Sermon Notes - King of Kings

Brian Carroll / General Adult

Work in Progress / Ezra 1

 

Introduction

• As you all likely know, there’s a big holiday coming next month - but I’m not talking about Halloween or Columbus Day.

• However, one could argue that it might be more important than either of those days.

• Even though it is potentially the most important holiday in the month of October, I can virtually guarantee you that Hallmark has never sold a greeting card to commemorate the day.

• I bet Hobby Lobby has never once considered putting out decorations to help people celebrate the day.

• I might even be going out on a limb here by saying that no company has ever granted the day off for its employees, in spite of how important the day is.

• This year, the day falls on October 29 (Which just so happens to be a Wednesday, so we might just have to celebrate while we are at church)

• What in the world could this holiday be? What is the riddle?

• Some of you have probably already googled me or checked with ChatGPT.

• But for the rest of you, I went ahead and asked ChatGPT to create a special greeting card to celebrate the day…

• The options for the greeting on the inside of the card are as follows: (Just a warning, they’re as cheesy as you would imagine)

• “Happy Cyrus the Great Day! Conquer your to-do list like he conquered empires.”

• “Cyrus the Great says: Celebrate responsibly… or I’ll write it into law.”

• “Cyrus the Great Day — finally, a holiday big enough for his beard.”

• “Wishing you a day of freedom, wisdom, and snacks worthy of a king.”

• “Celebrate like it’s 539 BC!”

• I don’t think that we will be celebrating this holiday in the United States any time soon, however, in Persia (modern day Iran) it’s a thing.

• Cyrus the Great Day marks the anniversary of Cyrus II’s triumphant entry into Babylon on October 29, 539 BC, following the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire—when he heralded a new era of governance marked by tolerance and restoration of rights 

• Upon seizing Babylon, Cyrus issued the now-famous Cyrus Cylinder, a baked-clay inscription often hailed as the first charter of human rights—proclaiming religious freedom, repatriation of displaced peoples, and respectful governance 

• Interestingly enough, those principles tend to go against the overall Islamist philosophy of the current regime in Iran.

• On Cyrus the Great Day, people will gather in Pasargadae (puh-SAR-guy-day), Iran at the tomb of CtG.

• In fact, Iranian officials have occasionally blocked access to Pasargadae (puh-SAR-guh-day) to prevent people from gathering at the tomb. Can’t let freedom get too out of hand, after all.

• We’ve heard a lot about Babylon over the last couple of years.

• Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar was the big baddie of the prophet Jeremiah.

• And Babylon was the symbol for all that is wrong with the world in the book of Revelation.

• However, in October of 539, Babylon fell to Cyrus.

• The Bible records this event in the book of Daniel - specifically chapter 5.

• It is when Daniel interpreted the “handwriting on the wall” for the last king of Babylon - Belshazzar.

• That very night, Belshazzar was killed and the Babylonian kingdom was handed over to the Persians.

• Daniel specifically says Babylon was conquered by Darius the Mede (which is either another name for Cyrus the Great OR it is a governor or satrap that Cyrus positioned to be in charge of the new Babylonian territory.

• With his reign, Cyrus established this new empire which historians call The Achaemenid (uh-KEE-man-id) Empire - which, at its zenith, stretched from the Balkans and Egypt in the west, all the way to the Indus Valley of India in the East.

• It was the largest empire by that point in history.

• One of the things that sets Cyrus apart from other emperors is he sought to establish his empire, not by imposing Persian culture on all those he conquered, but by allowing conquered people the freedom to keep their own religion and local culture.

• Many have argued that Cyrus was one of the first leaders to recognize any kind of human rights.

• I’m sure that’s relative - there were probably plenty of atrocities at the hands of the Persians.

• However, when Cyrus takes over Babylon, he finds that there is a rather large group of displaced people living along the Euphrates River.

• They had been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar a generation prior.

• As Cyrus surveys the situation, we know that the LORD has been preparing Cyrus for this moment.

• 150 years before Cyrus’ time, the prophet Isaiah said:

Isaiah 44:28 ESV

²⁸ who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ”

Isaiah 45:1 ESV

¹ Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:

• Isaiah NAMED him!

• Lest you be tempted to think Cyrus’ foreign policy was simply co-opted by the Jews of his day to give the LORD credit for something that Cyrus did anyway, I believe the evidence here shows that the LORD was very much involved in this before Cyrus was a sparkle in the eyes of his mother Mandane (MAN-day-nee).

• This is the context that we find ourselves in as we get into Ezra 1.

Scripture Reading

Ezra 1 ESV

¹ 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:

² “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.

³ Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

⁴ And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

⁵ Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.

⁶ And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered.

⁷ Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.

⁸ Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

⁹ And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers,

¹⁰ 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels;

¹¹ all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.

Prayer

• Babylon fell in 539 and Cyrus the Great issues this proclamation.

• It it the same word that ends the book of Chronicles and opens the book of Ezra.

• As we consider what this first chapter is teaching us, the immediate truth we are confronted with is this:

No ruler is beyond God’s providence (vv. 1-4)

• That is a principle that is very difficult for us to understand because we see so many corrupt and wicked rulers in the world today.

