At the end of the book of Second Kings, Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, was freed from his imprisonment in Babylon, but he remained a captive there. He was a guest, as it were, at the king's table, and he was given an allowance for his daily needs through to the end of his life. Here, at the beginning of the Book of Ezra, almost 70 years have passed since Nebuchadnezzar first assaulted Jerusalem and brought back a few captives to Babylon. That was to be followed by two further deportations, culminating in the destruction of the Temple and of the city walls. The Babylonian Empire has itself fallen, this time to the Persian king Cyrus, and a dramatic turn of events is about to unfold for the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The passage begins 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 through all his kingdom and also put it in writing." A proclamation from a great and powerful king. a proclamation that will do the people of Israel good. It will serve them for their well-being. It will put them in a position to once again bring their offerings and sacrifices to the Lord their God in the prescribed manner at the prescribed place. The word of a king is about to transform the lives of the people of God. But the words of the king themselves are a result of the word of the Lord. And that is the first thing that I want us to consider this evening, for the word of the Lord had come through the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet. And it would do us well then to turn to the book of Jeremiah the prophet and to consider a couple of portions of his word. In chapter 25, well we could read so much of this so we're taking out sections to inform us of what lay behind the word of the King of Persia. In chapter 25 and in verse 8, Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. And I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the King of Babylon seventy years. Then, after seventy years are completed, I will punish the King of Babylon. and that nation. the land of the Colvians, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands. And then if we carry on in Jeremiah to the 29th chapter in verses 10 through 14 we read, for thus says the Lord when 70 years are completed for Babylon I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Well, there's the word of the Lord that he would restore the Jews to Jerusalem after 70 years. And the word of the Lord is always trustworthy. the word of the Lord always comes to pass. And for those captives in Babylon, for those long years that they were kept there, it must have appeared at times an impossible thing that they should ever be restored to the land. How was it to come to pass that from such a great empire, under such a powerful king, they should be able to escape and return to their land? And yet, God promised that even that great empire would weaken and be destroyed. Even that great king would not have the power to hold on to his throne and his authority. The God would raise up another and another who would come in and who would destroy and the tables would be turned and the justice of God would fall upon the Babylonians as the chastening rod of God had previously fallen upon the people of Judah. God's word is always trustworthy, God's word will always come to pass and it may have seemed such a long time and yet in fact 70 years have not passed when the Lord begins to move There's debate over how we are to count these years and one of the suggestions is that which I intimated earlier that from the time of Nebuchadnezzar's first assault on Jerusalem, not his third assault when he destroyed the city walls and burned down the temple and took all of the precious artifacts of that temple, away with the people into captivity, but his first assault in which he took just a small number of captives to Babylon, from that point until this time where the book of Jeremiah opens up and the people of Judah have this hope of returning to that land less than 70 years past but it is close to 70 years from 605 BC to 538 BC and it is suggestive to us that God is a God of mercy that Even though God at times declares that his hand of judgment will fall with severity, God often mixes his severity with mercy. And we see that unfolding here, that even though he had said there will be 70 years of captivity, he cuts it short in his kindness. He begins to move. earlier than the fulfillment of those 70 years if this is the way that we are to count them. And why not count them this way? For when we read in the New Testament concerning God's purposes in this world, in Peter's second letter and in the third chapter, we read in verse 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfil His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Now that's a different scene, it's a different setting and God there doesn't shorten the time that he has decreed but he shows patience towards this world. He's not in a hurry to bring judgment upon the wicked, he is patient, he is kind, he is merciful, He extends the day of salvation, as it were, so that others may hear, so that others may be challenged with the call of the Gospel, the good news that there is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ to all who call upon his name. This is the nature of our God. His word is utterly trustworthy. It will come to pass, but we see mercy mingled in the promise of judgment. We see mercy in the timing of his actions, but we are to take warning from these events. Judgment will come. God will fulfill his promises. We are to be encouraged by these events. Salvation will come. God will be faithful to his promises. Now what does this mean to you? Are you to be warned? Are you to be encouraged? Well you are to be warned and encouraged. warned that you don't take for granted