Yes, Viriginia, God is Still in Control

Bible Book: Ezra 1 : 1-11

Subject: Revival; Renewal; Mighty God

Introduction

God is still in control! No matter what you think or feel. Believe it or not, the discipline of the captivity in Babylon was a way of spiritual development. Here we see God’s justice tempered with mercy. Hebrews 12:6-11 reads, “‘For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” This chastening of God had the purpose of moving them away from idolatry.

Exodus 20:1-6 reads, “And God spoke all these words, saying: ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ‘You shall have no other gods before Me. ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.’”

Dr. George Harrison, one of my favorite professors at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, shared about the Idol Factory (Isaiah 44:6-20) in a class on the Book of Isaiah. This is a remarkable passage demonstrating the foolishness of idolatry. The idol maker cuts down a tree and fashions an idol for worship and uses the residue to start a fire for warmth.

Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe warns, “We become like the gods that we worship! Worshipping a god we don’t know is the equivalent of worshipping an idol, and we can have idols in our minds and imaginations as well on our shelves.” Psalm 115:8 reads, “Those who make them (idols) become like them; so do all who trust in them.”

Ezra 1:1-11 reads, “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 his kingdom, and also 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. Who 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 build the house of the LORD God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem. 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. And all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered. King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods; and Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. This is the number of them: thirty gold platters, one thousand silver platters, twenty-nine knives, thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins of a similar kind, and one thousand other articles. All the articles of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem.”

God is still in control. Remember these things.

I. Remember the vindication of Jeremiah.

A servant of God might be mocked, mistreated, even martyred, but all true prophets will be vindicated! Ezra 1:1b reads, “. . . that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled . . ..” Jeremiah 25:1-14 reads, “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: ‘From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ Yet you have not listened to Me,’ says the LORD, ‘that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. ‘Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation. So I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations. (For many nations and great kings shall be served by them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands.)’” Jeremiah 29:10-20 reads, “For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. Because you have said, ‘The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’— therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, concerning all the people who dwell in this city, and concerning your brethren who have not gone out with you into captivity— thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will deliver them to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth—to be a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they have not heeded My words, says the LORD, which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; neither would you heed, says the LORD. Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon.”

Rev. Edwin Johnson, M. A., professor of Classical Literature at New College St. John’s Wood, writes, “The grief of type prophet. In warm patriotism he [Isaiah] identifies himself with his city and his people, and gives way to bitter tears; a prototype of Jesus in later days, looking on the doomed city, perhaps, from some similar point of view. We are reminded also of Jeremiah, whose heart ‘fainted’ under a similar sense of the miseries of the people, and who exclaims, ‘Oh that my head were full of waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might bewail the slain of my people!’ (Jeremiah 4:31; Jeremiah 9:1). These are living examples of compassion, and of true patriotic feeling, including a true Church feeling.”1

Numbers 23:19 reads, “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

Deuteronomy 18:15-22 reads, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’ ‘And the LORD said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”

Someone said, “Statesmen tell you what is true even though it may be unpopular. Politicians will tell you what is popular, even though it may be untrue.” We could also say, “True prophets tell you what is true even though it may be unpopular. False prophets tell you what is popular, even though it may be untrue.” This goes for apostles, Paul the apostle asks, “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16). 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 reads, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” Acts 20:25-31 reads, “And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”

Dr. Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) writes, “It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. . .. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills. . .. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie. . .. It is better to stand alone with the truth, than to be wrong with a multitude. . .. It is better to ultimately succeed with the truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie. There is only one Gospel.”2 2 Timothy 2:14-15 reads, “Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Evangelist W. A. “Billy” Sunday (1862-1935) reportedly confessed, “I have more respect for the devil than for some preachers I have met; the devil believes the Bible is the Word of God!”3 Don’t forget the veracity of the Word of God.

