SPEAKER_00: Ezra 4, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's going to be on the screen is going to be the New King James Version, because I made a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to be reading from the NIV version.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're up there, you're going to be following along, but you will have a little bit of difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in verse 1, it says this: When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, Let us help you build, because like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Ezra Hedon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.
SPEAKER_00: But Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, You have no part with us in the building a temple to our God alone, to our our to God.
SPEAKER_00: We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.
SPEAKER_00: Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.
SPEAKER_00: They bribed officials to work against them and frustrated their plans during their entire the entire reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, and down to the reign of Darius, King of Persia.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, we just would ask that you would speak to us as we read through this text.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, speak into our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that your word is profitable for us for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So Lord, show us, Lord, where we're wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, show us where we're messing up, Lord, but also teach us how to do things right through your word.
SPEAKER_00: And teach us about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we want Jesus to be magnified through this time.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, admittedly, this is a text that has a time gap between when it happened and when Jesus walked the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So connect the dots for us, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated, and we're going to be going through this uh fascinating text out of the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: I have some slides that I'm going to hopefully be able to walk you through that will help you understand some of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: But again, I want to just recall and continue to remind you of just the context of where we're at.
SPEAKER_00: So Israel has just finished, Israel has just finished 70 years of captivity.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine being born into captivity, that you were born into a family where you are raised, you are told that you're a foreigner, that the people who are run the government basically own you, that you're captive to them, and you're really, truly an Israelite from a foreign land.
SPEAKER_00: So many of the people that are doing chapter 4 would fall under that heading.
SPEAKER_00: The people that we're looking at, they lived, grew up in captivity.
SPEAKER_00: Just a handful of the people that are really, really old could remember kind of being taken out of Jerusalem before this time.
SPEAKER_00: So we've seen that this is a liberated people and they've been commissioned by the emperor of the Medo-Persian Empire, Cyrus, to build a temple.
SPEAKER_00: To build a temple.
SPEAKER_00: Why is the temple important?
SPEAKER_00: Why is the temple for the Jews significant?
SPEAKER_00: The reason why it's significant is because it's the central part of their worship.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Israel met with God.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know this about Scripture, these two things.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, this is 530 years before the time of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So why are we reading a story that is 530 years before the time of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Why is this important to us as followers of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't even on the scene yet, but why is this key?
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I would say this: the Bible is a document written by people, God inspired, but written by people, telling the story of God acting in history to redeem, provide, and protect his people.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's what scripture is.
SPEAKER_00: It's important as you look at it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people that kind of want to squish the Bible into being something that it is not.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a technical manual on psychology.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a plumb, a plumbing manual on how to fix your sink, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is an account that God zeroes in on one people group, right?
SPEAKER_00: We don't get a ton about Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get a ton about Assyria or about the Medio-Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_00: We run into those different groups only so that the story of God redeeming, providing, and protecting his people can be told.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to see more about that, look up Exodus 14 through 17, where God tells the people, write it down.
SPEAKER_00: Write down what has happened so that you can remember, you can remember what God has done in history.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing you need to know about Scripture is that God invites the people in this story into a covenant relationship, like a marriage, and it has rules of relationship so we can have an intimate relationship with Him and be a people characterized by faithfulness, generosity, and justice.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so if you look at all of Scripture, which we're studying this morning, what we see is that God is inviting people into this covenant relationship.
SPEAKER_00: So these very people who are having to make this decision in verses one through five about these foreigners that come and say, We want to build with you, those people are in a covenant relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: But God isn't just about covenant with Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, beyond Jesus, there's this open covenant where anybody who's ever been born can interact with God.
SPEAKER_00: We call that the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So having this in mind that God is inviting people into covenant relationship where there's rules in relationship so that there's intimacy, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then we're a people characterized by faithfulness, generosity, and justice, let's look into this particular chapter together.
SPEAKER_00: We um let me point out a few things, a few things from verses one through five.
SPEAKER_00: We're told that 14 months after the people arrive in Jerusalem, they begin a construction project.
SPEAKER_00: So anybody here done construction projects?
SPEAKER_00: We have a few, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Swung a hammer.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you can relate to these people.
