Ezra 5 (Part 1) Bible Study (Rebuilding Begins Anew) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Let's turn now in our bibles to Ezra chapter five. Ezra chapter five. It is believed that from the time the restored exiles laid the foundation of the temple in Jerusalem to the recommencement of the rebuilding of the temple, sixteen years had passed. Think about that for a moment. Sixteen years of inactivity.

Sixteen years of purchased materials lying dormant. Sixteen years of these captives who have now returned home, never reaching their full potential in worship because the temple for so long remained as a slab for that duration of time. Now, what was the reason for the cessation of the temple's restoration? Why did that work stop? Wasn't that the reason why God brought the people from Babylon to the homeland?

Well, we learned it last week, didn't we? That it was a mixture of discouragement, frustration, fear, and persecution that led to this rationale among the people to suspend the work. And it didn't take very long until they became distracted with other affairs. But look quickly at the last verse of chapter four, verse 24. It reads, Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

So something took place in the second year of the administration of Darius that kick started the work of the house of God being rebuilt once again. And it is in this new chapter, Ezra chapter five, where we are given the explanation. We are going to learn what it was that sparked this renewed interest in rebuilding this house of worship. And here's what we're gonna do tonight. We're going to examine the first five verses of this chapter, but we'll begin by reading the first two.

So let's come now and look at Ezra chapter five verse one. Now the prophets, Haggai 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 that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them. Father, we ask, please, that you would give us understanding that we may have life, not just knowledge, not just information. We're praying for life to be imparted into the depths of who we are.

Use this Bible study to that end. We ask these things in the matchless name of Jesus Christ. Amen. We should be excited just by reading these first two verses for one main reason. This is the first time that prophets appear in the book of Ezra.

Prophets, according to just general observation of the scriptures, are recognized as one of the three main offices in the old covenant alongside kings and who? Priests. Good. And prophets are showing up here and now. We've already seen the royal representation in who?

Who's the person? Zerubbabel, very good, who was a descendant of David. He never became a king, but he did operate as a leader. And as we just read, we also see the priestly function in Jeshua or Joshua. He's called Joshua in Haggai.

And now, again, we see these prophets appearing on the scene. And one of the main differences between the prophets, kings, and priests is that with the prophetic office, there is no established succession. So, if anybody wanted to function as a priest, they had to come from which line? Aaron. The line of Aaron.

So that responsibility, that role was inherited by blood. And if there was anybody who would occupy the throne, legitimately at least, they had to come from the Davidic dynasty. But here's what's interesting about prophets, it wasn't a hereditary right. There was not a tribe nor a clan set apart by God to serve as prophets. It was something and someone rather had to be directly, individually called by God.

And that is why their emergence should excite us because their commissioning is unexpected. And when they are summoned, when someone is crowned with the call to be a prophet, they are speaking directly from God. And oftentimes, they are bringing fresh revelation from heaven. And at this point, the Lord Almighty saw it fit to raise up two main prophets. And to our great benefit, we also learn, as we continue in our Bible, that God has also preserved the messages of these two men of God to this same audience and included it in this divine library.

So with that in mind, here's what we're planning to do. I want us to take the time to look more carefully at the books that bear the names of these men, these prophets that we just read of, to see what they said more precisely that sparked revival in this nation. And last week, we looked very quickly at the first five verses of the book of Haggai, but let's return there and examine these words, his message more carefully and see what the Lord would say to us through it. So Haggai chapter one. Let's turn there, and let's read from verse one.

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your panel houses while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.

Highlight something in your mind at least, the dating, the time stamp presented here in verse one. Not only did Haggai come in the second year of Darius the King, but he also began to speak in the sixth month of that year. That is going to be helpful when we go to the book of Zechariah. So just tuck it somewhere. But for now, we have to determine the main issue that Haggai is bringing to the people's attention.

And in essence, it's this. They have misplaced priorities. They justified their lack of commitment to the house of God because of the opposition that they were experiencing. And so, to them, they thought, well, maybe this is not God's will at this moment. Maybe this is his providential way of letting us know to stop this, lest we get into trouble, lest we invite unnecessary affliction.

But that kind of thinking created an excuse. It consoled their souls now to actually turn all their attention and all their efforts to their own personal projects. To the remodeling of their own estates, and the improvement of their own properties, while the temple was completely neglected. So God, by his Spirit, begins to move in the heart of a man named Haggai to raise him up to go and confront them for their complacency. And that's exactly what he does here.

