God will STIR up PEOPLE to BUILD His CHURCH!
May 14
Bible Reading: Ezra Chapters 1-3
God will STIR up PEOPLE to BUILD His CHURCH!
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of
Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled,
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a
proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,
"Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord
God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at
Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May his God be
with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem." (Ezra
1:1-3)
The purpose
of the book of Ezra is to describe the restoration of the people of God after
the Exile. This begins with the people’s return and the rebuilding of the
temple (Ezra 1–6) and continues with Ezra’s reinstitution of the Law (Ezra
7–10). The book of Ezra opens with the closing words of 2 Chronicles, for God’s
plan was not finished. Judah had rejected Jeremiah’s warning, but the prophet’s
words came true. God is at work in human history. His purposes will be
accomplished, regardless of the nations’ activities.
God used
Cyrus, king of Persia, to issue a proclamation permitting the Jews to return to
Judah and to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and to reestablish His people.
Many years before his birth, Cyrus had been named by God and set apart for this
high destiny (see Isaiah 44:28–45:13), and this illustrates the truth of
Proverbs 21:1: “The king’s heart is in
the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He
wishes.” The point of these Scriptures is to assert that God was at work
through this powerful ruler of the ancient world. He spoke to Cyrus through His
Word (v. 2) and moved Cyrus in his inner spirit (v. 1). Through Cyrus, God was
accomplishing His own will—that is, to graciously deliver His people from
captivity. The God we serve is not only
the God of Israel or Judah, but of the whole world!
There are four important lessons that we can learn
from this passage:
- First, rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem was
God’s objective in the history of redemption at that point in time and God
accomplished it as promised (Jeremiah 25:12; 29:10).
- Second, God can use virtually any means to
accomplish His purposes just as He used even
a pagan king to fulfill Jeremiah’s prophecy that the Jews would return to the
land after 70 years of exile (v. 1a).
- Third, the written word is a powerful tool
used by God to accomplish His objective as Cyrus put his decree in writing and
proclaimed throughout his kingdom (v. 1b).
- Fourth, the people of God as a whole are
vital for accomplishing God’s purpose in this world as the Jews traveled back
to Jerusalem to rebuild God’s temple (v. 5).
Even today, God
is fulfilling His promises. We have been called out as “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and His own special people”
(1 Peter 2:9). We have been made part of His children on this earth and
categorized as the ‘Church’ which started on the day of Pentecost in Acts 3.
God is building His Church on this earth with or without our help. If we do not
spread the gospel, God will make the stones to cry out for Him (Luke 19:40).
God is already stirring up people all over the world with a burden to build His Church, so let us do our part in His Kingdom today. Let us never forget what Jesus has already declared: "I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18)