SPEAKER_00: They are 14 months into their construction project, and the place of the construction project where they're at is they've laid the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've only done one construction project in my life, and it was very irritating how long it took to lay the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: I was so frustrated that we had to get the protract, like the um the thing where you look and you gotta measure, and there's depths and all of the like the wires that go out, and you're gonna pour the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, oh, let's just build the thing already, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's how I was when it so I wouldn't be a good construction guy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just too impatient.
SPEAKER_00: But they've gotten to the point where they laid the foundation and at the end of chapter three, they have a party, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're all excited and they're yelling and shouting, and then the old guys are weeping and upset because that it isn't gonna be as big as the old one, right?
SPEAKER_00: So it's just this big loud mess.
SPEAKER_00: We start off in verse um one, where the enemies of Judah and Benjamin hear, that's the repeated word that was in the preceding verse, because there was no chapter break in there originally, they hear that the foundation is being laid.
SPEAKER_00: And they come to Zerubbabel and Joshua and the leaders, and they say, We want to help build the temple with you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to participate in the process.
SPEAKER_00: And the leaders decide, they say, No, we want to uh reject that offer, we want to exclude you from being a part of the process.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then in verse 5 it says that they became antagonistic.
SPEAKER_00: They bribe other people to interfere, they're slandering, they're discouraging them, and the summary statement is that building of the temple stopped until the year of Darius, which is uh we jump a king, uh a king who is not even mentioned in the text anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be the third king in the Medo-Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so in who are these foreign residents, right?
SPEAKER_00: These enemies, we're told in verse one, who are these enemies of Judah?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in verse two, they say who they are.
SPEAKER_00: Who do they say?
SPEAKER_00: Look in your text.
SPEAKER_00: Look in the text in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Who do they say that they are in verse 2?
SPEAKER_00: They say that they were at the time of Esar Haddon, king of Assyria, brought us here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's that referring to?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you remember that the northern tribes of Israel were carried off by the Assyrian kingdom up north, and uh so Israel was taken out, but the Assyrian kingdom relocated other people into Israel, into this area.
SPEAKER_00: And that's who's being referred to, Esar Hadan, does this work of relocating new people, foreigners, into the land.
SPEAKER_00: Then in verse 10 and 17, which we haven't gotten to, um in their letter writing, they say that they are people of Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard of Samaria?
SPEAKER_00: You ever heard of the good Samaritan or the woman by the well who was a Samaritan woman?
SPEAKER_00: Same group of people.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting there, right?
SPEAKER_00: So these people are what we would call Samaritans.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you a text that's very interesting, another piece of history from 2 Kings 17, 24 through 34.
SPEAKER_00: I've edited this a bit because there's a lot of repetition in here, but it tells the story of when these people that we encounter in verse 1 are moved into the region of Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: It says the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: They took over Samaria and they lived in its towns.
SPEAKER_00: When they first lived there, they did not worship the Lord, so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people.
SPEAKER_00: It was reported to the king of Assyria.
SPEAKER_00: The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the God of that country requires.
SPEAKER_00: He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Then the king of Assyria gave this order Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the God of the land requires.
SPEAKER_00: So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places.
SPEAKER_00: They worshiped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places.
SPEAKER_00: They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the custom of the nations from which they had been brought.
SPEAKER_00: To this day they persisted in their former practices.
SPEAKER_00: They neither worshiped the Lord nor adhered to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Fascinating, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: So this is how we get the Samaritans.
SPEAKER_00: They are an amalgam.
SPEAKER_00: What's an amalgam, right?
SPEAKER_00: You take two metals, you mix them together, we end up with steel or something like that, right?
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: But um they are taking Judaism and then their own religious beliefs and mixing it together, right?
SPEAKER_00: And now, and so this people, this group of people is living around Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They see the temple being built and they say, hey, we want in on what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews, all the way up to Jesus' time, considered them a half-breed and did not want to associate with them.
SPEAKER_00: So this causes us, like if we want to just follow this people group all the way through, we go from the story of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: So I know your your book of the Bible, like so.
SPEAKER_00: If you're holding Ezra and you're looking at it in your Bible, it's before Psalms, and then you go into the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: But technically, when we're looking at the history of Israel, we're near the end.
