The work of restoration and rebuilding is a long process; it’s never a short process and it typically takes longer than you hope, and it usually costs more than you expect it to.
We live in an age of immediate gratification; Amazon gets your order to you quickly, fast food chains occupy multiple corners in our community, money can be transferred within moments, and my favorite movie or TV series can be accessed instantly. Immediate gratification is what we often expect.
But the process of restoring what is broken and rebuilding what has been destroyed often takes longer than we wish, it usually costs more than we expect, and it often requires more than we have.
The tension between our desire to finish a project quickly and the reality of what it takes to restore and rebuild something rightly is often overwhelming.
When the tension between our future hopes and our current reality gets stretched, we get distracted, we run out of energy, we lose focus, the vision for the completed project gets blurry, and we often get frustrated with our own shortcomings and imperfections and we wind up abandoning the project altogether or we take shortcuts to get it done.
I used to own a sheet rocking business, so I was involved in the construction industry for a number of years. I especially enjoyed helping to build homes for people because there was always a palpable excitement over the soon-to-be finished project.
At my stage in the building process, the foundation had been laid, exterior and interiors walls were framed, heat, electrical and plumbing was roughed in, siding was done, and the windows were in.
After I hung and finished the sheetrock, trim carpenters came in, flooring and cabinets went in, electrical and plumbing finished installing their things and painters would tie everything together with some special colors.
I loved building homes for people because it meant that they were about to take up residence in a certain space in the community. The Smiths or the Jones or whoever were about to make their presence known because their home was nearly finished, and everyone would know that they were there because their home marked the existence of their presence. Sometimes the building process would get held up for one reason or another but everyone around knew when the time was drawing near for the completion of the project and there would be a palpable excitement in the air.
That’s the sense I get from the text we are studying today. The restoration and the rebuilding of the temple had been a long and very hard process with tons of setbacks. But nevertheless, restoring and rebuilding the house of God was back on track. In fact, Ezra uses the imagery of building the house of God quite a bit; he uses the phrase “house of God” or something similar roughly ten times throughout the text (vv. 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15). Look at the text with me…
EZRA 6:1 – 15…
1Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored. 2And in Ecbatana, the citadel that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written: “A record. 3In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of Godat Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty, 4with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. 5And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.”
6“Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away. 7Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governors of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. 8Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. 9And whatever is needed – bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require – let that be given to them day by day without fail, 10that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. 11Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill. 12May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.”
13Then, according to the word sent by Darius the king, Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did with all diligence what Darius the king had ordered. 14And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia; 15and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
The entire community knew that God was about to take up residence in that area again (as though he had ever really left in the first place). We noticed last week that the restoring and the rebuilding of the house of God had resumed with the support of the prophets who were guiding the project forward as they preached truth and gave warnings and instructions for what lied ahead (5:1 – 2).
And Israel’s enemies weren’t letting up; they tried to get Israel to stop the project, but Ezra tells us that “the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop” the work of restoring and rebuilding the house of God (5:3 – 5).
Israel’s response to her enemies, under the watchful eye of God and under the preaching of the prophets in chapter five, is perhaps one of the most beautiful pictures of joyful, courageous, and resolute human obedience that we have in all of the book. Israel actually responds to her enemies’ threats by saying “we are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago” (v. 11).
The rest of Israel’s response to her enemies, again, under the watchful eye of God and under the preaching of the prophets, is a great study that reveals what happens in the life of a believer who catches the vision for what it means to be a child of a redeeming God whose throne extends throughout the heavens and the earth and whose promise of redemption can be fully trusted (vv. 6 – 17). And on the heels of last week’s text, we find Israel still laboring to restore and rebuild the house of God. Notice what we see first…
#1: KING DARIUS FINDS A DECREE CONCERNING THE HOUSE OF GOD (VV. 1 – 5)
A decree from a king is basically an order to do something or not do something. A decree is not a suggestion; it is a royal directive that if it is disobeyed, could bring the death penalty to whomever the offending party is. In this case, King Darius issues a decree to make a search in Babylon for another decree that was written by his predecessor, king Cyrus, concerning the house of God (vv. 1 – 3).
That previous decree from king Cyrus, ordered the rebuilding of the house of God in Jerusalem so that sacrifices and public worship could be made to God once again and not only that, but Cyrus’ decree also stipulated the size of the house of God, the building materials for the house of God, the designation of royal funds to cover the cost of the house of God, and the restoration of the stolen furnishings for the house of God (vv. 3 – 5). King Cyrus’ building order literally left no stone on the exterior and no furnishing on the interior untouched; this was a complete restoration project.
