Zerubbabel

Transcript

they're Rubber Ball

mentioned in six books of the Bible important guy he's in the genealogy of Jesus that's where we've got to so far and while he might not be the most familiar person to us in the Bible he's a real important man in Israel's history and I and there's some really great expectations in his uh life

um but I think in order to appreciate them we really have to set the historical context and do a little bit of background work so basically the the thing that matters in the life of zerubbabel so much is the temple

um you know I think it's important for us to have a sense of how important that Solomon's Temple was to Israel throughout all of its history it took seven years for Solomon to build it about 450 years before zedekiah

the date's kind of uncertain but it took seven years to build and you remember when when David was uh going to build the temple and God said now you can't do it uh your your son who will be a man of Peace can do it and but David went to such elaborate lengths to prepare for it it was his desire that the temple should be exceedingly magnificent

and so he made abundant provision for it and so we think of the care with which it was built and we we might cast our minds back to the wonderful ceremony where Solomon dedicated the simple Temple to the to God

the temple was the center of their worship and it was a thing of Pride and of national identity for Israel

and that's true even in times when their faith wasn't so strong or when their behavior wasn't quite right you'll recall that Jeremiah Was set to preach in in the gate of the Temple uh during a time when the nation was rather astray

but after repeated faithfulness faithlessness and many warnings

God gave the southern Kingdom of Judah over to the Babylonians and in 587 BC the temple was destroyed second second Kings chapter 25 has a description of what that was like

Second Kings 25 starting at verse 8 it says uh in the seventh day of the fifth month the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar that nebius zaridan came to Jerusalem he burned the house of the Lord

they burned the house with fire they broke down the walls around Jerusalem They Carried Away all of the vessels of bronze they broke things to pieces and they took it away captivity

it was a day of great sadness in the history of Israel

now it's important to remember in in understanding this history that the Northern Kingdom of Israel there was that political division between North and South that the northern kingdom had been overrun by the Assyrians 140 years earlier

the Assyrians had a policy of relocating their conquered peoples and so the northern Jews were replaced by a mix of people from many nations and these became the future Samaritans

but after 70 years of the Babylonian captivity

Cyrus the Persian came to power ever running Babylon

Cyrus was known and is known historically for his tolerance of religious diversity in fact we have here on the screen now a picture of an amazing archaeological finding the Cyrus cylinder

um in which he says that he returned the gods to their places and of all the the peoples that he had conquered and it reminds us very strongly of what we read in Israel chapter one verses one to eight where it says that in the first year of Cyrus King of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia and he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it in writing saying that everyone was to go up every Survivor was to go up to Jerusalem to and that he would Supply them with all sorts of of goods

um that for the rebuilding of the Temple

so if you have your Bible open at Ezra chapter one

verse 8. you'll see that all of this provision that Cyrus gave for the rebuilding of the Temple he counted it out to chess Bazar the prince of Judah and Chef Badger is almost certainly the baby sorry the Persian name persever the man will be considering tonight it's kind of like uh yeah it was Daniel Delta shazar and his friends uh Shadrach Meshach and Abednego within names the Babylonian conquerors had given to them

so what about zerubbable

well first of all we have this reference to him in chapter one verse 8 and then subsequently it'll be clear that shesh Bazar is a name for zerubbabel he was a prince of Judy he was of the princely line

he's actually mentioned in first Chronicles and which you might think was before before this but it's it's at the beginning of the the Chronicles history of of Israel and Judah

um it goes right to the end and it takes the line of David down through zerubbabel

so he has a natural status as Prince of Judah as being in the line of David of the Royal Family

chapter 2 describes him being sent by Cyrus on a mission to restore the temple and

it's a big operation that he leads 50 000 people he takes back to the land after 70 years of of captivity and in fact if you look in Chapter 2 um down towards the end

uh verse 69 it says I'm reading for The New American Standard it says they gave 61 000 gold Draculas and uh according to my sources this was about 30 million dollars that he was given for this big operation that he was to conduct

so chapter three

chapter three of Ezra is really where we we pick up the story of zerubbabel

we find in verse 2 that Joshua the son of jesidek and his brothers the priests and zerubbabel the son of shiatiel and his brothers arose and built the altar of the god of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it as written in the law of Moses so the altar was rebuilt

offerings could be made

verse 4 tells us they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles

this was a feast that was specifically it was specifically actually commanded that it be celebrated joyously Leviticus 23 verse 40 says you shall rejoice

and at this time when they're back after the 70 years of captivity it was no doubt a time of rejoicing

verse 5 tells us that the continual birth offerings were reinstated the daily offerings of the Lambs the new moons and all those sorts of things

