These days I find my heart and mind driven to lay a foundation from which we can begin to build into the future. I spoke last week about that foundation being Christ. When I began this departure a few weeks ago I thought it would be short lived but I’m not so sure now; Because as I study the books of Ezra and Nehemiah I am finding new things that need to be brought to light. I will be honest this is one thing that I don’t like about looking at the scriptures from a new paradigm shift or a new way of viewing the world – you can’t go back and see it the way you used to. Even though you may be looking at the same old words you’ve looked at a hundred times before you are looking at them with new eyes and you just see them differently.
I find myself reading these Old Testament passages and not being able to get Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 out of my head: These things (the entire narrative of the Old Testament) happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age (or after the work of Christ). 12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
What I hear that passage tell us is that the things that are written in the Old Testament, the stories of people’s lives are written so that we can understand what is going on in our lives but also what is going on in the lives of our families and our communities, even our nation. If we see them and understand them rightly then we can turn from our sin. The temptation is the same from the beginning to now: we want to be like God determining right and wrong for ourselves. Paul says that god will show us how to turn from that sin and walk rightly. What he doesn’t say is that we will want to do what’s right. If you rightly look at the word of God the way out is clear: humble yourself and repent. What we see over and over again in scripture is that most people who say they are in the church refuse to bow the knee and so they die in the wilderness. Paul exhorts us to see what the Old Testament church did and not to do the same things. Instead of doing that we have throne out the Old Testament and said it no longer applies. I hope we still have time to repent of our arrogance.
I’m going to start in Ezra chapter 4 today but I’m also going to go back to the time of the Babylonian captivity to look at some things because I think we need to do that we can understand from a biblical perspective what is going on in the times we live in. I know sometimes I make jumps that seem logical to me but may leave you scratching your head. If I do that ask me later please. I don’t want to confuse you I want to help you understand the times we live in better.
What I’m beginning to see in Ezra and in all of the Old Testament narrative is the understanding that God’s work doesn’t always go in a straight line. Sometimes it stops and starts. That’s comforting to me because I can get unbelievably frustrated when I don’t see things working out the way I want them to. I want God’s spirit to just come down and change everybody. I want him to transform our families and communities in the blink of an eye. What I really want is for things to be easy. Part of me knows that is not going to be the case but there is the other part of me that still believes that life is supposed to be that way. When it’s not, well I get frustrated, I get angry, and I get grumpy. I mean if it were up to me the judgment of God would have already fallen on our nation and we would be moving on. But it’s not up to me. Nothing is up to me. My calling is to proclaim the truth to the best of my ability but sometimes I’m not content with that; I want to be in charge of everything.
So we are in Ezra 4; we’ll start with verse 1 and go from there: The enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were rebuilding a Temple to the Lord, the God of Israel. 2 So they approached Zerubbabel and the other leaders and said, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God just as you do. We have sacrificed to him ever since King Esarhaddon of Assyria brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other leaders of Israel replied, “You may have no part in this work. We alone will build the Temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, just as King Cyrus of Persia commanded us.”
We are getting a glimpse here of how the enemy tries to stop the advancement of the kingdom of God. Let me lay a little ground work so that we can understand who these people in the land were. In the New Testament times they were known as the Samaritans but they have a history which we are probably not too familiar with so we’ll look at it briefly.
What we see in this passage is that the enemy attempts to compromise the mission and the message by offering to help. The attempt is made to mix the work of God and the work of man. They are trying to mix world views. The church has been doing that for most of our existence. Even here in the Old Testament we are seeing unbelievers trying to get in and be a part of building the church. They say, Hey we just want to help you get the plan of God accomplished but unbelief in hearts and in views of the world do not help the church advance, rather, they destroy the very foundation upon which the church is built. We live only by every word that comes from the mouth of God; not every word plus the help of unbelievers, of Greek philosophy, humanist philosophy, or the latest business growth models and also not less than every word and all those things.
