Answers Bible Curriculum Year 2 Quarter 4 Lesson 5 Restoring Worship
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closer to the front all right I would encourage you to sit up closer because it’s what helpful for me to see you and I’m going to be asking questions that I’d like you to answer today and we’re gonna try the whole raising the hand thing because I can see you pretty decently I might not be able to completely make out some of the people who sit further back but you raise your hand I’ll call on you and then we’ll answer questions that way so don’t be hesitant to answer the questions just go go right ahead and answer it so that we can keep moving but when I asked questions go ahead and raise your hand and then I’ll call on you will see if that works many ways and when you speak speak loudly and clearly enunciated as much as possible so that i can understand what you’re saying all right let’s go further Lord in prayer the Lord God thank you for this time in Sunday school today thank you for the true to your word they’re so necessary for our equipment for our life I pray God that you’d help me to be able to speak I would be able to articulate your word clearly and I think that your order bless us today I would encourage those convicted build us up with spirit I / H you build up your church and she was crying so pray that you build up your church father please build up your church today and she’s just name Amen all right please open your Bibles to Ezra one as for one page 43 for use in a few Bible as it appears right before Nehemiah Esther job and songs so kind of towards the beginning half of the Old Testament yes it just may okay so before we read Ezra one we want to get the big picture of the return from exile for the Jews first of all we need to know that while the Jews are in exile there is a change in the region’s ruling empire Babylonian Empire is gone it’s replaced by the Persian Empire around 538 BC by Cyrus the second also known as Cyrus the Great you can see on the map over here the extent of the Persian Empire the green is the empire under Cyrus and then the other colors are brought in by his descendants never five are there five rulers that we want to know how we currently know from history and archaeology but these five rulers roughly spanned the time of the rest of the Old Testament the first is Cyrus the second ruled from about 560 25 30 BC then can be sista second you ruled from about 5 30 25 to 5 22 Darius the first who ruled from about 5 20 to 24 86 and xerxes the first probably is the Bible’s azureus though some people say I had serious is an alternate title for Darius I think Xerxes makes a little bit better sense but it searches the first is the next one he rules from 46 to 465 and then Artaxerxes the first 465 24 24 so you’re gonna hear some of those names again in today’s class but also in the rest of the classes that we have so we’ve got a change in the ruling empire we have a change or we have a change in a succession of different rulers and then another thing to know is that just as Judah experience three steps of destruction going into exile so Israel and Judah are going to experience three steps of restoration coming back from exile and the first step and you can see the different steps laid out for you on the slide the first step happens under Cyprus around five thirty seven bc and this day is the rubble returns with a group of Jews to Jerusalem and rebuilds the temple this is the first step of restoration second step occurs under artaxerxes around 467 bc so there’s a jump in time and in this phase Ezra returns with a group of Jews to Jerusalem and he begins a preaching ministry to stem some new compromises that have appeared in NewsView that’s the second step then the third step that comes shortly afterwards also on Artaxerxes in 454 bc and that’s under nehemiah you remember nehemiah as the one who returns and builds the wall of Jerusalem I noticed that Ezra and Nehemiah our contemporaries they live about the same time but Sir rubber ball he comes much earlier so that’s important to remember should also know that the dates on giving you are according to Answers in Genesis timeline other trusted Bible interpreters would differ slightly in some of these dates any questions about the historical backdrop to Ezra okay so we’ve seen the big picture the overview of exiles return let’s now hear from the book of Ezra about Israel’s first step of restoration under Cyrus so Ezra one we’re going to read the whole first chapter and then we’ll read the first two verses of the second chapter Ezra 1122 to follow along as I read now in the first year Cyrus king of Persia in order to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah you always stood up the spirit of Cyrus king and Persian steady sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing saying thus the Cyrus king of Persia Yahweh the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah whoever there is among you of all his people may his God be with him let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of Yahweh the God of Israel he is the God who is in Jerusalem every survivor at whatever place you may live let the men of that place support him but silver and gold windows and cattle together with a free will offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem in the heads of fathers households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites are rose even everyone whose spirit God had stirred up ahead stirred to go up and rebuild the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem