Ezra chapter 3. Ezra chapter 3 is where we want to turn for at least the start of our Bible reading this morning. A little book of Ezra. Ezra and Nehemiah go together. Ezra chapter 3. We're going to read this chapter through, and then we're going to turn over to the parallel portion. in Haggai chapter 2. And that's where we want to take a model text for, or take a model text from, for the incoming year. It's basically thinking about it as an anniversary year for our denomination. So we're going to read Ezra chapter 3, beginning at the opening verse. Ezra chapter 3, And we're reading from verse 1. And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Josedec, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and built up the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. And they set the altar upon his basis, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries. And they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. They kept also the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required, and afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons and of all the set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. They give money also unto the masons and to the carpenters, and meat and drink and oil unto them of Zidon and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the Sea of Joppa according to the grant that they had of Cyrus, king of Persia. Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem in the second month began Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and the remnant of their brethren, the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites from twenty years old and upward to set forward the work of the house of the Lord. They enstood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Cadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together to set forward the workmen in the house of God, the sons of Hinnadad, and their sons and their brethren, the Levites, when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David, king of Israel. And they sang together by chorus in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord, because He is good, for His mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were ancient men that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many shouted aloud for joy. so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people. For the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off." And then if you turn over to Haggai, please. And we're going to read the first nine verses of chapter 2. So this is a parallel time that we are still coming to, Haggai chapter 2. And Haggai, Zechariah, almost at the end of the Old Testament, the two of them go together. We'll be mentioning that in a moment or two. The ministry of Haggai and Zechariah go together, and they tie in with this period that we have been reading thereof in Ezra. Haggai chapter 2, and we're reading the first nine verses. Haggai chapter 2 verse 1, in the seventh month on the 120th day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory, and how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord. And be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedek, the high priest. And be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord. And work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you. Fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." Amen. We'll end there at verse 9 of chapter 2 of Haggai. We know the Lord will add His blessing to the reading of His Word. I want to go back to verse 4 there of this chapter, Haggai chapter 2. We're going to take some words out of this verse as our motto text. The Lord, I believe, has directed my own heart this portion, and we're going to think here about this exhortation to be strong. In verse 4, it's stated here three times, "'Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,' saith the Lord. "'Be strong, O Joshua, the son of Josedec the high priest, and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts." And again, we know the Lord will add His blessing to the reading of His Word. If we want to take the last part of this verse, be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work, I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts." That's going to be our motto text for this incoming year in the will of God. Be strong and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. We're going to bow together in prayer and ask the Lord for His help in as we come to His Word. Our Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word that we have read. We thank Thee for those days of the return from captivity and all that Thou didst do and all that Thou didst send Thy servants to speak on Thy behalf. And Lord, as we come to consider Thy Word at this place, we pray that Thou will make Thy truth applicable to our own times, our own lives and circumstances, We pray, Lord, that we might know something of the Lord speaking to us this day. Oh, grant us Thy blessing, we ask. We pray that Thou will draw nigh to us and open up our own hearts to Thy Word this day. And Lord, may there be a Word in season that will encourage us and lead us on after Thyself, even in the days in which we live, as we come to think about an anniversary. Lord, we pray that We might know Thy mercy, Thy blessing upon us. Hear our cry now, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. The ministry of Haggai began around 16 years after the end of the Babylonian captivity. There was 70 years of captivity that the nation went into, and they were carried off into Babylon. But then they returned. to the land of Israel, and they commenced to rebuild the temple. We read a little bit of that there in Ezra chapter 3, how first of all, they set up the altar. They started offering the sacrifices. And then sometime after that, the foundations of the temple