And I couldn't help but compare this generation, their heart towards the House of God, with that of King David's, the man after God's own heart. Do you remember what David himself said as he was living in his palace and was experiencing universal peace in his world, all his enemies were put to rest, all his foes were subdued, and something something moved him. Let me remind you of his words from second Samuel chapter seven verse two. David, it says here in verse two of that chapter, said to Nathan the prophet, see now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. What a difference.

This generation in Haggai's day were consumed with their paneled homes and neglected the house of God. David oh, this man loved God. David, whether he was in the fields of Bethlehem watching his father's sheep, or was residing in a palace with pillars of stone, was fixed on the Lord. He was absolutely moved by the realization that God's presence dwells in something inferior to me. Now, he could have done something.

David, if he gave into the flesh, could have convinced himself to pursue further endeavors for his own gain, for his own pleasure, with little concern for God's house, if he just kept telling himself, well look, I'm the one who actually brought the ark from the countryside to the new capital. Remember, it was it was David who did that. Once he gained the power, one of his first things that he wanted to do was get the ark and bring it to the capitol. That's a God honoring endeavor, isn't it? You would think that's enough, right?

Not for this man. He was consumed with placing God's will, God's pleasure first at every stage of life, even at the height of his comfort, his power, and his luxury. Unfortunately, with with others who profess Christ, the more they gain in this world, the less they give to God. Oftentimes, it doesn't take much for devotion to to waver. All it takes for some is the acquisition of property, a new business, a new spouse, starting a family, for them to get distracted to the point where they neglect what matters the most.

And that's exactly what was happening in Haggai's day. And this is just the beginning of his rebuke. Look back at it with me. At the close of verse five, Haggai urges the people to do what? Consider your ways.

Consider your ways. A call not only to examine their misplaced affections and ambitions, but to actually to actually examine the consequences of their priorities. Think. Think back over the years, people of Judah. And he helps them think.

Look what he says in verse six. You have sown much and harvest is little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.

And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. I love this preacher. Very direct. Here's what he says. I'm highlighting something.

I'm bringing something to your attention that all your material enterprises, all your strenuous labor has yielded very little reward, hasn't it? And this lack of fruit, this meager return on investment is not due to poor management skills, by the way. It's not because you need greater effort. I'm here to tell you that God was behind it all. God is the one who put a stop to multiplication, to your prosperity, to your growth.

And that's confirmed later. Scroll down to verse 10 of the same chapter. Notice what he says. Therefore, the heavens above you have withheld the dew and the earth was withheld its produce. And I have called, God speaking here, and I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, and what the ground brings forth on man and beast, and on all their labors.

I did it. Now, the language here should sound familiar to us. Why? Because it echoes the warnings of God from the law when he promised the people, if you live in disobedience, if you begin to have idols, I will withhold some of these things from you. That's explicitly found in in the book of Deuteronomy, and Haggai, like a good prophet, reminds the people of God of what he already said.

So here's what he's saying. Hey, you. Do you not realize that in the past sixteen years you've been living under God's judgment? God has been judging you and you don't even recognize it. I'm here to tell you it's him.

Here's what dawned on me. This is this this actually jolted me that you had fruitlessness going on for years, years, and yet these people were committed to their ways. They didn't give up. They kept working. They kept sowing.

They kept waking up early. They kept going to bed late. And it's staggering, it really is, how determined we can become when it comes to our material pursuits, when it comes to our personal agendas. And yet, when it comes to our spiritual undertakings, we are much more tempted to give up, to throw in the towel. I'm just gonna go to another church.

This whole thing is not really for me, you know. It's very, very common for people to have enthusiasm at the start of a thing. When it comes to God's work, at least, it tends to wane over time. Especially when we're discouraged, especially when we're disappointed. Here's what I see though with this group, when it came to their material desires, their dreams in this life, their goals in this realm, they've been going on for sixteen years.

And they didn't stop until a prophet had to stop them, and show them the error of their ways. And here's the thing, I understand that one of the reasons why genuine hearted believers would step away from whatever that it was that they said that they would be committed to. But if you really understood what God was asking of us, discouragement would be less frequent. It would. Let me give you one example from the same chapter.

We didn't read this yet. Look at verse seven of Haggai one. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. This is his second time saying that. Consider your ways.

And in verse eight, go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it, and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You see, the the people were preoccupied with their pleasure, not God's. With their glory, not God's. And here's God saying, look, you were created from my pleasure. You were created for my glory, and you will ultimately know greater pleasure when you pursue mine.