all those about them encourage them with articles of silver with gold with goods with cattle and with valuables aside from all that was given as a free will offering also King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of Yahweh which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the house of his guts and Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithra death in the Treasury and he counted amount of shares bizarre the Prince of Judah now this was the number 30 gold dishes thousand silver dishes 29 duplicates 30 gold bulls 410 silver bowls of a second kind and a thousand other articles all the articles of gold and silver numbered 5,400 shesh bizarre brought them all up with the exiles who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem now these are the people the province who came up out of the captivity of the exiles who nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon had carried away to babylon and returned to Jerusalem and Judah each to a city these came windsor audible Joshua Nehemiah Sarah aya relia Mordecai bill Shan mispar Big Bang rahe hum and vain huh right so we’ve read the passage let’s make some basic observations on the passage and these observations going to correspond to the things that have already appeared on the slide notice the time marker given in verse 1 since their first year Cyrus king of Persia cyrus takes over the babylonian empire around 538 BC we’re talking about that year or shortly afterwards about 537 bc and nurse there’s a reference to jeremiah wright the beginning the passage what word of Jeremiah is Cyrus about to fulfill in his Proclamation what is Cyrus going to fulfill from Jeremiah if you raise your hand make sure you read it high so I can see it all right I see a hand there I think that might be wrong go ahead right not just you to Benjamin but yeah the people will return to the land because what was that specific cross see Jeremiah made how long would it take exactly 70 years Jeremiah 29 10 for the stairs Yahweh would it 170 years had been completed for Babylon I will visit you and fulfill my good works you to bring you back to this place so Judas exile began about 60 7 BC now it’s 537 DC and so that prophesied 70 years of Jeremiah are complete and Cyrus is going to bring them back into the land there’s next according to the text what causes Cyrus to make his proclamation it says Yahweh stirs up Cyrus spirits sorry sends out a proclamation throughout his whole kingdom the whole Persian Empire and notice some surprising details in Cyrus Proclamation the acknowledges that Yahweh the God of heaven has given Cyrus all the kingdoms in verse to you he claims that Yahweh has commanded him to rebuild the temple in jerusalem he calls on the Jews new empire to return to their land and rebuild the temple any commands to the other peoples of the Empire supply the surviving Jews with valuable Goods and treasures to take to Jerusalem with this Proclamation Cyrus not only fulfills the words of Jeremiah but also the specific words of Isaiah remember Isaiah and Isaiah 4428 said this about Cyrus actually it was gone speaking he says God says it is I who says of Cyrus he is my shepherd and he will perform all my desire and he declares of Jerusalem she will be built and of the temple your foundation will be laid nope God prophesied Cyrus specifically would come and he would cause the temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem and this Proclamation is all about that or that’s one of the things accomplished with his Proclamation notice how the Jews respond to Cyrus’s Proclamation this says the leaders of Judah Benjamin the priests and the Levites arise to go back and why do they arise again the text says the Spirit of the Lord stirred them up to rebuild God’s house to Jerusalem now notice how they are encouraged in their mission as they set out says everyone around them starts to give them soldier gold livestock freewill offerings and other goods more than this notice what Cyrus does he returns the articles of the house of Yahweh that had been taken from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar these articles have been held in the Royal Treasury’s of that Ilan for 70 years now the Jews received them back these are placed in the hands of sheds bizarre we said to be a prince of Judah don’t really know anything about sheds bizarre because he’s not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible but notice in chapter 2 when describing right before the chapters about to describe the people who returned back with return back to Jerusalem the first name on the list the first leader mentioned in Chapter two notches bizarre but elavil the rubber bowl features prominently in the following chapters that we’re going to see today he actually is the leader of the returning exiles not sure if his arm by the way what a special values rebels lineage according to the New Testament dainik exactly he’s robles not only in the line of David but he’s in the line of Jesus and on both sides of Jesus line he is in Mary’s line and he is in josephs line though they they’re both descendants of David Mary and Joseph one through Solomon a1 through Nathan but both of them has rubble as an ancestor so not insignificant as rebels mentioned in Ezra you may also notice names Nehemiah and Mordecai on the list these are not then gamaya Mordecai that you’re thinking of this is not Nehemiah from the later returned and it’s not Mordecai vesture there just happened to be the same names and the rest of chapter 