Lesson 10 - Ezra 5 Cont. 2

[Music] [Music] we're going to continue today in the book of Ezra but we're also going to continue with our detour into the books of the prophets who prophesied concerning the temple and Jerusalem in that era there are so many valuable principles and lessons that are directly applicable to us when we include these divine Oracle's delivered by these two prophets that we won't be able to cover them all we'll only be hitting the high points well at this junction in history which is about 520 BC roughly thirty five years after the first Jewish Jewish exiles returned to Judah and during the reign of the fourth king of the Persian Empire King Darius the two prophets Haggai and Zechariah Zechariah we're encouraging the Jews to get back to work to rebuild God's temple now we finish the two to the short two chapter book of a guy the last time and what we ought to take from it is the God's perspective of the temple rebuilding project was quite different than the Jewish perspective and as we study the Bible more and more we find that the earthly physical human perspective is usually quite different from the spiritual divine perspective to begin with the returning Jews had stopped rebuilding because several opposition groups primarily the Sumerians had threatened the Jews that unless they were heavily involved they would not allow the Jews to continue with that project the Jews only got so far as to lay the new foundation when the protests became so intimidating that they just quit work altogether then after 35 years of inactivity I had had enough and so he sent two prophets to jar these returned Judah i'ts from their spiritual slumber now we need to understand how long a period of time of ambivalence among the Jewish leadership for rebuilding the temple that we're talking about here from our vantage point in 2014 35 years ago Jimmy Carter was president of the United States Ronald Reagan was the movie star turned governor of California 35 years ago the Iran hostage crisis erupted as the Shah of Iran fled the Cold War was years away from ending CNN didn't exist yet so the Lord had had great patience with the Jews as they waited for whatever ill-defined timing that seemed right in their eyes to dare to start to lay the cornerstone of the Second Temple what they had wait what they had wasted no time in building however were their own homes and the wealthy built expensive and lavish homes in and around Jerusalem as symbolized by their use of expensive interior wood paneling then through a guy the Lord spoke he said he was not happy with this situation he wanted the Jews to build his temple now opposition no opposition build it now and he said that the temple was important to him for a couple of reasons first that building his baked his house this was an indication to him of the Jews zealousness for him and second because it is at the temple where fellow ship with the Lord happens no temple no fellowship between God and His people he severely upbraided the Jews for their spineless faithless attitudes of just sitting around waiting for all the barriers to rebuilding the temple to somehow fall most of which those threats amounted to most of which that the barriers were threats and harassment the Jews had already attained the written approval of the Persian government they had the labor the skills they had the material resources to do the job they had the required temple furnishings a ready-to-go priesthood and sufficient funds to build even if the result might not have equalled the original temple built by King Solomon now as I speak to you today conditions and circumstances are nearly identical in Jerusalem 2,500 years later the temple could be built today if only the Jewish leadership had the courage and the will to do it but just as with the Jews and Ezra's day they didn't want a confrontation with their enemies or their friends over building God's temple and just as in Ezra's day the Jewish leaders of Israel have beautiful luxury homes they live a lavish lifestyle the Jewish Israelis have the money the plans the furnishings every physical and tangible thing they need for a new temple but ironically because of their reticence to act the some of what we learned from several Bible passages seems to indicate that the temple will instead be rebuilt at the beach test and at the encouragement not of the God of Israel but by his nemesis Satan the Antichrist will likely pave the way for the temple to finally be rebuilt this is so he can step into its innermost chamber and declare himself to be God there are a series of prophecies that begin with Daniel that explains this scenario Daniel 9:25 through 27 know therefore and discern that seven weeks of years will elapse between the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed prince comes it will remain built for sixty-two weeks of years with open spaces and moats but these will be troubled times then after the sixty-two weeks mushiya Messiah will be cut off he'll have nothing the people of a prince yet to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary but his end will come with a flood and desolations are decreed until the war is over he will make a strong covenant with leaders for one week of years and for half of the week he'll put a stop to the sacrifice and the grain offering and on the wing of detestable things this Desolator will come and continue until the already decreed destruction is poured out on the Desolator and while that passage gives us only a shadowy prediction of the end times Messiah Yeshua himself expands on it a little further in Matthew 24 14 through 16 and this good news about the kingdom will be announced throughout the whole world as a witness to the to the Gentile nations it is then that the end will come so when you see the abomination that causes devastation spoken about through the prophet Daniel standing in the Holy Place let the reader understand this illusion that will be the time for those in Judah to escape to the hills