A Victory for God
Today we
see a triumphant God. Today we see that
in spite of the distractions and roadblocks established by the local
inhabitants of the land, Darius decrees that the Temple be restored. In fact, not only does Darius go back to the
original decree made by Cyrus; Darius actually takes the original decree and
adds to it.
Darius
reminds the local inhabitants and their regional governors that Cyrus’ decree
was that the Temple should be rebuilt and that the implements of the Lord that
were taken away by Nebuchadnezzar should be restored. In addition to this, Darius adds that the
remaining cost of the building project should come out of the royal treasury –
specifically out of the royal treasury that the local governors had collected
for the management of that area of the Persian Empire. And perhaps even worse, Darius decreed that
if anyone else should interfere with the work of the building of the Temple
that a beam was to be pulled out of their own house and they were to be impaled
upon it. If that doesn’t send a pretty
clear message, I don’t know what does.
I think
there are two clear lessons here. First,
God always wins in the end. We might
think we have beaten God, but at best He has only allowed us to walk away from
Him and demonstrate our true character.
In the end, God always wins. So
the question that remains is: why resist Him?
He already knows our character, why don’t we just own up to the fact
that life is better denying ourselves and picking up our crosses and following
Him?
The second
lesson that we should learn here is that greater rebellion brings greater
consequences. The nation of Israel had
already rebelled and spent several centuries in bondage. While in bondage, they began to mingle even
more with the Gentiles and to further corrupt God’s ways with the ways of the
world. Now, as they are living in the
land, they continue to cause trouble for the genuine Hebrew people who yearn
for a legitimate relationship with God.
Because of their continuous rebellion, God steps up the consequences
even more. They finally reach a point
where through Darius God says, “Interfere with me anymore and you will
die.” That’s pretty severe, and
pastorally I recommend not rebelling against God to that level!
Passover
At the end
of the passage we see that the Temple is built and the Passover is
celebrated. This is cool. The Passover hadn’t been celebrated for a
long time between the time of the judges until Josiah. No doubt it fell back into disuse after
Josiah rediscovered the law (see 2 Kings 23:21-27). But here come a new people out of a new
bondage and they reinstitute the Passover.
It’s funny how it takes a little persecution and a little bondage to
remind us how important God is and how important it is that we meditate on His
character and His grace. The Passover
was instituted during one Exodus, and we see here that it takes people who
understand that Exodus to really grasp why the Passover was important.
Wow. As I was typing that sentence I think it
really dawned on me just how important that last sentence of the prior
paragraph is. Go back and reread it,
please. It takes people who genuinely
understand what it is like to come out of bondage to appreciate God, God’s
character, and what God brings to our life.
Man, do I stand convicted.
I have to
confess something here. For most of my
life I have struggled with genuine spirituality versus spiritual compromise
between God’s ways and the world’s ways:
I’ve read
the Bible in its entirety several times in my life, but I had never even come
close to saying that I “read the Bible every day” until I began this blog in
January 1, 2011.
I have
struggled in the past with daily intercessional prayer, and although I am
getting better it is something I still struggle with seeing the importance of
it being a part of my daily life.* I
have known the importance of service, but putting myself on a regular routine
of service is something that only recently I have been able to accomplish.
I could go
on with other examples, but my point is that I struggle – like the Hebrew
people – in remembering to do the things God wants me to do simply because God
wants me to do them. How many times do I
say to myself, “Gee, I just don’t feel like my prayer life is going
anywhere?” Well, usually that means that
I end up not praying for a while. But
unfortunately what that should mean is that I remind myself, “God wants you to
pray, are you going to obey Him or not?”
Or sometimes I tell myself that a certain act of service in my life
doesn’t feel productive anymore. So that
usually means that I give myself permission to stop serving for a while. But really, what it should mean is that I
have an opportunity to ask myself, “God wants you to serve, are you going to
obey Him or not?”
You see,
it takes a people who really understand what life is like without God to truly
appreciate life in obedience of God. The
rest of us are able to get sucked into the trap of letting our desires get in
the way of genuine obedience. The rest
of us sit back and let our own feelings cloud our response to what God really wants
us to do.
In order
to not end on such a negative note, let’s think about the joy at the end of
this passage. The Passover is
celebrated. The people are joyous. Praise is given to God – even for a Gentile
king whom God used to make it all possible.
God is truly an amazing God. And
He is every bit worthy of our praise.
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*Don’t get
me wrong. Prayer is always a part of my
daily life as there are many forms of prayer.
I pray before I eat. I usually
spend quite a bit of any time that I am along actually talking to God as if He
is in the room right beside me – and I genuinely consider that prayer. But intercessional prayer – prayer that
intentionally lifts up the needs of others in my life – is something that I
have always struggled to do with any consistency.
This was posted to FB, but I thought it also worthwhile to leave here "in context" as well.
ReplyDeleteI must confess, Ezra after Romans is tough. Probably cause we're nearing half way though, and after such a great letter by Paul Ezra just isn't as rich - or more accurately perhaps I just don't prefer it to Romans.
Its good to remind ourselves - as you say in this blog entry -- while I've also read the bible through before -- this last year + 2 months is the first time in my life I can say I've read the Bible every day for an extended period of time with only perhaps 2 or 3 'double ups'. That is a great thing, and I do find it draws my thoughts back to God at least once a day and forces me to pause and spend a bit of time with Him.
So, I really appreciate what you've been called to do here John. It certainly is a blessing to me, and I thank you for it (without in any way removing the praise due Him who works in you for inspiring you to this ministry, but rather acknowledging your contribution in faithfully doing it)
Tom, don't think you are confessing anything I've not felt myself. My first post on Ezra even compares Romans to the comfort of a warm blanket and Ezra to that uncomfortable morning cold when we toss the blanket off! So I hear ya on this point.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I do appreciate the words of encouragement. Praise be to God - for it is only Him and His power that has sustained you, me, and anyone else who has continued to daily come together in God's Word.