2 which we’re not going to read it gives detailed numbers and genealogical information on the families that return with survivable the total number of returning Jews according to Ezra to verse 64 is 40 2360 this is how many people come back with zero bubble and the first wave how many Jews of this number about 75% are accounted for from the tribes of Benjamin Judah and Levi family that means that eleven thousand or so of this number are from the other ten tribes so mostly we have Judah Benjamin end and the house of Levi returning to Jerusalem was rebel but also some of the other times now compare this number forty-two thousand where the number of men who came into Canaan the first time with Joshua according to numbers 26 when Israel entered the land the first time there were 600 and 1000 fighting men that’s men over the age of 26 hundred thousand add to that the age the women and the children and you probably have a number closer to two million people so comparatively the group were turning into Jerusalem and around that area is pretty small this is a remnant so we’ve made our observations on this section let’s interpret why is the number of returning Jews so small what do you think yeah Ron not all them return and why wouldn’t some of them return that could be eight I think you’re right we have some that are perhaps so comfortable that they’ve intermingle with the peoples of the land certainly some of the Jews were just first throughout the empire by the Assyrians and then Babylonians mostly kept people together but some intermarried intermingled with the people to land and they lost their Jewish identity other people remain Jews but they’re just not able or not willing to return to the land or they’re not willing to return yet so there are still some Jews that are going to remain outside of Palestine I think I mentioned one of the sermons I preach previously that the Diaspora the Jewish Diaspora that began during the time of visuals captivity would continue basically for the rest of history there would be some who would remain in Babylon or remove to other parks in the Mediterranean and never return it Israel or at least not live in Israel they might journey for the feasts but many Jews are going to remain outside of Palestine some are going to lose their Jewish identity many will keep their Jewish identity and some will return later but also let’s not forget that before the Jews went into exile they had been invaded and many of their people were killed the people who went to exile were merely the survivors of the traumatic judgments that God brought on both Israel and Judah so for multiple reasons the number of Jews turning in returning to Jerusalem is pretty small another question why does Cyrus the Persian give so much credit and glory to Yahweh why would he do that what do you think yeah Denny hmm yeah that seems like a pretty pretty good explanation we don’t know for sure but we do know that Isaiah prophesied about Cyrus and prophesied about what Cyrus would do and we also know that Daniel served under Cyrus so there’s a very good chance that Daniel showed Cyrus what was written about him in the prophet Isaiah or somebody somebody showed Cyrus Cyrus sees that and he says wow this is a remarkable prophecy this came from a profit of Yahweh Yahweh he was a pretty great guy and so when he makes his Proclamation he gives credit to Yahweh says he always give me these kingdoms and Yahweh has called me to rebuild his temple now it’s possible that there could be other reasons involved maybe God revealed himself to Cyrus in a way that’s not recorded in the Bible and Cyrus wants to give a propria honor to Yahweh this could be just a bit of public relations make the Jews happy honor their God that way the Jews will not will be more inclined to follow Cyrus certainly we don’t necessarily true follower of Yahweh least everything historically we know about Cyrus is that he was a Persian and he followed persian religion but it’s not unnormal for pagan rulers in the old testament to sometimes give credit to Yahweh we saw that with Nebuchadnezzar back in Daniel and also Darius and while they still maintain their devotion to other gods they will acknowledge that Yahweh is a special God the God of Israel is special so probably have a confluence of those things happening together with Cyrus Proclamation one other thing to say that though is that regardless of the extent of cyrus sincerity and making his proclamation or how he how he came to make that that proclamation and know about God way what he said about Yahweh was true it wasn’t the ‘true that god had given cyrus dominion and it was indeed true that God had called Cyrus to bring the Jews back into the land and cause the temple to be rebuilt now think about how surprising from a human perspective all these developments are for the Jews why should the Jews be allowed to return to the land why should they be allowed even commanded to rebuild their temple why should the King command the people to get valuables to the Jews and why should the people encourage the Jews by giving them so much why should the Jews experience such favor from human perspective doesn’t make that much sense no one could say well that you just happened to benefit from a ruler who had policies that were favorable towards minority groups that might be true from one perspective but what phrase oh yeah what phrase in this passage did we see multiple ties times that tells us the real story the real story for why these things are happening yeah rap that’s right the Lord stirred