The latest method to infiltrate the church in our day and age is pragmatism – whatever works to grow the church is ok. But that is not acceptable to God. He expects us to use his methods and work within the confines of his word. There is a difference between the ways of the world and the ways of God; one is right and the other is wrong. The prophet Zechariah made it very clear to Zerubbabel the leader of the building process during this time during this time: when he said, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts.
We don’t understand that these days because we have opted for might and power instead of the Spirit of God. We want to take back our country by political means, by a show of force, by business means, by throwing money at all the problems but all of those things are rooted in something other than the word of God and they do nothing to help the kingdom grow. Instead they sow the seeds of destruction.
I cannot stress this enough to you: if and when judgment falls upon this nation of ours it will not be because of the wicked people out there somewhere, it will be because of the wickedness of the church. It will be because we have compromised the word of God. It will be because we have added to and taken away from the word of God. The judgment to come will be on the church, not the non-churched, and for us to fight against it in order to protect what is ours is to be fighting against God himself. If you plan on keeping what you have by force and might and not the spirit of God then you are doing nothing but kicking against the goads. If we think that we can save this country by political maneuvering and the strong arm tactics of the moral majority then we really don’t understand the word of God at all.
If the coming judgment is because of the waywardness of he church then for us to rise up against it is to rise up against God himself. We must learn from the examples God gives us in his word. First, we need to remember that they were there now in Judah rebuilding the temple because the church had been in rebellion against God. THEY REFUSED TO REPENT. When God came in judgment upon Israel in the form of Babylon he told them not to fight against it at all. In Jeremiah 29 we read this: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5'Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 6'Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 7'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.' 8"For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. 9'For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,' declares the LORD. 10"For thus says the LORD, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'
When God said that to his people he did not say: go and become pagans. At the same time he did say: go and make the Babylonians Christians. He said: go and live in the land where I am sending and live your lives unto me. Build houses, have kids, get married and live your lives unto me. Seek me and you will find me.
What we often miss when we read those passages is that God knew and the people knew that he wasn’t going to make himself found for 70 years. He knew he wasn’t going to set his people free from the captivity that they brought on themselves until they had paid for it by receiving the promised covenant curse, not the promised covenant blessings. It is important that we understand that it was the obedient members of the church, the real believers like Daniel and his friends that had to endure 70 years of captivity. When we say the rain falls on the just and the unjust the same holds true for the judgment of God. The just go into captivity for 70 years.
Actually, captivity for 70 years was a piece of cake compared to those who didn’t listen to the words of God at all. Some of the members of the church, the non-believers in the church got much worse. Jeremiah writes: thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile--
17thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. 18'I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence; and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19because they have not listened to My words,' declares the LORD, 'which I sent to them again and again by My servants the prophets; but you did not listen,' declares the LORD. 20"You, therefore, hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
You see before judgment came there were some preachers in the land saying God doesn’t want us to go into exile. They were saying stand up to the Babylonians. Church leaders were saying God doesn’t want his church to go through troubles. He will deliver us from these hard times. And the result of that preaching was that God promised to destroy those false teachers and preachers because they were preaching what the people wanted to hear and not what God was really going to do.
It’s important that we understand that the church today is no more chosen that the church in the time of Israel. It is no more saved; it is no less saved. If Israel could become full of unbelievers and fall then the church do the same thing. I would say it has become the same as it was in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is corrupt. It is in just as much sin and rebellion against the commands of God as Israel was before it went into captivity. But our preachers keep telling us we just need to evangelize more, we just need to think positive thoughts. The Old Testament doesn’t apply any more. I’m am here to tell you that you had better take real close look at our old testament examples and you better compare their culture to our culture and you better get ready to accept the judgment of God that is coming. Because it is coming.
It is only after the judgment of God is done that the church will begin to blossom once again and not until then. In the midst of captivity we must get to the place where we are willing to stand for the word of God alone regardless of the consequences; Regardless of the difficulty that it brings into our lives. We should be prepared to go into the Lions Den or the fiery furnace as a result.
