Let us open our Bibles once again
to the book of Ezra, chapter 5. I'm sorry, chapter four, Ezra
chapter four. I have four parts to the message
this evening, and what we are going to see is how that the
work in building the temple, the house of the Lord, was stopped
and then started again. But first, the work of building
the temple was frustrated. In chapter 4, verses 5 and 6,
we read, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their
purpose. All the days of Cyrus, king of
Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. I ended last week with this verse,
which tells us that the people of the land, and we saw that
the people of the land were those idolaters that had been moved
into the land by the king of Assyria. And they wanted to come
and help the Israelites build the temple of God. And of course,
they, the scripture says, feared the Lord and worshiped idols.
They were not God's people. They never repented of their
idolatry, but they wanted to have a hand in building the temple
of the Lord. When they were not allowed, when
the Jews told them, no, you're not going to have a part in this
work, then they began to frustrate the work, to frustrate the Jews
in their work. Cyrus, the king of Persia, gave
the commandment to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. If you turn back to chapter one,
we saw this, of course, several weeks ago, But in verses 2 and
3 of Ezra chapter 1, thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord
God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and
he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is
in Judah. Who is there among you of all
his people? His God be with him. Let him
go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. King Cyrus had given this commandment
to build the house of the Lord. Now sometime in his reign, until
the reign of Darius, who was a king of Persia, sometime in
the latter part of the reign of Cyrus, until the second year
in the reign of Darius, the work on the house of the Lord was
stopped. Sometimes. Kings, like all men,
do not live forever. And the prophet Zechariah, he
asked the question, where are your fathers? Speaking to the
nation of Israel. Where are your fathers? Of course,
they'd all passed away. Do the prophets live forever?
Of course not. And the same thing is true of
kings. King Cyrus, he died and his son
Ahasuerus began to reign on his own. If you notice in verse 6
it says, and in the reign of Ahasuerus, the beginning of his
reign brought they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants
of Judah and Jerusalem. Some believe that this Ahasuerus
had reigned by proxy for Cyrus for a few years before Cyrus
actually died, that he was engaged in a war and so his son took
over the reign. He never was a friend to the
Jews. He never was, this Ahasuerus,
he never was a friend to the Jews. Now, men believed that
he feared Egypt. He feared Egypt would rebel and
that the Jews would join with them in the rebellion. And also
I would point out in verse 7 we read, and in the days of Artaxerxes. Now most people believe that
Artaxerxes was a common name for the kings of Persia. So the
Ahasuerus of verse 6 and Artaxerxes of verse 7 are the same person. So that's the first thing. The
work of building of the temple was frustrating. Now, the second
part, they send a letter. They send a letter to Ahasuerus
to stop the work. That is, the enemies of God,
those who were not allowed to help build the temple, they send
a letter to Ahasuerus to get him to command the Jews to quit
building the house of the Lord. Now, in chapter 4, that letter
is taken up from verse 7 through verse 16. And I'm not going to
read all the letter, but I do want to point five things out
to us from this letter. The first thing that I point
out is the accusers. The accusers who signed this
letter were many. We read in verses 9 and 10, then
wrote Rahum, the chancellor, and Shemshai, the scribe, and
the rest of their companions, the Danites and the Aphorsites,
the Tarphites and the Aphorsites and the Archivites, a whole lot
of ites here, Babylonians, and the Susanchites, the Dehavites,
and the Elamites, and notice, and the rest of the nations,
whom the great and noble Asnapor, that was the king of Assyria,
brought over and set in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that
were on this side of the river, and at Suchetah. So you see there,
this letter was signed by many people. And the point I want
to make is, that the enemies of the gospel are always many. Those who believe and preach
the gospel of the grace of God in Christ will always seem to
be in a minority. Remember when Jehoshaphat was
king of Judah and Ahab was king of Israel, Ahab had a number
of prophets, but there was only one prophet, Micaiah, who was
a true prophet of God. And we see here these men who
signed this letter, many of them were against and did everything
they could to hinder the building of the temple. And we should
continually remind ourselves of these truths. Greater is he
that is in you than he that is in the world. And in Romans 8,
if God be for us, and that's all that counts, If God be for
us, was God for these Jews building this temple? They had a number
of enemies, but if God be for us, who can be against us? The second thing I point out