up the Lord stirred up the heart of Cyrus and the Lord stirred at the heart of his people it’s like our theme of from Proverbs our theme verse from Proverbs speaking of Kings it says the heart of a king is like a river in the Lord’s hands and God turns or wherever he wishes so these things are not happening by chance it’s not that he is your lies are just lucky it’s gone sovereignly bringing these things to pass by the way does this remind you of anything these events the Jews being called out from a foreign land to go to Canaan while being supplied with treasures from the Gentiles treasures that would later be used in the construction of God’s dwelling place just remind you of anything we’ve seen before oh I see a hand back there that’s exactly exactly remember in the exodus that before they left it says they plundered the Egyptians and God granted them granted the Jews favor in the eyes of the Egyptians that people gave freely to them and what we see here in Ezra is like a second Exodus it’s a new start for the people of Israel they are being called out from their foreign land brought back into the land of God had promised them and they’re given treasures along the way angela was judged the temple worship wasn’t previously abolished but now Israel gets to start over so we’ve seen chapter blonde in the beginning of chapter 14 chapters wanted to let’s look over to chapter 3 now and see what is probably one for the returning exiles i’m going to read as your three the whole chapter answer 3 12 13 let’s see what comes next now in the seventh month came and the sun’s visual were in the cities that people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem and Joshua the solemn jaws attack and his brothers the priests as rebel the son of shealtiel and his brothers arose and built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God so they set up the Ultron its foundation for they were terrified because of the peoples of the land and they offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh burnt offerings morning and evening they celebrated the feast of booths as it is written and offered the fixed number of burnt offerings daily according to the ordinance as each day required and afterward there was a continual burnt offering also for the new num sent for all the fixed festivals of Yahweh that were consecrated and from everyone who offered a free will offering to Yahweh for the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to Yahweh but the foundation of the temple of Yahweh had not been laid then they gave money to the Masons and carpenters and food drink and oil to the sidonians into the Tyrians to bring cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea ajapa quench to permission that they had from Cyrus king of Persia now in the second year they’re coming to the house of God of Jerusalem in the second month zoomable the son of shealtiel and Joshua the son of jhaza back and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites and all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem began to work and appointed the Levites from 20 years and older to oversee the work of the house of Yahweh and Joshua with his sons and brothers stuti nida with cad me on his sons the sons of judah and the sons of henna dad with their sons and brothers brothers the Levites to oversee the workmen in the temple of God now when the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh the priest stood in the apparel with trumpets and the Levites the sons of asaph with symbols to praise yahweh according to the directions of King David of Israel they sang praising and giving thanks to your way saying for he is good whereas loving kindness is upon his you’ll forever and all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised Yahweh because foundation of the house of Yahweh was laid yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers households the old men who had seen the first temple temple wet with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes while many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people that the people shouted with a loud shout and the sound was heard far away ok let’s make some more observations on this section the first events of this passage take place seven months after the people return to the land notice and after the Jews settle into their homes the first order of business is to rebuild the altars that the people may again offer sacrifices remember there have been no sacrifices of any kind for the Jews for 70 years previously the Jews had continually offered sacrifices since coming out of Egypt there had never been an interruption like that before but there was for 70 years no temple no sacrifice now how did the Jews know how to build God’s altar how do they know how to do it they did have the plan so to speak somewhere where do they have it that’s right in the love they had it in Henry and Moses looks again it’s not an exhaustive description of the altar there but enough so that they could construct it notice though that the people are terrified as they set up altar worship again as says they fear the people the lands the Jews are no longer the only people living in the area notice the word for in the middle of verse 3 now where it always is supplied to give a reason and indicating that a reason is about to be supplied from what was just stated notice also that the people reinstate other elements of worship according to the law we have the daily sacrifices reinstated the appointed feasts of God reinstated and they celebrate