Day 340: Ezra 4-6 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hey Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny
2. 0:02Orango. Welcome to the Bible department
3. 0:04podcast powered by Arma. We are walking
4. 0:08through the entire Bible in a year. You
5. 0:10can go to the description or the bible
6. 0:13department.com to download a reading
7. 0:15plan and join the journey.
8. 0:24Hey baba nerds, welcome to day 340.
9. 0:27Today we are in Ezra chapters 4, 5, and
10. 0:326. Three short chapters of the Bible to
11. 0:34read. If you haven't done the reading,
12. 0:36how about you go ahead and stop this
13. 0:37video, pause the audio, go get the
14. 0:39reading done. Ezra is an awesome book. I
15. 0:43mean, tons of narrative. We're kind of
16. 0:45back to story. I know for a long time on
17. 0:47the plan, we've been in the thick of
18. 0:49poetry. We've been in a lot of wisdom
19. 0:51literature, but now we're back into
20. 0:53narrative history. I'm loving it. It's a
21. 0:57good story. So to pick up from
22. 0:59yesterday, okay, Ezra has been, well,
23. 1:02not Ezra, sorry. Ezra chapter 1 has
24. 1:05started and Zerubbable has been
25. 1:07commissioned by Cyrus based on a
26. 1:10prophetic word in Isaiah chapters 44 and
27. 1:1245 to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild
28. 1:15the walls. Yesterday we established that
29. 1:18this is a second exodus. Okay? In the
30. 1:21same way that the people of Israel left
31. 1:24captivity in Egypt to go to the promised
32. 1:26land, they are now leaving captivity in
33. 1:30Persia aka Babylon. And they are going
34. 1:34to the promised land but not to conquer
35. 1:37it but to resettle it. Three Rs that I
36. 1:41want us to focus on that is return,
37. 1:44rebuild and repent. Okay. The people
38. 1:47need to return to the land. Number two,
39. 1:50they've got to rebuild. They have a
40. 1:53massive project ahead of them. Okay, the
41. 1:56walls of Jerusalem are completely
42. 1:58broken. The temple is in complete
43. 2:01disrepair. And what happens when they
44. 2:03get back to Jerusalem? They first start
45. 2:05to build an altar and they complete the
46. 2:08altar and then they lay the foundation
47. 2:10for the temple. Once they lay the
48. 2:12foundation for the temple, I mean,
49. 2:14they're off to a great start, but then
50. 2:16opposition happens. So, I want to add a
51. 2:18fourth R. Okay, return and then
52. 2:22rebuilding and then repentance. But in
53. 2:25the middle of rebuilding, they're going
54. 2:27to hit resistance. And man, I know it's
55. 2:30not time for our timeless truth today. I
56. 2:31haven't even given you your our context
57. 2:33clue for the day. But can I just
58. 2:35encourage you? Every time you're in a
59. 2:37season of rebuilding, there's going to
60. 2:39be resistance. And that's life. I can't
61. 2:42count how many ministry leaders I've met
62. 2:44that it's like postcoid they were faced
63. 2:47with the reality that needed to rebuild
64. 2:50their church or rebuild teams or rebuild
65. 2:53ministries and we're in a season of
66. 2:55rebuilding and co's not the only thing a
67. 2:58pandemic is not the only thing that
68. 2:59could cause rebuilding I remember being
69. 3:01a really really really young kind of
70. 3:03young adult in ministry when like the
71. 3:052008 financial crisis hit and the church
72. 3:08that I was a part of took a massive dip
73. 3:11in terms of tithes and offerings just
74. 3:12because people were getting their homes
75. 3:14foreclosed on. It's a tough time. And
76. 3:17what happened? The church had to
77. 3:19rebuild. So rebuilding is a normal part
78. 3:23of life. And it can be really
79. 3:25discouraging to be in a season where
80. 3:27you're just picking up the rubble and
81. 3:30ruins of your life and rebuilding. And
82. 3:32it can be really, really discouraging.
