When we see the record of the movement of the people of Israel from Babylon back to Jerusalem, to the altar, and to the house of the Lord, we see it did not really begin with the edict of Cyrus but with the stirring by the Lord of the spirit of the people. Notice that expression in Ezra 1:1, “The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus the king of Persia.” And in verse 5, “whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house….”
The word “stir” carries with it the idea of waking up or raising someone up out of bed. God wanted them to get up from their comfortable situations, to go and build for God. It would seem that after seventy years another generation born in Babylon had come to accept the statis quo there. They had fallen asleep to the reality of the times.
Sleep is a comfortable lack of awareness to the reality of the events around us. Paul takes from Isaiah 60 an Old Testament millennial scripture having to do with Israel and sends it the the Gentile church at Ephesus: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from among the dead.” How solemn that God’s people should be found sleeping in the cemetery, looking like the dead, asleep to reality. However, if there is going to be any waking up among us, if there is going to be any rising up and building for God of any eternal significance, it will not be by organization or ingenuity. It will be by the awakening of our spirits by God.
If you scan down the last few verses in 2 Chronicles, you see the description of Jerusalem–broken, burned, destroyed. It was a heap of ruins. That is not what was calling them back. They were not going back to pleasant streets to look at the shops. They were going back to rubble to build for God because that was the place where God had chosen to put His name (Deut. 12:11).
But we aren’t back in Jerusalem. We are New Testament believers. Is there such a place for God’s people today? Most certainly. It is the place of His name still. It is the place of His presence still. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Granted, the primary application of this scripture is personal fellowship.
Nevertheless, the principle remains, that wherever two or three are gathered together in His name, we can depend on the promised presence of the Lord of the churches. If we lose that sense of the promised presence of Christ in the midst of His gathered people we will feel little responsibility and accountability to be in our place when the church comes together.
Then we notice that Cyrus understood something about separation. Obviously the Spirit of God had moved upon this great king because he remembered that Nebuchadnezzar had gone in and taken those people out with violence, destroyed their temple, taking the holy vessels, and putting them into the house of his gods. Cyrus recognized there was something fundamentally wrong with that. There should not be a mixture of the heathen monstrosities and the holy vessels of the Lord. It was Cyrus who brought out the vessels of the Lord’s house.
Separation is very important to God, a word that has fallen into disrepute, perhaps because it is understood as isolation. The Lord stated His disciples were in the world, but not of it. It is not isolation He was talking about, but insolation–a distinct spiritual barrier between His people and the world.
In the New Testament we are commanded to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Not a little, but no fellowship. They are associated with the darkness where no life can be sustained, and they produce only barrenness in the believer’s life.
As well, there is the unequal fellowship of bondage. Young men and women, as you face the two greatest decisions after salvation, your life’s vocation and your life’s partner, may I raise a word in love and warning to you: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” That’s not a request; that is a command. The Lord knows that an unequal yoke hurts both partners. It’s not a matter of character we’re talking about. There are many unbelievers who are very fine characters. That’s not the problem. The problem is their nature. The children of the darkness are in the dark, and the darkness is in them. The child of God is in the light, walking in the light, and the light is in him.
We are also warned against the unholy fellowship on Babylon. “Come out of her, My people,” says the Lord: “Be not partakers of her sins.” It is most instructive to see the marks of Babylon in Genesis 11: Imitation–they had brick instead of stones, and used slime for mortar. So today we see man-made priests standing before man-made altars, offering man-made sacrifices to man-made gods. They offer a man-made heaven, Babylon. Identification–“Let us make us a name.” How men love to make a name for themselves. But we have a name–the greatest Name in the universe! We must be aware that when we see the names of man’s devising, beware of the spirit of Babylon. Association–“Let us build us a city and a tower of the Zodiac.” The city was the political entity, the tower the religious entity. And Babylon is always marked by the association of politics and religion. Unification–the Lord said to spread throughout the earth and to multiply across the face of it. But man said, Let’s stick together. Now man can make a union, but only God can produce a unity of many parts. That’s what He does in the church. We’re living in a day of church union. When you see that word, the bell should ring. This is the spirit of Babylon. Be careful!
If we read through Ezra 2, we note the details of the gathering that left Babylon. Why does it tell the numbers of the people who came out? Is that important to God? Every detail is important to God. In 2 Corinthians there is a beautiful title given to God (not evident in the KJV, but in Darby’s translation). He is called there “the God of measure.”
