Ezra 5-6

 

In chapter 4 the Israelites start work on the temple, and while they are building the Samaritans come and ask if they can build with them. The Israelites say, “No, you have nothing in common with us.” So the Samaritans start to oppose them, and send a letter to King Artaxerxes and the building stops. 

 

We come to chapter 5 – and about 16 years has transpired between the end of chapter 4 to the beginning of chapter 5.  And in that time there had been no work done on the temple.

 

V. 1 – “When the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them, then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them supporting them.”

 

God sends His messengers to His children to remind them and encourage them.

 

In Haggai chapter one we are given a picture of what has gone on in the last 16 or so years.

 

The Israelites not only faced opposition from neighboring villages, but it seems that they were having a hard time of it altogether.  Haggai 1:10 says – “Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce.”  

 

The Israelites were experiencing severe hardship – there was a drought. Nothing was growing, and everything they put their hand to seems to fail.  This is not some random stroke of bad luck though.

 

In the next verse – and this is the LORD speaking through the prophet Haggai – He says, “I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

 

The struggles Israel was facing were from the LORD – God here is disciplining His people.

 

The LORD says, it’s because of you, that these things are happening.

 

So, what was it that Israel had done? What was the reason for God’s chastening? 

I want to go back and read in chapter one of Haggai, starting in verse one –

 

We are going to be spending the bulk of our time in this chapter.  

 

Haggai 1:1-11

 

V. 9 -- “You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the LORD of hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.”

 

Israel had been negligent in fulfilling their call to rebuild the house of the LORD.  More than that, they put their own wants and pleasures before pleasing God.  

 

They all had their houses, by God’s laid desolate. 

 

This was more than just an issue of messed up priorities –

 

Put quite simply, Israel was disobedient.  What had started out as a response to opposition became an excuse for fulfilling their own desires.  

 

When God told Israel to rebuild His house, He didn’t tell them under what circumstances they were to build. He never said, wait until everything is calm. 

 

As God’s people, if we are waiting for smooth sailing to fulfill God’s commands nothing will ever get done.  

 

Obedience should never be dictated by our circumstances.  

 

We don’t obey because it’s easy or even because we understand what’s going on – We obey because we are God’s children, and it is right.  Because He has made us and not we ourselves.  We are in the subordinate position. 

 

Obedience is inconvenient. It’s inconvenient because it stands in direct opposition to our fallen nature. It’s opposed to our natural inclination to serve self – it interrupts our self-dedication, and it requires something from us.  And that something is a surrender of our will – to the will of God. 

 

Many, if not most times, that’s not something we enjoy doing.  We tend like Israel to make excuses, to put it off as long as possible –

 

V. 2 – “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt.”

 

This was their excuse for their negligence – or rather their disobedience.  The time isn’t right.

Things are hard.  We’re facing this thing and that – it’s just not the best time to undertake construction.  

 

What they are saying is – We know better than You, God.  Imagine telling an Omniscient God that you know best.  What an ugly display of arrogance.  But that’s exactly what we do many times, isn’t it?

 

 The time just isn’t right to obey.

 

God would not have commanded His people to do something if the time wasn’t right.

 

The time is always right to obey.  God doesn’t make mistakes.  The question is – do we trust Him or not? 

 

That’s something that the LORD has been hammering home in my own life, really over the last few years.  Do I really trust Him? 

 

When we put off obedience we head down this road where we get further and further wrapped up in ourselves.  Part of it is maybe because if we keep ourselves busy we won’t think about what it is we’re notdoing.  Or maybe the LORD will see how faithful we are being with all these other things that He will just forget or let go of that other thing He told us to do.  

 

Do we think to manipulate our Heavenly Father?

 

Many times, we require hardship and struggle to wake us up, as Israel did, to get us moving once again down the path that the LORD has led.  It’s amazing just how miserable we will allow ourselves to be, as long as we are getting what we want.  

 

V. 4 – “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?”

 

Somehow, even though times were difficult they had still managed to build homes for themselves.  Their houses were even paneled. They had a wood planking around them.  Here they are in comfort while God’s house is a waste.  

 

V. 5 – “Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways!”

 

V. 6-7 “You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”

Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways!”

 

Don’t you see what is going on?? 

 

Consider! Apply you heart to discern what situation you are really in.

 

The energy you are expending is coming to nothing

 

All this that Israel is enduring is chastening from the LORD, but they don’t seem to have noticed.  

 

Israel had gotten so sidetracked that they don’t even recognize when God is trying to get their attention.  This is where going down our own path takes us.  This is what happens when we decide that it’s just not the right time to obey.  It takes us away from the paths of God – it makes us unfamiliar with His workings.  

 

Have you gotten to the point where God’s hand is unrecognizable?  That’s a dangerous place to be.  But God is faithful to His people even then, even in their wanderings.  He sends His messengers to wake them up. What you are going through isn’t a stretch of bad luck.  The LORD says, this is by My hand.  

 

Israel responds to God’s messenger – 

 

V. 12 -- “Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, 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 showed reverence for the LORD.”

 

This is really the issue, isn’t it?  The people had been lacking a reverence or a fear of God.  This is what is at the core of a disobedient heart. 

 

“Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart;

There is no fear of God before his eyes.” – Ps 36:1

 

When your heart is not under the influence and control of the fear of God it is under the control and power of sin. When transgression speaks, you listen to it.  It sounds good, makes sense even, because you have moral standard of righteousness that comes from a fear of the Holy One or even care that what you are doing offends Him. 

 

The fear of God begets obedience.  

 

“Who is among you that fears the LORD,

That obeys the voice of His servant…” – Isa 50:10

 

Here, obedience is synonymous with a fear of the LORD.

 

“Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law.” – Duet 31:12

 

If you are not walking in obedience then you are not walking in fear of the LORD.

 

God brought a drought and other hardships into the lives of His people, not just to discipline them for their disobedience, but also to remind them who He was and what He requires.  I am not a God who will be ignored, or pushed off to the side for a time.  I am Yahweh, and I will be feared, and I will be obeyed.    

 

If you jump back to Ezra now, you see results of their response – the blessing that came from showing reverence and fear for the LORD.

 

Ezra 5:1-5

 

“When the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them, then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them supporting them.

At that time Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai and their colleagues came to them and spoke to them thus, “Who issued you a decree to rebuild this temple and to finish this structure?” Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men were who were reconstructing this building.

 

“But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report could come to Darius, and then a written reply be returned concerning it.” 

 

 

“Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,” – Ps 33:18

 

What does it mean that the LORD’s eye is on those who fear Him?  Surely the LORD is always watching. God is omniscient

 

The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.” – Ps 5:5

 

The proud one cannot hold the gaze of the Most-High.  God cannot look upon him. Not in a sense of unawareness – but in a sense of closeness.  Intimacy. Lovingkindness.  When God says His eye is upon those who fear Him it speaks of an intimacy born of humility.  Only those who fear the LORD know and understand where they stand before Almighty God. God gives grace to who? – the humble.  

 

In Isaiah 66:2, the LORD says –

 

“But to this one I will look,

To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

 

This is who I will set my eye upon. 

 

It is to the one who fears Him that He extends His favor.  

 

God cares about us too much to leave us heading down our own path. 

He’s faithful to us – and He was faithful to Israel.

 

Through His faithfulness the temple is rebuilt in chapters 5 and 6.  

 

I encourage you to read through these two chapters – and see how the LORD provides for and blesses His people.