were laid, the second temple that was going to be erected. Those first six chapters of the book of Ezra cover that return under Zerubbabel. Ezra and Nehemiah can really be divided into three parts. There's the first six chapters of Ezra that deal with the return under Zerubbabel, and then from chapter 7 on through to the end of Ezra, there is the return 60 years or so later under Ezra himself. There's no mention of Ezra this morning. in our Bible reading, in those opening chapters of Ezra or in Haggai and Zechariah, because Ezra wasn't around at that time. He wrote the record up later on, but at that particular time, that first return, it's under Zerubbabel. And it's only then about 62 years or so later that Ezra took a return back to the land of Israel, and he went back not to build the temple, because by that time it had already been finished, as in the physical building, he went back to regulate the worship in it. He was a priest, but he couldn't function as a priest in the land of captivity, and therefore he became a scribe of the Word of God. He knew the word, he had written out the word many times, and he went back to regulate the worship that was going on in that temple. And then about 13 years after that, Nehemiah went back. When he didn't go back to do anything about the temple, because the temple had already been built, the worship had already been regulated in the days of Ezra, he went back to build the city. That was the word that came to him from his brothers. When they came from Jerusalem and they told him in Shushan the palace that the gates had been burned with fire, the walls had been broken down, and that there was great desolation. And Nehemiah was exercised of heart to lead a return to rebuild the walls. So these two books of Ezra, Nehemiah can be divided into those three parts. And we're thinking about the first part of that. And into that comes then the ministry of Haggai and Zechariah, into that first period when Zerubbabel is going back. Zerubbabel is the prince of the house of Judah. If you look at it, he's actually the adopted son of the princes of Judah. He comes in by his spirit of adoption into that position and becomes a leader of the tribe of Judah, and therefore the kingly line will come on through him and ultimately go on to Jesus Christ. But there's this man's irrevable that we are introduced to, and then the other individual that is mentioned here is Joshua, the son of Josedah. He is the high priest. So there's these individuals that we come into contact with. That return had been brought about by the proclamation of King Cyrus. King of Persia. He had learned from the Word of God that the Lord had named him, way back in the prophecy of Isaiah, that the Lord had named him as the individual who would sound out a proclamation permitting the Jews to return from captivity to their own land. And when he was shown that, he believed that the Lord indeed had directed him in life to bring to pass that very thing. And if you go back to Ezra chapter 1, and if you look at the opening verses of that Book, Ezra chapter 1, now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled of Jeremiah. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation through all his kingdom, and put it also into writing, saying, thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, 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. Who is there among you of all his people? Has God been 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." So, this man Cyrus, this king of Persia, he comes to understand what the Scripture says, and he makes this proclamation, and he encourages the Jews to go back from their land of captivity to go back to Israel and to there rebuild the temple. were indeed those who caught the vision as a result of that proclamation, and they did determine to go back. In Ezra 1, if you'd gone there down the chapter a little bit further to verse 5, it says, then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites with them all whose spirit God had raised to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. So there were some who indeed caught the vision, but they were few. very few, compared to those that were in captivity. How few there were who caught that vision and went back. Their numbers are given to us there. In Ezra chapter 2, when we come down almost to the end of that chapter, verses 64-65, it tells us there was 42,360 that returned, along with servants, 7,337 went back. less than 50,000 went back. Of all those who had been taken into captivity, and there were far, far more than 50,000. Seventy years have gone by as well in captivity, remember? And out of all of those that were taken away, and so many were taken from the land by Nebuchadnezzar, that the land only had the poorest of the people left during those 70 years of captivity. And yet when the time came that Cyrus pronounced the proclamation and said, you have permission to go back and you can have authority to build the temple again, less than 50,000 of them returned. There were many of them who had grown content to live among the Gentiles. had no interest in going back to Israel, going back to Jerusalem, no interest in going back to build the temple. There's always that danger of becoming content, Christian. We too can become content. We can lose focus as to what we ought to be doing and even neglect what God directs us to be doing from His Word. They ought to have gone back, but they didn't. were those who were neglectful. And that's where all of those little Jewish communities came from that started moving west then over the centuries that followed from that time right down to even a hundred years ago or so. Eastern Europe was full of little pockets of Jewish people here and there that could trace their ancestry back through many generations, but go back to those who were in