the
priests, who are in Jerusalem, let it be given to them day
by day without fail, that they may offer sacrifices of sweet
aroma to the God of Heaven, and pray for the life of
the king and his sons. So the temple gets completed. The people rejoice. They celebrate the Passover,
one of the most memorial-- memorable Passovers
written about in scripture. But what I love is
that what inspired them to finish the task was
the preaching of these two fellas, these two prophets,
Haggai and Zechariah. Over the years, I have seen
the value of the word of God in changing a life,
changing the direction. A little example from
my own life-- years ago, my wife and I
traveled to India. I was asked to simply stand
up and give my testimony and talk about how
God uses people. So I just spent a few
minutes telling that I had a background in college. It was a UCLA program. I was studying
medicine radiology. And then I was
going to keep going, but the Lord wanted me
to go pastor somewhere. So I started a church, and now
I am a pastor, and then I left. I get a letter months later
from a young man who is there in the assembly that I
spoke to, and he said, I was studying to be a doctor. I was in the middle of medical
school, but I heard your talk. I quit medical school
and now I am a missionary and I'm a church planner
over here in India. The Lord has inspired that. [APPLAUSE] So just the value
of sharing that how God uses a person,
how God uses people can inspire somebody else. So I say that to ask you, what
work is God calling you to? What work has He called you to? Is there something that
you started, but you just got discouraged and stopped
pursuing, you stopped building? You decided, I'm going to
quit and not finish it. You go, well, I thought
this, but then I don't know. in. Psalm 37, it says, delight
yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the
desires of your heart. I don't think that means just
read your Bible every day, and God will give you your
little heart's desires. I don't think it means that. I think it means God will
put desires in your heart. He will put His
desire in your heart, so you have a new desire
you never had before. I got to tell you something-- I never wanted to
read the Bible. I never had that
desire growing up. I never said, I really want to
find out what's in the Bible. Could care less. I went to church
religiously, but I wasn't interested on a personal level. I didn't want to go to church. I didn't want to pray. I didn't want to read a Bible. I certainly didn't
want to be a preacher. But then God changed my heart,
and I want to read the Bible, and I want to pray. And I want to go to church,
and I love to be preacher. God gave me different desires. Delight yourself in the Lord. See what desires He puts
within you to finish the task. So the first part, national
restoration, they're back. Now, the second part,
spiritual reformation, chapter 7 through
10, they're blessed. We're in chapter 7, and we're
going to finish this off very quickly. "Ezra comes to Jerusalem. He comes to Jerusalem 58
years later Zerubbabel. There's a 58-year
gap between chapter 6 and chapter 7,
between the completing of the temple under Zerubbabel
and Jeshua the priest, and the second
return under Ezra. Remember, there's
three returns-- Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah. This is the second
group under Ezra. Now, let me add a little
FYI, a little note. During this period
between chapter 6 and 7-- sandwiched between chapter 6 and
7-- and if you're taking notes and you feel free to
write in your Bible, write between chapter 6
and 7, book of Esther. All of the events of
the book of Esther occur between Ezra
chapter 6 and chapter 7, when the king is in Shushan
or Susa the palace in Persia. In the book of Esther, the
king Ahasuerus was there. He succeeded his dad,
Darius the first. The next son is Artaxerxes. Chapter 7 verse 1-- "Now, after these things, in
the reign of Artaxerxes"-- his formal name was
Artaxerxes Longimanus, which means long-handed-- "the King of Persia,
Ezra, the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son
of Hilkiah, the son of"-- et cetera-- his
lineage is given. Verse 6-- "This
Ezra was a scribe well-versed in the
law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel had
given to the people of Israel. He came to Jerusalem
from Babylon, and the king gave
him everything he asked for because the
gracious hand of the Lord his God was on him." Go down to verse 27. He tells the story,
he gets money from the treasury of
Persia, and he utters this doxology of thanksgiving. Verse 27-- "Blessed be the
Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as