• I’m not sure if you saw it the other day, but China held a military parade that featured some of their high tech killing gadgets.

• I was most intrigued by the special guests who were there for the show - you had Vladimir Putin, Kim Jung Un, Xi Xinping all there for the show.

• It was like watching all of the villains of a superhero movie gather together to plot the demise of the good guys - Lex Luther, the Joker, and the Penguin all having a bad-guy party.

• Here’s the deal - righteous ruler, evil villain - none of them are beyond God’s providence.

• Our problem is that in our limited perspective, it is difficult for us to see how all of these things fit into the divine plan.

• I don’t have the patience for jigsaw puzzles - but I know we’ve got some people who love putting them together.

• If you’re looking at an individual piece of a jigsaw puzzle, it is very difficult to know how it fits into the bigger picture.

• You really need that picture on the box to help it make sense.

• I didn’t realize it, but now 2-sided jigsaw puzzles are a thing.

• When we’re trying to sort out God’s providence in rulers and kings and presidents, it’s like looking at an individual puzzle piece or two, but we have to remember that God has the whole picture and knows how everything fits together perfectly, and most of the time, we’re not even sure which side of the puzzle we’re looking at.

• In preparation for this series, I’ve been working to learn all I can about Cyrus the Great - especially knowing that the Bible was talking about him before anybody else was talking about him.

• One of the titles that Cyrus took for himself is “King of Kings.”

• Archaeologists found a clay tablet in which two parties were entering into an agreement.

• The text of the agreement basically said that the parties would not alter the agreement, they swore by four different deities, and then they swore by “Cyrus king of countries, king of kings, their lord.”

• From Cyrus, it became somewhat common for Persian rulers to take the title “king of kings.”

• No matter how grandiose their titles (indeed how divine their titles might sound), no ruler has authority beyond the authority granted to him or her by the true King of Kings.

• Cyrus makes himself sound like he is some sort of magnanimous ruler, benevolent, doing God a favor.

• But Cyrus was never beyond God’s sovereign hand.

• And we need to know that today.

• Rulers are sinful - just like the rest of mankind.

• And history bears witness to the fact that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

• History has never known a truly righteous ruler as every ruler is flawed.

• But history has been filled with rulers of different degrees of unrighteousness.

• But none of them have ever been beyond God’s providential hand.

• Honesty demands that we recognize this to be a truly mysterious aspect of God’s plan and purposes in history.

• We see certainly how God can use the noble acts of men like Cyrus.

• But how God uses the ignoble acts of the most ruthless of rulers is much like that jigsaw puzzle.

• We’re staring at a single piece in a much larger image that we cannot see.

• How does this piece fit?

• It may truly be impossible for us to know but we can absolutely trust the one who sees history from age to age, from beginning to end.

• Cyrus is a stark reminder that God holds all these things in his hand.

• While God holds history in his hands, he also holds his people in his hands.

God’s people are never beyond his care (vv. 5-6)

• These Jews who were living in Babylon have undoubtedly struggled.

• Psalm 137 gives us a glimpse into the struggle experienced by the people of God.

• It says:

Psalm 137:1–4 ESV

¹ By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.

² On the willows there we hung up our lyres.

³ For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

• They had, of course, dove head first into the wicked pool of idolatry. So they were well warned about the judgment for their sin.

• But being taken by force from their land, separated from their very identity took a toll.

• Their masters wanted to hear them sing and they said, “How can we sing our songs?”

• Undoubtedly, they felt alienated, isolated, forgotten and abandoned.

• Ezra 1 reminds us that, even if they felt that way, none of those things were actually true.

• God has never abandoned his people, even in this time of trial and judgment.

• I think it is good for us to hear this today.

• I think we can all acknowledge that this has been a difficult week.

• We’ve had our facade of stability and safety shattered.

• Too many of us have witnessed the video of the young woman in Charlotte being murdered in the train car.

• She was a Ukrainian refugee.

• Seeking a place of safety while her nation continues to be ravaged by war.

• We couldn’t provide her with that safety.

• A young man who had a tremendous godly influence in countless lives was assassinated and it was well-documented on film.

• I don’t pretend to know God’s purposes in allowing a 31-year old husband and father and Christ follower to be assassinated.

• God could have stopped it - but he didn’t.

• But just because I don’t know his purposes doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have purposes.

• I have to remind myself that the God I serve, the one who saved me…

• He suffered unthinkable physical, spiritual, and psychological misery.

• It was horrifying for people to watch

• And in the moment, there was nothing good about any of it.

• But God, in his good plans and purposes, accomplished the greatest good imaginable out of the greatest act of injustice ever perpetrated.

• And God can take these great acts of evil today and accomplish unimaginable good as a result - even if I don’t understand how.

• My lack of understanding doesn’t give me permission to cast judgment on God’s character or the goodness of his plan.

• But the picture we see consistently throughout scripture is that God is never far from his people.

• That doesn’t mean we will never face hardships.

• The psalmist said it clearly - there will be times when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

• But even in that dark place, we do not have to fear any iteration of evil because God walks with us even in that.