captivity, those who had never gone back to the land of Israel. Jewish communities were decimated in Europe during the Second World War, as we know, and all of those people were Many of them were lost, but they trace their ancestry back to those times when they didn't go back to Israel, and they remained among the Gentiles. And there is a lesson for us in thinking about this. At the very beginning of thinking about this, we can become content. We can miss out on doing what God would have us to do, forget His Word, neglected to some extent, not following through on it in the fashion that we ought to be, there were only some that did go back. And yet that little group that did go back started off worshiping the Lord. We've read there this morning in Ezra 3 how they set up the altars, started observing the feasts. They went back in the seventh month, so the feast of the seventh month, the main feast of the seventh month was the Feast of Tabernacles. they commenced worshiping the Lord and observing Feasts of the Tappernacle. It's important even to notice there, and sometime maybe we'll pick this up in thinking about this motto text, that they were seeking to go back and to do what God had commanded in His Word. They didn't go back thinking, well, we're going to start a fresh year. We're going to wipe the slate clean, and we're going to start afresh as to how we're going to worship the Lord. They went back with a desire to go back even to what God had said way back in the times of Moses, when those feasts were first regulated and given to Israel. So within the second year of their return, they had commenced to build the temple, the foundation of the temple is led. Chapter 3 there, verse 8, where we were reading, now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month began Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and the remnant of the brethren, the priests, and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites from twenty years old and upward to set forward the work of the house of the Lord. they began to build. Now it was with a mixture of tears and joy. We read about that in chapter 3 as well. Also here in this portion that we have read this morning, there's an indirect reference to it as well, but there was a mixture of joy and a mixture of sorrow because there were some who remembered the previous temple. They were old men. Seventy years of captivity have gone by now, since some of them were taken into captivity. But they remembered the temple, Solomon's temple. They remembered the magnificence of it. And they see the plan of the present temple and the foundation that is laid out on the ground for it to be started to be built upon. And there's mixed emotions with them because while they're rejoicing that this indeed is happening and the second temple is being rebuilt, there's the memory of previous times. So there is a mixture of tears and gladness as They start this work. But it wasn't long until their adversary sought to derail the work that they had begun. In Ezra chapter 4, verse 2, if you want to turn over to that portion, I'm going to highlight some verses. I'm not going to stop and read every one of these, but you can look them up yourself as we go through some of this. But there was a first, there was the suggestion, well, let's make this a joint enterprise. Ezra 4, verse 2, they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of the fathers, and they said, let us build with you, for we seek your God as ye do, and we do sacrifice unto him. These were people of the land. These were the Samaritans. They weren't called Samaritans at that time, but they later on became known as Samaritans. They were not Jews. They were those who had been brought in to colonize this land. they had started to worship the Lord after a form. You think about that woman of Samaria in John chapter 4 and what we learn from her. They did start to worship after a form, but Zerubbabel is not going to have any part in this. He's going to refuse to have any part in this joint enterprise. And when we think about our own history as a denomination, even as we come to mark 75 years this incoming year, our own history is marked by a rejection of the spirit of ecumenism. Well, it was a broad way back then in the days of Ezra, the days of Zerubbabel, Nehemiah as well, the same spirit was found in amongst all of those men. There were those that wanted to join in with them. Just because someone claims the name of the Lord for something doesn't mean that you participate with them. Not everybody who comes along claiming to be doing something in the name of the Lord is to be joined with and welcomed and just taken at face value. Here were individuals who were coming to Zerubbabel, and you would think, well, Zerubbabel, you need all the help you can get. You're only a small handful of people. Less than 50,000 have come back. You have this whole land to look after, never mind build the temple in Jerusalem. Where are you going to get the manpower? Where are you going to get the means? And there's these individuals who come along and say, well, we'll help you. We're willing to come and join with you. And Zerubbabel's reply is no. No, we're not going to take your offer. We're going to stay a separate people. And how important that indeed is and is to say in our own history. We'll have more to say about this as we come up towards March the 17th and the 75th anniversary of our denomination, but there was a rejection of the spirit of ecumenism. And not everything and not everyone that comes along taking the name of the Lord is to be welcomed and accepted and joined with. There is to be a spirit of discernment. And there are times that God's people are to say, no, we're not going to have any part in that. We're not going to have any part in that. So that's the first attempt that was made by their adversaries. They