The city of Jerusalem and the Temple lay in ruins for seventy years. The people were scattered and desperate. Spiritually exhausted and barren, they long forgot the promise of renewal. In another faraway city called Babylon, the exiles from Judah work, live, and wait for their return to Jerusalem. Jeremiah promised that after seventy years, they would return. So they waited. Some exiles built homes and integrated into Persian society, culture, and religion. Others shared stories about their God and His people. They told their children the wonderful promises God made.
All they could do was wait. They were powerless to do anything. Had God indeed forgotten them? Was God still angry with them, as Jeremiah asked in Lamentations? But a strange proclamation went out from an unlikely source. The King of Persia told them to return home and rebuild the Temple. Not only that, the king also told the surrounding people to aid the exiles. Their parched hearts began to hope again. Like clouds in a desert, God’s presence would soon rain down. Hope and renewal began to grow. Was God fulfilling His promise to return?
Set the Stage
This morning, we look in on how God fulfills His promises in the book of Ezra. This book was written for those who had returned from exile. It is far more than a rebuilding of the Temple story. It is about building a people of worship. Throughout Ezra, see God’s call to gather and worship Him rightly. We see allusions to the church and Jesus. Today, we look at how, after 70 years, God kept His promise through a pagan king. He promised much more than to return His people to a land; He promised to build a family of worshippers, and He fulfilled this in Jesus. God fulfills His promises through stirring hearts, moving people, and bringing worship.
God Stirs Hearts
1:1-5
The book of Ezra opens with God stirring the hearts of His people to fulfill His promises. For seventy years, the people wondered how or even if a promise to return to their land was possible. Yes, God had said it through His prophet, but they sat under the mighty king Cyrus. Would they have to figure out a way to return? Would they need to find a way to fulfill God's will? They would have to incur a heavy financial cost to move and rebuild. This task seemed impossible. And it was…with people.
The Lord now takes the active role in the story. He stirred the heart of King Cyrus. Cyrus may have been a mighty king, but he was no match for the King of Kings. Imagine being the people of Judah and hearing a pagan king, whom you saw as your enemy, proclaiming it is time to go home and rebuild. Your jaw would have dropped. God didn’t simply motivate His people to go; He motivated a king to supply them to go. People move to God’s will by God’s stirring. His people only had to be obedient and go.
Ezra shows us that God is sovereign over all worldly powers. His promises can and will be fulfilled by His mighty hand. God can use anything and anyone to do His will. Jesus said that the rocks will cry out if need be. So fear not, as you look to the news and see evil on display. God is sovereign over those powers. He will bring them to judgment, and He will fulfill His promise to restore the world. Let the book of Ezra give you hope in difficult times that God will do what He has promised to do. As we wait, be obedient.
God can stir the hardest heart. So, pray that God would stir the hearts of leaders, bosses, family members, and friends. Pray that God would stir their hearts to follow Him. Pray that God would stir our hearts as well. So will we listen as God stirs our hearts to worship Him throughout this week?
Next, God stirs the hearts of the Jewish leaders. Who rose up? All those God stirred. God moved their heart with a mission to rebuild the Temple. God stirs our hearts with a mission to fill the world with worshippers. Let us, like the Jewish leaders, answer that call. Let us not neglect or reject the stirring of God to do what He has called us to do. The beautiful thing is that even if we fail, like every character in the Old Testament, God will still fulfill His promises. We will fail, and yet God’s plan, purpose, and promise will not be stopped. Don’t use that as an excuse to do nothing. We get to be a part of the fulfilling promise of God to redeem people.
God’s promise to restore began with a pagan king raising the Jews scattered throughout his land to return to their land. The answer to seventy years of questions was answered by God’s hand and moving people to give and to go. God builds a people of worship through stirring, sending, and sacrifice.
The New Exodus
1:6-11
Much like a mirror of the first Exodus of God’s people out of Egypt, Judah would ‘plunder’ the land as they returned. God stirred the hearts of the neighbors to give resources to those returning. So the returnees left with treasures to take back to the Promised Land. When Israel left Egypt, God allowed the people to leave with all the materials they needed to build a nation. In Ezra, we see a second Exodus. In Egypt, they were slaves; in Persia, they were exiles. They again journeyed to the promised land. Again, they had an opportunity to fill the country, and the world, with true worship.
