April 22, 2005

WEAK HANDS, STRONG HANDS

Ezra 4-6

I am going to ask you to do an exercise with me this morning. I want you to put up your hands in a position of strength, as though you are about to engage in active physical work. (That’s good. Some of you look positively powerful!) Now, starting from that position, I want you to imagine that your hands and arms are becoming tired and weak. (That’s right, just let them droop with fatigue!)

Why did I have you do that? The passage of Scripture we are looking at this morning is bracketed, beginning and ending, with a couple of Hebrew idioms. Unfortunately they’ve been lost in many of our translations. The first idiom or expression is found in Ezra 4:4. Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah… The literal words there are “to weaken the hands” of the people of Judah. The second idiom is found in Ezra 6:22. In the second half of that verse we have the words: so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God. The literal wording there is “he strengthened their hands in the work.”

As we pick up our study in the Book of Ezra, in chapters 4-6 we have the account of the completion of the construction of the new temple in Jerusalem. But we are going to find that it was not an easy task or a smooth journey. What we are going to look for in the account is what were the things that weakened the hands of the people in the task, and what were the things that strengthened their hands in the task? Then we are going to look at the relevance of what we learn in terms of our own lives and especially in light of our own building project.

Let’s look first at I. What Weakened Their Hands?

Read Ezra 4:1-3. A first reading of these verses may puzzle us. Why would the returning exiles turn down this offer of help and were they right to do so? A couple of clues will provide the answer to these questions, one in the text and another from a parallel passage. First of all, the clue in the passage is found in the opening line. The enemies of Judah and Benjamin. The narrator of the account doesn’t leave us in any doubt about the identity of these people. They were enemies. They were hostile to the returning exiles.

The second clue is found in II Kings 17:28-29, 32-34a. (Read) That account clearly tells us what kind of syncretism these inhabitants of the land practiced. When they offered to help the exiles rebuild the temple, they weren’t doing it out of a desire to worship the one true God and worship him alone. They were simply offering to help them build a shrine to add to all the other shrines they used to worship their multiple gods.

I would suggest then, that the first thing that threatened to weaken the hands of the exiles was the threat of A. Compromise. The God of the Bible is a jealous God. He will not share his glory with another. At the heart of Biblical faith is this affirmation: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Any compromise with that fundamental commitment of the heart will fatally weaken our hands in fulfilling the purpose for which God has called us. It is to the credit of these stalwart exiles that they understood the danger and refused the help that was offered.

But of course the story didn’t end there. In Ezra 4:4 we read: Then the peoples around them set out to discourage (or weaken the hands of) the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. The second thing that weakened their hands was B. Intimidation. They made them afraid. We are not exactly sure what means they used. Was it threats? Did they make a show of armed force? Satan is always trying to frighten believers into abandoning the work God has called us to do. We may be intimidated in many ways: By physical danger or threat, by the difficulty of a task, by the sheer size of a task.

There is a third thing that caused their hands to grow weak. The inhabitants of the land practiced C. Continued Opposition against the work. Look at verse 5: They hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans.

We’re not sure exactly what kind of counselors these were, or how they worked against them. I think it’s a pretty safe guess that they were the ancient world’s equivalent of high powered lawyers and government lobbyists. They worked the system, filed law suits, denied permits, and generally hindered the work in any way they could. What is especially demoralizing is that this was not just an isolated case or instance. I deliberately used the phrase “continued opposition.” It went on and on.

In fact, I need to explain a peculiarity of the Biblical text at this point that will illustrate how persistent this opposition was. In chapter 4, there is a long parenthesis in the text from verse 6 to verse 23. We know it is a parenthesis from some of the Hebrew verb forms, but also from the fact that this section is not chronological with the rest of the text. You’ll notice that verse 6 mentions Xerxes, and verse 7 mentions Artaxerxes. These were kings who ruled after Darius who is mentioned in verse 5. Yet in verse 24, the account comes back to Darius. This is not an error. The writer is making a point. The organized opposition to the reconstruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem that began at this early stage never let up. It went on and on. It was continual. Two kings and a generation later, it was still going on.

Continued opposition weakened their hands. As a result we read these words in 4:24: Thus the work on the house of God came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. That brings us to the fourth thing that weakened their hands. D. Delay. Almost 15 years passed with no significant work done on the temple. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like waiting. I don’t like delays. I like things to move smoothly from start to finish. I like progress. I like movement. Too much delay and we lose heart. Our hands grow slack.

Now, if we only had the account in Ezra of those days, we would be finished. We would have a complete list of the factors that caused their hands to grow weak. And as we looked at the different factors, we would discover that all of them are external and circumstantial. They were things that happened to the returning exiles over which they had no control. But God sent to the exiles two prophets by the names of Haggai and Zechariah. The writings of these prophets are preserved in our Bibles, so we get another window into the lives of the returning exiles.

Read Haggai 1:1-2. Apparently what happened was that there was opposition, and there was delay. And over time, the people came to accept that this delay was normal. Their hands became so weak, that they accepted the status quo. They gave up the struggle. What’s more, in this condition, another factor, more subtle and more insidious than all the others, weakened their hands even more.

Read Haggai 1:3-11. The final factor that robbed their hands of strength was E. Wrong Priorities. Did you see that? When the temple building was delayed, they poured all their resources into building their own houses and building up their own fortunes. They lost their vision for the task. The irony of it all was that the harder they tried to get ahead financially, the more they lost ground. That’s a powerful image for what happens when we get our priorities backward: You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it.