But this also reveals something so deep about God's heart. Let me ask you this. Was Solomon's temple more or less impressive than the temple that people are going to build here? More. Significantly more.

In fact, you had the older men of this generation weeping when they saw the blueprints for this new temple. They thought, are you kidding me? This is what we're going to build in God's honor? This isn't come close to what Solomon was able to come up with. And yet, the Lord speaks to this same group, and he tells them, if you build this house, I will take pleasure in it.

I will delight in it, knowing full well that in man's eyes, it would be inferior in many ways. But to God, he would still delight in it. Why? Because what brings joy to the heart of our God ultimately is wholehearted obedience. Wholehearted obedience.

This is what he's saying here. I I find it so amazing that God takes genuine pleasure in things that man tend to despise or overlook. And that should comfort each of us here who serve God because as we do our best and perhaps look up from time to time and think, really what we do as a church doesn't measure up to what that church is doing or what that ministry is accomplishing or what those servants of Christ in their same gifting as mine are able to do in such a rate in terms of reach and speed. Forget all that. What they're gonna build is gonna pale in comparison, and yet God says, I will still take pleasure in it.

Because what he's really after is just our surrender and doing what he's asked us to do no matter what it brings about. You can't determine the fruit of a thing, but your faithfulness, that's your choice. That's my choice. And that's what God looks for. Oh, we can say so much more, but we'll have to wait until we study the book of Haggai.

But I do wanna look at one more thing before we continue. Let's look at the response of the people to this message. So come down to verse 14 with me. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God.

On the twenty fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. Two simple observations from these verses. Just two. First, the only way that you and I can see the people of God truly excited to serve, to worship, to prioritize his kingdom is through the preached word. Notice that the stirring of the spirits of the leaders and the remnant came after the word of the Lord was spoken through the prophet.

It was the word of God declared that awakened the people from their slumber. We cannot underestimate the power of the preached word. And unfortunately, you have many who are coming up with novel ideas of how to create, and I put that in air quotes, create revival. And they're trying almost everything except what? Opening the bible, being prayerful and dependent upon the power of the Holy Spirit, and saying, thus says the Lord.

Thus says the Lord. That's all it took for this group. The second thing to underline in our minds is the timing of their obedience. What did we see in verse 15? On the twenty fourth day of the month, in the sixth month.

Have we seen that before? We did back in verse one of the same chapter. The sixth month in the second year of Darius the King. So if we compare this verse with verse one, then we learn that it took twenty four days. After twenty four days of Haggai preaching, the people began to work on the house of God.

And perhaps the reason why it wasn't sooner was because the people had to gather resources and establish themselves and, you know, organize their workforce, and that takes time. But this is still remarkable. Here's what's so amazing as we keep our minds on the power of the word of God. Sixteen years of lethargy, sixteen years of laziness, sixteen years of succumbing to the opposition of the adversaries of Judah, sixteen years of giving into the obstacles was undone by the Word of God within a matter of days. Oh, the things that the Word of God can do in a person's life.

Oh, the things that the Word of God can do for anybody who has been bound for years, addicted for years, lukewarm for years, callous for years, bitter for years, just by sitting under the word, heralded, can do miracles in such a short amount of time. This is just one of so many examples of what the Word of God can do. Why are we covering it in our churches? Why are we replacing it? Why are we giving people entertainment instead of exposition?

Why are we giving them plays instead of preaching? It's a shame. It really is. God's word can do miracles, and we find it here. And let me tell you this, you and I will never ever ever come close to a genuine spiritual awakening on a local level or on a national level unless the word of God is in the forefront of our efforts.

Never. Anything else will be artificial. Anything else will just be emotion. It'll be short lived. But the scriptures, oh, that's where the power is.

That's where transformation takes place. So listen, you aspiring counselors, you need to know the word of God. Not your personal experience, not what you looked at in books. That's all fine. But if it's not charged with the word of God, you're you're gonna have little fruit, genuine fruit in your ministry.

That's true for those who have bible studies, those who are serving the children of this church, those who are fathers in this house, and you wanna see the best in your spouse and in your children. You need the bible. You need to know it, and you need to declare it unashamedly, accurately, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Only the Word. But there's another thing important to underscore about the timing here.

Look at the dating again in verse 15. It was in the sixth month of the second year. Why do we need to know that? Well, let me remind you that back in Ezra five verse one, it was Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, that were prophesying to the people and then they began to work. So Haggai, we learn, began to preach in the second year in the sixth month of Darius the king.