and then a few years after Christ on the cross Paul teaches about the end times and shows that he understood what this means and he understood it in the same way that most Messianics Hebrew roots and evangelical believers do today in 2nd Thessalonians 2 1 through 4 Paul says this but in connection with the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah and our gathering together to meet him we ask you brothers not to be easily shaken in your thinking or anxious because of a spirit or a spoken message or a letter supposedly coming from us claiming that the day of the Lord's already come don't let anyone deceive you in any way for that day will not come until after the apostasy has come and the man who separates himself from Torah has been revealed the one who is destined for doom he will oppose himself to everything that people call a God or make an object of worship he will put himself above them all he will sit in the temple of God and proclaim that he himself is God there is so much we could talk about just from this passage in 2nd thessalonians but i'm going to avoid the temptation let me comment that the term most often used in english new testament translations for whom we usually call the antichrist is the one who is without law or the lawless one or the man of lawlessness something like that i want you to please listen to me carefully what laws being talked about here think about that for a minute what law is being talked about here if your law less lawless from what law what set of laws is regarded as so shortened to the Jewish people into the scripture writers that the one who sets himself against these laws is condemned as the lawless one the rabbinical laws how about the Roman laws how about the laws of the European Union our local community laws or is it any old cultural system of laws of course it's not the only law that means anything to God and especially a system of laws that the Lord condemns a person for not following them is his own law the law of Moses so what do we learn we learned that the chief characteristic that makes the Antichrist the Antichrist is that he is completely opposed to God's laws it's that simple this is in contrast to Christ who said this about his own position on the law of Moses in Matthew 5:17 through 19 passages to become very familiar to you don't think that I've come to abolish the Torah or the prophets I've not come to abolish but to complete yes indeed I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away not so much as a uterus stroke is going to pass from the Torah not until everything that must happen has happened so whoever disobeys the list the least of these Commandments and he teaches others to do so is going to be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the kingdom of heaven whoever obeys God's laws and teaches God's laws will be called great not on earth for certain but in the kingdom of heaven notice also when people who love God no longer have the Torah the law to obey but instead it passes away it does pass away but it's not when Christ dies on the cross it's not when he rises from the grave what did he say it's when heaven and earth pass away so we have the man Christ who upholds the law he urges us all to do the same as opposed to the man the Anti Christ who is against the law and spends all of his time urging us not to obey God's law and in the new other New Testament verses were told that the spirit of the Antichrist the spirit of being against the law of Moses the source of all of God's principles we're told it's already alive and well in this world you bet it is and it's mainly present ironically as a foundational doctrine of all things of his church since about 300 years after Christ lived and died does that not strike you as bizarre so it's no wonder that the Antichrist is going to have a pretty easy time of establishing his agenda no doubt Christians and and probably some of Judaism as well will at least at first hail this man of lawlessness who has a view of God's law similar to the views of most Christians and of some Jews an anti law view against the law of Moses and for any new listeners I want to be precise and clear while the law of Moses is alive and well and is to be followed as best as we're able within the circumstances of our times the law is not it never was an instrument of salvation salvation is only from Christ and that is only obtained by our faith towards him and God's grace towards us that's it the law of Moses was at its inception only for an already redeemed people and it remained so the law is not for non-believers so in relation to a guy and the book of Ezra chapter 5 we find the Lord telling his people through the Prophet Haggai that they are to rebuild the temple immediately and if they will obey and do this then the blessings that he has purposely held back from them he will now let flow abundantly instead of fields yielding meager harvest due to drought or hail they're going to produce to their maximum because God will stop the drought in the hail when do the blessings begin again a guy - 18 says blessings will begin on the very day the temple foundation is laid let's see now what the Lord has to say through huh guys cohort Zechariah open your Bibles to the book of Zechariah chapter 1 which if you have a complete Jewish Bible as page 773 the book of Zechariah chapter 1 773 if you have a complete Jewish Bible in the eighth month of the second year of Daria - Darius the following message from Anna and I came to Sakarya zechariah the son of berechiah the son of ido the Prophet OTO and I was extremely angry with your ancestors therefore tell them that a denies a volte says this return to me satin Isaiah out but I'll return to you this is that an Isaiah out don't be like your ancestors the earlier prophets proclaimed to them at an Isaiah oh it says to turn back now from your evil ways and deeds but they didn't listen or pay attention to me is a deny your ancestors where are they the prophets do they live forever