our feast of booths so known as the Feast of Tabernacles they also prepare for the rebuilding of the temple and they obtain materials from the Tyrians and sidonians that is the merchant people from the north the following year work on the temple building itself officially begins under the rubble and Joshua the priest so this is probably 536 BC once the foundation is laid the priests and the temple musicians they make music they give thanks to God and a public worship service but the people’s response is poignant it says the people shout a great shout and many of the people are joyful but some the older ones would seen the first temple they weep they weep with a loud voice so that the shouts of joy and their loud cries of grief cannot be discerned from each other so with these observations let’s interpret again why do the people first rebuild the altar of the Lord and reinstate the sacrifices and feasts yes Shay I think that’s Shane yeah go ahead yeah yeah that has to be one of the main reasons because it’s stated in the text that’s the four right the reason for building the altar because they fear the people they fear their enemies and they knew that if they were going to succeed against their enemies that they needed the Lord on their side so they are motivated to rebuild the altar and to re and stain worship certainly there are other things going on with that desire as well they they want to be obedient to the Lord and it recognize that it is their duty to be beating to Lord they need their sins covered they need their transgressions forgiven and this is what God had supplied according to law they needed to obey the law and so they wanted to do that they knew it was not only necessary but they I’m sure they had a grateful desire to do that but certainly what’s on their minds especially is that the people to land their enemies are all around them and so they want to reinstate worship another question why did many of the people weep when they saw the foundation of the temple being laid either the people weep that seems like a time for being joyful go ahead run yeah it’s gotta have something to do with the previous temple something about comparing the glory of the old temple to the glory of the new temple now it’s not fully explained here are being a say something any okay yeah yeah mr. Khanna glory is certainly not there it’s a little unclear to me I think I may need to go back and do some research on this when the Shekinah glory departed I know Ezekiel talks about the glory of God departing from the temple when that visibly happened or if that visibly happened certainly that that is true the Shekinah glory is not part of the temple but just the temple in general how is the glory of this new temple going to compare now the temple is not complete the new temple is not complete yet only the foundation is late and yet the men who remember the old temple weep we do get a little bit more information when we consider the Prophet Haggai a guy you know appears towards the end of the Old Testament he actually is one of the prophets who lives around the rebels time we’re going to see him a little bit later but in Haggai 2 vs. 1 2 3 this is what we read haggai 21 23 on the 21st of the seventh month the word of Yahweh came to Haggai or came by Haggai the prophet saying speaking ounces rebel the son of shealtiel governor of judah and to joshua the son of jaha’s attack the high priest and to the remnant of the people saying who is left among you who saw this temple on its former glory and how do you see it now this is not seem to you like nothing in comparison so God was pointing out through a guy says this new temple doesn’t really compare to the old now this is later in the temples construction but it appears that even had the foundation of the temple the older men who remembered though the SUP remembrance Solomon’s Temple they knew the second temple would be nothing like the first the second temple though similar in construction of Solomon’s would not have the splendor and Majesty as the one built by Solomon in the days of Israel’s prosperity and blessing from Yahweh this dandy point out wouldn’t have the Shekinah glory and though many temple articles were returned by Cyrus to the Jews the Ark of the Covenant the symbol of God’s presence was gone along with the tablets of Moses it was never going to be recovered and the diminished temple was really symbolic of Israel as a whole I mean you can imagine the perspective of the older Jews as they just see everything around them look at us they would say look at what the nation of Israel has been reduced to we’re small in number our territory is pitiful the land is full of ruins our enemies are bound we’ve lost the kingship we’ve lost our independence even the temple is only going to be a shell of what it was and how did it come to this because of our sin they would acknowledge because we would not obey the Lord alas o Israel how you have been humbled and laid down in the dust even in even in restoration they see just how much that they’ve lost so even in celebration there is the realization of grief and sorrow and yet haggai had another word for the people if we continue on in that passage from Haggai a guy 2 verses four to nine we suck we see something surprising and I think it would have been really encouraging to the people this is assuredly what Hank I tells the people later on as they’re building the Temple here’s Haggai two verses for 29 but now take courage rub a bull declares Yahweh take courage also Joshua son jahaz enact the high priest