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, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given thee all the kingdoms of the earth, And he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? 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 the God which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place helped him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites with all them whose spirit God had raised to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. And all day that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered. Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his God. Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithridat, the treasurer, and number them unto Sheshbazar, the prince of Judah. And this is the number of them, thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives, thirty basins of gold, silver basins of a second sort, four hundred and ten, and other vessels, a thousand. All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Shesh-bejar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem." Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Now this Lord's Day evening we begin a study, a series of messages on the post-exilic books of the scriptures. We're going to look at the writings, two books and potentially a third book that are in the section of the Hebrew Bible called the writings. We're going to look at Ezra and Nehemiah, which in the Hebrew Bible is called 2 Ezra. And we may even look at the book of Esther, which was written during this period of time in Babylon and really has to deal with Babylon. And we're also going to look at three of what are called the latter prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Haggai and Zechariah actually preach to the people of God here at the time of the book of Ezra. And then Malachi is given a message of the Lord shortly after Nehemiah, after the book of Nehemiah closes. Now let's look at the book of Ezra for just a few minutes before we begin looking at chapter 1. I want us to see an outline of the book. And the book generally outlines itself by the two great characters or leaders of God's people that are displayed in the book. In the first six chapters we learn about Zerubbabel. And his name means a stranger in Babylon. He was a stranger there. And we learn about the people of God and the work of God in the church under His leadership in chapters 1 through 6. And then we learn about the work of God under Ezra's leadership in 7 through 10. In chapters 1 and 2, we learn about the Jews' return from the captivity. And then in chapters 3 through 6, we learn about the building of the temple. And then in chapters 7 and 8, we learn about Ezra's coming to Jerusalem. And then in chapters 9 and 10, we learn about Ezra's service in Jerusalem. We learn about how he got there, and then we learn about what he did when he got there. Now, what's interesting is that this book covers a period of almost 150 years. When you read it, You might be given the impression that this just covers several years of time. This covers a period of 150 years in the life of God's people. In this book, there are six Persian monarchs mentioned. In chapter 1, verse 1, we learn about Cyrus. In chapter 4, verse 5, we learn about Darius. And this isn't the first Darius, though he's called Darius I. There was actually another Darius, Darius the Mede, who Daniel served under, who was co-regent. He was a leader with Cyrus for a period of Cyrus's reign in the Persian Empire. Then we learn about Ahasuerus, or the king named Xerxes, in chapter 4, verse 6. That's the man. that marries Esther in the book of Esther. Then in chapter 4, verse 7, we learn about Artaxerxes, his son, Artaxerxes 1. Then in chapter 5, verse 6, we learn about Darius, number 2. But the Bible never tells us 1 and 2. So sometimes it's very hard to read through the book and see Darius or Xerxes or Artaxerxes and not know if it's number 1 or number 2 or number 3. Then in chapter 7, verse 1, we learn about Artaxerxes 2, 2nd Artaxerxes. So this book takes place over many, many years and over many reigns in the Persian Empire. Now what I want us to see is that this chapter basically outlines itself under two heads. First, the Lord stirs the heart of the king. We see that in verses 1 through 4, and then it's picked up again in verses 7 through 11 as we see the gifts that the king is willing to give to the people of God for the building of the temple. But then in the midst of that, sandwiched in between those verses is verses 5 and 6. And there we see that the Lord stirred the heart of the people of God. Look at verse 5 and 6. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem. And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with precious things, besides all that were willingly offered. In other words, what we see is there were a number of Jews, greater than 42,000 people, that were willing to come up and go to Jerusalem. And the only reason they were willing was because God had stirred their hearts to be willing. They didn't muster up that willingness in and of themselves. God did it. And God stirred up other Jews that maybe weren't willing to go. He stirred them up to give to those that were going. There were those that were not willing to go, but they had a heart, they had a concern to see God's kingdom thrive. They wanted to see, to some degree, these ordinances re-established in Jerusalem, and so the Lord stirs them. And then in chapter 2, we have a list by families of these 42,000 people that went. God is pleased to spend the whole chapter listening by family, these 42,000 people. God is concerned about individuals. He's concerned about families that are the building blocks of the church. He gives us an honor roll of all that went up. And what's interesting, He not only does it in one chapter of the Bible, He repeats this in Nehemiah chapter 7. We have almost an identical listing in Nehemiah 7 of all the people that went up under Zerubbabel's leadership. It's almost a repeat here of chapter 2. So this Lord's Day evening, I want us to focus on the fact that the Lord stirred the heart of the king. And then next Lord's Day, Lord willing, we'll look at chapter 2 and see how the Lord stirred the hearts of his people. Notice in verse 1, 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. Here we see the fulfillment of Proverbs 21.1. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth it, whithersoever he will. God is in control in our government. As wicked as men may be in leadership in many countries throughout this world, God has ordained it to be so. And God can turn their political direction on a dime. He can change the way things are going like that. for the people of God. The people of God were being oppressed by a very powerful Assyrian government. And yet, a deliverer was being raised up by God, Cyrus himself, to deliver them. Now notice that this deliverance takes place in the first year of his reign over Babylon. So the question is, well, who reigned before? What's going on here? What's happening? What we have to realize is that there were these 70 years of Assyrian captivity. The people of God were under the Assyrians from the time that Nebuchadnezzar had come down to Jerusalem and invaded. And they lived under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, under his son called Evel or Evel-Meredok, and then others, and then another king that had a long reign, Belshazzar, which we hear about in the book of Daniel. And Daniel served under all of these kings, more than likely. In the book of Daniel, we only hear him serving under four kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede and Cyrus himself. But apparently he was always very useful there in that kingdom over that 70 year period. He was still alive at least just a few years before they were released. He was about 12 children when the captivity took place. And he was alive up to just a couple years before they returned 70 years later. He was nearly 80 years old and most of his life he served the king of Assyria. Now Cyrus the Persian, he had united seven Persian tribes. He had also united the Medes and he ruled over Persia or what is today Iran. And he went and conquered what we would call today Turkey And then he came and conquered Assyria, or what today is known as Iraq. He conquered those three areas. And he also took over Babylon, which was the capital city of Assyria. Just as when we think of Jerusalem, we think of Judah, we think of that whole area that the people of God occupied. So oftentimes in the Bible, when it speaks of Babylon, it's thinking of the center of power of the Assyrian rule. Well, the Assyrians ruled, but Cyrus came and defeated them. And what the Assyrians did when they conquered nations was they took the cream of the crop of the nation. They took the wealthy and the cultured and the political class, and they took them up to Babylon. And then they sent some of their people into the districts that they thought occupied. But they didn't leave the leaders of the people that they took over in their own place. That was their method of domination. They would affect and infect the leaders of those countries and they would put other leaders in place to oppress the people in their place. They wouldn't leave their own princes and kings and rulers there for them. So those that were of the Davidic line were carried up to Babylon. They were princes in Babylon, even though God had called them in that line to serve as rulers of God's people in Jerusalem. But God stopped that for 70 years so that they might learn that he is king over all. Now, when Cyrus defeats the Assyrians, he reverses his policy. For whatever reason, that was not his policy. And also with other peoples that they conquered, he would allow them, the leaders of those groups of people, to go back to their towns and their lands and rule under his rule. He wouldn't give them complete sovereignty. They were still under captivity, but he would allow them to rule their own people. It was a much more just, though not an ideal governmental situation, it was a much more just situation than what the people of God had experienced under the Assyrians. So Cyrus takes over. He conquers Assyria. He conquers Babylon. He rules from Babylon, which is pretty close, children, to the city of Baghdad. today. Baghdad is a little east of the Euphrates River. And if you look between the Tigris and Euphrates River there, you'll see where the two rivers get the closest. Apparently Babylon was in that area where the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers are the closest there in the Mideast. Now, in his first year, He sends Zerubbabel and these people to return to build the house of the Lord. He wants them to reestablish their culture in their native land. Now, it's not until the sixth year of Artaxerxes I, three rulers later, that Ezra returns in chapter 7. It's that long until Ezra returns. Ezra doesn't return in chapter 7 until about 80 years after Zerubbabel brings the people of God back to build the temple. So, again, we see the time frame that we're talking about here. Now, we've seen the king and the king's heart move. Let us look at the prophecy also in verse 1, secondly. This all took place that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. We already saw that it also had to deal with the fulfillment of Isaiah 44.28 and 45.1, that prophecy regarding Cyrus that took place over 150 years prior to Cyrus' defeat of the Assyrians. But also, Jeremiah prophesied of these things And he prophesied more specifically related to the timing in which it would take place. Isaiah gives us the name, but he doesn't tell us when it's going to