this in the king's, heart to beautify the house of the
Lord, which is in Jerusalem. And He has extended mercy
to me before the king and his counselors, and before
all the king's mighty princes. So I was encouraged, as the hand
of the Lord my God was upon me. And I gathered leading men
of Israel to go with me." In chapter 8, they gathered
together at a canal at a little place called Ahava. Ahava is a Hebrew word that
means love, by the way, and it's also a company
by the Dead Sea in Israel that makes really great
lotion for the body Ahava. I like to use it. So they gather. They pray for the trip. They fast for the trip. He disperses the
money to the priest to give to the temple treasury. But in chapter 9, when
Ezra gets to Jerusalem, he is told of a problem,
an intermarriage problem-- that the people of Israel,
including priests and leaders, are marrying some of the
people of the land-- some of the non-Jewish pagan
people of the land. And Ezra just becomes unglued. He rips his clothes, pulls his
beard out, or parts of it-- ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. I don't know why he
did that, but he did. He was he was having a-- my
mom would say a conniption fit. And he prays. And let's just eavesdrop
a few verses of his prayer in chapter 9, because it reads
a lot like Daniel's prayer in Daniel chapter 9, Nehemiah's
prayer in Nehemiah chapter 1. "At evening
sacrifice"-- verse 5-- "I arose from my fasting. Having torn my garment and
my robe, I fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the Lord
my God, and I said, 'Oh my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated
to lift my face to You, my God, for our iniquities'"--
notice he includes himself-- "'have risen higher
than our heads, and our guilt has grown
up to the heavens. Verse 14-- "Should we again
break Your commandments and join in marriage with
the people committing these abominations? Would You not be angry with
us until You had consumed us, so there would be no
remnant or survivor? O Lord God of Israel,
You are righteous, for we are left as a
remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before
You in our guilt, though no one can stand
before You because of this." Chapter 10 verse 1,
while Ezra was praying, while he was confessing,
weeping, bowing down before the House of God, a very
large assembly of men, women, children gathered
to him from Israel, for the people
wept very bitterly. So God answers Ezra's prayer. As Ezra prays, the
people who have committed this intermarriage
thing get really convicted. Many come join him in Jerusalem,
start confessing their sins. They make a covenant with God
to put away their unclean wives, their pagan wives. Now, I just want to say
something quickly about this. Don't take this scripture
as a scripture for divorcing your spouse and
remarrying that cute little hot Christian girl
that you saw at church. People read this and
they go, oh, well, they did it back then. And now I realize I've
given my life to Christ, and now I'm married. I'm unequally yoked. I'm married to an unbeliever. Besides this, I found
this really cute Christian at church, and-- this was a very unique time. It's a specific solution for a
very specific and fragile time in Israel's history. The lineages must be preserved. If the lineages
aren't preserved, then the lineages of
the tribe of Judah may not be preserved from where
the Messiah is going to come. This becomes very critical
in redemptive history. So this very unique
time, this is what they do-- extreme
response to an extreme problem. But in the New Testament,
1 Corinthians 7 tells us, "A woman who has a husband
who does not believe, if he is willing to live with
her, let her not divorce him, and vise versa." So verse 9-- "All the
men of Judah and Benjamin gathered in Jerusalem
within three days. It was the ninth month. And on the 20th
day of the month"-- this is December of 457 BC-- "all the people sat
in the open square at the house of God trembling
because of this matter and because of the heavy rain." It's cold in Jerusalem
at that time. It took from December to April
to straighten out the problem. It began with the priests. They obeyed. Then the people followed
suit, and they obeyed. They realized they went into
captivity because of sins like this in compromise. And so they fix it. That's a good. Question-- how long does this
spiritual reformation last? 25 years. Next generation, that's
how it works, you know. We're only one generation
away from extinction. Next generation--
25 years later, Nehemiah finds almost exactly
the same issue going on. Sometimes it's difficult
to pass on faith to the next generation. We want them so badly. We tell them about what God