that’s Joshua and our passage and all you people d’Alene take courage declares Yahweh and work for I am will you declares Yahweh of hosts as the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt my spirit is abiding in your midst do not fear for this is y’all wave hosts once for and a little while I’m going to shake the heavens and the earth the sea also and the dry land I will shake all the nations and they will come with the wealth of all nations and I will fill this house with glory says Yahweh of hosts the silver is mine and the gold is mine declares Yahweh of hosts the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former says Yahweh of hosts and in this place i will give peace that Claire’s Yahweh of hosts did you catch that it’s amazing even in the days of this mini restoration the return of a small number of juice to the land God makes clear to them that a greater restoration a full restoration is still coming I will shake the nation’s God says then they will come with their wealth and I will fill this house with glory the latter days of my temple God says will be greater than the former days not on par with the former days but even greater than the former days greater than anything that any of you elders can remember from the days of Solomon’s Temple says the latter days will be even greater that would be an encouraging word it would it not God essentially says I’m still not done with you o Israel you are small now you have lost much yes by my judgment but your day of but your ultimate day of transformation and exultation is yet coming your Messiah is yet coming Israel I’m not done with you so we’ve seen Ezra up to chapter 3 in chapters 4 to 6 which we don’t have time to look at we will look at a little bit of chapter 6 but we’re not trying to look at the other parts I’ll just summarize we hear how visuals enemies oppose and disrupt the building efforts of the Jews the Jews become discouraged and they even stopped building the Temple in the days of Cyrus but in the days of Darius who come soon after Cyrus the Prophet Haggai and Zechariah thing Zechariah the one who wrote the second last book of the Bible they encourage rebel Joshua and the people so that they resume the temple construction angels enemies particularly some hostile governor’s they write Siderius to try to stop the work all the Jews are trying to rebuild a temple again Darius you need to know about this but when Darius finds out that Cyrus was the one who had ordered the temple construction you nominally Darius not only improves the Jews work but he orders the governors who don’t like the Israelites to support the temple construction and give the Jews whatever they need let’s read it out the completion of the temple construction and Ezra 6 go to edge of 6 verses 13 to 22 as for six verses 13 to 22 let’s read then taten I the governor of the province beyond the river chatter Bosnia and their colleagues carried out the decree with all diligence just as King Darius had sent and the elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah decided oh they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus Darius not a Xerxes king of Persia this temple was completed on the third day of the month adar it was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius and the sons of Israel the priests the Levites had arrested the exiles celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy they offered for the dedication of this temple of God 100 bowls 200 rams 400 lambs and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats excuse me corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel and they appointed the priest to their divisions and a Levites and their orders for the service of God in Jerusalem as is written in the book of Moses the exiles observed the Passover on the 14 to the first month for the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together all of em were pure then they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles both for their brothers the priests and for themselves the sons of Israel can return from exile and all those who separated themselves from the impurity of the nations of the land to join them to seek the Lord to seek Yahweh God of Israel ate the Passover and may observe the feast of unleavened bread seven days of joy where Yahweh had caused them to rejoice and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to encourage them in the work of the house of God the God of Israel let’s make a few more observations on this last section notice the date of the temples completion it says the sixth year of Darius rain what we understand that means about 5 15 bc 21 years after the temple construction began and notice the response to the people to the completion of God’s temple they offered many sacrifices and they celebrated with joy they install the priests and levites in their God ordained roles and they also observed the Passover the nurse the details given about the three groups of celebrants in this Passover we first of all the priests and Levites and we hear that they have purify themselves and they are pure that’s an issue sometimes with the initials history the priest not being pure not able to actually administer the Passover this is no they’re all pure the Levites are purified with them then we have the second group the sun’s visual who returned from exile and then we have a third group what the text describes as all those who had separate themselves from the impurity of the nations of the land to join them now that them is significant at the very