take place. Cyrus is going to do it, but he doesn't tell us where Cyrus is going to come from and what year it's going to be. But Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 25, 12, And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it a perpetual desolation." So, Jeremiah told the people of God how long they were going to be gone. Seventy years. He goes on to say in Jeremiah 29, 1 and then verse 10, these words, Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Children, did you know that Jeremiah wrote a letter? He remained in Jerusalem. Daniel and Ezekiel were carried up north to Babylon. And Jeremiah writes a letter to the people. Note, he writes it to the people through the elders and through the priests and the prophets. They receive it, they read it, then they tell all the people that Jeremiah has written a letter. And this is what Jeremiah says in that letter. For thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place. God used Jeremiah to encourage them. Yes, you're in bondage, people. Yes, you're being afflicted because of your sin, because of your failure to obey my words through my servant Moses. I told you to keep a Sabbath year. You didn't keep 70 Sabbath years in that 490 years? I'm going to make that land rest for 70 years. So you're going away for 70 years. Some of you children that can do this math, go home tonight and take 490 and divide it by 7 and see what you come up with. 70. 70 times 7 is 490. 7 times 7 is 49. So, God was going to give the rest of the land and He was going to judge or chastise His people, let's say, for their sin. These apparently are the very prophecies that Daniel must have read about when in Daniel chapter 9, later in Daniel's life, he says that he was reading the prophecies of Jeremiah and he came to realize that it was 70 years until the restoration. And it's interesting in Daniel 9, just several years before the 70 years is up, Daniel finally understands through Jeremiah that it's just about over. Jeremiah goes to his knees. He goes to prayer and fasting that it would happen. We're to pray God's promises. We're not just to assume they're going to take place because God said it and leave off praying. We know it's going to happen, and yet we're to pray what God has told us will happen. God stirred up Daniel to pray, and then God delivers his people. We've seen the king, King Silas. We've seen this prophecy. of Jeremiah that's being fulfilled here. We also, thirdly, need to see the proclamation in verses 2 through 4. Note the preamble in verse 2. We have the causes and the considerations that influence Cyrus. He says, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. To some degree, Cyrus recognized that the God of all the world, of all the universe, the creator and sustainer of all things, had given him the ability to become, in a significant way, he ruled the kingdoms of the earth. He ruled the primary kingdoms of the then known world. He was the man. They ruled. He was the dominant figure in world history at that point. But he recognized that God had given that to him. So, he says God has charged him to build a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. We'll see why we think, or how God may have charged him in just a little bit. I personally don't believe that God spoke to him directly. I'll show you who I think he spoke to him through in a few minutes. But he was charged, he was told to build the house of Jerusalem. And so he did. In verse 3, he gives leave to the people of God. Who is there among you of all his people? 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 the God which is in Jerusalem. He's giving leave to all the Jewish people. If they want to go back, they're welcome to go back. No strings attached. He's not separating a few of them out to go. Anyone that wants to go, they can go. And notice that he uses the covenant name of God. What's often translated in Hebrew, Yahweh, there is translated here by Lord. Notice that word Lord there with all four letters capitalized, L-O-R-D. When you see that in the Old Testament, you're to understand that as the covenant name that God revealed to Moses, Yahweh, or Jehovah, as a translation in English. the covenant name of God. Cyrus declares the covenant name of God. He doesn't call Him El or the generic name in Hebrew for God, but he calls Him Yahweh. And so many commentators believe that Cyrus himself was converted. That Cyrus himself came to faith in the triune God. The great historian Josephus contends that Cyrus certainly did become a server, a worshipper of the Triune God. That he was, in that sense, in our terminology, a believer, a Christian. That he had come to faith in this God. And that he wanted to see the relationship or the ordinances and the worship of this God re-established at the place that God had commanded that they be established. He recognized that he had no place of authority in the church. God had given him a place of authority in the state, but God had not made him a prophet nor a priest. But he could assist, he could help God's people in that place of authority that God had given him. Not by usurping authority in the house of God, but being a nursing mother and father to the church. There's a separation, a unique separation between church and state, but it's really a distinction because they're not to be completely separate. They're two spheres of authority, but they're both to be ruled by God and God alone. God is the Lord of the church and the state. And the church is commanded to behave in certain ways towards the state. It's to speak God's authoritative word to the state. And yet the church is called to submit to biblical authority in the state. And the state is to support and encourage the true reform religion. And that only. Not heretics. Not cults. but the true Reformed religion, the religion of the Scriptures. This