SPEAKER_00: We're going into the kind of the dark ages of Israel before, and we have this big gap, 400-year gap, right until then we then Jesus kind of comes onto the scene.
SPEAKER_00: So this is late in Israel's history.
SPEAKER_00: And the next thing that happens with the Samaritans is this John 4 encounter where Jesus interacts with the woman on the well.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm giving you, I'm I may be delivering the sermon in the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you a bunch of information, and then we're gonna we're gonna kind of assess it, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're doing um graduate level work on this text together, because I know you guys are all my seminary students, you all are sharp.
SPEAKER_00: You got this.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna track with me, but I know you will.
SPEAKER_00: But in John chapter 4, verses 7 through 9, it says, When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink?
SPEAKER_00: His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew, I am a Samaritan woman.
SPEAKER_00: How can you ask me for a drink?
SPEAKER_00: And then look at the parentheses.
SPEAKER_00: For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder where they got that idea from.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19, we jump further into chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Sir, the woman said, I can see that you're a prophet, verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where you where we must worship is in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: You Samaritans worship what you do not know.
SPEAKER_00: We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Now, interesting, interesting interaction that goes on between these two individuals.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice, first of all, that Jesus initiates this interaction with the woman.
SPEAKER_00: Fascinating, right?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: She knows culturally, what does she say?
SPEAKER_00: She says, the Jews and the Samaritans do not mix.
SPEAKER_00: Uh culturally, the Samaritan woman knew that the Jewish, that the Jewish claim to Jerusalem was the proper place for worship.
SPEAKER_00: So she knew enough to know that there was a difference of opinion on where the right location for worship was.
SPEAKER_00: So what's going on in John chapter 4, and by the way, do you know that last week we were in John 4?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_00: We referenced John 4 last week as well, which I'm realizing as I'm studying this book is that John 4 and this encounter with this woman is a really important um interpretive key to the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: I can't promise that we'll return to it again, but there's a very fascinating interplay between the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and Jesus' interaction or and um the story of Ezra and what we're looking at today.
SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the things that we're accomplishing by going through the book of Ezra, a historic book, is that we're becoming more biblically literate so that when you go and you study John 4 in your quiet times and you're there reading the Bible, you have a greater appreciation for this tension between the Samaritans and the Jews?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're like, oh yeah, I read that story back in Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now we're gonna get into the deep end of the pool.
SPEAKER_00: Um here's the question.
SPEAKER_00: Were Zerubbabel and Joshua right to reject the help of the Samaritans?
SPEAKER_00: Were they right to reject the help of the Samaritans?
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been in the church for a long time or you've read commentaries on the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, it is likely that you've heard sermons where Ezra and Nehemiah are held up as champions, and oftentimes they're examples of leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes churches will teach from the book of Nehemiah when they're doing a building campaign.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Nehemiah, he rallied the troops and we built the building, you know, and this is what we need to do.
SPEAKER_00: There is a um newer school of thought on Ezra and Nehemiah that is more critical of the decision-making process of both Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel.
SPEAKER_00: These commentators suggest that Ezra and Nehemiah give an account that falls into the motif of Israel's failure to live as God's covenant people.
SPEAKER_00: God rescues his people, he brings them back from Babylon to build the temple, but then they fail to demonstrate God's benevolent love for their neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember going back to Jesus really quickly?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember there's one other reference to Samaritans?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember where it comes up?
SPEAKER_00: It's a parable.
SPEAKER_00: Because a lawyer comes to Jesus and he says, Um, what's the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_00: And um Jesus kind of puts it back on him, what do you say?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And then the lawyer kind of wants to get out from the heavy burden of that, and he says, Well, clarify for me who is my neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus tells a parable, and in it, the champion, the hero of the story is a Samaritan who was good.
SPEAKER_00: He's a good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: He cares for the guy who got assaulted, right?
SPEAKER_00: Aggravated assault on the road to Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like Baltimore.
SPEAKER_00: So, so God chose the nation of Israel to be his people and to demonstrate his covenant with the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the promise to Abraham?
SPEAKER_00: I am going to bless you, Abraham, and make of you a great nation, so that you will bless many people.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So the glory of God shines out of Israel to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, all of these prophets are saying, You are a light to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: And yet here we come onto the scene, and the nations come and they say, We want to help you build.
