“The LORD Will Restore Us…!”

“The LORD Will Restore Us…!”(Ezr.4:12-23).
In the past God used foreign world powers to judge his people, but he used the same world powers to restore his people to their land. That is how when Cyrus was king of Persia, “in order to fulfil the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved him to state that the LORD had appointed him to build the LORD’s temple in Jerusalem(Ezr.1:1ff). Cyrus the Persian king had just overthrown Babylon.
Prophet Jeremiah had prophesied that the Babylonian captivity will last for seventy years, after which God will punish the king of Babylon and his people. What happened to the Babylonian empire and her king is a demonstration of how God can use you and dump you. It is also an eye-opener to us not to consider those who torment us to be our enemies. They are merely tools in God’s hands which he uses to punish us when we turn away from him.
God called Cyrus “my anointed, whose right hand I take to subdue nations…I will go before you…”(Is.45:1:1ff).
Ezra, Nehemiah and laterly Zerubbabel were those who championed the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. But their efforts were thwarted by those who considered that the independence of the Jews would reduce the income of the Persian treasury and that the Jews who were noted for being rebellious may eventually challenge Persian authority.
These detractors stalled the rebuilding after king Cyrus right through the reigns of Darius.
When Artaxerxes was king another petition letter was sent to him and he sent back a letter asking the rebuilders to stop work. Work was temporarily halted, but when Darius became king, he searched the archives and found the decree which Cyrus had passed for the rebuilding of the temple, so he ordered that “…let it be carried out with diligence”(Ezr.6:1-12).
Nothing stops God from doing what he intends to do to those whom he has chosen for his purposes.
When we rebel against God he uses others to punish us in the same way he used Nebuchadnezzar to punish his children.
But he still uses others to restore us to our past glories; when we repent.
Cyrus the king of Persia who overthrew Babylon was a proyotype of the Messiah as we mentioned in Isaiah above. Just as Cyrus was inspired to send the exiles home, so too Christ is coming to take us home to the Father where we rightfully belong.
Let us prepare our minds to receive him as we rebuild our broken lives and fill the little potholes of our lives.
Prayer: Father we thank you because you will never allow enemies to triumph over us; as long as we repent of our sins. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang. .