they ought to support. Now, we've looked at this proclamation, the preamble, the free gift of being able to leave in verse 3. We also see that he calls for a collection in verse 4. He says, obviously, there are going to be some that remain. Let them help with silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, besides the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. He's encouraging the people of God that are not going to go to give a freewill offering, to assist the people that are going. This word, help them, in verse 4 could be translated in Hebrew and literally is to lift them up. Help them by giving to them, lift them up so that they can be able to afford to go and begin this work of repopulating Jerusalem and the cities surrounding Jerusalem to support the worship in the temple at Jerusalem. And they were to give a freewill offering. This refers to an offering above and beyond the tithes. That's why sometimes you'll hear tithes and offerings. Tithes are the 10% of God. The free will offering is something above and beyond that God's people sometimes freely give when they see God in providence giving an opportunity, when there's a need that God's people are willing. And so apparently they were willing to give freely to this work. Jerusalem had been on their mind, many of them, for 70 years. And they had translated that to their children. and to their children's children. So there is still a love and a vision for the reestablishment of God's ordinances in their purity and simplicity. You see, though many of us may have to do without, and there are many people that have like convictions with us that don't have the blessing that we have to be able to partake and to worship God in the same way we do. They may be isolated at this point, but they still have an eye to the pure ordinances, the pure worship of God. That's what they long for. That's what they want. And the Lord will be pleased to give it to them or to their seed in His perfect time. Let's be mindful of these things. Let's see this proclamation. And then fourthly, let's notice the gifts given in verses 7 Cyrus not only encourages the people of God to give, he himself gives. He gives of the state's coffers, things that weren't really rightfully theirs in the first place, because the Assyrians under Nebuchadnezzar had taken them from the temple. But at the same time, they were his, at that point, as the conqueror of the Assyrians. But he gave them to be used in the worship. He took them out of the house of his gods, and I think that refers to the gods of the Persians and the Assyrians, the predominant gods, Bel and Nebo, which are spelled out in Isaiah 46 as gods that particularly God was bringing to destruction. We also note in verse 8 that these gifts are given, they're numbered, and they're given unto Shesh-bazar, the prince of Judah. Now, some commentators differ as to who this man is, but I think it's pretty clear that this man is, in fact, derivable. This is a Chaldean name, which means joy in tribulation. And just like Daniel and his three friends in the book of Daniel were given Chaldean names, So it's very likely that Zerubbabel had a name that the Chaldeans and then those that came in with Cyrus called him by. His official name in that culture was more than likely Sheshpazar because he was the prince of Judah. He was the heir of rule in God's kingdom. He was of the Davidic line. We see him mentioned in Matthew 1, verse 12, as we see the genealogy from David, really all the way from Abraham through David, to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So, he was to be the ruler of God's people, Zerubbabel, the ruler of God's people. Now, we've looked at these verses and we've seen the king We've seen the proclamation. We've seen the prophecy fulfilled. We've seen the gifts. But there's one thing that's not mentioned explicitly in this chapter, and that is the means. How did Cyrus come to know that God had commanded him to do these things? And I would contend that in all likelihood, it was through the ministries, particularly of Ezekiel and of Daniel. They were both carried to Babylon 70 years earlier. Ezekiel was somewhat older than Daniel, but he completed his prophecies there and taught among the people of God at the river Kibar in Babylon. And then Daniel served not so much as a prophet, though he was a prophet, but his predominant influence was through his leadership as a cupbearer of the king. and a servant of the kings. He serves under four kings at least that we know of through the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede, and then it also says that he served under Cyrus. He was a man of integrity and of influence, and I would contend that it's more than likely that he communicated God's Word to Cyrus. He told him what Isaiah had spoken about him. He told him what Jeremiah had prophesied would take place. He knew it was going to take place. The emperor or the ruler just before Cyrus was Darius the Mede, and apparently there was some overlap of rule, that Darius wasn't cut off by Cyrus, but there was actually a co-rule that went on for several years there. It's not really clear how that took place, or did Darius just give over the kingdom to Cyrus. But we learn in Daniel 6, chapters 1-3, that Darius the Mede had 120 princes. And it says there that Daniel was the chief of his 120 princes. He had 120 rulers under him. But Daniel was the number one of those 120. He was Darius the Mede's right-hand man. He was very influential in a kingdom and in an emperor that basically transferred his authority, maybe at old age, to Cyrus. So, it's more than likely that he still had that influence. And we see in the latter chapters of Daniel that he still was very influential in Cyrus' reign. So it's likely that the means by which Cyrus came to these convictions and likely came to conversion was