SPEAKER_00: Let us be a part of the building process.
SPEAKER_00: And they say, No, no, no, we're supposed to do this by ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have this new school of thought that says, they made a mistake at this point.
SPEAKER_00: They should have allowed, because look, they bought timber from Tyre in Sidon, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're including other people there.
SPEAKER_00: When Cyrus made the decree and sent them back to build the temple, he said, You Jews are supposed to go home, and hey, anybody who has neighbors that happen to be Jewish, why don't you give them an offering, uh, a contribution to this building project?
SPEAKER_00: So other people have already been involved.
SPEAKER_00: And then we come into Jesus and we see Jesus having such positive interactions with the Samaritans, you kind of get a sense, and then there's kind of the to make the best case, um, when you go to Zechariah, the prophet, who will really dig into next week, Zechariah says, You're supposed to build this temple with people from faraway lands.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a real strong case to be made that this was a wrong decision.
SPEAKER_00: But you look at the Story of 1 Kings or 2 Kings 17 that these are these are have this mixed idol worship, that they're pagans.
SPEAKER_00: You know the history of Israel, that the big downfall.
SPEAKER_00: The reason they've been for 70 years in captivity is because they were I they were worshiping idols and they had left serving God.
SPEAKER_00: So so you can understand why these people wanted to be really careful about involving pagans in the building of their temple.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: You knew I was gonna somehow land this with motherhood, right?
SPEAKER_00: You feel the tension?
SPEAKER_00: Like like, did they make the right decision?
SPEAKER_00: Did they make the wrong decision?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I I could see it either way.
SPEAKER_00: But let me let me just say this.
SPEAKER_00: Is there any leadership position in society where a person is second-guest more than that of a mother?
SPEAKER_00: Is there?
SPEAKER_00: Is it possible that a mom that moms are the most second guest leaders in our society?
SPEAKER_00: I think this is a major source of anxiety for moms.
SPEAKER_00: Did I do the right thing with my kids?
SPEAKER_00: Was I too mean?
SPEAKER_00: Was I too strict?
SPEAKER_00: Was I not strict enough?
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not we we have this phrase in our culture.
SPEAKER_00: It's called being an armchair quarterback or being a backseat driver, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or second guessing somebody, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a big fan of that, right?
SPEAKER_00: We we use those terms armchair quarterback kind of in derision.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, anybody can be an armchair quarterback, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody can um drive the car from the back seat.
SPEAKER_00: That's easy, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to be a mom, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't know, we don't know whether these guys made the right decision or the wrong decision.
SPEAKER_00: But I I've got to show you something beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: I'm cheating because we're getting into next week's material.
SPEAKER_00: But let me let me let me show you this.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you this.
SPEAKER_00: This is Zechariah.
SPEAKER_00: So God brings men, two men, Haggai and Zechariah, to prophesy to Zerubbabel and Joshua the priest in the midst of this whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: And a prophet speaks on behalf of God, just saying, This is the truth, this is my truth.
SPEAKER_00: And look at this in Zechariah 3, look what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, right?
SPEAKER_00: So this is a supernatural vision that Zachariah has of like a real person, but with spiritual things going on around him.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan standing at his right side, accusing him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you.
SPEAKER_00: Is not this man a burning s uh stick snatched from the fire?
SPEAKER_00: Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.
SPEAKER_00: The angel said to those who were standing before him, Take off his filthy clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said to Joshua, See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.
SPEAKER_00: Then I said, Put a clean turban on his head.
SPEAKER_00: So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him while the angel of the Lord stood by.
SPEAKER_00: Whether Joshua the high priest and Zerabbabel and these other leaders made the right decision or not, God gives a prophet a vision of this man being accused by Satan.
SPEAKER_00: And what role does God play?
SPEAKER_00: Is God the accuser?
SPEAKER_00: No, God's the defender.
SPEAKER_00: God's the one who's saying, Joshua is my man, Satan, the Lord, rebuke you.
SPEAKER_00: God is your advocate for all of you, moms and all for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: God is our advocate.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a follower of Jesus, you are one who has been given new clothes, clean clothes, and you are not a person condemned.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you've made mistakes, maybe there are things you regret in how you've worked with your kids or in your workplace or how you've led.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the truth of scripture is that God is your advocate.