83. 3:33It can feel like I've taken steps
84. 3:35forward, now I'm taking steps back. Let
85. 3:37me encourage anybody today who's in a
86. 3:39process of rebuilding. It's kind of like
87. 3:42rebuilding is already hard enough and
88. 3:44here it is. There are people that are
89. 3:45resisting me and uh you can go ahead and
90. 3:48just buckle up, okay? Life is full of
91. 3:51cycles of rebuilding. You're going to
92. 3:52build and rebuild, build and rebuild,
93. 3:55build and rebuild. And uh rebuilding
94. 3:57always comes with resistance. So, let's
95. 4:00jump into chapter 4. Okay, they've laid
96. 4:02the foundation for the temple. They've
97. 4:03been commissioned by Cyrus. And now we
98. 4:06open up chapter 4 and we've got
99. 4:08resistance. Okay, it says this, "When
100. 4:11the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard
101. 4:14that the exiles were building a temple
102. 4:16for the Lord, the God of Israel, they
103. 4:18came to Zerubbable and the heads of the
104. 4:21families and said, "Let us help you
105. 4:23build because like you, we seek your God
106. 4:27and have been sacrificing to him since
107. 4:28the time of Asahan, king of Assyria, who
108. 4:32brought us here." All right. So, I want
109. 4:34to give context for those opening lines
110. 4:37in Ezra chapter 4. The context is
111. 4:40actually found in 2 Kings chapter 17.
112. 4:44Uh, we can actually go there. I'll grab
113. 4:47it in Logos. Second Kings chapter
114. 4:5017. You may read these verses and go,
115. 4:55WHY WOULD THEY REFUSE HELP? LIKE, that's
116. 4:58crazy. They're in Jerusalem to build or
117. 5:01to rebuild THE TEMPLE. WHY WOULD YOU
118. 5:04REFUSE HELP? These seem like nice
119. 5:06people, right? They heard that the
120. 5:08exiles were building a temple for the
121. 5:10Lord and so they came to Zerubbable.
122. 5:12They're like, "Let us help you build."
123. 5:14But we're going to learn a valuable
124. 5:16lesson that not everyone who wants to
125. 5:19help you build is called to actually
126. 5:20help you build. I'm in a season right
127. 5:22now where I'm building a church and not
128. 5:25everyone who says that they want to help
129. 5:27me build have good intentions. And part
130. 5:29of what it means to be a good leader is
131. 5:31discerning. Are there people who want to
132. 5:33help me build because they need me to
133. 5:36owe them one in the future? Are there
134. 5:38people who want to help me build because
135. 5:40they see an opportunity to get a job at
136. 5:43some point? Are there people who are
137. 5:45here to help me build uh out of pure
138. 5:48motives or impure motives? And so I
139. 5:50actually shout out to Zerubbable and the
140. 5:53crew for hearing sometimes you could be
141. 5:56so desperate for help you'll take help
142. 5:57from anybody. and they they they are
143. 6:00encountering people who want to help,
144. 6:02but they have enough discernment to
145. 6:04know, no, no, no, no, no. These people
146. 6:06do not have the same heart to actually
147. 6:09put their hand to the plow as we do. And
148. 6:11so, what's the context? This context
149. 6:13that they have that we may not have. And
150. 6:15that context is second Kings chapter 17.
151. 6:192 Kings chapter 17 says this. In the
152. 6:2112th year of King Ahaz of Judah, Hosa,
153. 6:24son of Eli, began a reign at Samaria
154. 6:26over Israel. They reign nine years. And
155. 6:30then we're going to skip skip skip.
