Sermon Notes - Demolition Day

Brian Carroll

Work in Progress / 2 Ch 36:15–21

 

Introduction

• I’ve always found it interesting how quickly you can tear something apart and how slowly it is to put it back together.

• Case-in-point - meet the Lego Super Star Destroyer.

• This is one of the largest sets ever put out by Lego.

• Measures nearly 50 inches (124.5 cm) long and weighs nearly 8 pounds (3.5kg) 

• It contains over 3000 pieces and can be put together over the course of about 8 hours.

• Lego no longer sells the SSD, but you can go onto places like ebay and acquire your own for somewhere around 1500-1700.

• If you are the kind of perosn who says say, “What would I do with a $1500 lego set?

• Well, you could join the club that takes very large lego sets and destroys them - like this

• It said they spent 8 hours putting it together, but something made it seem like a good idea to throw it to the ground and film it in slomo.

• Of course, we’re the beneficiaries of these destructive efforts.

• It isn’t just legos that we can take apart fairly quickly…

• This past week, we began the next phase in our capital improvement campaign - our fellowship hall is getting a little bit of renovation.

• We’ve got new paint and new flooring going down. It’s going to look fantastic.

• Getting ready for that work required a little bit of “light” demolition.

• Removing base moulding.

• We had to disassemble the tech booth that was in the fellowship hall.

• To help with the process, we had some students from RHS who needed some community service hours for a club to come over last Thursday.

• They showed up with crow bars and sledge hammers. I’m not convinced they didn’t have a jackhammer on the bus.

• That was a little bit on the overkill side.

• I think they could have taken the whole fellowship hall down if we had let them.

• In all seriousness, they were a huge help and it’s going to look great once all the work is finished.

• We’re really good at tearing things down, but putting them back together is a little more tedious.

• We’re going to find out just how true that is on a much larger scale as we tackle the books of Ezra & Nehemiah over the next few months.

• If you didn’t know, these two books of the bible are about building…but it’s so much more than a building project.

• Ezra tells the story of how God’s people rebuild the Temple.

• Nehemiah tells the story of how God’s people rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

• These two construction projects take almost 100 years and it is full of starts, stops, and plenty of opposition.

• We also see plenty of mistakes and missteps along the way.

• That’s what makes these stories so compelling - they’re real.

• The bad guys aren’t Darth Vader like supervillains - they’re irritating and obnoxious.

• People get frustrated - leaders get frustrated.

• I wouldn’t be surprised to find that for the majority of the people in the room, this is the first time you’ve participated in a serious consideration of Ezra, if not both Ezra and Nehemiah.

• The reason for this is pretty simple.

• The folks at The Bible Project spell it out pretty succinctly…

Much of the modern Christian tradition hasn’t really known what to do with the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Because of the deeply held assumption that the Bible is primarily moral instruction literature (= a divine rule book), the stories of Ezra and Nehemiah are usually turned into examples for how to lead a revival (Ezra), or how to create momentum for your next church building project (Nehemiah).

• If that’s all we do with these books, then we’re really missing out on what they have for us.

• We’re going to find is that the main characters in the story have got some pretty significant flaws.

• We will uncover those as we progress through these books.

• And we will find that these leaders are just like we are.

• They aren’t perfect.

• I know it seems odd to begin a series through Ezra-Nehemiah and not actually use either book.

• But in order to understand what Ezra and Nehemiah are building, we need to understand how it got take apart i the first place.

• As we prepare to dive in, there are a few things to keep in mind that will make it easier for us as we work through this.

• Ezra & Nehemiah were originally a single book - but at some point along the way it was decided to split it into two different books. We have examples of it being split as the second century AD.

• That’s why I’m working through both books.

• They have similar themes and are likely written by the same author. Many have suggested that Ezra is the author, but we can’t be certain.

• Some have even suggested that 1&2 Chronicles were also written by this same author.

• We have really high confidence on the dating of things.

• The events in Ezra 1–6 took place from 538 to 516 BC.

• Nebuchadnezzar (605–562) captured Jerusalem in 586 (2 Kings 25).

• However, in 539, Babylon fell to the Persian king Cyrus the Great (559–530).

• 2 Chronicles ends with a decree from Cyrus to restore the temple in Jerusalem.

• Ezra begins with the same declaration.

• In 533, the first group of exiles return to Judah to begin the work.

• And since we’re BC, just keep in mind that we’re counting backward.

• So today, we are going to start in 586 and work forward - but in counting, we’re actually counting down.

• It is also important to remember that we are at a crossroads of empires.

• 2 Chronicles ends with Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroying Jerusalem.

• Ezra begins under the reign of Cyrus the Great.

• But throughout these books we encounter other pagan kings like Darius and Artaxerxes.

• And those names may actually just be titles, which adds a little bit of confusion to the historical record.