end because it distinguishes between two groups who is the them at the end of verse 21 who’s the them it’s a pronoun so we have to search a little bit earlier to see where the antecedent of that pronoun grammatically appears well if we go back to just that same verse let me find it again verse 21 it says the sons of visual who returned from exile and all those who had separate themselves from impurity the nation’s the land to join them seek the lord god of israel ate the passover so that them it has to go to the sons of israel they were the ones who were just mentioned the sounds vision from return from exile so this third group must be distinct from those people I were else to join them doesn’t really make any sense we’ll come back to their identity identity in just a second but they’re not that description of those who separated themselves computing the nation’s that’s not the exiles that’s another group and notice how the people keep the Passover they keep it with joy and notice the reason for their joy verse 22 since the Yahweh had caused them to rejoice and he had turned the heart of the King to encourage them in the work of rebuilding the house now don’t be firm enough when I mentioned the king of Assyria be like what I thought he was gone a long time ago well yes the Assyrian Empire is gone but the Persian King since he now rules over the land of Asteria he you can assume the title king of Assyria as the king of Babylon had done it for him Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and Assyria king of Persia Cyrus and then Darius they were the kings of Babylon Assyria and Persia so that title is appropriate for them to take all right let’s do some interpretation one more time who are the people this third group celebrating the Passover with the Jewish exiles around I think that is the interpretation that makes the most sense now we’re not told specifically you can say will meet with adjust Samaritan so maybe they’re they’re the Jews who had already been living in the land you know the poor that were left behind and they’re just reuniting with their exile brethren I think maybe all of those things are true but that phrase have separated themselves from the impurity of the nation’s I think we’re talking about people who not only became like the nation’s but also people from the nation’s we’re having proselytes from the Gentiles from the Samaritans and from repentant Jews who were living in the land and they’re joining the people for the Passover they’re joining their exiled brethren for the Passover these converts they recognize their purity because they observe the the zeal of the people of issue for Yahweh and they were drawn from the nations to worship the true God this by the way was always God’s intention for the people of Israel you may remember back in Exodus 19 God says you are going to be to me a kingdom of priests now that’s kind of weird phrases like wait God if I said the only believe I used to be the priest it says your rule nationally will be to function as priests for the nations you are going to mediate for them you are going to cause them to draw near to me you’re going to cause the nations of the earth to know and serve and worship Me that was always God’s intention for Israel of course in she will never really lived up to that intention but we see something of that i would say here in this passage now consider all of this we have the purity of the people of israel the success and drawing some of the surrounding people from the nation’s to yahweh the completion of the temple their faithfulness to observe the sacrifices and feasts that God required we mentioned before the issue was getting a new start after a second Exodus based on all this what does Israel spiritual outlook for the future look like would you say things are looking up spiritually or they’re looking down text certainly looking up this looks great the people are finally following the Lord they’re actually doing what God called them to you this is a wonderful thing Israel’s back in the land and actually following Yahweh but will it last that’s the question chapter 7 in Ezra jumps forward in time by about 50 years to the second step of restoration when Ezra returns the ran what does Ezra find when he comes back to Israel well we have to wait and find out unfortunately it’s gonna be a little bit of a long cliffhanger but a couple lessons from now we’ll come back to the book of Ezra and we’ll find out what he says in the rest of book what edge refines and then what Ezra has to do based on what he finds so that’s coming back but for now we can still appreciate certain things about the people of Israel and also what about God himself throughout these chapters of Ezra these first six chapters we kept seeing the phrases the Lord stirred up the Lord caused and we also saw the different prophecies from my Jeremiah and Isaiah and some we didn’t even mention they came to pass for Israel God fulfilled what he said he was going to do and these details are not accidental that you put these things in this book for his audience so what does as you want his audience understand when it comes to God Israel and the peoples of the world these phrases the Lord stirred up and this fulfillment of prophecy was God’s showing about himself in a relation to the peoples of the world yeah Ron yeah i mean the sovereignty obviously it’s a theme you’ve seen throughout the old testament but Ezra really once to emphasize it to us the Lord is sovereign he can move anyone’s heart to do whatever he wants at any time when the