156. 6:32Okay. So then we're going to skip all
157. 6:33the way down to verse 23. Okay? And it
158. 6:36says this in verse 23, the end of verse
159. 6:3923. So Israel was exiled from their own
160. 6:42land to Assyria to this day. Now
161. 6:45remember, Judah, the southern kingdom of
162. 6:48Judah is going to get exiled in 586 BC
163. 6:51to Babylon. But in 7:22 BC, the northern
164. 6:55kingdom of Israel gets exiled to
165. 6:57Assyria. Okay, so the context for Ezra
166. 7:00chapter 4 is the Assyrian captivity of
167. 7:04the northern kingdom of Israel. Says
168. 7:07this in verse 24, the king of Assyria
169. 7:10brought people from Babylon, Kua, Ava,
170. 7:14Hamoth, and Sepharim and placed them in
171. 7:17the cities of Samaria in place of the
172. 7:20people of Israel. They took possession
173. 7:22of Samaria. If you go all the way down
174. 7:24to verse 27, then the king of Assyria
175. 7:26commanded, "Send there one of the
176. 7:29priests whom you carried away from
177. 7:31there. Let him go and live there and
178. 7:33teach them the law of the God of the
179. 7:35land." Okay? And so one of the priests
180. 7:38whom they had carried away from Samaria
181. 7:41came and lived in Bethl. He taught them
182. 7:44how they should worship the Lord. Okay?
183. 7:47But every nation still made gods of its
184. 7:50own and put them in the shrines of the
185. 7:53high places that the people of Samaria
186. 7:55had made. Every nation in the cities in
187. 7:58which they lived. So, so these people
188. 8:01who want to help in Ezra chapter 4, the
189. 8:04context for them is 2 Kings chapter 17.
190. 8:07And what do we learn about these people
191. 8:08in 2 Kings chapter 17? They want to
192. 8:11worship Yahweh and their idols. They
193. 8:15want to worship Yahweh and the gods of
194. 8:18their own ancestors. Which means what
195. 8:21they're saying here isn't incorrect, but
196. 8:24it is incomplete. It's the truth, but
197. 8:27it's not the whole truth. So what they
198. 8:31what Zerubbable has context for is that
199. 8:34these people are syncratists.
200. 8:37Syncratists. This is uh a form of
201. 8:40idolatry known as synratism where you
202. 8:43take God or Jesus or Yahweh and you mix
203. 8:46in other things. This would be like
204. 8:48going to church on a Sunday morning but
205. 8:50then burning sage on Sunday night at
206. 8:52your house. That would be synretatism.
207. 8:55That would be like going to church on
208. 8:57Sunday morning but buying chakra stones
209. 9:00from Urban Outfitters and laying those
210. 9:02soccer stones on your chest so you can
211. 9:04charge up. You know that that's
212. 9:06synretatism. It's it's kind of like
213. 9:08going to church on a Sunday but then
214. 9:10also having a dream catcher above your
215. 9:13above your you know above your bed. And
216. 9:15sometimes what can happen is we can be
217. 9:18more loyal to our ethnicity or our race
218. 9:21or our culture than we are to the God of
219. 9:24scripture. And so we want to take on
220. 9:27practices of our ancestors. And we want
221. 9:30to do things like smudge. Like this is
222. 9:33Native American man. It's it's before
223. 9:36the white man came and gave us
224. 9:38Christianity, this is what we were
225. 9:39doing. Yeah. Okay. And going to hell.
226. 9:41So, I mean, sure. I mean, if you want to
227. 9:44do what your ancestors are doing, that's
228. 9:46fantastic. Or you can say, "No, no, no,
229. 9:48no, no. I'm not going to follow my
230. 9:50ancestors. I'm going to follow like my
231. 9:52spiritual ancestors. ALL THESE PEOPLE IN
232. 9:55THE BIBLE, these are my ancestors
233. 9:57because I've been grafted in to the
234. 10:00olive tree that is Israel." So my
235. 10:03ancestors are actually people who have
236. 10:06tried with all their heart, soul, mind,
237. 10:07and strength to worship the Lord God
238. 10:09Almighty. So good jobs are rubbable for
239. 10:12not allowing synratists to help with the
240. 10:16building of God's house. Okay? Who knows
241. 10:20what they would have done to sabotage
242. 10:22the building? And guess what? Every
243. 10:24leader needs to know this. Whenever you
244. 10:26tell someone something they don't WANT
245. 10:28TO HEAR, IT'S A TEST. It reveals
246. 10:30motives. And so that's exactly what
247. 10:32happens. ZERUBBABLE SAYS, "NOPE, you
248. 10:34can't help us." And what do these people
249. 10:35start doing? They start causing hell for
250. 10:39the people of Israel and those who are
251. 10:41building. Which means if they had had
252. 10:43pure motives, then the no would not have
253. 10:47deterred them. Kind of like right now in
254. 10:49church building, you know, someone asked
255. 10:51me, can we have like a flag ministry?