• Though Ezra & Nehemiah cover about a century, there’s a lot of upheaval among these empires during that time.

• Let’s go ahead and jump in our time machines and go all the way back to 586 BC and the chapter right before Ezra begins.

Scripture Reading

2 Chronicles 36:15–23 ESV

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.

¹⁶ But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

¹⁷ Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand.

¹⁸ And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.

¹⁹ And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels.

²⁰ He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,

²¹ to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

²² Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

²³ “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’ ”

• It occurred to me as I was preparing for this week that we’re picking up almost exactly where we ended last September when I finished the book of Jeremiah.

• That book ended with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

• Chronicles here details the decimation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, but it paves the way for what comes next.

• And that’s why I wanted to start here today rather than jumping into Ezra 1.

• How does the Word set the stage for us in this?

The first things we see is God’s Persistent Pursuit of his People (vv. 15-16)

• It’s a pretty clear indictment of the people of God.

• They didn’t want much to do with the LORD.

• They mocked his messengers, they hated God’s word, they scoffed at the prophets

• I think back to the study through Jeremiah.

• He was called the weeping prophet.

• He had nothing but haters and mockers and scoffers.

• He tried to warn the people but they wanted nothing to do with it.

• Jeremiah was arrested, thrown into a well and suffered greatly at the hands of God’s people.

• It’s hard to imagine those things being said about people who were supposed to be committed to the LORD.

• But that was the pattern among generation after generation of the Israelites.

• It’s not like this was a one-off generation.

• This was the pattern for Judah for 350 years.

• The Northern Kingdom didn’t make it that long - they had nothing but wicked kings. Judah at least had a few bright spots along the way.

• But through all of this, God faithfully and persistently sends reminders of his love and grace and mercy through the prophets.

• He gives chance after chance.

• But every time God reaches out his hand, Israel slaps his hand.

• God asks them to be faithfully committed to him as the true and living God and they pursue idolatry and all kinds of evil.

• The last phrase of v. 16 is a startling one…

• They fight against the LORD “until there is no remedy.”

• In God’s judgment there was a point of no return…but up until that point, there was still a remedy for the people.

• The prophets continually offered to the people forgiveness if they would repent from sin - but what the Chronicler tells us is that this generation of God’s people is filled with nothing but mockers.

• And as Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of Jerusalem, it was clear that the remedy was gone.

• There’s a powerful Gospel promise in that.

• IN Christ, there is still a remedy for our sin and rebellion.

• Not just a remedy - but THE remedy.

• Your sin is offensive to God.

• Your sin means death to your soul.

• The word “remedy” here has to do with healing or cure for a disease.

• It wouldn’t be wrong to say that sin is a toxic poison, but Jesus is the remedy for that poison.

• Just like poison in your body works its way through your system and leads to your death, sin does the same thing - it works its way through your soul and leads to death.

• Last September, a man in Florence, SC was bitten by a pet snake - an “island taipan viper” which is the most venomous snake in the world. Of course it’s from Australia.

• One bite has enough lethality to kill 100 adult men.

• The guy survived, but authorities warned that there was now a shortage of anti-venom.

• Ya think? I mean, it’s hard for me to imagine that they just keep a giant supply of taipan viper anti-venom in the freezer at the local hospital.

• If I got bit by my pet Taipan Viper and I rolled up into the hospital in Ft. O, there’s three things I don’t expect them to say…

• You’re in luck, we just got a fresh shipment.

• The guy that just left took our last dose.

• Which pharmacy do you use, we’ll call in the prescription.

• There’s only one thing I expect to hear, “We’re sorry sir, there’s nothing we can do. We don’t have a remedy.”

• IListen to me church, here is only ONE remedy for the venom of sin and that is found in the Gospel of our Lord.

• The one who died for your sins, who was buried, and who rose again guaranteeing victory for all that would place their trust in Him.

• So what happens to God’s people when the remedy runs out? The poison brings about death.

• Listen to how Proverbs describes it:

Proverbs 1:24–31 ESV

²⁴ Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,

²⁵ because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof,

²⁶ I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you,

²⁷ when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

²⁸ Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me.

²⁹ Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord,

³⁰ would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof,

³¹ therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.

• Judgment is at hand, and it all serves as a very stark reminder

Rebellion Requires Justice (vv. 17-19)

• The Chronicler reminds us of how devastating the demise brought about by the Babylonians was.

• By this point, much of Judah’s population had already been exiled back to Babylon.

• But this is the final straw and it is a bloody end.

• Many of Israel’s remaining soldiers were killed even spilling their blood in the temple itself.

• Those who were not killed were all given over into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

• The Bible says that he had no compassion on any of them.

• There was no grace to be found. Old, young - each had to take a very long walk back to Babylon.

• This is the cost of rebelling against God - judgment.

• And even if you escape it in this life, you’ll pay dearly when this life is over.