We see Him doing it with the universe in Isaiah 40. He measures the heavens with a span of His hand, the water in His palm, the dust in the pinch of His fingers, the mountains in scales. And there is not a detail in the life of any of His people that escapes His interest, either. In 1 Corinthians 10:13, we discover that He measures the tests of life. He will measure your trial, and will not suffer you to be tested above that you are able to bear.
He also tells the disciples in effect that He measures the trivia of life. Don’t you know that the hairs of your head are numbered? What possible significance can this have to God? Well, it tells me that if the number of your hairs matter to Him, it obviously matters to Him about the aching of your heart, about the bills you have to pay, about the decisions you’re about to make. It matters to Him.
David thanks God that He measures the tears of life: “Are not my tears in Thy bottle?” There in heaven’s museum is the glistening globe of the tears of the saints, contained there for the glory of God. He knows not only that you have wept, but why. And David thanks God that not only his tears are measured but his wanderings as well–every sidestep, every wandering path is measured by the God who loves His people.
Chapter 3 tells us that the remnant had time to settled in; seven months had passed. They had found places for shelter, perhaps put in a little planting. The day came when the whole company of about 50,000 people gathered in Jerusalem. And the very first act was to set up the altar.
Hans Bruns, a German theologian of great experience, was asked in his old age what he considered the most important thing. After a few moments of thought, he said, “I believe that the most important thing is to make sure that the most important thing always remains the most important thing.”
We have a tendency to major in minors. There may be many things in this Book we do not understand. But there is one truth from cover to cover that is as clear as crystal: God is first. He so states it three times in Isaiah: “I am the first and the last.” The Lord Jesus picks it up and uses it as a Divine title in the Revelation: “I am the First and the Last.” Of that there can be no doubt. God is first. Since He is first, the supreme blessing of the soul is to come to know this God. The Lord Jesus expresses this. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” There is nothing beyond this.
If the supreme blessing of the human soul is to come to know this God who is first, what is the highest and noblest service a human soul can enter into? Surely it is to minister to the God who is first. To know this God is the supreme lesson but to minister to Him is the supreme service. That is worship.
Saul of Tarsus discovered this in a blaze of light as he cried out, “Who art Thou, Lord?” Before he asked what the Lord would have him do, his first question was about the person. His greatest desire was: that I might know Him. His greatest prayer was: that we might have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Malachi records this “God first” principle: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Is that what we want? The principle is–God must get His portion first. And when God gets His portion first, step out of the way. The blessing is soon to arrive! Is that not what He says?
The first thing the remnant did was offer burnt offerings to the Lord. What is the burnt offering? It was that offering all of which–apart from the skin–ascended to God. It was all for God–a beautiful picture, first of all, of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ offering Himself to God. But likewise it is a picture of true spiritual worship, the saints ministering to God’s heart.
There is an interesting expression that goes right through from Old Testament to New Testament. It is associated with the burnt offering: “before the Lord,” or its equivalent, “unto the Lord.” It means in effect, for the personal joy and delight of the Lord. The whole tabernacle ministry–the garments of the priests, the breastplate, the table, the lampstand, the golden altar–all of these were before the Lord. They were for His personal pleasure because they all spoke of His beloved Son. In Him is all His delight.
The amazing thing about it is that when we come to Ephesians1, we discover that we who are New Testament believers were chosen before the foundations of the world that we might be holy, without blame, before Him in love. Think of it! Sinners, unworthy, unlovely, unloving, and ungodly; saved, transformed, transported into glory to bring joy to the heart of God. Amazing grace indeed.
In Christendom today, the Lord’s Supper has largely lost it’s significance. It is called by all kinds of names, and many man-made practices surround it, but there are some who still meet simply in the name of the Lord, week by week, around the table with a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. That is not a matter to be proud of; it is a deeply humbling thing that we should even be permitted to be there. Angels would leave heaven to do it. The Lord’s Supper is the place of the name, the place of the presence, the place of offering to the heart of God.
Worship is love’s response to the One who has loved us beyond measure. Soon we shall join in heaven’s worship untainted by sin, unhindered by flesh, undistracted by the world and its baneful influences. John was privileged to see that great sight: an innumerable company “saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea…heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb.” The four living creatures then said, Amen. This is right. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him. So should His redeemed ones now. He is thy God; worship thou Him.