This really is a fascinating thing to think about. A pagan king had sanctioned the restoration and rebuilding of the house of God. The Persians were literally “supporting ‘faith-based initiatives,’ paid for by state funds [that were] raised through general taxation policy!”2
Can you imagine what it would be like to have an unbelieving President of the United States come to you and offer to invest everything you needed to restore and rebuild your spiritual life; to invest in your spiritual well being? Can you imagine if his successor did the same thing a few years later? That’s basically what happens in our text…
#2: KING DARIUS WRITES HIS OWN DECREE CONCERNING THE HOUSE OF GOD (VV. 6 – 12)
I had an old friend in the drywall world that would always say that the pen was mightier than the sword! He always loved to say that when he was padding his timecard for extra pay! But in this case, I can hear my old friend’s voice ringing in my head as I think about King Darius writing his own decree back to Israel’s enemies in light of king Cyrus’ decree.
I really love the threatening sound of king Darius in verses 6 – 7 when he instructs Israel’s enemies to “keep away… Let the work on this house of God alone”! I can just see Israel’s enemies shaking in their boots as they read the words! But king Darius does not just tell them to stay away; he also instructs them to do whatever they can to help in the restoration and rebuilding process, right down to supplying royal financial aid so that Israel can offer sacrifices “to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons” (vv. 8 – 10).
And to top everything off, king Darius begins to conclude his decree with a sharp warning for anyone who tries to mess with the rebuilding of the house of God; the person who messes with the building of the house of God will be executed by being impaled on a beam from his own home as he watches his home being destroyed (v. 11). The sense I get here is that king Darius is very serious about restoring and rebuilding the house of God!
I love the way king Darius signs off at the end of his decree when he says, “May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem” (v. 12). The reality here is that God does not need a house because he has made his presence known without a house. But when God decides that he wants a house, he gets a house and there is no king who can stop him; his presence will be made known regardless of the opposition! So, what is next?
#3: RESTORING AND REBUILDING THE HOUSE OF GOD IS FINALLY FINISHED (VV. 13 – 15)
After more than a decade full of starts and stops and opposition, the restoration and rebuilding of the house of God is finally complete! Israel’s enemies conceded their harassment campaign and with the support of the preaching prophets, under the decrees of God and the three kings of Persia, the house of God was complete on March 12th, 516 B.C. (vv. 13 – 15).3
If you have ever moved into a new home, then you know what that first day is like. You have dreamed about it, worked hard for it, sometimes wondered if it would ever happen, and then it happens and it feels like a little slice of heaven for little while. It must have been an absolutely exhilarating day for Israel, one that they will celebrate in just a few verses, but I think it is important to just stop and think about how it must have felt to have experienced that day…
CONCLUSION…
Can you imagine that day when rebuilding is complete? As I think about the day that the house of God was finished, and all the days that led up to that day for over a decade, I cannot help but to think about the last ten years of my own personal journey with Jesus as he works to restore and rebuild certain places of my life. As I said earlier, the work of restoration and rebuilding does not happen overnight, though I do sometimes wish things would go faster.
In the midst of the daily grind, the daily war against my own sin and failures, the desire to see areas of my life perfected, the realization that I fail more than I wish I did, the tiny baby steps forward, and what often feels like massive steps backward, and the getting up again after falling and shaking the dust off and going back like king Darius and reading God’s promises, and writing my own little decrees in my journal of renewed trust in the work of Christ at the cross of Calvary, and the days where I experience what feels like heavenly victory in this struggle… we are all in the process of being restored and rebuilt into the house of God (if you have trusted in Christ)… aren’t we?
1 Peter 2:5 says that if you have trusted in Christ as your crucified, risen and returning Savior, then “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” The reality, is that the house of God that we just saw completed here in Ezra, does not exist when Jesus returns because the physical building that was built here was only a prototype of the body of Christ, the church, where God would take up residence as his home (Acts 7:48 – 50; Rev. 21:22; 1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19).4
You and I, if we come to Christ in repentance and trust, are the new temple, the house of God, whereby the watching world may look and say, “I see the presence of God there”. Obviously, the restoration and rebuilding process of our lives includes time reading the Bible, time spent in prayer, time spent remembering the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, time spent confessing and repenting from sin, time spent serving unselfishly and giving generously. These things are vital to the restoration and rebuilding process.
Ultimately, all those seemingly mundane disciplines, are meant to turn our hearts more and more to Jesus, who is the one who holds us together as the temple or the house of God through his work at a bloody cross, through his victory in the empty tomb, in light of his promise of heaven.
That day, when we join Jesus in heaven with other saints who have gone before us, that day will blow the doors off the day that the house of God was finished in Ezra, for on that day we will all experience the full power of the cross, the full victory of the empty tomb and the fully realized hope of heaven! For on that day, the true house of God – the church of Jesus Christ – will be complete, once and for all! Can you imagine that day?
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Derek W. H. Thomas, Ezra and Nehemiah: Reformed Expository Commentary, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2016), 84.
3 Ibid., 82.
4 Ibid., 82 – 83.