II. Remember the operation of Jehovah

Note the word “stirred” and “moved” in Ezra 1:1, 5, “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 his kingdom, and also put it in writing, . . . 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.” (Emphasis mine) From the song titled, “We Gather Together,” we find the following line related to God’s discipline: “He hastens and chastens His will to make known.”4 Never underestimate God’s power to stimulate and motivate men to do His will! 1 Chronicles 5:26 reads, “So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, that is, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He carried the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into captivity. He took them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river of Gozan to this day.” 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 reads, “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 his kingdom, and also 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. Who is among you of all His people? May the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up!” (Emphasis mine)

Isaiah 44:24-45:7 reads, “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: ‘I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness; Who 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 to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’; Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be built,’ And to the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’’ ‘Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, 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 will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.”

Proverbs 21:1 reads, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water;

He turns it wherever He wishes.” Daniel 4:25b reads, “. . . the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.” Don’t forget the supremacy of the will of God.

III. Remember the repatriation of Jews

From the Homilist we read, “The proclamation of Cyrus was to every Jew. Not one excluded.”5 Isaiah 48:17 reads, “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.’” Rev. J. Parrish, B.A., shares the following in a message based on Isaiah 48:17, titled, “Profitable teaching and right leading”: “Isaiah addresses his countrymen as being actually in a state of captivity. He predicts the total destruction of Babylon and in glowing language foretells the deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus, whom he represents as being addressed by God about 200 years before his birth.”6 God uses whom He chooses to bring about His purpose.

Don Fleming writes, “It seems that in Old Testament times the books of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah were joined to form a continuous story. The book of Ezra begins at the point where the account in Chronicles ends.

The year was 539 BC and the Jews' period of exile in Babylon was at last over. Persia had just conquered Babylon, and the Persian king Cyrus had issued a decree giving permission to the Jews to return to their homeland (2 Chron 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4). The era that followed is known as the post-exilic period. Six books of the Bible deal with this period, three of them historical, the other three prophetical. The summary of events below will help towards a clearer understanding of these books.

Note: From this point on Israelites in general were commonly referred to as Jews. About two hundred years earlier, the people of the former northern kingdom of Israel had been taken captive to various nations, and in time became absorbed by those nations. But when people of the southern kingdom Judah were later taken captive to Babylon, they retained their national identity. The people of Judah were called Judeans, but this was shortened to 'Jew'. Because most of those who returned from Babylon to Palestine were from the former southern kingdom, they could be called either Israelites or Jews. There was no longer any division in Israel, and the two names, along with the name 'Hebrew', were used interchangeably (Jer 34:9; John 1:19, 47; 2 Cor 11:22; Gal 2:14).”7

Ezra 1:7-11 reads, “King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods; and Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. This is the number of them: thirty gold platters, one thousand silver platters, twenty-nine knives, thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins of a similar kind, and one thousand other articles. All the articles of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem.” Jeremiah 27:22 reads, “‘They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until the day that I visit them,’ says the LORD. ‘Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’” 2 Chronicles 34:7 reads, “When he [Josiah] had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.” Daniel 1:1-2 reads, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 reads, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Don’t forget the mystery of the ways of God.

Conclusion

Dr. Joseph Parker (1830-1902) writes, “What have we to do with a history so ancient? Is there anything for men of our century? What if this chapter be quick with pulses which ought to express our own best life? What if this be in its substance and in its meaning the only chapter worth writing in the active life of the Church? Let us be careful where we step, for every place is holy ground, and life is lying thickly around us, and one rude or thoughtless step may crush some thing of beauty. Let us hold our peace in these ancient halls: the very stones will be eloquent in their silence, if we will be but quiet—if we will but listen. All old things have deep meanings. He is no student who seizes the present as if it were the only thing worthy of attention. . . . “There have been great awakenings in literature. Suddenly a nation has, so to say, sprung to its feet and said, ‘Let us read!’ That is a mere matter of what is called profane history. Ages have passed in which men cared not to read, or write, or think; if there were any books to be opened, as a rule they lay untouched; but quite suddenly there has been what is termed a literary revival. Is such a thing possible? If it is possible to have a literary revival — that is, a revival of the love of learning, the love of reading, the love of writing — why may there not be such a thing as a religious revival, in which men shall say suddenly, but unanimously, ‘Let us pray’? And when men so moved to pray they shorten the distance between earth and heaven. It would be perhaps most difficult to believe in a religious revival if there had not been analogous revivals — revivals of learning, revivals of art.

