Rebuilding

An Act Of A Pagan King

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem: and hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.
Ezra 7:27-28

There had been many people of Judah who were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.  A decree from Cyrus had been given, and authority for the leaders who chose to go, to go with the kings authority and a letter of evidence of such order. See chapter one of Ezra, and verses one through four.

When the people from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin arrived at Jerusalem, and they were in the process of restoring the temple some of the people who had been living near by came by and asked if they could help. They were denied the opportunity to harm the work that way, and they then sent a letter to Artaxerxeus, asking him to search the records of these people. They accused them of being trouble, and that they did not deserve to be building the temple. Artaxerxeus granted to complainers who were working against the work of rebuilding. They received a decree from the king to cause all work on the temple to “cease” immediately.

The prophets Haggai, and Zechariah motivated the people to continue building the temple, and they did (Ezra 5:1-5), and they were asked by the governor of the area who had authorized the continuing of the work. When they could not cause them to cease from the building of the temple they, that is, the governor Tatnai sent a letter to Darius king at that time. King Darius had the records checked, because of Cyrus’s decree, and after reading his decree, made a decree of his own giving authority to the people who worshiped the “God of heaven” the right to build the temple.

Darius gives permission for Ezra to take those who want to return to Jerusalem, and to go with gold, silver, and many other things. The words of the above text are words of Ezra. Words of thanksgiving and of blessing the LORD God.

This act of two of the kings was an act which GOD had put in the heart of these men. He did this in His sovereignty over the hearts, minds, and will of men. God the Almighty reigns in the hearts of men. He works in all of us to fulfill the word and will of God.

God did not only work in His sovereignty in the Bible. He continues to work in His sovereignty in today’s world accomplishing His purposes. We see things sometimes, maybe everyday, that we cannot understand why God could allow something like that to happen. Whether we understand or not is not the issue. The issue is our faith in God and faithfulness to Him. Our mission is not to understand, but to trust Him.

Our trust in God begins by trusting in His work through His Son Jesus Christ. In His death on the cross He was smitten by the Father because He became sin for us, thus He was smitten by God (Isaiah 53:3-4) because God cannot look upon iniquity, Jesus died for us. He was buried, and He rose from the grave where they had laid Him.

Have you trusted God by believing  the work of His Son is finished? There is no more you or I can do, and one thing that we can do, and that is receive the free gift He offers us. Do so, and trust Him today. We are not guaranteed another.

Preparing to Rebuild the Temple

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These events take place following the 70 years which Jeremiah had prophesied (Jeremiah 25:11).  Ezra is God’s man for returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple which was razed by the Babylonians and carried many captives of the land away.  Ezra had been faithful to God and His word through all the time of his life in that culture.  Hear the word of the LORD concerning these things…

This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. Ezra 7:6-10 (KJV)

I want us to keep in mind that today the temple of our Lord is His people – those who have believed and received the grace of God through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God, God the Son.  Sometimes even this temple needs a rebuilding.  We can let sin carry us away from God, His Spirit and His word; but He is never away from us.  If there is any rebuilding to do it starts with God doing the work in us, calling us to repentance, forsaking our sin, and coming back to what we believe in Christ.

Consider the following verses from Paul’s epistles…

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, to do it, and to teach it to others.  Let us as the temple of God be as committed, devoted and faithful to the LORD as was Ezra; and follow Jesus faithfully.

Broken Down Walls

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There has been talk of tearing down walls; too many walls; high walls; low walls; brick walls; rock walls; all kinds of walls.  Maybe there are some walls which need to be torn down, but not the walls of protection.  Not the walls that are there to keep us from the enemy, those who would destroy us; those who desire to see us cease to exist.

It was when the nation of Israel had sinned against God, broken His law; His sabbaths, and committed lewd acts against the Most High, that He sent the enemy to destroy their walls.  The wall was destroyed and for seventy years in captivity the walls lay in ruin, trampled by wild donkeys, and wild beasts of all sorts.

There was a man by the name of Nehemiah who had a burden for Jerusalem after he had received report of the city’s condition.  His heart was broken, and the king gave him leave to go and lead in the rebuilding of those walls.  Here is what Nehemiah has written,

“Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.  Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.”  Nehemiah 2:17-18 (KJV)

As Christian men and women; let’s keep the walls that protect us, and restore some of those walls that have been broken down. And like Nehemiah let’s lead our family, our churches, communities, and nation in building those walls that call us back to God – correct doctrine, right worship, pointing people to Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God; and living by the Word of God.

The wall of God’s protection is quickly coming down.  We can pray, read and study God’s Word; and then apply it to daily living to strengthen those walls.

-Tim A. Blankenship