but my words and my laws which I ordered my servants the prophets overtook your ancestors didn't they then they turned and said Adonai has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds just as he intended to on the 24th day of the eleventh month the month of spot in the second year of Darius this message from ad and I came to Zakaria the son of Beccaria breccia the son of IDO the Prophet it was night and I saw there before me a man who was riding on a russet colored horse and he stood among the myrtle bushes in the valley behind him where other horses russet chestnut colored and white and I asked what are these my lord the angel speaking with me said to me I'll show you what these are the man standing up when the myrtle said these are those whom Adonai has sent to wander throughout the earth then they themselves answered the angel of Adonai standing among the birds we have been wandering throughout the earth and the whole world is quiet in a peace the angel that and I said I don't Isaiah ode how long will you keep withholding from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah you've been angry with them for the past 70 years odd and I replied with kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me and the angel speaking with me then said to me here is what a denies a boat says I am extremely jealous on behalf of yerushalayim and seoane Zion and to the same degree I am extremely angry with the nations that are so self-satisfied because I was only a little angry at Jerusalem in Zion but they made their suffering worse therefore ad and I says I will return to Jerusalem with merciful deeds my house will be rebuilt there says a denies a vote yes a measuring line will be stretched out over your slave and in addition proclaim that a denies a vote says my cities will again overflow with prosperity ad and I will again comfort Zion and he will again make Jerusalem the city of his choice now we're not going to study all of Zechariah just chapter 1 since the remainder of Zechariah isn't really directly pertinent to Ezra now Zechariah begins with an Oracle from God that Zechariah receives in the eighth month of the second year of Darius so a guy receives the first two Oracle's from God on the sixth and the seventh months then in the eighth month Zechariah receives one that we just read in the first six verses of Zechariah chapter 1 following that then a guy receives two more Oracle's now technically speaking Zechariah receives but one Oracle and then three months later in the eleventh month he receives a series seven night visions all of them in just a single night one right after the other this awesome sequence of seven night visions begins in chapter 1 verse 7 I even though we're only going to study zechariah chapter 1 for the time being it's important to note that the seven night visions given a Rapids are given in rapid succession and they are therefore interconnected they're all interrelated together they form a kind of progressive revelation of the future fate of the people of Israel and the kingdom of God on earth first a little bit about Zechariah he has sent be the son of berechiah the son of IDO thus IDO is Zechariah's grandfather this is significance because IDO is of the Levite line of priests Zechariah has the right to be a priest if he had chosen to carry out that occupation there is nothing to indicate that he did instead the Lord employed him as a prophet outside of this almost nothing else is known about the man that the eighth month was chosen to introduce Zechariah's Oracle is significant because in the Bible the number eight is associated with deliverance and redemption a firstborn male is to be redeemed on the eighth day after his birth the survivors of the great flood numbered eight and not to be overlooked and so very pertinent to those who anxiously await messiahs return the final biblical Feast of the year so very prophetic Sukkot is an eight-day feast and Sukkot has the Messianic symbolism of world history as we know it coming to an end and man kind that will consist it first of no one but believers entering into the Millennial Kingdom of Christ thus it is not surprising that deliverance and redemption are the main subjects of Zechariah's Oracle's of verses one through six now verse two says that the Lord was extremely angry with the ancestors of these present Jews whom he's addressing because they turned away from him therefore return to me is the message and if these Jews who are standing before him will return to God then he'll return to them returning to them means Redemption thus the formula is repent a person returns to God and our response there will be redemption God returns to the person it is important that we pause and remember what the context of this Oracle is in relation to it's all about God demanding that Israel stop procrastinating stop wringing their hands over the enemy who doesn't want that temple built and instead to have some faith in God have faith that God will be with them in their efforts to see it to its completion your whole they seized their procrastination as being the indicative behavior of having turned away from him how can this situation be remedied by building the temple building the temple indicates to God the Jews repentance and return to Him repentance must be heartfelt but without accompanying action God says he won't accept it believers and seekers I hope you're hearing this this notion that we can repent in our hearts and have good inward - intentions then there's no behavioral changes in our lives this is no repentance at all as far as the Lord is concerned we found the Israelite since Mount Sinai arguing that simply being redeemed is sufficient and so their behavior is entirely secondary God says not so fast the outward sign of your inner repentance is your behavior does your behavior betray the reality of your condition before God I've known too many believers who say well I can't judge them none of us can judge them for their wrong behavior