The question is: are we at a place where we can say the words of Daniel’s friends and mean them? As they faced the authorities who were getting ready to take them down they said: O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. 18 But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
You see the rebuilding in Ezra’s time could have gone quicker and easier if they would have just accepted the help of the people that were living in the land. The people that were trying to help them out were the same people that refused to bow the knee to God’s judgment and captivity. They refused to bow the knee to Babylon and therefore to God. They stayed in Judah. The ones that are still there 70 years later are the descendents of those that God promised destroy with to the sword, with famine and with pestilence; make a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19because they refused to listened to the word of God. They have still not repented. But they were church members weren’t they? I mean the exiles took money from the King of Persia and all their pagan neighbors didn’t they? What’s the difference?
The difference is that God orchestrated the pagans to contribute funds not lay the foundation or draw up the plans for what the temple was to look like or act like and these who stayed in the land are still in rebellion against God after 70 years of judgment.
So the returned exiles refused to compromise with the word of God. But that didn’t stop the enemies of the church they just switched tactics. If compromise wouldn’t work then they would try to scare the church to quit advancing the kingdom. In verse 4 we read: Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work. 5 They bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their plans. This went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne. Throughout that time period spiritual forces in heavenly places were continually stirring up the unbelievers to go the government officials to complain and finally two or three kings later Artaxerexes wrote a letter that said: issue orders to have these men stop their work. That city must not be rebuilt except at my express command. 22 Be diligent, and don’t neglect this matter, for we must not permit the situation to harm the king’s interests.” 23 When this letter from King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai, and their colleagues, they hurried to Jerusalem. Then, with a show of strength, they forced the Jews to stop building.
24 So the work on the Temple of God in Jerusalem had stopped, and it remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.
I want to stop here to remind us that nothing is easy or simple. We come to these little books and assume that God did great things in the blink of an eye in these people’s lives, at least I do. I want the things of God to be quick and easy but we must learn from our examples. Now I will admit that I am a little gun shy when it comes to long term planning. I got myself into trouble once for even considering a plan 100 years into the future. That’s how I ended up here actually. Long term planning ruined my career options. But the truth is long term planning is our only hope because God Moves Slowly in working out his plan in time and history. That last sentence we read: This went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne: That sentence takes up around 25 years. God gave them permission to rebuild. He put it on the heart of the King to pay the way. The Jews moved back into the land and began to rebuild the temple but then from my perspective Spiritual warfare begins to take place. And the process goes slow: Twenty-five years later the rebuilding process is allowed to proceed and 4 years after that the temple is rebuilt.
One of the things that we need to understand out of this passage is that God builds the church in his timing and in his ways. Sometimes he puts a halt to church growth. Unless we are sensitive to what the Spirit of God is doing in our midst we might mistake the lack of growth in the church with a lack of effort on our part. But church growth IS NEVER ABOUT OUR EFFORT. If the church is not growing then perhaps God is not pleased with the condition of his bride. We assume that when Jesus said the fields were ripe for harvest but the laborers were few that it applied to all time; but it doesn’t. The fields are ripe for harvest when God makes them ripe for harvest. In our day and age the fields are not ripe for harvest. Why because the church is in rebellion against God. We have compromised the word of God.
The only way that the fields will ever become ripe for harvest again is if the church turns from its ways to God’s ways. Is God done with the church? Of course not but it may be that God has to bring his bride to repentance before he can allow the fields to be ripe for harvest again. That is what the coming judgment is all about. We have left our first love and unless the church as a whole repents in this nation then Jesus himself will remove our lampstand.
Regardless of how things go with us as a nation here are my questions to you to day: Are you willing to lay down everything you have, everything you are in order to live solely by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God? Are you willing to have no compromise in your life? Are you willing to take the risk of Immanuel Baptist church dying in order to build her only by the ways of God and refuse to use the ways and wisdom of the world? Are you willing to let go of your church and let God have his church? These are the things that we must be honest about.
Unless we are willing to give up the church we attend for the God we say we love we have no hope, our families have no hope, our community has no hope.
May God have mercy on us as we answer those questions.
Let’s pray. Oh father, open our eyes. Give us the grace to repent. Give us the eyes to see the difference between our ways and your ways. Save us from ourselves.
Amen.
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