but there were problems says in verse 3 that

they were terrified because of the peoples of the Lambs

as it turns out the fear they had for the peoples of the Lambs were with good reason and will talk about this more a little bit later but this is an important feature of what's going on

but just to give a little bit of background you realize that the northern captivity was almost 200 years ago and the Assyrians had brought in a lot of new people into the land they've been there for 200 years it looks like the United States

timeline and they were very well settled in and they weren't very enthusiastic about the Jews coming back as we'll see later on

so

the building the the altar is rebuilt and they start to rebuilding the temple in verses 8 to 12. and it's it's interesting when the they lay the foundation of the temple in verse 10 . it's interesting the reaction you get in verses 12 and 13. it says yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers households the old men who had seen the first temple wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes while many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of Joy from the sound of the Weeping of the people for the people shouted with a loud Shout and the shout Was Heard far away

the weeping's not really explained here

there's a hint that the Weeping was among those who had seen the first temple and we'll say more about this later on

all right coming quickly on our review of the history leading up to the works of of zoruba book let's come now to chapter four of Ezra

if you read in verse one that enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people that exiled were building a temple

and they come to us irouble in verse two and they say let us build with you for we like you seek your God so the question might occur to us who were these enemies we get the explanation here in verse two says we like you seek your God we have been sacrificing to him since the days of essar Haddon king of Assyria who brought us up here

it's a rubber boy Joshua and the rest of the house heads of Father's households of Israel said to them you have nothing in common with us and building a house to our God but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel as king Cyrus the King of Persia has commanded us now I've heard people suggest right it sounds like as if the the rubble's being kind of ungracious here you know hear these folks come they say they worship the same God they want to help out you know why not let them help out but be a little bit uh welcoming to them

well we'll find out from their subsequent Behavior that they really were trying to undermine and that this wasn't a genuine offer

but there's also a reason for suspicion because of the background of of the these these folks okay

if you look at second Kings chapter 17 verses 24 to 41 explain about how the Assyrians brought these people to Israel and how they had sort of a mixed up worship of the god of Israel they get there and they start having trouble with lions and they say oh it must be the god of the land they're superstitious they say I must be the god of the lands heaven doesn't like us so they say well what will we do well I know we'll go and get one of the priests from the northern kingdom that we kicked out and he can come and tell us about the gods of the Lambs and we can we can make offerings then and get over this lying problem

um well when you recall what the northern kingdom was like and how apostate it was they weren't going to get very good instruction about the God of Israel

um so they came back and they had a sort of mixed up worship it says in Second Kings 17 and including this section um verse 41. it says so while these nations fear the lord they also serve their Idols their children likewise and their grandchildren as their fathers did so they do to this day so these folks you can't really say that they were worshiping the god of Israel it was a corrupt worship at best

and it seems that zerubbabel acts wisely in saying you know we really can't have you involved in in this worship thanks but no thanks

if we had any doubt about the motives of these people

um when you see what happens next in Ezra 4 starting at verse 4. verse 4 says they discourage the people of Israel and frightened them from building verse 5 says that they hired counselors against them to frustrate them

and then finally in verses six and following they send letters to King artist Xerxes the Persian king saying if you let this happen you're going to have serious problems this is against national interests to have these Jews back in the land

so

what happens well you get down to the end of chapter four

the end of the letter that these troublemakers write they say verse 21 issue a decree to make these men stop work that this city may not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me so verse 23 as soon as the copy of King arth Xerxes document was read they went and hasted Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by Force of Arms

so work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased and it was stopped until the second year of Darius King of Persia

all right now that's all background for tonight's Class A lot of background but basic story the temple was so important it had been destroyed Israel been captive for 70 years now they're back there's they're getting started

and the work is stopped by hostile opposition so we come to Ezra chapter five

Ezra chapter 5 um

let's read verses one and two

when the prophets had the eye of the prophet and Zechariah the son of IDU prophesied to say the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the god of Israel who is over them

then zerubbabel the son of shiatil and jeshua the son of Joseph arose and began to rebuild the house of God was is at Jerusalem and the prophets of God were with them supported them interesting we're not told anything about what haggai said we're not told anything about what Zechariah said only that they prophesied and they got things going again and the really neat thing is that we actually have the the Prophecies of Heidi and Zechariah that we can refer to in a couple minutes and we'll get to see what it was that they said that got the work going again how they inspired uh zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest

but right away verses four and five it says we told them accordingly what the names of the men who were reconstructing this building but the eyes of their God was on the Elders of the Jews and they did not stop them until a report could come to Darius so they so the work gets started again and uh I love that expression in Ezra 5 verse 5 that the eye of their God was on them it's it's an interesting expression to follow through uh the the Psalms for instance Psalm 32 verse 8 says I will counsel you with my eye upon you