because we can't see inside their hearts but - that God says no your hearts are reflected by your behavior oh I'm a Christian but I live with my boyfriend I'm a Christian but I'm gay I'm a Christian but I beat my living by selling illegal drugs I believe in Jesus but I don't pray I don't really read or study the Bible I don't ever go to synagogue or Church I really don't much like all these holier-than-thou God people here's the way that the leader of the First Church in Jerusalem James the half-brother of Yeshua put it in James 2:14 through 19 what good is it my brothers if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it such a faith able to save him suppose a brother or sisters without clothes their daily food and someone says to him Shalom Oh keep warm and eat hearty without giving him what he needs what good does it do thus faith by itself unaccompanied by actions is dead but someone will say you have faith and I have actions well you show me this faith of yours without actions I'll show you my faith by my in actions you believe God is one good for you the demons believe it too the thought makes them shudder with fear but even more onerous is what Yeshua said what happened to those who claim to be believers but their actions say something else about them entirely in Matthew 7 16 through 24 listen to this you will recognize them by their fruit can people pick grapes from thornbushes configs come from thistles likewise every healthy tree produces good fruit but a poor tree produces bad fruit a healthy tree can't bear bad fruit poor tree good fruit any tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down it's thrown into the fire so now you can recognize them by their fruit not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven only those who do what my father in heaven once on that day many will say to me but Lord Lord didn't we prophesy in your name didn't we expel many demons in your name didn't we perform many miracles in your name and I'm gonna tell them to their faces I never knew you get away from me workers of lawlessness back to the law again so everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who builds his house on bedrock notice that the same epithet that we saw that the Scriptures attached to the Antichrist who is he the lawless one it's here attached to people who claim to be Christians but they're opposed to God's law workers of lawlessness behavior matters action reflects what we believe so the behavior of letting this temple building project just lay dormant for 35 years that reflected the truth that these returning Jewish people had turned away from God and remember these were the very same Jews who came rushing back to Jerusalem from Babylon so full of enthusiasm and zealousness to rebuild that temple to renew the biblical Torah lifestyle but because of opposition primarily from those who claim that they worship the same God the sumerians it all came to a screeching halt in the 1990 PBS interview Billy Graham said that after years of follow-up study of the data the conclusion is that less than 6 percent of the millions who came forward at his Crusades to claim Christ displayed any evidence of a change of behavior or a continuation in their faith less than 6 percent emotions are emotions and we all have them and they can deceive us and they can fade very quickly one impulsive act of rushing to the pasture or to an elder after a heart-rending sermon tearfully praying the sinner's prayer but then going on to live your life as though nothing happened probably means nothing happened so when Zechariah verse 4 the Lord says that the earlier prophets prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah will they warn their this people's ancestors to turn from their evil ways and deeds but they didn't pay any attention their behavior just continued on as before the results well they were catastrophic and then in hindsight these people after the Cataclysm replied the Lord has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds just as he intended to see we must never kid ourselves our deeds our ways our behavior they are the reflection of who we truly are over and over again we see that God judges based on that we just don't like to hear it because that means we have to actually make real changes in our lives if our salvation is to mean anything at all so after a call to repentance after a reminder of just how you have a dealt so harshly with the Hebrews came before this current group of Exile who have returned to Judah the first in the series of the seven night visions concerning the future of God's people commences and all of the seven visions occurred during the night of the 24th day of the eleventh month so between the in diverse six and the beginning of verse seven three months or so of past since Zechariah received the Oracle that we just discussed but more relevant is that these seven visions were given exactly five months to the day after the Jews repented and returned to God and they demonstrated it in their action of restarting temple construction despite the discomfort it brought to them due to the threats of the Sumerians and of course the fact that there were seven visions seven being the ideal number means that what is told in the vision is complete and it is what is told of God now we're going to study this first vision only since this is the one that symbolically relates to the events that happen nearest to the time of the book of Ezra the vision showed four horses with their riders even though the riders are actually mentioned we know there are writers because the idea was for the Lord Lord's angels to go and scout out the earth upon these horses the vision was interpreted by yet another angel and the vision there were two red colored horses one white one and another with a chestnut coloration one angel is called the Malaka of a the angel of the Lord the angel of the Lord is standing near some myrtle trees and these myrtle trees are located in a masuleh a depression in