SPEAKER_00: There's a question in Romans 8.
SPEAKER_00: Who condemns us?
SPEAKER_00: Is it Christ?
SPEAKER_00: No, he's the one who was sacrificed on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is for you.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have to wear the judginess, the judginess of other people.
SPEAKER_00: Well, wouldn't you know it?
SPEAKER_00: We've only done the first five verses out of 24.
SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna continue on.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna continue on.
SPEAKER_00: Um verses 6 through 23.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 6 through 23, here's a um timeline, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So what's going on in the rest of chapter 4 is that we have a digression.
SPEAKER_00: Um we have a uh we step out of the immediate story of a conflict with the Samaritans, and we have a 70-year summary of the ongoing conflict of the Samaritans with the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes through these four, really, there's five seasons.
SPEAKER_00: These are the different um emperors.
SPEAKER_00: So you have Cyrus, and then you have uh Emperor Darius, then Xerxes and Arctic Xerxes.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So literally what we're gonna cover in history is um some things that refer to the time of uh Nehemiah and not even things that are going on in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: You'll notice also here on the timeline that we have letter number one, letter number two, letter number three, and letter number four.
SPEAKER_00: There's three arrows going up because these are local people writing letters to the kings, and then we have the final letter from Artic Xerxes that is letter number four, and it is being sent back to the people.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go through this together.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in verse six, this is letter number one.
SPEAKER_00: At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Already we've jumped out of the time frame of Ezra, the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's letter number one.
SPEAKER_00: Then we have letter number two, and in the days of Artaxerxes, which was the son of Xerxes, king of Persia, Bishlam, Midridath, Tabil, and the rest of the associates, they wrote a letter to Articerxes.
SPEAKER_00: The letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language.
SPEAKER_00: So that's letter two.
SPEAKER_00: Then we have a reference to letter number three.
SPEAKER_00: Rahum, the commanding officer, and Shimshai the secretary, wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artixerxes the king, as follows.
SPEAKER_00: Rahum the commanding officer and Shimshai the secretary, together with the rest of their associates, the judges, the officials, the administrators over the people from Persia, Uruk, Babylon, the Elamites, Susa, and the other people whom the great and honorable Asher Bernapal deported and settled in the city of Samaria and elsewhere in Trans Euphrates.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, this is the third letter, and this is just who it's from.
SPEAKER_00: So the point is, is they're trying to say, look, this letter represents a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been asked to like sign on to a letter?
SPEAKER_00: Like we're gonna sign a petition, basically.
SPEAKER_00: That's in essence what this letter is.
SPEAKER_00: So verses eight through ten is just who the letter's from.
SPEAKER_00: This is the substance of the letter starting in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: This is the copy that was sent to him to King Artaxerxes from your servants in Trans Euphrates.
SPEAKER_00: The king should know that the people who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city.
SPEAKER_00: They are restoring the walls and repairing the foundations.
SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, the king should know that if this city is built and its walls are restored, no more taxes, tribute, or duty will be paid, and eventually the royal revenues will suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Now, since we are under obligation to the palace and it's not proper for us to see the king dishonored, we are sending this message to inform the king, so that a search may be made in the archives of your predecessors.
SPEAKER_00: In these records you will find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to the kings and provinces, a place with a long history of sedition.
SPEAKER_00: That is why the city was destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: We inform the king that if this city is built and its walls are restored, you will be left with nothing in Trans Euphrates.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a it's a mixture of truth and lie.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like they have their perspective on history of what's gone on.
SPEAKER_00: You see that they're really kind of playing an angle here, a financial angle, that hey, your taxes are going to be impacted if Jerusalem is raised up.
SPEAKER_00: So um, and this is what the letter, response letter from King Artaxerxes said.
SPEAKER_00: The king sent this reply to Rahim, the commanding officer, Shem Shai the secretary, and the rest of their associates living in Samaria and elsewhere in Trans Euphrates.
SPEAKER_00: Greetings.
SPEAKER_00: The letter you sent us has been read and translated in my presence.