But notice now how the book of Zechariah starts. Let's go to Zechariah. It's right beside Hagai. Look at Zechariah one one. In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berekiah, son of Iddo saying So when did Zechariah begin preaching?

Two months after Haggai's sermon. Two months after, not only Haggai's sermon, but after the people began rebuilding because they only started just a few days after Haggai was preaching. So what would you expect the Lord to say through Zechariah to a group of people, to a nation really, whose hearts have already been softened by the Word of the Lord and proved it with practical application. What do you think God would say? Well, let's find out.

Verse two. The Lord was very angry with your fathers. Therefore, say to them, thus declares the Lord of hosts, return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. What? Well, hold on.

There's more. Look at verse four. Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets cried out, thus says the Lord of hosts, return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds. But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. Your fathers, where are they?

And the prophets, do they live forever? But my words and my statutes, which I committed my servants, the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, as the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us. Are you surprised? You have every right to be.

Because Zechariah's message two months after the people obeyed what Haggai said was a message of repentance. How do we make sense of this? Imagine, after sixteen years of not working, two months into a revival, the new preacher, who's actually younger, if you read in this book, Zechariah was a younger man, comes behind the pulpit and he says, You all need to repent. Do we have a contradiction here? No.

We have a call to meditate. That's what we have. And there are two possible answers to this. Number one, it could be that not everyone among the remnant were sincere and genuine in their hearts being given over to the Lord, even after all of this. So it's very possible like today for people to set apart time, to participate, to volunteer, to even give monetarily, and their hearts not really be for the Lord.

Teaching us what? God is not really after your service, he's after your sincerity. He's after your affection, your love, your desires. That's what he wants. And so it could be that Zechariah was raised up, whereas Haggai was focused on actually rebuilding the house of God.

Zechariah now comes on the scene to deal with the depths of the hearts of some. You need to actually return to God. You need to actually have a love relationship with your God. Now, here's the second possible reason for this, and it's more likely. That Zechariah's bold charge at this moment was because after two months, the people's zeal began to fade away.

Is that surprising to us? No, it's not. It shouldn't be, at least. For some, we know the spark of enthusiasm and excitement towards a spiritual discipline or a ministry, all it takes is a few hours before we get distracted again, let alone days or months. So it could be that after two months, the people began to lose their zeal.

And so God puts words in the mouth of this man, Zechariah. And he says go. Warn them. Preach to them. Remind them of their history, lest they risk repeating it.

And he does so faithfully. Here's what moves me. The same source that ignited this people to come back to their priorities is the same source that would sustain them as they humbly receive the word of God. The word. You know, over the years, I've received sometimes invitations to be somewhere, to preach, And I understand that it comes from a right heart, a good heart.

Sometimes I'm asked, can you come to preach, you know, we're looking for a revival amongst our youth? Well, you know, I don't carry revival in my pocket or in my backpack or, you know, tucked away in my notes. No preacher does. But I understand. I understand the goal and the desire.

But here's my concern, and I've learned this very, very early in ministry. That you may come, an evangelist may visit a church, a teacher may come for a weekend to show the beauties and the wonders of the word of God. But how is that same group of people gonna be sustained? Do you have a plan? Do you have do you have people raised up in that same church that's gonna feed them and speak to their hearts and provide them further nourishment and warnings?

And you know what I found? At least in my world, that's rarely the case. And so what do people do? Well, they just invite you for the next year, for the same thing that happened last year. God is giving us wisdom here.

The timing of Zechariah's message instructs us about the importance of a continual exposure to the Word of God, not just an event, not just on one particular weekend, but as a regular practice, as a regular diet. That's why it's so important, you men especially, you listen to me very carefully. If you're called by God to have a family, to have a wife and have children down the road, you need to be very careful where you bring your family to church. What church are you taking your family to? How does that church handle the law of God, the Word of God, the Gospel?

Are they serious? Are they frivolous? Are they shallow? We see here that God raised up Haggai. He spoke.

It sparked. Two months later, he raised up another man of God to do what? To add fuel to the fire. And again, the source is no different. The scriptures.

The scriptures. But there's more to learn from this, and it concerns us as well. Zechariah shows us here that it is our duty to regularly examine our hearts, even in the midst of spiritual activity. We each of us, each of us need to do regular inner maintenance to see is my heart really in tune with God's heart, even while I'm doing all of this. And I understand fully that there are some days better than others.

