God’s people have always been keen observers of history. They are interested in history first, because it teaches them who God is, who the church is, and why she exists. Second, history reveals the acts of a promise-keeping God and stirs the believers’ faith in the present, and third, it gives the people of God an understanding and a hope for the future – it provides future grace.
The history of Israel in the time of Ezra is one such example. An example of the value of history, God’s purpose, and the hope of a less-than-perfect people.
As providence would have it, Daniel is reading a bit of history around the time of Israel’s release from captivity. He’s reading the book of Jeremiah (Daniel 9:2). Cyrus, the king of Persia (and the current world power keeping Israel in captivity at that time), is also doing a bit of reading.
What was the instrument that prompted Cyrus, King of Persia, to restore Israel to her land? He was reading history. He was reading about himself. He was reading Isaiah (Ezra 1:2, Isaiah 44:28).
Persia was roughly located in modern-day Iran. Cyrus had overthrown Babylon and introduced a Persian culture and way of life. Politically, these world powers believed that salvation came through the Empire.
The Jews had been exiled to Babylon for their disobedience to God. There, they were absorbed into the pluralistic lifestyle of Babylon, then Persia. They were not to push and shove and kick against their circumstances but were to seek the city’s welfare.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce… Multiply there; do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:4-7)
Babylon’s welfare would be their welfare. It’s prosperity and peace, their prosperity and peace.
We are called to a similar mission. We are not to be distant, reclusive, and disinterested in the midst of the world. As we will see, by actively engaging in the world, many of its people became Jews and left Babylon with the exiles to live in Jerusalem.
Israel had once been a world power to be reckoned with. But, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, Persia was the head knocker of the world Israel was a loser. Who cares about some washed-up tribal group living in the backwater of the world’s greatest empire? Who cares about a postage stamp-sized plot of land in the ancient Near East and the people who used to live there?
Answer, God does.
God cares because He has made promises to these losers, and so, He will move history on their behalf.
God is not like the gods of this world. He is unlike Krishna, who spends his days dipping his toes in butter. God is preoccupied with man, made in His image. Humanity is precious in His sight, and He is willing to go to great lengths to save it.
The book of Ezra is about God moving history to fulfil His promises to His people. And how does God do it?
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 his kingdom and also put it in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel…
And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” …And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered. (Ezra 1:1-6)
God moves history through the actions of men, that is, through His creation.
I am the Lord, who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, he shall fulfill all my purpose. (Isaiah 44:28)
People often complain that holding to God’s sovereignty in the events of history reduces man to a puppet, but how many Christians do you know that have ever complained that they feel like puppets?
I have never heard anyone say they felt like God was just using them to fulfill His eternal purposes. We don’t talk like that because it’s not true of our experience. If you were to ask Cyrus if he felt like he was being manipulated, he would have laughed. Who, me? The king of the world, manipulated?
God moves history by drawing near with a word.
It is God who stirs men to act. Either by drawing near or drawing away from them. By speaking or by silence. All of our actions are the result of our proximity to God.
Cyrus and all the other head knockers of this world are Jehovah’s servant boys. This means that we need not fear the actions of men, for their boundaries are set by God to bring blessings on His people.
God moves history by shaping and fulfilling the desires of our hearts.
God’s people lamented their exile, yet they had to be stirred to return to Jerusalem. The God who turns the king’s heart also moves history by stirring the heart of his own people. God works at the level of desire. His word produces hunger.
For the believer, this is the best of all possible worlds. I get to do what I delight to do most, and God worked that delight in me to do it (cf. Psalm 37:3-4, Philippians 2:12-13).
And so, the people of Israel and all those who wish to join them are not only granted permission to return and build the House of the Lord, but they are also assisted in their work by the plunder of the nations.
Where has this happened before? This is another Exodus.
Israel had once been a world power, and God was on her side. But now, because of her sin, she had been cast out of the land. But God had not finished with her – or with Cyrus. So,
Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem …And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels; all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:7-11)
Oh, great. A list of kitchenware, how dull, can we move on?
But wait. What is the purpose of this kind of detail? The chief purpose of the return is to build the House of the Lord, which is to say, it is to worship. But Israel cannot do this faithfully without these “tools of the trade.”.
The God who commands and stirs us to go also provides everything necessary for the journey. The God who commands worship also provides the means.
This is a great comfort to God’s people.
Is God challenging you? Do you hesitate for lack of provisions?
Babylon had used these instruments devoted to Israel’s worship to toast a victory to his little gods. (Daniel 5:2-4, 22-23). But each one of these items, now re-appearing as the proclamation to return went out, is a token of God’s faithfulness and God’s supremacy over the gods of this world.
Like the gospel it foreshadowed, God had endured captivity, and Babylon was now the loser, with every piece of silverware a token of Babylon’s defeat, and God’s faithfulness.
What do You Want to Read About?