Even the stolen Temple wares were returned. God performed a mighty restoration movement. No person in Judah could be left wondering what was happening. God was moving, and it was marvelous. After seventy years of wondering if God was finished with them, God was bringing His people back home. They could again bring worship to God in the land He had given them. God had done what seemed impossible.
Likewise, we also await a great Exodus. We are not yet home. We are awaiting a day when we will be in the direct presence of our King. As we wait, what do we do? We begin to worship God where we are and invite others into this worship and relationship with our King. We also wait with hope, because God brought Israel out of Egypt, and He brought Judah out of Persia. He will bring us from this world into His Kingdom. God fulfills His promise to gather His people!
We face impossible diagnoses, tasks, financial, and social situations. But we worship a God who is in control of all things. Rest in His arms. Trust His sovereign hand. Even when we don’t understand what God is doing, let us look back to Ezra and see how God moved the hearts of a king, a nation, and a people to do His will. We might not see where God is going, but we know who God is. So let us trust God as He builds us into a people who worship Him even through hardships and impossible tasks. Lay your impossible into the hands of a God who moves mountains.
Arrival Home
2:68-70
After God stirred the spirit of the king and the exiles, they went back home. For some, it was a home they had never seen. Many returning to their homeland were born in Babylon. Others were carried away while they were young. They made it safely to Jerusalem and the foundation of the destroyed Temple just as God had called them to do.
The people gave a freewill offering to begin the work that God had stirred them to do. What we see at the end of chapter 2 is that God fulfilled His promise to call them home and for them to build the Temple. We see that accomplished. God did what He had promised through Jeremiah. Those who returned would need to remind themselves of this truth frequently. The work they were about to do was not easy. There will be numerous challenges both externally and internally.
But for the first time in 70 years, offerings were made by God’s people at His house. They were about to build the Temple, a place where they would worship God again. And again God would dwell with them. For the reader, this served as a reminder of God’s faithfulness to His people. God had not forgotten those He placed in exile. And when the time came to return, God did it in a way that they knew this was God’s work.
However, the Temple was never the final answer. For, as we journey alongside the returnees in Ezra, we will see the Temple fails to bring God’s presence back, because the Temple did not keep the people’s worship pure. They brought back foreign gods that would continuously call them away from God. Their worship was diluted. How would the Temple ever be pure? Not with stones, but with God Himself.
Jesus walked into the Temple. He found polluted worship. He cleansed it, claiming that it would again be destroyed, but a better Temple would be built in three days. Jesus was the true Temple. His body would be broken, but three days later, He rose victorious from the grave. In doing so, the veil was torn in the old Temple. God’s people would now seek Him everywhere they went, no longer in a building. Unlike the temples we see all around us, we worship God with every step we take and every place we go. God’s presence goes with us, and we can call on Him everywhere we are. We do this together as a family of worshippers.
The church is God’s family, a people of worship. Let us carry our worship of God everywhere we go. At work, school, 7-11, and anywhere else. Beloved, be the aroma of life to a dying world. Invite people to join the family of God. Let's be a people of worship. So, as we look back at the exiles returning and giving offerings for the Temple, let us have hope that just as God fulfilled that promise, He will fulfill His ultimate promise to bring us into His Kingdom. Then we will forever be His people, and the stain of sin will forever be wiped away.
Conclusion
As we reflect on Ezra 1–2, we see that God is not distant or forgetful; He is faithful, active, and sovereign. He stirred the heart of a pagan king, moved a scattered people, and provided all they needed to return and rebuild. But this return wasn’t just about restoring a place, it was about rebuilding a people of worship. And that mission continues today in Christ. Jesus is the true Temple, and through Him, we have become living stones. So let us be a people stirred by His Spirit, offering our lives in worship, trusting that the same God who kept His promises in the past will keep every promise still to come. Until the day we are brought fully home, may we worship faithfully, walk obediently, and invite others into the family God is building.