Ezra 1 - Our Sovereign and Faithful God
- Joshua Carpenter
- May 18
- 4 min read
Whatever may come, look to your Sovereign and faithful God!
Ezra 1:1–11 (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.
Belgic Confession
Article 34: The Sacrament of Baptism
We believe and confess that Jesus Christ,
in whom the law is fulfilled,
has by his shed blood
put an end to every other shedding of blood,
which anyone might do or wish to do
in order to atone or satisfy for sins.
Having abolished circumcision,
which was done with blood,
he established in its place
the sacrament of baptism.
By it we are received into God’s church
and set apart from all other people and alien religions,
that we may be dedicated entirely to him,
bearing his mark and sign.
It also witnesses to us
that he will be our God forever,
since he is our gracious Father.
Summary
Probably not too often do we find ourselves in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. At first glance, they may seem like dusty history to us today, but in these books of the Bible we find the continuation of the story of redemption after Israel’s fall and exile to Babylon.
Not only that, but in Ezra and Nehemiah, as with the rest of God’s Word, we find such beautiful truths that impact our lives even today, the first of which is this - the One True Living God Whom we worship is Sovereign and Faithful! As we take a look at this opening part of Ezra, we find ourselves some years into Israel’s exile.
The people, exiled from their homeland, have seen kings come and go, but now a new one arrives on the scene - Cyrus, and does he have a proclamation for them! Cyrus proclaims that he has been charged by the LORD, the God of heaven…to build him a house at Jerusalem and so encourages the people of Israel to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple of the LORD.
There’s been debate over Cyrus’ motivations for doing this, but most likely a kind of religious tolerance, or a desire to hedge his bets with different deities, lies behind it. Yet, that’s not the whole of it, for we are given a peek behind the curtain, as it were, as we are told: 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.
As has always been the case, our God is Sovereignly in control over all things and is faithful to His promises!
Dig Deeper
Over the past few weeks, our congregation has had the blessing and privilege of celebrating the sacrament of baptism as little ones were presented by their parents. As we celebrated that sacrament, we were reminded of how Christ’s blood has washed us whiter than snow, as well as God’s amazing faithfulness to His promises to be our God and to be God to our children, and of His calling these children His, looking forward to the day when they will call God their God.
As we have been reminded in our passage from Ezra today, our God is faithful to all His promises made throughout Scripture, that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Joshua 1:5), that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), that the seed of the woman - Jesus - would crush the serpent’s head even as His heel was bruised (Gen. 3:15), and so much more!
What a blessing we have that we can take our faithful, Sovereign God at His Word, and are able to rest knowing that even when we walk through the fire and the flood, He is always in control, and will faithfully walk with us all the way through to the other side!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who always remains faithful and in control;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will live into the covenant promises that God has signified in your baptism;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Comments