Well, that’s a sobering list of things that weakened the hands of the Jews: Compromise, intimidation, continued opposition, delays and wrong priorities. No matter what task God calls you to, or whenever you answer his call to do a work for him, you will meet one or more, sometimes all of these factors. We begin a task with great enthusiasm and resolve, with our hands strong. But if we’re not careful, these factors will batter us and our arms and shoulders will start to slump. Our hands will become weak.

So let’s go back to the text and ask, II. What Strengthened Their Hands? I see four factors in these chapters.

Read Ezra 5:1-2. This was the key ingredient that strengthened their hands and reignited their passion for the work. They received A. A Word from the Lord. In this case, God sent them two prophets. They prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. God had not forgotten these discouraged exiles. He was still “over them.” He hadn’t forgotten his purpose and plan for them, even if they had lost sight of it. So he sent his prophets to proclaim the word of the Lord to them, and to help them in the task.

What specifically was their message? In Haggai’s opening message, we can discern the second ingredient that led to the strengthening of their hands.  It’s found in a phrase that he repeats twice. First in 1:15: Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.” Identical words are found in verse 17: This is what the Lord Almighty says; “Give careful thought to your ways.”

It’s an interesting expression in Hebrew. It means literally “fix or focus your heart on your ways.” It is a call to careful B. Self Examination and Repentance. This is the answer to wrong priorities and misplaced values. Study your ways, your actions, your patterns and habits of life. And do it with an intention to change what needs to be changed and correct what needs to be corrected.

If it is a loss of focus and wrong priorities that has caused your hands to be weak and caused you to lose the vision for the task God wants you to do, this is the only step that will restore the strength to your hands and the vision to your eyes.

Look what else God did to strengthen their hands. C. God stirred up their spirits. Look at Haggai 1:14: So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty…

Did you recognize that phrase from the sermon last week? This is the same Hebrew phrase we saw last week in Ezra 1, where God first stirred up the spirit of Cyrus the king, and then stirred up the spirit of the people to return to Jerusalem. Over 15 years have gone by. The fire has seemingly died out. The coals look dead and cold upon the hearth. But God is able to stir them to life again. He is the one who can restore the strength to our hands, and he does it by stirring up our spirits.

The final thing I see in this passage that is of great encouragement. D. God demonstrated his sovereignty. As we go back to the account in Ezra 5 and 6, we see God at work. In 5:2, we saw that the leaders and the people began the work of construction again. They didn’t wait for permission. They just started building. It didn’t take long for this to provoke a reaction. The governor, a man by the name of Tattenai and his associates asked them by what permission they were building. But we see a different response this time. Look at Ezra 5:5: But the eye of their God was watching over the elders of the Jews, and they were not stopped until a report could go to Darius and his written reply be received.

So they continued the building while the official inquiry took place. Most of the rest of chapter 5 and the first half of chapter 6 are given over to this exchange of correspondence. I won’t take the time to read it, but I encourage you to do so. It all boiled down to the Jews’ claim that they were building by the permission of the decree of King Cyrus. Was there such a decree? Could it be found? And in chapter 6, we have a demonstration of the power of God equal to anything in all the rest of Scripture. It is a demonstration of the sovereignty of God over a government filing system! They found the scroll. What’s more, they found it, even though they started off looking for it in the wrong city! Read 5:17 and 6:1. It wasn’t there. But look at verse 2: A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media and this was written on it.

We’re not sure if the records had been moved to another city, or whether Ecbatana was the summer seat of government in Cyrus’ time or what. But they found the scroll! God is sovereign, even over government bureaucracy! The decree confirmed all that the Jews had claimed, and King Darius added his own authority to it. It is almost humorous as you read his letter back to the governor. He not only instructs him to stop hindering the work on the temple. He orders him to finance it out of his own tax revenues and threatens execution to anyone who opposes the project!

Look at the final word of the decree in 6:12: I Darius have decreed it. Let it be carried out with diligence. Then look at verse 13: Then…Tattenai and…associates carried it out with diligence.

And so the great project was completed. (Read verses 14-16)

So God strengthened their hands for the task by once again demonstrating his sovereignty. But I think it’s important to note that on this occasion he demonstrated his sovereignty only after the people had begun to build once again. We can’t just sit and wait for God to remove all the opposition and obstacles before we throw ourselves into the work. The leaders and the people gave themselves willingly to the task, and then God moved the obstacles.

Well, obviously there are many applications from this text to our own building project. We will use those to guide us in our prayer time tonight, as we ask God to help us examine our hearts for wrong priorities, as we call on him to stir up our hearts and the hearts of the larger body of Christ for this work, and as we beseech him to exert his sovereignty on our behalf with the government authorities.

But I just want to close this message this morning by coming back to the first ingredient in strengthening our hands. That is III. A WORD FROM THE LORD FOR US. I would encourage us to adopt as our word from the Lord for this project the words that Zechariah the prophet gave to Zerubbabel the governor. We’ve already considered the words of Haggai. Now let’s consider these words of Zechariah in chapter 4:6-9. (Read) I imagine those words were burned deep into Zerubbabel’s mind and spirit. “Zerubbabel, you laid the foundation. Your hand will finish the task.” And how will it happen? Here are the words I want us to memorize as the theme for this entire project: Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD Almighty.