SPEAKER_00: I issued an order and a search was made.
SPEAKER_00: It was found that this city has a long history of revolt against kings and has been a place of rebellion and sedition.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem has had powerful kings ruling over the whole Trans Euphrates, and taxes, tribute, and duty were paid to them.
SPEAKER_00: Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful not to neglect this matter.
SPEAKER_00: Why let this threat grow to the detriment of the royal interests?
SPEAKER_00: So the king Artaxerxes puts a stop work order, one of those yellow tags goes literally on the temple, like stop building, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um actually this may have related to a time right before Nehemiah and some of the rebuilding that was going on there.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you have four letters that are written, all of this opposition that the people of Israel are facing as they're just trying to obey God in their rebuilding process.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as the copy of the letter of King Arxerces was read to Reham and Shemshai, the secretary and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and compelled them to by force to stop.
SPEAKER_00: So this is way 60, 70 years down the road in history.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that?
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it relates more to the time of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pull out a little bit of um application from this.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to make a few points here.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, opposition is promised to us as believers.
SPEAKER_00: Are you following God?
SPEAKER_00: You need to know that opposition is promised to the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Whether the leadership made the right or wrong decision, opposition is guaranteed for those who follow God or the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Second, the primary opponent of the Christian is Satan.
SPEAKER_00: For you and I, the primary opponent, now Satan may work through people, right?
SPEAKER_00: He may stir up people to be difficult in the process, and that's what we have going on here.
SPEAKER_00: But it is Satan who is backing the opposition effort.
SPEAKER_00: Um there and a host of fallen angels.
SPEAKER_00: These evil spirits have temporary authority on earth to oppose the good work of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the third thing that we need to remember is that victory is promised.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was sent by the Father to do a redemptive work with the ultimately leading to the overthrow of Satan's powers.
SPEAKER_00: The battle is currently pitched.
SPEAKER_00: We are watching victories of Jesus break out on a regular basis as we pray and obey.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's two passages up there that you can look at that relate to this idea.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: So we're looking at this historic moment in Israel's history, and we can just immediately apply it to our life and know that the opposition they face is a reality for us as well.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a mom, you're gonna face opposition.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you anything new, but hopefully it's comforting to have it affirmed, right?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you need to hear the truth, right?
SPEAKER_00: That you are experiencing, that there is opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Your kids are not the devil, but he can sometimes inspire, inspire activity in your kids that is demonic, right?
SPEAKER_00: We also, just so you know, that that a body is seen as a vessel, a spiritual container.
SPEAKER_00: If you are not a follower of Jesus, then you are a container for a spiritual work.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan has the ability to work in you and dwell in you.
SPEAKER_00: Once you become a vessel purchased by Jesus on the cross, you're off limits to Satan working and dwelling in you.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that Satan can do once you be are owned by Jesus is he can afflict you from the outside.
SPEAKER_00: He cannot take up residency in you.
SPEAKER_00: That's not allowed.
SPEAKER_00: So it's just really important that you understand, because this week, you may not be thinking about Ezra and the Samaritans, but you're gonna face opposition.
SPEAKER_00: And it is important for you to know that Satan wants you to fail.
SPEAKER_00: It says in John chapter 10 that the thief who is Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: He's actively opposed to your fruitfulness, your love for God, and your love for others, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you need to be aware and on guard this week that and know that the promise is the victory is promised and it has already been accomplished on the cross, and now we embody the outbreak of victory on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Satan's still here.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't been cast down yet.
SPEAKER_00: Satan still has authority in the world, he still has great influence.
SPEAKER_00: But you and I are rebels in which God is breaking out his victorious work.
SPEAKER_00: Are we tracking?
SPEAKER_00: We're on the same page here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, good.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: I feel that.
SPEAKER_00: I feel it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: John 20, I mean verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: Last little piece here.
SPEAKER_00: We return, we return to verse 20 of verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So this parenthetical note ends in verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're back into our like modern day time where Ezra is writing or the chronicler is writing this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, thus the work of the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.
SPEAKER_00: That sets the stage for next week because we're gonna look next week at who is Darius, how did um what was the interaction like with Darius?
SPEAKER_00: Um it's gonna be a little bit confusing, but man, we're gonna love.