256. 10:53And I was like, you can have a flag
257. 10:56small group. How about you find
258. 10:58everybody at the church who WANTS TO
259. 10:59WAVE FLAGS and you go do that at your
260. 11:01apartment? Now, that's a test. Two
261. 11:05things can happen. Three people are
262. 11:07going to be, you know, at Billy Bob's
263. 11:09apartment waving flags around or 80
264. 11:12people are going to show up and GUESS
265. 11:14WHAT? NOW WE GOT A FLAG MINISTRY ON OUR
266. 11:16HANDS. NOW WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO HAVE
267. 11:19A MINISTRY because the person was
268. 11:21faithful over little. So now you make
269. 11:23them ruler over much. If you could get
270. 11:2680 people at YOUR APARTMENT TO WAVE
271. 11:28FLAGS, you deserve a flag ministry.
272. 11:31Let's go. But it's a test. It's a test
273. 11:34to see, did you just want a platform or
274. 11:37did you want to disciple people using
275. 11:39flags? Because if you just wanted a
276. 11:41platform, hey, we're not going to use
277. 11:43Sunday morning just cuz your church hurt
278. 11:45and you didn't get a platform or an
279. 11:47opportunity at your last church. That's
280. 11:49what that's not what we're doing here.
281. 11:51But if you actually care about
282. 11:53discipling people and loving people, if
283. 11:55the word gets out, OH MY GOSH, THAT flag
284. 11:58group that meets at Billy Bob's
285. 12:00apartment, oh my gosh, man. They they
286. 12:03pray for you, man. They love on you,
287. 12:05man. THEY ENCOURAGE YOU. PEOPLE MAY NOT
288. 12:07LIKE FLAGS, BUT THEY'LL SHOW UP AT BILLY
289. 12:09BOB'S apartment because it's fruitful.
290. 12:11So, it's a test. It's always a test. If
291. 12:14you want to test people's motives, you
292. 12:15say things that they may not want to
293. 12:17hear and then you get to see ah where's
294. 12:20their heart in the right place. And so
295. 12:21as Zera will test them what's revealed
296. 12:24gets revealed that they are now going to
297. 12:26bribe officials to slow down the work of
298. 12:29the ministry which means Zerubbable was
299. 12:33right all along. These people cannot be
300. 12:35trusted. Okay, that's enough context.
301. 12:38Okay, LET ME GIVE YOU SEVEN NERDY
302. 12:40NUGGETS. GOLLY, I GOT SEVEN minutes left
303. 12:42on the episode. I'm going to give you
304. 12:44seven nerdy nuggets. Okay. Number one,
305. 12:46the context for these adversaries can be
306. 12:48found in 2 Kings chapter 17. I already
307. 12:50said that. Number two, who is a
308. 12:52Hasheeris?
309. 12:54A Hasheeris?
310. 12:56That would be Xerxes. Now, here's
311. 12:58something I need to make everybody aware
312. 12:59of. The letters that we're going to get
313. 13:02from all of the kings are not in order.