We have even ventured to apportion certain historical periods as periods of the ‘new birth’ or new beginning in painting; so pictures take their date from this period or from that: critics can trace whole schools of art to such-and-such awakening, upstirring of the mind. So then it cannot be so romantic after all, that there should also have been spiritual awakening, —times when men saw heaven opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. Why not sneer at the revival of learning? Why not question the revival of art? Why not say that artists have chosen long French names for the purpose of indicating certain supposed facts which are no facts after all? That would be a fine field for sneering, and for supercilious criticism, and for the display of general ignorance. The point to be observed is this, that, account for it as we may, there have been in history great mental awakenings, great spiritual movements, and when these have taken a religious turn they have been dignified and sanctified by the name of ‘revivals.’ There is nothing to be ashamed of in that word.”8 (Emphasis mine) Dr. Adrian Rogers explains, “If you study the history of revival, you find that God sends revival in dark days. What God has done before, He can do again.”9

Of those who believe that previously, God was in control; how many believe that presently, God is still in control? The hymn writer, Isaac Watts (1674-1748) expresses, “Our God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.”10 Dr. F. B. Meyer (1847-1929) advises, “Never act in a panic; nor allow man to dictate to thee; calm thyself and be still; force thyself into the quiet of thy closet until the pulse beats normally and the scare has ceased to perturb. When thou art most eager to act is the time when thou wilt make the most pitiable mistakes. Do not say in thine heart what thou wilt or wilt not do; but wait upon God until He makes known His way. So long as that way is hidden, it is clear that there is no need of action, and that He accounts Himself responsible for all the results keeping thee where thou art.”11

Yes, Virginia, God is still in control!

God can by the strangest ways let you get where He wishes you to be.

Suddenly this pagan polytheist issues a decree that God's people may return to their home from which they had been removed by another pagan, Nebuchadnezzar. God is God of all persons. He can use one pagan to undo what another pagan has done in your life and get you where he wants you to be. Consider Joseph, the butcher and the baker and Pharaoh. Be alert in 2016 for the shockingly unlikely people that set up the chess board in your life by moves only God could conceive.

God can use one unlikely person to restore what another unlikely person took from you in His service.

It was not only that the Jews would return, the pagan Cyrus saw to it that they were given 5,400 vessels taken from Solomon's Temple when Neb. destroyed it. God is in the merciful, kind, gracious business of letting you have back what others took from you for your use of it in His service.

God is at work in history and in your history. These O.T. passages are not to be read as a memorial service for what God used to do. They are the living truth of what He is doing.

1The Pulpit Commentary, H. D. M. Spence, Homily by Rev. Professor Edwin Johnson, Isaiah 22 (New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1910). Accessed: 01/19/16 http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/johnson/judgment_upon_jerusalem.htm .

2Adrian Rogers, “An Unchanging Message to a Changing World” Sermon Notes (1 Kings 22:1-14).

3Billy Sunday Quotes, Accessed: 01/09/16 http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1351942 .

4Adrianus Valerius, “Wilt heden nu treden,” (1597), trans. by Theodore Baker “We Gather Together,” (1894).

6The Homilist, ed. David Thomas, Volume 1 Fourth Series (London: Richard D. Dickinson, 1868), 291.

8Joseph Parker, The People’s Bible: Discourses Upon Holy Scripture (New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls, Publisher, 1889), 10:126-127.

9Adrian Rogers, “Freedom is Not Free” Sermon Notes (Proverbs 14:34).

10Isaac Watts, “Our God, Our Help In Ages Past,” (1719).

11F. B. Meyer, David: Shepherd, Psalmist, King (London: Morgan & Scott, 1910), 121.

Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, pastor First Baptist Church of Spanish Fort 30775 Jay Drive Spanish Fort, Alabama 36527

Author of Don’t Miss the Revival! Messages for Revival and Spiritual Awakening from Isaiah and

Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice [Both available on Amazon.com in hardcover, paperback and eBook]