about this letter, they begin with a lie. They begin with a
lie. Notice verse 12. Be it known
unto the king that the Jews which came up from thee to us are come
unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city,
and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations. Now we know that that was a lie. They had not set up the walls
of the city of Jerusalem. They had received a command to
build the house of the Lord. And as far as we know, As far
as we can be sure, the only thing they had done so far was to lay
the foundation of the House of the Lord. But they certainly
had not begun to build the walls of the city. And we know that
later when Nehemiah received commission from a king of Persia
to come, it was to build the walls. But their commission,
Ezra and those who came with him, was only to build the house
of the Lord. Incidentally, in the Jewish canon
of scripture, Ezra and Nehemiah are usually considered as one
book. Now we see them as two books
in our Bible, but in their canon of scripture, they are one book,
Ezra and Nehemiah. They're so connected. They're
so connected together. They both cover the same time
period. that when the Jews came back
from captivity and resettled in the land. Now the third thing
that I point out to us is in this letter they express their
concern for the king's honor. These men, they express their
concern for the king's honor as though the only reason we're
writing this letter to you is because we are concerned about
your honor. about the honor of Ahasuerus. Notice that in verses 13 and
14. Be it known now unto the king
that if this city be builded and the walls set up again, then
will they not pay toll. They're going to quit sending
money to your coffers. That's what's going to happen.
If this city is builded and the walls set up again, they will
not pay toll, tribute, and custom And so thou shalt endamage the
revenue of the kings. Now, here it is, because we have
maintenance from the king's palace, and it was not meet for us to
see the king's dishonor, therefore have we sent and certified the
king. In other words, we are writing
this letter because we're concerned about your honor. They won't
pay taxes anymore. They won't continue to pay tribute
and custom to you. And it was true that many of
them were maintained. They had a personal interest
in this because they received their maintenance from the King
of Persia. There were civil rulers, of course,
on this side of the river Euphrates, and they They were supported
or maintained by the revenue from the king of Persia. They
were concerned for his honor, they said. The fourth thing that
I noticed about this letter, it contains some truth. It contains
some truth. And isn't that the way Satan's
message always is? There's always going to be some
truth. There's going to be an element
of truth in the message of false teachers. If there were not,
I don't suppose anyone would listen to them. As has often
been pointed out, if you read the ingredients of mouse or mice
poison, you will find that there's very little poison in those ingredients. Most of it, a mouse could eat
and live and live and live, but it's that little bit. And that's
the way false preachers, false teachers do. As these people, there was a
little truth, there was some truth in this letter, even though
there's much lying. But notice the truth here in
verse 15. They said, they asked the king
that search may be made in the book of the records of thy fathers. So shalt thou find in the book
of the records and know that this city is a rebellious city. Now that was true, and they're
going to search and they're going to find out that yes, Jerusalem
had been a rebellious city. And I believe if you keep your
places here, but look back to 2 Chronicles. If you still have your place
there in Ezra, go back to that verse 15 again. I wanted to point
this out. That search may be made in the
book of the records of thy fathers, so shalt thou find in the book
of the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city,
and hurtful unto the kings and provinces, and that they have
moved sedition within the same of old time. Now notice, for
which cause was this city destroyed? Now that's true. We see this
here in 2 Chronicles chapter 36. When Nebuchadnezzar conquered, defeated
Judah, he didn't destroy the temple at first. He set up his
own king. In fact, there were several kings
immediately. But here in 2 Chronicles 36,
beginning with verse 9, And Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began
to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem,
and did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. And when
the year was expired, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon,
with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah
his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. And Zedekiah was one
and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven
years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil
in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself
before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the
Lord, that's the king that burned the Word of God, that King Zedekiah. And he also, now notice verse
