Year 2, Day 44: Ezra 6

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.

<>< 

*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.