Last week, Pastor Shane taught from chapter 5 that governor Tattenai comes to the Jews and questions them, “who gave you this mandate to rebuild your temple?” The Jews claim God divinely gave them the right and Cyrus made a decree authorizing them to rebuild their temple. So, Tattenai decides to go up the chain of command, and sends a letter back to the current king, Darius complaining about this Jewish rebuilding program, and asking him to look for this purported decree. Here in chapter 6 we start with Darius finding Cyrus’s decree.
6:1 Then King Darius issued a decree, and search was made in the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon. 2 In Ecbatana in the fortress, which is in the province of Media, a scroll was found and there was written in it as follows: “Memorandum— 3 In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree: ‘Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the temple, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained, its height being 60 cubits and its width 60 cubits; 4 with three layers of huge stones and one layer of timbers. And let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. 5 Also let the gold and silver utensils of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; and you shall put them in the house of God.’
6 “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and your colleagues, the officials of the provinces beyond the River, keep away from there. 7 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. 8 Moreover, I issue a decree concerning what you are to do for these elders of Judah in the rebuilding of this house of God: the full cost is to be paid to these people from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces beyond the River, and that without delay. 9 Whatever is needed, both young bulls, rams, and lambs for a burnt offering to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and anointing oil, as the priests in Jerusalem request, it is to be given to them daily without fail, 10 that they may offer acceptable sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. 11 And I issued a decree that any man who violates this edict, a timber shall be drawn from his house and he shall be impaled on it and his house shall be made a refuse heap on account of this. 12 M ay the God who has caused His name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who attempts to change it, so as to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued this decree, let it be carried out with all diligence!”
You can’t make this stuff up. In this section, we see God’s ‘providence’ at work. ‘Providence’, God is in control of every situation, in every way, always. From a sparrow falling to the ground, to the time when ‘God requires our soul’, He holds all things in His hands. Darius orders a search to be made for this decree and God providentially directs them to this scroll that contained Cyrus’ order to rebuild the temple. This is way outside the realm of coincidence.
Hidden here in verse 11 is a nugget I’ve highlighted in pink. Pink is my color to highlight ‘Gospel’ oriented passages. How is this Gospel-oriented? It talks about how anyone who violates this edict will have his house torn down and a timber will be erected and they’ll be hung on that timber. Look at how similar Colossians 2:14 is to verse 11 here in Ezra 6; it says “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” This looks a lot like crucifixion. Down through the ages, a lot of people have been crucified, but there is obviously one crucifixion that’s singularly important and poignant to us.
Interestingly, the Persians are credited with inventing crucifixion. Another old testament reference to Persian crucifixion is in the book of Esther. Remember the ‘gallows’ Haman had erected when he was plotting to have Mordecai executed for being a Jew. Those ‘gallows’ were a forerunner of crucifixion. Originally, they would put a big stake in the ground, and impale the person on that stake. The Romans refined the process, to make it worse so that it’d take longer, and be more painful.
There are several Old Testament prophecies of the crucifixion, one being Passover itself.
Exodus 12:7 Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
Deuteronomy 21:23 says, “his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.”
Then psalm 22 foretells the crucifixion in detail:
14 I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;...
16 For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;
18 They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.
Let’s focus in on Jesus’ crucifixion; why would God allow this brutality to be perpetrated against His Son? It shows us the severity and seriousness of sin. Sin is horrible. It left our Savior an awful bloody mess on that cross. One complaint, some modern day atheists level against Christianity is “how could you believe in a God who would kill His own Son?“ Let me explain it this way, with a little analogy: if a terrorist were to toss a grenade into this room, while we were all sitting here, and I turned and ran out the back door, you’d be really disappointed in me and ashamed of me for not trying to save anyone; I could even be held criminally responsible for not trying to do something or at least try and warn everyone. Now, what if, when that grenade rolled in here, I grabbed my son, and threw him on top of that grenade, and jumped on his back and held him down while it exploded. You’d have me thrown in jail. But, If my son was a navy seal, and he reacted to the situation and jumped on that bomb himself, and saved everyone, I’d be very, very proud. At the same time, I’d be very very sad, but very proud.
With Jesus’ crucifixion, he gave His life of his own volition. John 10:17-18 "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." Jesus died this horrible death to save us. If that was the end of the story, it would be very very sad. But we can rejoice in the fact that Jesus was resurrected. He came back to life from the dead. Death couldn’t hold Him, the grave couldn’t contain Him, because he is the one and only God. So it’s a victory to be celebrated as horrible and awful as the experience must have been; it is a badge of honor that Jesus Himself will bear the marks of throughout eternity.
Let’s examine the crucifixion a little deeper by looking at Jesus’ 7 sayings on the cross from the Gospels of Mark, Luke and John:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” — Luke 23:34
“Today you will be with Me in paradise.” — Luke 23:43
“Woman, behold your Son… Behold, your mother!” — John 19:26
“My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” — Mark 15:34
“I thirst.” — John 19:28
“It is finished.” — John 19:30
“Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” — Luke 23:46
Now back to Ezra 6 verse 13 Then Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and their colleagues carried out the decree with all diligence, just as King Darius had sent. 14 And the elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15 This temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar; it was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.
16 And the sons of Israel, the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. 17 They offered for the dedication of this temple of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats, corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18 Then they appointed the priests to their divisions and the Levites in their orders for the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.
The Temple was completed and dedicated. It is amazing what you can accomplish as a team. Those accomplishments ought to be celebrated.
19 The exiles observed the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month. 20 For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were pure. Then they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, both for their brothers the priests and for themselves. 21 The sons of Israel who returned from exile and all those who had separated themselves from the impurity of the nations of the land to join them, to seek the Lord God of Israel, ate the Passover. 22 And they observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had caused them to rejoice, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to encourage them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
They joyfully observed the Passover. One of the fruits of salvation is joy. Sometimes you might catch me smiling, gazing off into space; I might just be thinking about my salvation; how the Lord saved me from sin, death and hell. Although joy is a legitimate fruit of salvation, it’s not fair (or biblically correct) to try to use joy to draw people to salvation. Romans 5:9 says Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. We are saved from God’s righteous indignation and anger toward sin, that ought to be our motivation for coming to God. We are saved from the condemnation of the law (the Ten Commandments) by God’s mercy. The justice that was due you and I, fell upon Jesus on that cross.
The key takeaways from this chapter are
God is sovereign. He works providentially through circumstances.
The crucifixion was not an accident, it was God executing justice on our behalf.
Teamwork produces great results and we ought to celebrate those accomplishments.
Joy is a fruit of salvation, but shouldn’t be used as an enticement for salvation.
I want to take this time and celebrate The Lord’s Supper. I want us to think about the gravity of the crucifixion and the seriousness of sin. Then remember God’s great mercy and grace. It was God’s goodness and righteousness and justice that necessitated the cross. Let's celebrate that.
1 Corinthians 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
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