did with us and the movement that we experience. They need to have
their own encounter and their own movement with God. It can't be yours. It has to be theirs. Pray for that. Encourage that. Well, Ezra is called
the second exodus, but let me close
on this thought. Isaiah the prophet
writes about and predicts that Israel will
go into captivity, and they did, and predicts
they will come back. So from Isaiah's
perspective, he predicts they're going to leave again,
go to captivity in Babylon, but they're going to return. But he sees them leaving again
and coming back to the land again. Let me just read
this to you quickly, Isaiah chapter 11 verse 11. "It shall come to
pass in that day that the Lord shall set His
hand again, the second time, to recover the remnant
of his people." The first time was
Babylonian captivity. But he says it's
going to happen again, and they're going to come
back to the land again. And he will assemble
the outcasts of Israel and gather together
the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the Earth. The first time it happened,
Cyrus gave the decree. The second time it happened,
it happened in the first half of the 20th century. May 14, 1948, the
United Nations decreed, for the first time
after thousands of years, that
Jerusalem, or that Israel was a nation belonging
to the Jewish people once again. May 14, 1948-- that's
the second time. I believe that is exactly
what Isaiah 11:11 predicted. So David Ben-Gurion, the first
prime minister of Israel, announced in Tel Aviv,
today is the rebirth of the ancient homeland of
the Jews, as in scripture, the nation of Israel. So I do have to bring
that up because there are some who doubt the
literalness of Israel, and they see the promises
God made to Israel aren't existing anymore. They really belong
to the church. It's not literal. It's figured. May 14, 1948 should have
solved that problem, as it happened before our very eyes-- not figuratively, but literally. So that was the first part
of Ezekiel 37's fulfillment, that the dry bones will come to
life, gather into their land. But he also predicts
a spiritual awakening. We're praying for that now. As we close, I see a hint of
Jesus in the book about Ezra. Jesus is called our
great high priest Jesus's Jewish name is Yeshua. The high priest mentioned
throughout this book is Jeshua. That's the English
pronunciation of Yeshua. The high priest mentioned
in Ezra is Jesus. That's his name. That would be his
modern day name. It's Yeshua. So it's just interesting
that the high priest is named Jeshua. Zerubbabel is from the line
of King David, and part of the genealogical record of,
the bloodline of Jesus Christ. And so I love the fact
that Zechariah will say, this is the word of
the Lord to Zerubbabel. It's not by might. It's not by power,
but it's by my spirit, says the Lord of Hosts. Remember that scripture? That's to this guy. So I think we see
hints of Jesus, even just sort of couched in
some of the names in those in the lineage of Jesus. So just as Jerusalem
would be built and the temple would be built,
Jesus will come, not by might, not by power, but by His
spirit, and say one greater than the temple is here-- Himself. Father, how thankful we are
that Jesus, our Messiah, greater than the temple that
was built-- first temple, second temple, any temple-- He was much better. In fact, in Heaven,
there will be no temple. It says that God and the lamb
are the temple and the light thereof. Until then, Lord, we are the
temple of Your Holy Spirit. You live in us. You dwell among us as Immanuel. I pray, Lord, that You
would rebuild and rekindle the hope that in
some of us have died, the calling that maybe
we've stopped building on. Maybe we've gotten discouraged
and we just put that aside. God doesn't really want to
use me, or I'm not gifted, or I'm not qualified,
or I'm not called. Put desires, Lord, in our heart. Fuel them by Your
spirit, so that it's not by might or power, but
by Your spirit moving in us, moving through us, to
see this city touched, this state touched,
this country touched, and this world touched
by the hand of God. That's Your desire, Lord. That's Your will. And You said, if we
pray anything according to Your will, You do it. So we pray it in faith. Use us. You used 12 men to turn
the world upside-down in their generation. Do it again through even
more, as we place our bodies before you as living sacrifices,
holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service. And we all said, amen. We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit CalvaryNM.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from The Bible from 30,000 Feet.