didn't have their best intentions at heart. They didn't want the temple to be rebuilt. They were just wanting to get in alongside them to frustrate them and to hinder them ultimately from doing this. So that was the first attempt that they made. If you look at chapter 4, verses 4 and 5 of Ezra, you'll find the second attempt because they sought to use the law against the Jews that had returned. There were counselors that were hired. Advisors were hired with one purpose of frustrating the work of the building of the temple. And that period of frustration and hindering the work was dragged out for 15 years. Fifteen years it dragged out, to the extent the work ultimately stopped. The work ultimately stopped. It tells you there in verse 5, Ezra 4 verse 5, and hired counselors against him to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. So Cyrus is the individual who gave the proclamation initially, and then we're told about the reign of Darius. And if you work that out, as I say, it's a period of 15 years. So for 15 years, this work has been frustrated. They've gone back. They have a desire to build. Their enemies are seeking to frustrate them, using all the points of the law that they can muster against them. And it would seem that the work was slowed down for a start, and then ultimately it ceased. It ceased altogether. There was no building work done at all. They achieved their purpose, it would seem. These enemies, that are seeking to frustrate them. That isn't the end of the story, but that is where Haggai comes in. We've got now to the point where the Lord raises up this man Haggai. And if you come to think a little bit more about him now, I've sought to sketch the background there of those years, as I say, 15 years, 16 years of frustration and hindrance of the work that ultimately it has stopped. It is not going anywhere. And the Lord raises up Haggai. And within a couple of months, He raises up Zechariah as well. These two men go together. if you mark your Bible at all, and if you go there to Ezra chapter 4, and we read there about the reign of Darius, and then it jumps forward to the reign of Ahasuerus that is mentioned in Ezra chapter 4 verse 6. At the end of verse 5, as I say, if you mark your Bible, you can put in there the ministry of Haggai and Zechariah, Because that's where it slots in, in this timeline that is given to us in Ezra. Because it leaves the reign of Darius, and it jumps forward to the days of Ahasuerus. And remember, Ahasuerus is the king that's associated with Esther. The story of Esther and the book of Esther will come in alongside the reign of Ahasuerus. And then we'll come to think about Artaxerxes as well. Ezra chapter 4 and verse 7, and those are the days of Ezra himself and Nehemiah. So, we're jumping forward here a number of years with these two kings. So, of those four kings that are mentioned in Ezra chapter 4, verses 5 and 6 and 7, you can break up that sequence of King Cyrus to Darius, bring in Haggai and Zechariah immediately after that. Ahasuerus will take us forward to the days of Esther, and then on to Artaxerxes, the days of Ezra himself and Nehemiah. And you can go and look for those kings mentioned in connection with those individuals. But we're thinking about this period of frustration when First of all, there was an initial desire to build, but then it has been hindered, it has been frustrated, even to the point where the work has stopped. And at that moment, the Lord sends His prophets. The Lord raises up Haggai, and He raises up Zechariah with a word for the people. And that's one particular thought I would like you to keep in mind as we think about this motto text, that into this period of frustration, the Lord interjected the ministry of these two men. The Lord sent word through these men. He raised them up at this particular time. The Lord saw the circumstances that were prevalent at that very moment. As I say, the work had been frustrated, and it got to the place where it had completely stopped. But the Lord came with a word, and that's that word that we're thinking about as a motto text here in Haggai for this incoming year. Haggai was raised up first. He had the earliest of the messages from the Lord. He was the one who was the shortest of these two prophets as to ministry. Zechariah came on a month or so later, and he had a much longer ministry among them, as we know from the length of their books. The Lord has different works for different individuals to do. He had a work for Haggai to do, and he had a work for Zechariah to do. And the two of them were going to come together and form a team in that sense, because they're spoken of together. their ministry started. And what they had to say coincides with Ezra chapter 5 and onwards, those events that are following on just immediately after that. Now, if you come to Haggai for a moment, and if I can summarize a little of what it is that was initially said by the Lord through Haggai, Because the Lord begins by rebuking their misplaced priorities. I'd said about some who didn't go back at all, and even those that did go back, they lost focus. The frustration that came upon them as they were hindered from working got them downcast to the extent that the work stopped. Because when we come to Haggai, what is it that Haggai has to say to them? Well, if you look at Haggai chapter 1 and look at verse 5 and verse 7, "'Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.'" This is what Haggai has to first say to them. So, here's a people who have gone back initially. They're the ones Out of many, many individuals, 50,000 less of them who had gone back with a desire to build, but they had become frustrated, and the work has stopped. And Haggai comes with a word from the Lord, and the Lord says, consider your ways. Consider your ways. Because they had got so downcast that they had