um Psalm 33 Verse 18 God says the eye of the Lord is on those that fear Him

and then Psalm 34 verse 15 the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears are open to their cry

so the eye of the Lord is on the people haggai and Zechariah Inspire this man zerubbabel in the line of the Kings and Joshua the high priest and they get the work going again

it's not entirely clear how long it had stopped but it was a matter of years it was at least two or three years and probably as many as 20 years

well once again the adversaries aren't happy about this they don't like the Jews back there and so chapter 5 continues with another letter writing campaign and this time it's to a new king a successive King and

um they reiterate how dangerous it's going to be if you let the these Jews do their work but this time there's a happy ending and it's found in chapter six this time they find that

um

that Cyrus had ordered this work to be done and this time the response in chapter 6 verse 7 is leave this work on the house of God alone let the governor of the Jews and the Elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site

verses 8 to 10 of chapter six

their promised money and animals for sacrifice and now verses 11 to 12 says that anybody who opposes the work well they're going there's they're they they're going to die for it so it's a happy ending

all this happened because of the words of haggai and Zechariah and if we only had the book of Ezra to refer to we wouldn't know what these words were

but having the Prophecies of haggai and Zechariah we find the stirring words of those prophets that motivated zerubbable the lead is people in the work

so let's come over to haggai verse chapter one

haggai chapter one

in the second year of Darius the king on the first day of the sixth month the word of the Lord came by the prophet haggai to zerubbabel and to Joshua

thus says the Lord of hosts this people says

time's not come even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt

it's a reasonable conclusion that people would come to went by to argue based on all of the opposition

it was by Armed Force that the work was stopped at first

and so the people could rightly reason well maybe it's not time

maybe maybe that'll come later on but now we should put ourselves on other things

verse 3. then the word of the Lord came by haggai the prophet saying is it time for you yourselves

to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate

now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts consider your ways

you sound much but Harvest little you eat but there's not enough to be satisfied you drink but there's not enough to become drug you put on clothing but no one is warm enough and he who earns earns wages to put into a purse with holes thus sends the Lord of hosts consider your ways

that powerful words consider your ways set your heart on your ways

it is literally

think about our own lives and our own priorities

are we concerned with our houses

rather than the house of God with our interests rather than the interests of God

what matters most

where do we put our time and our Energies do we make excuses saying it's not the right time

we might say this about preaching we might say people don't want to hear and it's true that many don't

but I think there's still folks out there who do want to hear and I think if we're earnestly seeking we're told if we ask for anything according to God's will

he will grant our wishes and there certainly can't be anything more that's his will

than that his truths be spread to willing ears so let's consider our ways and say is it time for us to be building our house or is it time for us to be building the house of God

now it's really neat that in haggai chapter 1 we have more details on what happened in Ezra

um first of all it says in verse 12 then zerubbable the son of shiatio and Joshua the son of Jason dick the high priest but all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God they got to work that's the first response verse 12. then verse 13 then haggai the messenger of the Lord spoke by the commission of the Lord to the people saying I Am with You declares the Lord so

they obey and God encourages

and God doesn't only encourage them verse 13 but verse 14 look at this so the Lord stirred up the spirit of his rubble and the spirit of Joshua and the spirit of all the remnants of the people and they came and worked

I love that sequence God makes the appeal to our conscience telling us to consider our ways and if we then say that's right I've got to do the right thing here we obey then God adds this encouragement he stirs up our spirit and adds his Blessing to the things we set our hands to

now haggai chapter 2 is neat because it explains a little bit about that bit where they were building the new altar and some of the people were weeping

haggai chapter 2. on the first 21st and the second month the word of the Lord came by haggai the prophet saying speak now does a rubber bull the son of shiatio governor of Judah to Joshua to the remnant of the people saying who is left among you who saw this Temple in its former glory

and how do you see it now does it seem not seem to you like nothing in comparison

this explains why there were some who were weeping you know they remembered the glory of Solomon's Temple it was exceeding magnificent

and uh what they were doing seemed like it was insignificant

sometimes I think we feel the same way is that our work is so puny and insignificant

but look at how God encourages haggai 2 verse 4. it now take courage is a rubble declares the Lord take courage also Joshua

for I and work for I Am with You declares the Lord of hosts

all right let's press on all right one more thing I want to say about the hag idea before we did

um notice in in verse 20 at the end of the chapter it says the word of the Lord came a second time to haggai

saying speak to the rubble governor of Judah saying I'm going to shake the heavens and the Earth I will overthrow the Thrones of Kingdoms and destroy the powers of the kingdoms of the Nations and I will ever throw the Chariots and their Riders and the horses and their Riders will go down Everyone by the sword of another on that day declares the Lord of thirsts I will take you zerubbabel son of Shield my servant declares the Lord and I will make you like a Signet ring for I have chosen you now