through a faithful servant of God in a heathen culture who was committed to integrity in all his life. He served God in a pagan administration, many pagan administrations for 70 but remain faithful to his God. And I think this chapter has at least three applications for us this evening. One, the Lord builds the church. This is what Jesus tells us in Matthew 16, 18. I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He may bring the church low, to humble it, but he never destroyed the church. When he brings the church low, it's only for its future growth and glorification. He's only pruning us as the people of God so that we might bear more fruit in years to come as individuals and as the church of the living God, as the church militant, the visible church here on earth. He chastises us, he brings us love. There are periods in the history of the church where his ordinances are not held up high, where true worship is rare indeed. And yet he's pleased through those times to raise up revival and reformation in the midst of his people. He builds his church, and he builds it his way on his timetable, and he uses his means. Sometimes he's pleased to use civil magistrate. We learn here what's been called in Presbyterian and Reformed circles, the establishment principle. It's enunciated in Westminster Confession, Chapter 23, Paragraph 3. There the Westminster divines say this, the civil magistrate has authority and it is his duty to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruption and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and the ordinances of God duly settled and administered and observed. How many people in our day recognize that our President and our congressmen and representatives, that they are responsible to make sure that the true Reformed religion prospers in this land. That they ought to have a concern that the ordinances of God are established in this land in purity. How many of them have forgotten these things? Our forefathers in days of old believed these things, and they sought to establish a relationship between church and state, where the state would foster the well-being of the church. There are still several laws and several benefits that accrue to the church because of those relationships established. Tax-exempt status and the like. But they're severely deformed today because tax-exempt status is not only given to the true religion, but it's given to false religions. So, they're helping the people of God, but they're helping the enemies of God at the same time. So, these things have been greatly distorted in our day. And it may not be too much longer unless God is pleased to bring revival that these things may be taken away from us as well as the heretics and cults in our day. And that won't necessarily be bad for the church of God. If God's pleased to do it, it'll be for our good, won't it? And then we'll see if we're willing to serve God when it hurts a little bit more than it hurts right now. All the divines were speaking of was this principle that Isaiah himself speaks of in Isaiah 49.23. He speaks of a future time in the New Covenant. A time of blessing. He says at that point, Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their queens thy nursing mothers. There will be a time of glory in the church when the church on this earth, the church militant, is so dominant and it will have a unique relationship with the state, that the state will be viewed as the nursing father of the church. and the nursing mother of the church. Now this relationship between church and state has existed. It's existed in Scotland for a number of years. It may even exist today in Zimbabwe. But it's rare indeed. Rare indeed. But occasionally God has been pleased to use civil magistrates even in heathen nations to do good to the people of God. And we ought not to despise those things. We ought to desire them. We ought to want to see our civil magistrates come to understand the true reformed religion and to support it in their state and in their country. And that leads to the third application. We need to pray for our governmental leaders. They can be converted and they can do good for the nation and for the people of God. And they can do so in a heartbeat. God can change the heart of our leaders any time He will, pleases to, and turn this nation around significantly. But notice in chapter 1, He stirred the heart of Cyrus and He stirred the heart of the people. Usually when God starts stirring the hearts of the kings, He starts stirring the hearts of the people of God. They usually go in concert, don't they? And it's then that God's prepared to do great reformation in the church. But we need to pray for our governmental leaders. Remember what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2.1, I exhort therefore that first of all, I'm making it a priority, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Let us pray that God might stir our hearts and the hearts of others in his visible church in these days, that he might be pleased as well to stir governmental leaders that we might see a reformation and revival of the true religion in our day. And at the same time, let us not grow weary. We might be called to be like Daniel. We may be called to be like those people that spent 70 years in Babylon under oppression. But being faithful, conveying that vision of restoration to their children and their children's children, so that when God was pleased to work, He worked through all that teaching, all that faithfulness, all that integrity that they stuck to, even though things weren't very pleasant in their day. They didn't grow weary. They kept their vision on the glory of God in Jerusalem, even while they were in Babylon. Let us do so, and let us hope that God would bring deliverance to his people and do so soon. For his glory and the good of his people. Let's pray.