this day of salvation, this day of God's mercy. It will not last forever. There is a day that God has appointed. It is known only to God himself. He hasn't revealed it to us. A day in which his son will return to this world to bring judgment. And when that day dawns, it will be too late to call to him for mercy. It will be too late to take hold of his promises of forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be too late to take advantage of his goodness and kindness in the delay of his judgment. That day we'll see the outpouring of his wrath upon the wicked. Be warned. That day will come. His word is certain. It will come to pass. But be encouraged. Be encouraged if you're trusting in the promises of God. Be encouraged if you're resting in the hope that God has given through the Lord Jesus Christ. That this world of sin and wickedness, where it seems to be growing darker day after day, will one day be filled with light as the risen and ascended Christ comes in all of his glory. and the darkness will evaporate in His presence and in His light, and we will be with Him, and we will be welcomed into His presence, and we will be at home with Him forever and ever. The Word of the Lord has spoken, and it will come to pass. And though it may seem to us at times that the promises of God in the return of Jesus Christ are so unimaginably impossible, yet they will come to pass, for God is true to his word. And we see the truth of God and the word of God presented to us in the Servant of God. And that's our second consideration this evening. The Servant of God. And the Servant of God isn't any Jew. The Servant of God isn't anyone who was carried away from Jerusalem into captivity in Babylon in this chapter. That's not who the Servant is. The servant of God in this chapter is a pagan king. A king who is stirred by the Lord to do his will. And the stirring of the Lord in the heart of Cyrus to do the will of God doesn't begin here on this occasion, it has started earlier. as Cyrus's strength has gradually increased to the point where he has overwhelmed the Babylonian Empire and taken it captive and reigns now upon its throne. And this is not an accident of history, this is the unfolding purpose of God, this indeed is the fulfillment of the Word of God. But when we turn to the book of Isaiah, another prophet who foretold events that would take place in these days, Isaiah speaking some 200 years before these events take place, actually names the king and the things that would happen. And so we read in Isaiah chapter 41, And in verse 25, speaking of events that have been happening before Ezra chapter 1, he says, I stirred up one from the north, and he has come from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name. He shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay. who declared it from the beginning that we might know, and beforehand that we might say, he's right. There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words. I was the first to say to Zion, behold, here they are, and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news. But when I look, there is no one. Among these, that is the other gods, there is no counsellor, who when I ask, gives an answer. Behold, they are all a delusion. Their works are nothing. Their metal images are empty wind. God is saying, I stirred up one from the north. I began this work. Did anyone know? Did anyone give counsel? No, there was no one. I alone knew these things. I have declared these things to Zion, he says. And in chapter 44, in verse 24, we read, Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb. I am the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited. And of the cities of Judah, they shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins. Who says to the deep, be dry, I will dry up your rivers. Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose. Saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built, and of the temple, your foundation shall be laid. Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed. I will go before you and level the exalted places. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name for the sake of my servant Jacob. and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name. I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. Besides me, there is no God. I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. Verse 13, I have stirred him up in righteousness and I will make all his ways level. He shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward, says the Lord of hosts. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the servant of God. God describes him as his servant. God describes him as his shepherd, that he is raised up and God goes before him and he makes everything smooth before him. It is plain sailing for Cyrus to overwhelm the Babylonians. Why? Because it is God's will. And there is no other God who is sovereign over all the world. And it is God's will. Why? Why is it God's will for his people Israel? for his people. He is working out all these things for his people and the Lord uses those who don't know him. I've called him by name though he does not know me declares the Lord. Cyrus who makes this decree that the Lord, the God of heaven has given to him all the kingdoms of the earth and has charged him to build a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah and that his people should be released from their captivity to travel to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. God has stirred him He has turned him for the hearts of kings are in his hands and he causes them to do his will. This is not to say that Cyrus became a believer in God. He knew that the Lord, the God of Israel, the God of heaven, as they described him, was God. But he was just another God. One God, a man