13, and he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar. King Nebuchadnezzar
had set him up to be king. He was a vassal king, yes. They
had to pay tribute to Babylon, but still he was set up by Nebuchadnezzar,
who had made him swear by God, but he stiffened his neck and
hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Then down to verse 17, therefore
he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, that's Nebuchadnezzar,
the Chaldean, who slew their young man with a sword in the
house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young
man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age. He gave
them all into his hand, 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, and they burnt. they burnt the house of
God and break down the wall of Jerusalem and burn all the palaces
thereof with fire and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
Nebuchadnezzar at first, he did not destroy the walls, he did
not destroy the temple, but when this king that he set up rebelled,
He came back and settled that matter by complete destruction
of the temple and of the city walls. So the letter contained some
truth. Jerusalem had been a rebellious
city. What they found Not only was
it a rebellious city, but it had been a city that had great
rulers. But the fifth thing I point out
in verse 16, these who wrote the letter, we certify, we assure
the king that if this city be built again and the walls thereof
set up, by this means thou shalt have no portion on this side
of the river. In other words, we assure you
If you allow these Jews to build this city again, build the walls,
you're not going to have any territory on this side of the
river. It's all going to be gone. Now,
the third part of my message is I want us to see the answer
that King sent back. This is found in verses 17 through
22. Notice in verse 19, I, that is
the king, commanded, and search hath been made, and it is found
that the city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that the rebellion and sedition
have been made therein. They found out the city, sure
enough, had been a rebellion city, but they found this out
too. Notice that next verse. There have been mighty kings
over Jerusalem. I'm sure that in the history
books that they read, the records that they had, they realized
that at one time, this kingdom of Judah had been a great kingdom,
that there had been great kings. David and Solomon had ruled with
great power over many nations, and those nations were paying
tribute to them. Now, here's the king's commandment
in this letter down in verse 21. After they've sent the letter,
and he responds back, in verse 21, the king says, give you now
commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city
be not built until another commandment shall be given from me. Take heed now, you make sure
you do this. Take heed now that you fail not
to do this. Why should damage grow to the
hurt of the kings? In other words, they had accused
them to the king, and they searched the records and found out, sure
enough, they'd been a rebellious city and even great, great rulers
over that. So his command was, cause the
work to cease. Cause the work to stop. And do
it right now. Now we know from the book of
Daniel, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians,
once a decree was given by a king, it could not be annulled. That's
the reason Daniel was put into the den of lions, wasn't it?
It's because his counselors or those around him deceived him
to pass a law or decree that if any man asked anything of
anyone other than the king for a certain amount of time, then
they would be punished by being put into a den of lies. And of
course, they found that Daniel continued to do what he had done
all of his life. I assume he prayed unto the Lord
God of heaven. And so the king could not just
say, well, I disavow that decree. He couldn't do that. The same
thing you see in the book of Esther, when Haman deceived the
king, And they wrote that command on a certain day to kill all
the Jews in all of his kingdom. Open season on all the Jews,
kill all of them. Esther interceded for them, and
it was shown that Haman was behind that plot to kill the Jews. He couldn't just disannul that
decree. He had to issue another decree
which allowed the Jews to defend themselves. But that first decree
was still in power. But he issued another decree
allowing the Jews. What I'm saying is that the decree
that Cyrus gave was to build the temple, the house of the
Lord in Jerusalem. And this king, he cannot just
disannul that. And in verses 23 and 24 here,
we see that They caused, this caused the
work. Now, when the copy of King Artaxerxes'
letter was read before Rahom and Shimshahi the scribe and
their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the
Jews and made them to cease by force and power. Then ceased
the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem. So it
ceased. under the second year of the
reign of Darius, king of Persia. I want you to look back in verse
21 at the commandment of the king that he sent in this letter.
Give you now commandment to cause these men to cease and that this
city be not builded until another commandment shall be given from
me." He did not say one word about the temple of the Lord.
