Ezra 1: The Promise-fulfilling, Heart-stirring God

"In the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, in order to be accomplished the word of the LORD from the mouth of Jeremiah, the LORD caused to awaken the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, and he caused to pass over a voice to all his kingdom, and also in writing, saying..." (Ezra 1:1, author's translation)

Over the next several weeks, we will be taking a deep, deep look at the book of Ezra, my personal favorite book of the Old Testament. I know my devotions have been rather sparse lately, but this semester I plan on typing up at least one devotional a week from the book of Ezra, as well as supplemental devotionals from Acts and the Gospels as we soon turn our eyes to the Easter season. Stay tuned! There are more blogs to come.

Nevertheless, today we introduce the book of Ezra and look at its first chapter. The book of Ezra finds itself in an interesting biblical context, one unparalleled by any other book in scripture. Although Ezra is in the middle of your Old Testaments, chronologically, it happened towards the very end. Ezra happened after the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon for seventy years. During the age of the kings (1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles), the Israelites acted very wickedly in response to all the Lord had done to them. Through many of the prophets, the Lord called them to repent from their ways, but they did not listen. Thus, in 587 BC, the Babylonians wiped them out, along with their temple, and brought them as exiles to their own land. For seventy years, the people of Israel were away from their country without a temple for worship--it seemed as if the Lord had abandoned them.

Yet, glimmers of hope shined in this time. Prophets, like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, prophesied not only before the exile but also during the exile, calling the people of God to repent and once again worship the Lord. These prophets also proclaimed to Israel that they would once again return to Jerusalem and that the temple of the Lord would be rebuilt.

Right at the end of those 70 years, we find the opening pages of Ezra. Finally, we find in Ezra that after the majority of a century, God fulfills his promise to his people and shows them how he had never left them.

In Ezra 1:1, we find God "stirring up" or "causing to awaken" the heart of Cyrus, who was the king over them at that time. Thus, Cyrus issues a decree, commanding his people to both allow the Israelites to move home and build a temple and assist them in the process. Cyrus's people respond, and they gift them with silver, gold, possessions, animals, and freewill offerings. This very act of Gentiles shows us that this returning of the land in the time of Ezra is a "second exodus," paralleling the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt. Just as God had promised to rescue his people then, so he promised to rescue his people now, and both promises have now been fulfilled. Thus, the heads of the houses of Israel ascend to Jerusalem to build the house of the Lord.

Thus, we find from Ezra 1 that the LORD is a promise-fulfilling God. Though in distress for seventy years, the LORD had never given up on his people. And if it takes the stirring of a pagan king to accomplish his purposes, God in fact will do that very thing. You see, my friends, Ezra 1 is not about an Israelite people who returned to the Lord in their own power and are now building him a great house. Rather, Ezra 1 is about how a promise-fulfilling God rescues the people of God by the power of God for the glory of God. Ezra 1 isn't about God's people; it's about God. He gets the glory for saving the nation, and so also should he get the glory for saving us.

Thus, what we are going to find in the book of Ezra is the answer to the following question: What does it look like for a people far from God to turn back to him? Sounds like an interesting topic in our day and age, does it not? Let's contemporize this a bit: what does it look like for our unsaved neighbors, friends, and family to turn back to God and repent of their sins? Or perhaps, what does it look like for us to run back to God after a prolonged season of disobedience? Or maybe, what does it look like for a nation--perhaps one that once insisted on grounding itself on Christian roots and is now straying from the very principles it built itself on--to return to God?

Thus, we do two things. First, we trust in a promise-fulfilling God. Ezra 1 proves to us that every promise of scripture will come to pass for God's children. A promise I've been holding dear lately is Psalm 3:4, where God tells me that he is a "shield around me, my glory, and the lifter of my head." My God is a shield around me, protecting me from life's storms and temptations. Second, we pray to a heart-stirring God. Just as God awakened the Jews to follow him once again, so the Lord can do a mighty work in our land today,. Let us pray that he might do so, amidst a hurting nation. Amen!