the earth it could be a valley it could be a ravine it can even be a deep place underwater myrtles grow best in wet conditions so they're usually found next to rivers and ponds and we could spent countless hours trying to attach symbolism to the myrtles and to the depression of which they are growing exceeded only by the speculation about the color of the horses but the truth is it's just not at all clear so that's the reason there's so many opinions on the matter so we're just not going to venture theirs it's really not going to service any good purpose the later of one of the red horses standing near the angel Lord presumably to report the findings of him and his compatriots their purpose is expressed in verse 11 we have been wandering the earth and the whole world is quiet and at peace thus their job was to evaluate the condition of humanity on earth during this moment in the history of the Persian Empire and what they found was that there was no worm to speak of and indeed various Persian records indicate that the first year and a half of King Darius his reign was spent putting down rebellions and reorganizing his empire when Darius took over there was a rebellion going on especially in Babylonia which he was able to put down for a few years before Darius under canvasses there were rebellions springing up everywhere and the Persian Empire but in the second year of Darius is reign that's when we read about all this with Zechariah things were quiet they were generally peaceful and indeed this is what the four horsemen who had ridden the length and breadth of the known world reported and we get another piece of evidence that this first night vision is regarding the immediate time frame of huh guys prophecies and the issue of rebuilding the temple because Zechariah 1:12 says Lord of Hosts how long will you keep withholding mercy from Jerusalem in the cities of Judah you've been angry with them for the past 70 years well this of course is referring to the Babylonian exile in response to this question the Lord of Hosts is said to have responded with toes Devarim good words good speech and Nachum compassion this would have brought tears of joy to Zechariah's eyes because what we are witnessing is the Lord's anger against Judah not only coming to an end but now his people shall receive his goodness and his mercy and his comfort what is the single word that all of this is describing redemption Redemption Redemption is nothing more nor less than the Lord turning from his righteous anger upon us for our rebellion our for our sin and instead now offering us mercy comfort that's Redemption and what was the human behavior that caused God to turn from his anger to mercy the people of Judah repented from refusing to build God's house due to their own selfishness and fears and instead they got to work in obedience to God's Oracle's through a guy and they began to build the temple so says the Lord in verse 14 now he is jealous for Jerusalem in Zion and as passionate as he is now for Jerusalem and Zion Zion generally means the redeemed people and/or the redeemed land he is equally now as angry at the Gentile nations who had treated his people more harshly than they felt they should have been during their 70 year exile I think it is quite interesting to hear God say that while he was angry with his people the Jews it was only a little anger so the nations were his people were sent the nations that formed the Babylonian then the Persian empires should only have made his people suffer a proportionately small amount but instead they made him suffer too much so now God's wrath upon them therefore what this leads to is even greater mercy upon the Jews because they suffered more at the hands of the Babylonians and Persians that he'd ever intended them to and how shall God's great mercy and compassion be manifest to his unjustly over punished people interesting by restoring the house of God the temple and rebuilding Jerusalem in fact the Lord says the cities of Judah will flourish and their gonna prosper with the return of his people now I want to close with this question one more time because maybe it's the most important point of today's lesson why is rebuilding the temple seen as such a great mercy from God for the people in Judah I thought the rebuilding the temple was to please God the reason is that the temple is the place where God has fellowship with his people the temple is the place that restoration and atonement happened for the people the temple is where Shalom is distributed to all people who love the Lord when there is no temple it's a sort of divine punishment without a temple there's no fellowship with God because there's no atonement because the place of the presence of God is gone so what's to be done Paul says it this way in first Corinthians 3:16 don't you know that you people are God's temple and God's Spirit lives in you in other words believers are at least for the time being acting as God's temple we are where fellowship with God occurs because God is with us in his spirit the same precise principle we are reading about in a guy and Zechariah regarding the Temple in Jerusalem as the place of fellowship with the Lord remains only now we're the temples on an individual by individual basis because any fellowship that occurs between us and the Lord has to happen at the temple it's an immutable God principle without accepting the saving grace provided by Christ these bodies of ours are just corruptible Kent's but with the saving grace of Messiah these same bodies become as holy temples they serve as the meeting place for fellowship between God man will get back into Ezra chapter 5 next time please rise [Music] you see yes you

Channel: Torah Class

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Keywords: Ezra, Old Testament, Torah, Seed of Abraham, Torah Class, Tom Bradford, Bible Study

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Length: 46min 53sec (2813 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2019