He didn't say one word about the work on the Temple of the
Lord having to be ceased or being brought to an end. What he said
is that this city be not built. And that, of course, refers to
the walls of the city. That was his commandment. But
the letter was used to cause the Jews to cease their work
of the House of the Lord. He had not said anything about
the house of the Lord and his command. His command was that
the city not be rebuilt. Notice verse 24, then cease the
work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. Now, my fourth
point, or part, is the help of the prophets. You notice in chapter
5 we are introduced to two of these minor prophets, Haggai
and Zechariah. Then the prophets Haggai, the
prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddu prophesied unto the Jews
that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel,
even unto them. I want you to turn with me to
the prophecy of Haggai. Haggai. You have to keep that in mind.
Now, the king's commandment did not say a word about the house
of the law. It said that they were not to
build this city. Actually, according to the law
of the Medes and the Persians, he couldn't issue a decree. to
overturn the decree of Cyrus. He couldn't do that. But it was
enough for them to cause the Jews to stop working on the house
of the Lord. Now, if you are here in Haggai
chapter 1, they ceased their work. Here's the thing we see
here. They ceased their work on the house of the Lord, but
they did not cease working on their houses. They didn't do
any work on the house of the Lord, but they continued to work
on their houses. Look in verses 1 through 4. In
the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in
the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai
the prophet unto Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor
of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest,
saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, The people
say the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should
be built. Then came the word of the Lord
by Haggai, the prophet, saying, is it time for you? You're saying
it's not time to build the house of the Lord. How long had the
work on the house of the Lord been stopped? Somewhere over
10 years. Somewhere over 10 years, they
had not done anything, any work on the house of the Lord. They
kept saying, the time is not yet. The time is not yet. But God says, is it time for
you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses? They didn't work on the
house of the Lord, but they sure didn't work on their houses.
Their houses were sealed, but this house, that is the house
of the Lord, it lay in waste. And they're commanded here two
times to consider their ways. Notice in verse five. Now therefore,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Is this right? Is this right? That you work
on your houses, you build your houses, but you have no concern
for the house of the Lord. It's laid waste all these years,
over 10 years. Look in verse seven again. Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. They're called upon
to repent of their selfish, evil ways and to recognize, and you
see this now, to recognize that their conduct and their refusal
to build the house of the Lord, but to build their own houses,
it brought God's disfavor. Back in verse five, now therefore,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Look what
has happened to you. You have sown much. You've gone
out into your fields and you've used a lot of seed out there.
You've sown a lot of seed, but it didn't produce. You've sown
much and bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough
and never satisfied. You drink. But you're not filled
with drink, you clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that
earneth wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes. Consider
your wage. This was a direct result of their
neglecting to build the house of the Lord. And notice also
in verse nine, you look for much, You looked for much, and lo,
it came to little. And when you brought it home,
I did blow upon it. Why, saith the Lord of Hosts?
Because of my house that is waste. You went into business, and you
thought you were going to make a lot of money, you were going
to be rich, but I blew upon it, and it came to nothing. Why? Why, saith the Lord of Hosts?
Because of mine house that is waged, and you run every man
unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you
is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And
I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountain,
and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and
upon that which is which the ground bringeth forth, and upon
man, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of his hands."
What a message I had to deliver. The Word of the Lord. You've
neglected God's house, but you've attended to your houses. And
because of that, God had not blessed them in their work, in
their farming and whatever other way they had to make money. But now here's the wonderful
thing. The people heard God's prophet. Verse 13. Verse 12, Then Zerubbabel the
son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest,
with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord
their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their
God had sent him. And the people did fear before
the Lord, Then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, and the
Lord's message unto the people, saying, and here was the message. Here it is. I am with you. I am with you, saith the Lord. If God is with us, then who can
be against us? I am with you. The people heard
the message, notice verse 14, and the Lord stirred up the spirit
of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit
of Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, and the spirit
of all the remnant of the people, and they came and did work in
the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God. What a message Hagia had to deliver. But the people heard the message.
They believed the message. They repented. God stirred up
their hearts to do the work. And so they come and once again
begin to build the house of the Lord. As I said, the work on
the house of the Lord had been stopped for over 10 years after
they laid the foundation. May the Lord bless His word to
each one of us here tonight. What a message. What more could
any people need than for God to say, I am with you. I am with you. If He's with us,
nobody can be against us. Let us sing a hymn before we
go.