among the many gods. Which God is this? Well, this is the God who dwells in Jerusalem. He belongs to Jerusalem. Cyrus would give out many decrees for the peoples whom Menebuchadnezzar and his successors had taken captive during the strength of the Babylonian Empire. And they would all be granted their freedom and restored to their homelands and encouraged to build the temples of their gods. As far as Cyrus is concerned, this is just another of the many gods that he was setting free from captivity and restoring to his own particular jurisdiction. But Cyrus is a servant of God. Though he does not know him, he is the servant of God. For the Lord uses all manner of people in order to fulfill his purposes. And nothing can stand in his way. The great empire of Babylon that seemed so strong and invincible couldn't stand in his way. God used it for a purpose, to chasten his people, to bring conviction of sin to the hearts of a remnant among them, that they might cry out to the Lord for mercy. and he would hear their cry and he would restore them to their place. God used King Cyrus as his servant to topple the Babylonians to bring a change, a dramatic change in the fundamentals of the rule of this great empire so that those who were once captive are now freed. Those who were once exiled are now restored. And through the ages of history, God has raised up men in order to perform his purposes. So that in the fullness of time, his own son would be incarnated in this world. and would grow up to live a holy life on behalf of his people and to suffer a sacrificial death upon a Roman cross. Why upon a Roman cross? Because God in his sovereignty had raised up the Greeks to overwhelm the Persians and raised up the Romans to overwhelm the Greeks so that at the right time there is a power in place that will fulfill his predictions that one would be cursed who would hang upon a tree and suffer and die as a penalty for sin, the sins of his people. So that all of the promises of God are yes and amen in him, finding their fulfillment in him perfectly according to his word because God has raised up a servant. A servant like Pilate. A wicked Roman governor who didn't care about anybody except himself. A man who was able before a mob to wash his hands in apparent innocence and yet at the same time hand over an innocent man to be executed. What a man! But a servant of God. to fulfill God's purposes in God's time. And though we do not always see it or always understand how God will perform his will in this world, God's servants are innumerable. And they don't all know his name, and yet they bow to his rule. For he stirs their spirits to do things they do not understand, that perform his will in perfection. And so Cyrus, King of Persia, is the servant of God, who makes a decree that the people should return from Babylon to Jerusalem in Judah and rebuild the house of God. Moreover, not only will they do that, but they will take with them the riches of Babylon. More than just the things that had been taken away from the temple, just like the other gods, who had been exiled. The other peoples from around the realm were restored to their own places, their temples were built, their idols were relocated. Ah, but the God of Israel, he's not an idol. And the best he can do then is to send bowls and basins of silver and gold. But more than that, the people themselves are encouraged to give to the Jews, that the men of each returnee's place should load them with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides what was to be given for the house of God. Here is an echo of Exodus, as the people of Israel came out of their first captivity, their slavery in Egypt and the people of the land enriched them with the resources that they would need upon their taking of the land that was promised to Abraham. That there they might build a tabernacle for the worship of God with gold and silver and bronze that had been plundered from the Egyptians and so it is here as in these days of Cyrus the Jews returned to Jerusalem, Jews who have been in captivity for so many decades are enriched by the wealth of Babylon so that they might build a house for God in the city of God for the people of God. And that leads us then into the third point, to consider the people of God. Here are a people who have been in captivity for some time, some of them for almost 70 years, some of them much less time than that, but enough time for them to settle in Babylon, enough time for them to establish themselves in that land. enough time for them to set up business and to enter into trade. You know, they weren't prisoners in that land. They were exiles, they were captives, but they weren't prisoners in the sense of being under lock and key. They lived life, and they flourished, and they prospered. And many of them, well, to leave that behind, hmm, that was a tough call. to leave the ease, to leave the prosperity. You know, these aren't slaves like the first generation of Israelites coming out of captivity in Egypt, under harsh treatment. These were families who were doing well, who had made lives for themselves, to be uprooted from that, to have to travel hundreds of kilometers in a dangerous journey to a city whose walls were piles of rubble, to worship at a temple that no longer existed, to reestablish farms and businesses that didn't exist. But the Lord stirred. He stirred the spirits of some among those people. Isn't it interesting how God works? God isn't so interested in the great and the powerful. He doesn't display himself in those kinds of people and those kinds of works. What was it he said of Israel? as he sent them into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. It was not because you were great and mighty that I chose you. It was nothing in you yourselves, no reason like that, that I