There are some days where you're more excited, less tired, more ambitious than others. And that's not to say that when those days come where you feel, you know, tired, distracted, or defeated, that you call it quits. Far be far be it from us to do such a thing. But as as as a general call to look at the depths of our soul and saying, where am I with God on a personal level? Am I just going to the mechanical routines?

Zechariah shows us here as he speaks to this crowd, where is your heart? Are are you really, really, really in step with the Lord? Even while you do all this for the Lord. Because here's the thing, backsliding starts in the heart. It starts in the heart.

It doesn't start with somebody walking away from the church, walking away from their service to the Lord. Something happened long before that, and it's here. So Zechariah gets to the heart. And here's the thing, if we don't take that seriously, we're all in danger of repeating what the Lord delivered us from. And that's possible for any of us.

And that's actually what we see back in Ezra five. So we have to go back and finish the rest of these verses. Let's look again at verse two. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

Oh, I would love to say something about that last part. But I won't. I want to bring to your attention how the prophets are spotlighted here. We we read in Haggai how the the people with the leaders went back to rebuild the house of God. But in Ezra's record, he only highlights the leaders.

Zerubbabel and Joshua. What does that tell you? Well, it tells us many things, but at least one thing, that even the leaders of this time succumb to the excuses and the distractions that lulled the rest of the nation. Even the leaders. Think about that.

A leader who was a descendant of David and the high priest at the time were more worried about their personal lives than the house of God. If it was true then, is it possible for pastors today? You better believe it. However, we can commend these leaders at the same time. Why?

Because both in Ezra's account and Haggai's, they are mentioned as the first ones to respond positively to the messages of the prophets. They were the ones who humbled themselves, And the people followed. That becomes especially clear in Haggai where where the Spirit of the Lord stirred the spirits of the leaders and then the people. What does that mean for us? As important as the Word of God is, and as instrumental as it is in seeing a potential move of God, we also cannot expect God to do something in a place, at least generally, unless the leaders are impacted.

That's not to limit how God can move in a place, but there is a consistent pattern that when leadership turns to God, people will follow. And if we wanna hope even for revival, it has to begin with leaders. Any pastor, any father, any overseer of any kind of ministry who consistently lives with a stale heart, inevitably, it's unavoidable, will have that lifelessness translate into their ministries. Dead pastors will make dead churches. But when a leader's heart catches on fire, it has the potential of melting the hearts of those around them.

So Zerubbabel and Jeshua, they responded and the people followed suit. The heat and the light from those over them trickled. It impacted. And here's the thing, as positive as that is, heat and light also attracts pesky bugs. And that's what we find in verse three and four.

Let's read it. At the same time, Tethaniah, the governor of the province beyond the river, and Shetar Bozanai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus, who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure? They also asked them this, what are the names of the men who are building this building? But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius, and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it. It's not shocking at all, is it?

That for sixteen years, there is no indication that the adversaries of the Jews harassed them or probed them when they were working on their own houses. But the moment that they prioritize God's house, the enemy slithered back into the picture. Now we spent all of Ezra chapter four looking at the different schemes and the tactics of Satan to try to hinder and harm the people of God as they want to build something for his kingdom, so he won't spend too much time here. But let this serve as a reminder how persistent the evil one is. How strategic he is.

How careful he is. How aware the evil one is. And listen, all that should do for you and I is be more motivated to becoming more determined and more discerning. A quick comment about verse four. I'm curious, does anybody here read something other than the ESV?

You can lift your hand, I'm just curious. Okay. So here's what you'll find especially if you have the New King James or the NASB, and there might be other translations out there. There's a different rendering of this verse. If you have those two translations that I just mentioned, this verse, verse four might read in the following way, then accordingly, we told them the names of the men who were constructing this building.

As if the narrator is showing that the Jews complied and cooperated with the inquiry of the Persian officials. So they said, what? Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish the structure? And in some of those translations, it's as though the narrator interrupts and says, and the Jews gave the names of the ones who were in charge of this endeavor. But there's a difference with the ESV.

The ESV puts it as though they pressed them and asked what of the names of the men who were building this building. Why the difference? Well, it's a translation choice. And one of the main reasons is because with the original language, there's a lot of flexibility with the wording. And I believe actually, not because I read and preach from the ESV, but because of the context, the ESV has it more accurately.

Why? Well, the same group is gonna end up writing a letter to Darius. That's the rest of the chapter. And in their explanation, listen to how they recount their exchange with the Jews. Scroll of verse nine and ten of Ezra five.