said the time is not right to build. at Haggai 1 verse 2, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, saying, The people say, The time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Now, they've gone back with that desire to do this very thing, but as I say, they've been discouraged, frustrated, and their work has stopped, and now They're making excuses. They're saying, well, maybe the time isn't right. Maybe that's the reason why all this hindrance has come about. We're just not going to build anymore. We're going to leave off this work. This is not the right time to build. They had a number of reasons for doing so. The land was desolate. Their numbers were few. The work was hard. There were those enemies that has been frustrating them now for 15, 16 years of this work. They don't have a lot of money. If you look at Haggai 1 verse 6, "'Ye have sown much, and bring in little yeet, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes." So, it wasn't a time of prosperity at all. It was the very opposite. It was a time of recession. It was a time of crisis financially, where they didn't have the means. And they could use that as an excuse, and they could say, well, we don't have a lot of means. Never mind the lack of manpower. We don't have the means. If you go down in that chapter 1 verse 10, they had suffered crop failures and drought. The Lord says, therefore, the heaven over you is staid with dew, and the earth is staid from her fruit. I call for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands. So there's a drought that has come about, failure of their crops. So add all of this together, and you can understand why they're saying, oh, the time isn't right. But that's not what the Lord thinks about it. From our text in Haggai chapter 2 and verse 4, the time is now to work. and to labor. It's long past time to build. Whatever these problems might be, they are not to hinder the work of God going on, because there's a very obvious reason why this is being said. If you go back to Haggai chapter 1, you'll notice there that they had built their own houses in these circumstances. Look at verse 4, Haggai chapter 1 verse 4, is a time for you, O ye to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste. Their argument might have stood up to some degree if they hadn't been building their own houses and hadn't lived in sealed houses. and nice dwellings for themselves. Maybe their arguments as to this is not the time would have had some justification, but it certainly hasn't any now when the Lord says, ah, but look at what you've done for yourselves. You've built yourselves houses and you've sealed these houses and beautified them. My house lieth waste. So that's why the Lord is here coming with this word from Haggai and saying, consider your ways. Consider your ways. It doesn't add up. You have time for this. You have effort for that. You have resources for your own things, but God's house lieth waste. So this is the Spirit that was abroad. This is the times that Haggai and Zechariah are called upon to minister. And if we come right down now through to chapter 2, and closer to these words that we're wanting to take as our motto text, be strong and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. I trust, as we've sketched a little bit about the background here, that now we understand a little more of this exhortation. Now is the time to work, despite all of these things, despite whatever frustrations there might be, whatever hindrances there might be, It's the time to work. And that's true of you and I today, Christian as well. It's time to work, because we only have this generation to serve. We're called upon to serve this generation. That's the Lord's will for us. It's said of David, without turning it up, in Acts chapter 13, verse 36 there, that he served his own generation and fell in sleep. You and I are called upon to serve this generation, and it'll soon be gone as to your and I opportunity to serve the Lord. And this generation will soon pass away, and we're called upon to serve them. So there is a need today to rise and build. And even with this exhortation to to rise and build, and the Lord is going to be with them, from what we read there in Haggai chapter 2 and that fourth verse. There was going to be still future opposition. If you go back over to Ezra chapter 5 now, it tells you about the ministry of Haggai at the start of this fifth chapter. Ezra chapter 5, it mentions Haggai and Zechariah and how they prophesied to the Jews. And there was a stirring of Zerubbabel. It tells us that, then rose up Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and began to build the house of God, which is at Jerusalem. And with them were the prophets of God helping them. So their ministry wasn't without success. It had the effect. It did stir up Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the high priest. And they and the prophets joined together, and they're going to be involved in building this work. So the ministry of these two men, Haggai and Zechariah, was indeed owned of God. It was at the Lord's appointed time, a time of need and a time of frustration. The work has been hindered, and it's been going nowhere for years. And the Word has come. Consider your ways. It's time to rise and build. And we find that that's exactly what Zerubbabel does in Jeshua. But that doesn't stop the enemy from just recommencing what they had been doing before. And if you look there at Ezra chapter 5, Verse 3, at the same time came to them Titani, the governor on this side, the reverend Shethar, Bosnia, and their companions, and said thus unto them, who hath commanded you to build this house and to make up this wall? Then said we unto them after this manner, what are the names of the men that make this building? So, as soon as they recommence to build, there's the same