chose you. You were the least of the peoples of the world. But I chose you to make of you something, a glory to me. Here are a people who forsook the Lord who had so kindly, so graciously, so mercifully brought them out of slavery in Egypt and set them in a land flowing with milk and honey. They had forsaken him, they had rebelled against him, generation after generation after generation had done so and here they are in captivity once again in Babylon. But even before that, that great nation that had stood so glorious during the reigns of King David and his son Solomon had been fragmented and the larger part of it had been utterly destroyed many years earlier. And so of that great nation there was just this little tribe and a bit of Judah. such an insignificant handful as it were of what it once had been and here they are in captivity exiled in Babylon and out of this it is but a small group in whom the Spirit of God stirs, to stir their spirits that they might go up and rebuild the house of the Lord. This is the way that the Lord works. He had worked this way in the days of Gideon, when Gideon had amassed an army to fight against the Philistines, but God would not have the whole of the army go. He whittled it down in stages until, as you remember, there were just 300 men who went against the full force of the enemy and routed the army because God's hand was with them. God delights to demonstrate his power through weakness. And here, is a chosen remnant among the captive people of the little tribe of what was once the great nation of Israel. So few return, but it is because God has stirred the hearts of those he has determined to favour with his grace and in whom he desires to reveal his glory. And so the Lord has preserved a king Here is Shesh Bazar, who will bring up the silver and the gold when the exiles are brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem. There's debate over who this Shesh Bazar is. He may be one and the same with Zerubbabel, whose name appears a little bit later. in this book. So Rebbebel is the grandson of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, who was taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar. he is of the royal lineage and so if Shesh Bazar is one and the same, simply having the Persian name as we witness in the examples of Daniel and his three friends who had their Jewish names but were given Babylonian names as well, so it is here perhaps And so God, whether it's Shesh Bazar, one and the same with Zerubbabel, or whether Zerubbabel is a different person, God has preserved a king. And indeed, he has preserved a kingdom, albeit in captivity. It has been kept safe with him. And he is going to restore it to its place in Judah, in Jerusalem, in order to fulfill his purposes in order to bring his promises to pass. And there is no denying that the hand of God is at work in the history of redemption. This is God's doing, that this king should be preserved, that this people should be restored to Jerusalem so that at the proper time The descendants of King Jehoiachin taken into captivity, of Prince Zerubbabel restored to Jerusalem should appear on the streets of Jerusalem and on the plains of Judah to proclaim the good news that the Kingdom of God has come. It has dawned in this world a kingdom of freedom from the tyranny of Satan and of sin. The kingdom of God in which his people are righteous and holy and perfect in his sight. A kingdom of those who have been redeemed and restored and reconciled to himself. God is working out his purposes and this chapter reminds us that the Word of God is always sure and the servant of God can be anyone for God will perform his purpose by whatever means he chooses and the people of God in whom his Spirit stirs are kept and are secure for his glory. And here you are today, in this room, gathered in this place, and you are hearing the Word of God, the Word that is true, the Word that is certain, the Word that will come to pass, a Word of saving grace to those who receive it and trust it, the Word of convicting judgment to those who reject it. The day is coming when the saviour of sinners will come as the judge of sinners. It will happen. God's servants, whoever they are, will bring it to pass. And only God's people will be safe and secure in that day. The word calls you to trust him. not just to believe in him, to know that he is, but to believe him, to believe his word, to take it seriously and to act upon it, to cast yourself upon his mercy and to walk with him day by day. Start that journey today if you haven't already started it. Come to this God who is all-powerful over all of the forces of this world, all of the empires, all of the kingdoms, all of the princes and presidents and prime ministers of this world. Come to Him and seek His mercy today and walk with Him. Walk with him today and walk with him tomorrow and walk with him the next day and prove in your own life that his word is trustworthy. Prove in your own life that his people who entrust themselves to his care are safe. Let's pray. Dear Father in heaven, help us, we pray, in our weakness and in our temptations in this world to only see with the physical eye. Help us to see with the eye of faith. Help us to know that you are at work when all around us seems to be falling apart, when all around us seems to be increasing darkness and chaos and enmity against you and your people, help us, dear Lord, to trust in your word, to know that your promises are sure, that you will bring salvation to your people and that nothing will be able to prevent it. We thank you for these gracious reminders to us this evening, that your word is sure, that your servants are everywhere, and that your people are safe. Help us to trust you each day of our lives, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.