This is the these are the officials writing to Darius and here's what they say at this point. Then we asked those elders and spoke thus to them, who commanded you to build this temple and to finish these walls? We also asked them their names to inform you that we might write the names of the men who were chief among them. You see that? So in their own explanation as they recount the the events, they tell Darius, we ask them their names.

And that's how the ESV puts it in verse four. The purpose, just to clarify any potential confusion. That's why I brought that up. But let's come back to our understanding of this passage. At this point, we would expect the Persian officials to not only interrogate them, but to tell them to stop working.

Stop working until we get confirmation from Darius. But that doesn't happen. They asked their questions. We learned later in the letter that the people were kind and we're gonna learn a lot in the new year of wisdom of how to deal with those who oppose us and how we can even rightfully and righteously utilize the freedoms that we have with our government, if it's in favor of our faith, to actually gain more ground for the kingdom of God. But for now, we don't have any natural explanation to why these executives didn't push further and demand them to cease.

But we are given a divine explanation, and that's in verse five. What does it say? But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it. The eye of God was on them. Now, if you've read the bible faithfully and long enough, then you would realize that the picture of God's eyes at work is very common.

And depending on the context, sometimes it denotes his moral oversight over his creation. At other times, it speaks about his surveillance and his searching gaze for those who are yielded and surrendered to him so that he can do something special in and through them. And at other times, it simply means, it simply explains his vigilant care and protection over those who belong to him. And that's what we find here. That there was a silent power from above emanating from the Lord that that could not be any more obvious than this, because the people here who are opposed to the Jews, they couldn't go any further than their initial interrogation.

God was supervising this. God was protecting this. And here's the beautiful thing that I want to end on. This grace that these Jews experienced and realized is something that we can know today for the rest of our lives. But it's conditional.

The Bible tells us that there's something we have to do if we wanna live with the understanding and the the security that God has His eye on my life. Can I show it to you? Let's turn that together in Psalm 33. Psalm 33. And let's begin in verse 16.

Psalm thirty three sixteen. The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation. By its great might, it cannot rescue.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him. On those who hope in His steadfast love, that He may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Look again at verse 18. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him. You know what's amazing?

We didn't read it in Haggai one. But in Haggai one, we read that Zerubbabel, Joshua, obeyed the Lord with the remnant and they feared the Lord. We come to Ezra, and we learn that the eye of God was upon them. And we come to Psalm 33. What do we have?

Well, consistency. That's what we have in the Bible. The psalmist says, the eye of God, the watchful eye of the Lord is on those who fear him. What does it mean to fear God? To stand in awe of him.

And for those who hope in his steadfast love. You know, if we're honest, many of us can only know comfort in our walk with the Lord if we can perceive what he is doing, if we can understand why he's allowing something. But that's not the biblical way of gaining peace. The biblical way is not being able to identify his actions, his lack of intervention, but by believing that though I may not see, God's eyes on me always. The eye of the Lord is on those who fear him.

You may not be able to understand in the natural the whys and the hows, for how long, and why not fast enough. You may not be able to. But you don't have to. All you need to understand is God's eyes on your life. And He knows everything.

And He understands. If you can really tap into that truth and absorb it and cling to it, you will know great peace. You will know longevity. You will know sweetness even in turbulence, even in suffering. This is for our instruction.

We will look at the rest of this chapter if God should keep us on the earth in 2026. Let's pray and thank him for these truths. Sometimes after hearing somebody speak for close to an hour, it's good to just remain silent, especially when it comes from God's word. Lord, with the Psalmist, we agree. I've seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandments are exceedingly broad.

It never fails to astound us how deep and wide your word is. And yet, Lord, we get the sense that we've only scratched the surface of it. Thank you, Lord, for this place filled with people who believe in the power of the Word of God. And Lord, we just pray that we would never lose faith in giving the word, in receiving the word, in living by the word. For those hearts that are not alive in Christ, we pray that what they heard tonight would be the catalyst for their salvation.

For the one who is saved, but it's been months, maybe even years of placing other things before you. Help us realize that we are putting our energy and our time into a bag with holes in it. It will never satisfy. It will never sustain us. Only when we prioritize your kingdom, your gospel, your will.

So show us how to do that, Lord. Show us how to prioritize. Show us the areas that we have elevated beyond the appropriate place. Lord, we come now to give you thanks in song for how you've spoken to us. It's just amazing how even such a message was granted to us leading into a new year.

It may be a new start for all of us. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand, church. Let's thank him for speaking to our hearts.