Sometimes things go terribly wrong. Economic uncertainty. Job security. Family strife. Questionable leadership in business, government, and church. When that happens, we start to wonder if God is still in control, and still making things happen according to his plan.
Things had gone terribly wrong for God’s People in the Old Testament. They had lost their independence, been taken into exile, the temple destroyed. There was not much to sing joyfully about. And yet, God was still in control. In Ezra 1, God’s control over all things is shown by the great and small ways in which he caused a remnant to return to the land, and begin rebuilding the temple. God was still working to fulfil his promises to save sinners through Jesus Christ, the Messiah. God was, and is, still in control.
By around 600BC, the Kingdom of Judah was under the sway of the Babylonians, due to their increasing sinfulness and failure to worship God. Finally, the Babylonians captured Jerusalem, ended the monarchy, destroyed the temple and city, and took the remaining people into exile. For decades, just as God said would happen through the prophet Jeremiah, God’s people lived in foreign lands with no say over their destiny.
But “in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia” (v.1). The Persians had defeated the Babylonians and inherited their territory. While themselves worshipers of pagan deities, the Persians were (relatively) religiously tolerant, and Cyrus showed God’s People mercy which the Babylonians had not.
Whatever the motives of Cyrus, God provided a very clear direction to Cyrus: “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” (v.2).
God was going to have his temple rebuilt in Jerusalem to point forward with hope, again, to the true dwelling of God with his people (John 1:14). God had not forgotten his people. The enforced exile was over, and they were now free to return to the land. So God made Cyrus put the plan in action, which occurred with a royal decree recorded in Ezra (vv.2-4).
God raised up returnees among the exiles to return (v.5), despite their return to a place with no houses, no defenses, just ruins. Among these, God had kept the faith alive. They responded in faith to return and rebuild.
Not everyone wanted to return though. From these, voluntary gifts were given, along with others who lived around the returning Jews (v.6), a massive reversal of fortune and an echo of the Exodus.
In addition, the various tools and implements which King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple back to Babylon were removed from storage by King Cyrus’ command, and provided to those returning (vv.7-8). These were not just any pots and pans, but thousands of items which were ritually holy and used for the service and worship of God in the temple (vv.9-11).
Israel did not have images of God to restore (or for the Babylonians to plunder), so the goods had been taken instead. Now God was restoring them to himself, even though, in the scheme of things, this was a relatively minor start to what was an uncertain journey, walked by faith.
No doubt, though, the presence of gifts, and especially the stolen and returned implements from God’s Temple, were a sign of encouragement that God was in control “when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem” (v.11).
Despite every set-back, despite the many long years removed from their homeland and the Temple which served as a centrepiece of their worship of God, God was still in control and fulfilling his plans.
The same is true today. God is in control of all things. Just as God called the shots in the days of Cyrus, so too God calls the shots today. No defeat by the world, or by its idols, is ever truly complete. God always prevails, just as God prevailed over the Babylonian gods when he caused Cyrus to set his people and his goods free.
It does not make life easier, but it does make life more manageable. Nothing that happens can stop God from achieving his plans to save us from our sins and deliver us from the power of death.
Like the returning exiles, we too are on a pilgrimage to God’s holy city. Only it is not a physical one, but “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
Those returning pilgrims had no homes to return to, only ruins. We too have no permanent home here, but seek a city which is to come. Like them, we walk daily by faith, trusting in God’s provision to deliver us from evil and bring us safely to enjoy presence with him.
Our faith is not in vain, because God is still in control.