September 19: Ezra 4-6 & Psalm 137

September 19, Ezra 4-6 & Psalm 137

Ezra continued… & then Psalm 137!

Ezra 4 We learn about the opposition to God and His people doing the Lord’s work. So, what is going on? Basically, there was some adversaries who heard that the Jews were back in town, so they took the fictitious friendly approach. They asked if they could help them build the temple and they went so far as to say that they too worship God (yeah right). Jeshua and the boys declined their offer and they said that they were going to do it to their God by themselves, since that what God and King Cyrus said for them to do. Their enemies did not like this, so they schemed and bribed the other people and counsellors to go against them and screw with their plans and Cyrus… they succeeded temporarily. They wrote a letter to Emperor Artaxerxes (pronounced artazerkseas) in Aramaic against Jerusalem with a bunch of lies in it and urging Artaxerxes to stop the building of the temple. They based this on their lies that they are wicked, and were wicked, and also that if they were to continue to build they would stop revenue for the royal city. They challenge Artaxerxes to look in the old records and he would see how wicked these people were. He bought their lies and stopped the building and it didn't continue for about 15 years…

Ezra 5 The rebuilding of the Temple begins again. We will learn about this tomorrow, but we are told here that Haggai & Zechariah were prophesying in the name of God. Haggai was basically stating that the people were where they were at because they lost sight of who God was, as well as encouraging them! We learn about Tattenai, the governor of the province of Beyond the River and some other guys came and spoke to them. They obviously had no idea of what Cyrus had decreed, so they questioned them on who gave them the right to build the Temple. It was also obvious that God was watching over his people. The Jews gave an honest account of their sin and shortcomings and a quick history as to why they were where they were at. After that, Tattenai writes a letter to Darius the king on behalf of his associates urging that the Temple rebuilding continues. Tattenai asked Darius to look in the records to verify if Cyrus had actually decreed that they were able to build. 

Ezra 6 King Darius issued a decree, as he did find the decree of Cyrus, that the work of God’s Temple should continue. In Cyrus’s decree, he detailed out the size of the temple and some details and some other stipulations. Darius also insisted that the money needed to finish the project would come from the royal treasuries. What should happen to the person(s) who went against this new decree? “if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.” That guy is not playing around! Truth is - if God is for you and wants His plans to be accomplished, nothing can stand against Him. All the adversaries back off at this point…

They finished building the Temple and the elders all got together and prospered. The dedicated the Temple to God and celebrated with offerings and joy. They held the Passover and the exiles were now back home with a Temple to worship Yahweh. God worked it all out!

Psalm 137 is an interesting Psalm as it is written around the time that Babylon was conquered and the people were returning from exile. It is about lament and vengeance. It is a prayer for God’s justice when they were oppressed and they do not want to forget what God has done and who He is. The later part of the Psalm is rather full of vengeance and they wished vengeance upon their enemies. 

To sum it all up: 

• We cannot thwart God’s plans. He will have His way. 
• His prophecies will happen & He will win. 
• Are you an adversary or an advocate for God’s work? Which team are you on? There are only 2 teams in this life, those for God and those against Him. There is no middle ground…