• God doesn’t promise ease, but he does promise guidance.

• In Ezra 1, we see God’s spirit stirring up a generation to go and do something that was going to be the greatest challenge of their lives.

• They were leaving the hardship of their exile and embracing a new hardship of restoration.

• But we see that this is God’s work in and through them from beginning to end.

• But I do think we have to ask another very important question in this place.

• V. 5 is very clear that this is God working within the people of God.

• He specifically points out the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and the Levites.

• It was a pagan king who ordered the restoration - but it is the people of God who will be the agents that do the work.

Do you know what it means to be part of the people of God?

• In Babylon, and now Persia, there were many people who were in proximity to the people of God.

• But they weren’t really part of the people of God.

• They knew some things about the God of Israel.

• Even Cyrus knew something about the God of Israel.

• But Cyrus knew something about all of the gods and goddesses of the people he conquered.

• That’s one of the reasons he was so successful as an empire builder - he didn’t eradicate local and regional customs and religions.

• Cyrus wanted all of the gods to show him favor - whether that was Yahweh in Israel or Marduk in Babylon.

• There are a lot of people who live in our community, maybe even some gathered for worship today who know a lot about Jesus.

• They’ve heard all the stories, they’ve been in proximity to God’s people their whole lives.

• They grew up next to God’s people. They can think back to going to Vacation Bible School when they were children.

• Some might have even been baptized early in life.

• Indeed, they might even sit among the people of God from Sunday to Sunday at church.

• But if you take a good long look at your soul today, the extent of your Christian faith is exactly that - you are next to the people of God, but you’re not really part of the people of God.

• What’s holding you back?

• Ezra reminds us that regardless of the political or cultural moment, God is faithful to his people and faithful to his promises.

• The people of God in Ezra have been through a difficult time.

• The church of God’s people in all generations endures differing degrees of difficulty - and God remains faithful.

• And the church in our generation endures different degrees of difficulty just based on the cultural and political environment in which it exists.

• I love what God told Moses in the wilderness,

Numbers 11:23 ESV

²³ And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

• That continues to be true today - if you’re on the periphery of the people of God, would you today take the LORD at his word, turn from sin and put your trust in Jesus?

• This first chapter of Ezra ends with what has to be one of the most incredible scenes in the book.

• You had the pagan neighbors in conjunction with the pagan king giving the Jews all kinds of wealth to help them in their efforts.

• From silver and gold to livestock.

• Not only that, you have Cyrus opening up the old Babylonian treasury and giving them all of the stuff from the Temple that Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged a generation ago.

• I love the detail - we get a count of the items and we get names of people responsible.

• It is very reminiscent of what happened to the Israelites as they were leaving Egypt during the Exodus. Egyptians were pouring out resources on them.

• This just serves as a reminder:

God provides for his people to accomplish his purposes (vv. 7-11)

• All this stuff that is mentioned in the last half of the chapter belongs to the LORD anyway.

• It was never Nebuchanezzar’s or Cyrus’ stuff.

• The gold and silver given out by all of these patrons - it wasn’t theirs.

• The bible affirms this truth over and over again.

Psalm 24:1 ESV

¹ The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

1 Chronicles 29:11 ESV

¹¹ Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Job 41:11 ESV

¹¹ Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

• We have this concept of ownership.

• This is car and that is my house and this is my inheritance and this is my property and this is my 401K and this is my bank account.

• And the reality is that we aren’t owners at all, we are stewards.

• God gives us the privilege of managing his resources while we dwell on this side of eternity.

• Even in the pockets of pagan rulers, whatever exists under the whole heaven belongs to the LORD.

• And because of that, we know the LORD provides for his purposes and we see that very much at work here with the returning exiles.

Invitation - Stirred, not Shaken

• Too many times today, Christians wrestle with knowing the LORD’s will.

• They ask the question, “How do I know if God is leading me to do this or that?”

• I think Ezra 1 shows us one of the key ways that happens.

• The LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.

• The LORD stirred up the people to go rebuild the house of the LORD.

• And though it doesn’t say it, it is clear that the LORD stirred up their neighbors to bless them with the resources they would need to accomplish their purpose.

• We may not hear God speak to us in an audible voice, but we do need to learn to be sensitive to this act of God - the act of being stirred.

• The word here means to be awakened.

• When the spirit stirs us we are awakened to God’s purposes and granted a desire to act in accordance with his purposes.

• This is one of the key ways we see the Lord move in our lives and call us to service and action - he stirs our spirit.

• What does that look like?

• Conviction that you need to be doing something.

• Maybe you’ve had your unbelieving neighbor on your mind for some time and you can’t quite shake it.

• That may very well be the LORD stirring you to have a Gospel conversation.

• It could be a burden for someone or something that you can’t quite shake.

• It could be a vision for something that doesn’t exist that you need to help create.

• We see how this stirring unfolds among various people - but what is important is that people actually respond to that stirring.

• Maybe you’re uncertain of what that looks like to respond, or you’re trying to figure out exactly what your convictions and burdens are.

• It is good to have brothers and sisters that you can talk to about it.

• And let’s not forget that some may even be stirred this day to become part of God’s family.