• The Babylonians completely ransack whatever is left of Jerusalem.

• The Temple has already been defiled by the blood of the fallen.

• Now they’ve taken anything of value from the Temple.

• And no doubt, they’ve burned the Temple down around the bodies of the slain.

• The palaces were completely destroyed.

• And the walls were broken down.

• This great city has been leveled all as a consequence of God’s judgment against sin.

• People would ask, “How could God do such a thing?”

• So much time and effort and work.

• So many treasures.

• This is how seriously God sees sin.

• These people knew better, they had been warned.

• During the reign of Solomon, God made this very clear.

2 Chronicles 7:19–22 ESV

¹⁹ “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

²⁰ then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

²¹ And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’

²² Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’ ”

• They had access to all of God’s revelation up to this point. They knew the consequences.

• But you can only thumb your nose at God for so long before it is too late.

• But, we have to remember that God’s faithfulness does not exclude justice.

• God can be perfectly faithful and perfectly just.

• Those two things don’t cancel each other out.

• Instead, justice always includes a pathway to correction.

• When a criminal is brought to justice and sentenced for a crime, one of the goals of justice is teaching.

• The law treats murder as a significant crime that comes with significant penalty.

• That teaches us how important human life is.

• It isn’t something that we should snuff out due to malice or carelessness.

• When God brings about judgment against his people, he is teaching.

• He is teaching us about the seriousness of sin.

• He is teaching about the perfection of his holiness.

• He is reminding us again and again about the hundreds and thousands of warnings he gave us before he came to judgment.

• But sin leads to consequences.

• Sometimes, those consequences are immediate.

• But sometimes we heap up sin in our lives and the consequences come later.

• And in this moment, we see that sin has dramatic, world shaping consequences.

• But none of this was a surprise. Just as it was known to Solomon, it was known long before there was ever a human king in Israel.

• All the way back in Deuteronomy 29 - before the Israelites entered into the promised land, God warned them…

Deuteronomy 29:22–28 ESV

²² And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick—

²³ the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath—

²⁴ all the nations will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’

²⁵ Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt,

²⁶ and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.

²⁷ Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book,

²⁸ and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.’

• It was never a surprise - but even in the middle of this terrible judgment, there is still hope lurking right beneath the surface.

The Power of Hope (vv. 20-21)

• The city has been destroyed.

• The citizens have either been slaughtered or marched mercilessly back to Babylon.

• And there they served the king.

• But it was only a temporary arrangement.

• We find out in this last verse that it’s only 70 years.

• Now, that’s a long time - they only wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

• 70 years was long enough for a new generation to be born and have no knowledge of what home was like.

• Why 70 years?

• Leviticus 25 required that every seventh year was to be considered a sabbath year.

• During that year, the Israelites were to let the land rest from agricultural activity.

• It’s pretty evident based on the moral character of the people that they were no longer observing this part of the law.

• So God makes it clear that the 70 years would serve as that great sabbath reset for the land that had been abused and neglected over the previous 3 centuries.

• But all of this was known ahead of time. There were zero surprises.

• Jeremiah told them (but they weren’t listening)

Jeremiah 25:9–11 ESV

⁹ behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

¹⁰ Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

¹¹ This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

• So they lived in Babylon

• And many died in Babylon.

• But many came back from Babylon.

• But that was known too.

• Jeremiah told them that as well.

• In the very next verse…

Jeremiah 25:12 ESV

¹² Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.

• Jeremiah declared that Nebuchadnezzar was God’s servant…

• When he brought judgment against the people of God, he was acting not under his own authority, but under the authority of the one true God.

• But let’s not pretend that the Babylonians were some kind of righteous actors in this - they were wicked too.

• And guess what - another king would bring judgment there.

• Who was that king?

• Cyrus the Great of Persia

• The Chronicler said it this way in both 2 Chronicles 36 and Ezra 1.

2 Chronicles 36:22–23 ESV

²² Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

²³ “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’ ”

• That is where Ezra and Nehemiah pick up.

• They are two of the key leaders that make it possible for God’s people to return.

• They are God’s servants to work among the broken pieces to declare to all that God is faithful.

Invitation - RETURN TO TITLE SLIDE

• In so many ways, we are the Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s of our day.

• We live and work and learn in a world that is broken - and we’re a long way from perfect too. We definitely aren’t the perfectly righteous holy rollers we like to think we are.

• We may not have the physical destruction of Jerusalem with no temple and no walls, but we deal every day with the spiritual and emotional brokenness of a people who are far from God.

• And every day the task to restore seems overwhelming - but God was faithful then, and he is faithful now.

• And just like Ezra and Nehemiah and Zerubbabel (another guy who is kind of important pretty early on in our study), we can either be overwhelmed by the scope of our task, or we can labor, by the power of the Spirit and the hope of the Gospel, to put broken things back together again.