Lord has a purpose it will come to pass and he will move man he will move nations to do it he replaced the Babylonian Empire with the Persian Empire partly so that he can just fulfill when he promised Israel that’s sovereignty that’s power that’s faithfulness from the God of Israel and that was not only something for the Jews understand but it’s also for us right if you were one who believes in and waits upon your way then this should encourage and embolden you it should cause you when you suffer hardship now you’re not sure how to get through you can trust the Lord to sustain you he will remember you he will keep his promises to you so be faithful remember the hearts of all men room in the Lord’s hands he can easily move people to do unexpected things at any time so we ought not to say to ourselves I’m June this situation is just overwhelming I don’t see a way out there’s no way any of this can change God has forgotten me know as your testifies that God never forgets his people at the right time he moves heaven and earth to accomplish deliverance and keep his promises so Calvary let us wait upon the Lord let us rejoice what he’s already sovereignly accomplished for us but also and what he will accomplish he is the king with total authority and you if you know Jesus as Lord and Savior you are his child Yahweh will for his own glory he will bring you in the times of trouble he will also humble you when necessary but like Israel when you come into one of those times understand he is not done with you yet God will also deliver you and exalt you not because you deserve it but because he is that faithful and he is that generous and because he’s made that promise he’s promised those who believe in him those who believe in Jesus his son that he will deliver them and he will exalt them because this is all part of God giving himself glory he will give himself the glory that he is due and therefore his people will reap the benefit final comments or questions based on today’s lesson okay if you have any other questions or comments feel free to email them to me but as we end here today let me give you some questions justice for thinking about application of course these are not the only ways that we can apply the passage but there’s some of the ways that came to my mind and someone to share them with you number one have you been feeling anxious depressed for despairing due to your current difficulties or the actions of our government or the governments around the world make you worried or afraid do you fear how you’ll be able to get through the future I’ll ask yourselves how should the truth of Ezra inform you as to how you ought to change you thinking the Lord is sovereign if he moves the hearts of people easily and we should not worry we should not fear number two based on what God has done in your life already both in moving your heart and the hearts of those around you for your good before the glory of God do you worship God sincerely do you respond to the Lord’s undeserved favor towards you with grateful of meetings and then number three this I guess is the flip side of the second question do you actually use the Lord’s favor as an excuse to pay no attention to the Lord do you seek the Lord when you’ve been humbled or given a great difficulty but as soon as you feel restored do you turn away from the Lord and seek the things of the world because that is the history of Israel is it not and cry out to the Lord when things are hard but assuming things start to go well they just become like the nation’s they don’t pay attention to the Lord they’re not zealous for his law do we do that I mean the spirit accomplished the necessary work in our hearts today so that’s it for this week next week we do hear about Esther for real this time we will talk about Esther let’s pray as we close or God you emphasized to us in your word again and again that you are sovereign and that isn’t something for us to just appreciate intellectually that’s something for our hearts to grab onto cuz Lord we know we know our flesh cries out against you and against our situations so often you bring us into trouble and then our flesh says look there’s no way out for you you’ll never succeed you’ll never get through this you’re doomed you might as well give up now and blame God the Lord Ezra the truth of Ezra don’t allow us to believe that it calls not to believe that because you were sovereign your heart is such that you are faithful and good you will keep your promises you did that for Israel you will do that for Israel and therefore you will do that for us you’ve done that for us and you will do that for us we thank you for your compassion Oh God but thank you for your faithfulness we are weak we are really in great need of you but Lord we’re comforted by what we see in your word that it is precisely in our weakness then you show yourself strong that’s where you bring us so that you might glorify yourself so God I pray that you would provide for us that you would deliver us when we come into trouble when we come into temptation would help us to persevere help us not to to put away our trust in you cause us to persevere Oh God because you will restore you will deliver at the right time and you will exalt Lord even if it’s not on this life you will exalt when these days are through and when we are with you Lord Jesus thank you for being our Savior paid you have less Calvary less than I bless the rest of their service today you Jesus name Amen alright have a good week guys I will see you next week and see here you you you you