SPEAKER_00: Read Zachariah, read Haggai.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, good, good stuff that we're gonna cover next week.
SPEAKER_00: In closing, in closing, I want to bring you back to the woman at the well.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Here is Jesus in the midst of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He's tired, he's walking to the next place of ministry, and it says in John 4 that he was weary, so he sat down there at that well.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to this woman, he says, Give me a drink.
SPEAKER_00: And that begins this dialogue with this woman over spiritual things.
SPEAKER_00: And do you remember that he invites her?
SPEAKER_00: He says to her, You should be asking me for a drink because I can give you spiritual drink.
SPEAKER_00: You may feel like you can relate, you may feel like Ezra IV, like you're that outsider.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, I want in.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be a part of the building process, I want to be a part of what God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe your church interaction has kind of been like one of those where it's like you've gotten the stiff arm.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to know that Jesus represents the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to take people that are far from God, who have a mixed background and have baggage and sin and have a reputation and tatters.
SPEAKER_00: He came to bring those people close to God.
SPEAKER_00: And he's inviting those people to even come closer and receive just that.
SPEAKER_00: He says it's living water.
SPEAKER_00: Just receive, let me pour life into you.
SPEAKER_00: Just like you would take a cup of water.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, God has the same heart of care towards you.
SPEAKER_00: He sent his son into the world to pay the penalty for your sin so that the spiritual longing that you have can be fulfilled in him.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to refresh you, he wants to pour into you life, vitality, hope, love, vision, the ability to do life, the ability to overcome the opposition.
SPEAKER_00: You may say, How where do I start?
SPEAKER_00: If you're new to the Lord, I just want to show you this verse.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts 16, there was a man who was a jailer.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to know where to start, and in verse 30, he said to Paul, What must I do to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: And this is what they said.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you'll be saved.
SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: So look, you you've got stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We all have stuff.
SPEAKER_00: You walked in that door this morning, you got stuff that's super secret, that's hidden down deep.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want you to know that this morning, Jesus came to draw close to you.
SPEAKER_00: The reason that Joe is back there making egg sandwiches, and Paul brought some flowers, and Marvin brought flowers, is because that's the outbreak of the kingdom of God's love towards you.
SPEAKER_00: The food that's over here that's available from Whole Foods.
SPEAKER_00: It's the outbreak of God's love towards you.
SPEAKER_00: It's the physical representation to this morning that God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't just want to fill your belly, right?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just want to give you a drink.
SPEAKER_00: Like the woman at the well, he wants to give you everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: Everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: My prayer, my prayer for you is that you would just receive it, right?
SPEAKER_00: That you would do that that it says here is just believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't asking you to clean up your act.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't ask you to put on your your your dress to the nines or have a fancy hat this morning.
SPEAKER_00: He looked he just wanted you to come and draw close to him.
SPEAKER_00: He will do the work, he will meet you where you're at.
SPEAKER_00: You are you're fine where you're at.
SPEAKER_00: The love of God is for you.
SPEAKER_00: You are loved.
SPEAKER_00: Look, Satan, Satan's like we see in Zechariah.
SPEAKER_00: He's accusing you.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, You've messed up, you failed, your clothes are all dirty, you're a wreck, you made bad leadership decisions, there's stuff you should regret.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord is there saying, No, no, no, give him clean clothes.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord rebuke you, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for being our defense, that that we are the recipients of our love, and there are things that steal our joy.
SPEAKER_00: There's things that mess, mess us up, we feel accused.
SPEAKER_00: Um and there's times where we've we've messed up, where we've made bad decisions, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And yet your love towards us in Christ is already accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: We can't go and undo the cross through our sin today.
SPEAKER_00: We're forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for that work.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, if there's anyone here that doesn't know you, that you'd work in their heart, that you'd bring them to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, for those, for those of us that are following you in the way of discipleship, that we want to be your followers, Lord, we just ask that you'd strengthen us this week with a resolve that we are going to hold our ground in the evil day, and that we are going to be those vessels that embody the breaking out of heaven's victory on earth.
SPEAKER_00: That we're really you're gonna put stick stick it to Satan through those victories in our life this week.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, put on display your great power in us this week.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.