a reference to a second ring might not mean a whole lot to us but the Signet ring was was really a crucial means of identifying oneself in ancient times you remember when I remember when old Ahab came home all Sullen and displeased because he couldn't get an abbots Vineyard and uh his wife uh Jezebel she says aren't you the king of Israel she writes some letters and she seals them with his Signet ring

you remember when Tamar

had to take a pledge from Judah one of the things she took was his Signet ring it was something treasured and God says that that's the way is a rubble would be and he's speaking of a future day we're going to meet zerubbabel God willing in the Kingdom age and he's going to be treasured by God for the work that he did

all right so we've seen a little bit of haggai's message that was spoken in this time of trouble in the time of rebuilding let's come over and out of the prophecy of Zechariah

and here's another passage about that was a rubber ball um and in Zechariah Chapter 4. the prophecy of Zechariah that we have

just like haggai begins with an appeal to the people to get to work that's chapters one and two of Zechariah

Chapter 3 of Zechariah after this appeal to the people is an appeal specifically to Joshua the high priest and then Zach Zechariah 4 isn't it is is written for survival zerubbable

it's a name that was like banana you don't know when to stop saying it

um

Zach RAV4 is specifically for Zachariah

so in this divisions of of Zechariah there's an angel who is sort of the moderator of zechariah's Visions we read in chapter 4 verse 1 that this Angel who was speaking with Zachariah

returned and Rouse me as a man who has awakened from his sleep

he says to him what do you see

and he said

that he says to him I see and behold lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it seven laps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the laps which on are on the top of it also two olive trees by it one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side so more or less like we have in the picture on your screens now

that's the vision verses one to three

verses 6 to 10 explain the vision

because in verse 4 Zechariah says what's this about the angel says don't you know what this is about in verse five he said no I don't know what it's about he says this is the word of the Lord choose a rubbable saying

not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts

what are you oh great Mountain

before zerubbable you will become a plane and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of Grace Grace to it also the word of the Lord came to me saying the hands of zerobo have laid the foundation of this house and his hands will finish it then you will know that the Lord of hosts have sent me to you

for who has despised the day of small things

these seven will be glad when they see the Plumb line in the hand of zerubbable these are the eyes of the Lord which Reigns to and fro throughout the land

the message is zerubbabel

it seems like a day of small things

the temple You're Building doesn't seem as glorious as it was in the olden days

and you seem powerless you have you're having to build with one hand in your sword and your other hand

but it's not by your strength not by your power but by God's spirit that the work will be accomplished and it's going to be accomplished you've laid the foundation you'll finish it you'll carry out the stop the top Stone the the Capstone for the wall and the foundation of the house

I think the Angel's words here are plain enough but what's the meaning

the lampstand was powered by oil pour it into it and it was God's strength that was provided

Zechariah still doesn't entirely understand and he asks another question in verse 11 he says what are these two olive trees on the right of the lamp stand and on its left

and I answered the second time and said to him what are the two Olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes which emptied the golden oil from themselves and he answered me saying do you not know what these are and I said no my Lord then he said these are the two anointed ones the two sons of oil who are standing by the lord of the whole Earth

I believe this refers to as a rebel and Joshua these two leaders anointed by God and so sons of oil were providing of his Spirit to the nation pouring from themselves into the lampstand that was the power of God that they brought to the operation that was going to see it to its end

all right then what lessons can we take away from the life is horrible

it's best summarized by a series of four quotations from haggai and Zechariah

first of all it's time for us to examine our priorities and to put God first

it's time for you to yourselves to dwell in your paneled house while this house lies desolate now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts consider your ways let's put God first

and when we do so

God will add his Blessing we saw this in haggai 1 verses 12 to 14 that they obeyed the voice of the Lord

showed reverence for him

and then God says I will be with you I will stir up your spirits

what's more it all doesn't depend on us

if we think that our work and service of the Lord that that we're just too community and and too insignificant

it's not by might nor by power by God's spirit that the work is done so is the Lord of hosts all we have to do is to be willing

to be to be looking for opportunities whether it's in preaching whether it's in caring for the Ecclesia

if we're looking for opportunities God will bless and strengthen our work

and our puniness doesn't matter God will bring the work to fruition whoever despise the day of small things shall rejoice so I guess I find this very reassuring you know sometimes um ecclesial life we we can

we can look around and say oh the things wherever

that we had more of this or that

um and we we might give up let's not do that we'll we'll have a day of rejoicing and all we can do is to carry on

Faithfully doing our part