issues as before. They're the East, Medo-Persian technocrats who are immediately coming and saying, now, who's building? Give us your names. Who decided to do this? We want to report this to the authorities. We want to send word to the king To Darius, remember, the king of Persia, we want to send word to him and tell him what is being done, so give us your names. It's interesting when you read on down Ezra 5 that there is no names that are given. They must have refused to give their names. Because in the report that was sent to Darius, and I would encourage you to read on there, you'll see from verse 6, Ezra chapter 5 and verse 6, mention is made about the copy of the letter that was sent on to Darius the king. And the details are there given about how they have begun to build and all the rest of it. But there's no mention of any of their names as to who they had started this building work. So that would suggest that they have refused to give their names. Sometimes it is appropriate to defy the authorities. There wouldn't be a free Presbyterian church if that had not happened. Yeah, there can be a debate about that. As the apostle said to the authorities in Acts, you can debate whether it's better to obey God, whether it's right to obey God or man first. But this is what we're going to do. We're going to obey God. And sometimes there is a place to defy authorities. That seems to be what's happening here with Zerubbabel and Jeshua. It's certainly the case in the earlier days of our denomination. There was a defiance of authority because there was authorities who wouldn't give planning permission for buildings to go up. That happened in my home congregation in Clowhar Valley. They wouldn't give, you know where the church is at the minute, wouldn't give planning permission to put up a hall on that site. But they could give planning permission to the leader of the council to come out onto the main road further on up the road to Dungannon. So they said, well, if you can do that, we're just going to build anyway. You can worry and argue about it all you want later on. And that first hall was put up on that site. But that wasn't the only congregation where there was difficulty, and authorities who did everything in their power to hinder commencement of congregations and churches. And sometimes, It is appropriate to defy authorities. You and I wouldn't have our English Bible that you're holding in your hand this morning if William Tyndale didn't defy the authorities of the day. There was a law already in place that nobody was to translate the Bible into the vernacular. That law had been in place from the days of John Whitcliffe, or shortly after the days of John Whitcliffe, because they dug up his bones and burned Whitcliffe's bones on that very law. So there was already a law in England that said, you're not to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular. And if you do, you're doing something worthy of death. Did William Tyndale obey? Did he say, well, that settles it. I'm not going to translate the Bible into English. The plough boy's not going to be able to read now." Tyndale knew that he couldn't do it in England, and he was going to have to leave and go to the continent to complete his work. But he translated the Scriptures into English. He defied the authorities. And then they smuggled them into England in defiance of the authorities. And their bales of cloth and wheat Many, many copies of Tyndale's New Testament came into England as a result of defying the authorities. And sometimes, many times, I would suggest to you in God's work, there is a need to defy those who would hinder the work of God. And in the face of all of this, If we finish off there, we'll come back to this another time. But there in Haggai chapter 2, where the Lord says, I am with you. Be strong and work, for I am with you. I am with you. And may we take these words to heart even this year. Yeah, there is a need for us to rise and build to serve this generation. And to do it with that promise, the Lord is with us. To do it with that assurance, He's with us. He's not forsaken us. He has not left His people. Therefore, we can look to Him for help, for His blessing. I trust the Lord will bless these thoughts today to all of our hearts. We're going to bow together in prayer. Our Father, Bless Thy Word that we have spent a little time considering. Lord, as we think about the background to these words and these times of Ezra that are recorded in Ezra, the days of Zerubbabel and then Haggai and Zechariah, Lord, we pray that Thou might write Thy Word upon our hearts. Stir us up, we pray. Give us a desire, Lord, to rise and build, knowing that the Lord is with us. Write Thy word upon all of our hearts this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 569 we're going to sing as we conclude 569. O safe to the rock that is higher than I, my soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly, so sinful, so weary, Thine would I be, Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee." 569. We'll stand and sing verse 1 and 3 of this hymn as we close. ♪ That is higher than other ♪ ♪ My soul in its comforts ♪ ♪ Have sought a closer guide ♪ ♪ So safe and so weary ♪ ♪ My God in whom I lean ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ The rest of all angels are alleluia ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ And be a guide for us ♪ ♪ But often when trials ♪ ♪ Are seeming so ♪ ♪ I am willing for a long, long time to come ♪ Lord, help us to hide in thee, to trust in thee, to depend upon thee. We thank thee for the promise the Lord is with us. And we pray that we might go in the strength of that to labour and to serve Thee. Be with us now. Bless the time of prayer that continues on afterwards. Tarry amongst us, we humbly pray. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. you. Yeah.