314. 13:05Okay? So, let me actually give you the
315. 13:08order of Persian kings. Okay, the first
316. 13:12Persian king is going to be when Cyrus
317. 13:16overtakes Babylon and we get the edict
318. 13:19of Cyrus. That obviously is a man by the
319. 13:22name of Cyrus. Okay, that's not hard.
320. 13:24The king after him is a is a man by the
321. 13:26name of Cambisus. Cambiuses II. After
322. 13:30him is Darius. After him is Xerxes,
323. 13:33whose name is Aashueras. So if you see
324. 13:37Aashueras somewhere, you know that's
325. 13:38Xerxes. Now, this is the Xerxes that's
326. 13:41married to Esther. All right? So, what
327. 13:44you're going to discover that in between
328. 13:46chapters 6 and 7 of Ezra. So, like in
329. 13:49between today's podcast episode and
330. 13:51tomorrow's podcast episode, the whole
331. 13:53book of Esther is going to happen. Okay?
332. 13:56So, I'll remind you of that tomorrow.
333. 13:58Hey, Esther has happened. All right?
334. 14:01Then after Xerxes, we're going to get
335. 14:02Art of Xerxes, which is Xerxes stepson.
336. 14:05And then we're going to get Darius II.
337. 14:07What you're going to begin to realize is
338. 14:09that the letters that we have here in
339. 14:12the book of Ezra are not based on
340. 14:14chronology, but they are based on theme.
341. 14:17And there's a reason that they're based
342. 14:19on theme, and we'll get into that either
343. 14:21at the end of this episode or tomorrow.
344. 14:23Let's keep rocking. Chapter 5:1. Okay,
345. 14:26the opposition works. Okay, 16 years go
346. 14:30by and the people stop building THE
347. 14:32TEMPLE. THEY STOP. They're like, "This
348. 14:35is hard." So the opposition or the
349. 14:38resistance actually works. So they are
350. 14:40called to rebuild. They are met with
351. 14:43resistance and that resistance actually
352. 14:45has the power to stop them in their
353. 14:47tracks. And so let's think WHAT DO THEY
354. 14:50NEED? OF COURSE THEY need a politician.
355. 14:53They need some construction workers.
356. 14:55They need the there's all kind of
357. 14:57practical things that they probably need
358. 14:59in order to restart. They need an army.
359. 15:01What does God send? Two prophets. That's
360. 15:04right. Hag guy and Zechariah. Honestly,
361. 15:08anytime I feel discouraged, and that's
362. 15:10often sometimes I can think to myself,
363. 15:12man, like there's so many people who can
364. 15:14do so many incredible things. All I can
365. 15:16really do is preach. Like that doesn't
366. 15:19seem like that impressive of a thing to
367. 15:22do. And sometimes because I'm so
368. 15:25intimately aware of my own gift, it's
369. 15:28almost like I'm too close to it to
370. 15:30really appreciate it. I'm just kind of
371. 15:32like, "Yeah, man. I just preach." And
372. 15:34then I'm reminded that when God's people
373. 15:37were stuck, I mean, could not progress.
374. 15:41They needed to build the temple. God
375. 15:43didn't send a construction crew. He
376. 15:44didn't send politicians. He sent two
377. 15:47preachers. He preached because the
378. 15:50reality is that if you want the people
379. 15:52to build the temple, you got to build
380. 15:54the people. And I'm in the middle of
381. 15:56building church right now. And I think
382. 15:59that part of the reason that we're
383. 16:00successful is because I don't think
384. 16:03about people as a resource to build a
385. 16:06thing. I think about that thing as a
386. 16:08resource to build people. I'm passionate
387. 16:11about building people. And so, of
388. 16:13course, God would send Haggi and
389. 16:14Zechariah. Haggi and Zechariah begin to
390. 16:17preach. They begin to preach, encourage,
391. 16:20and prophesy. And what does that do? It
392. 16:23turns the heart of the people towards
393. 16:26building. They now have a heart to
394. 16:28build. And a lot of times I can feel
395. 16:31discouraged like, man, I wish I had like
396. 16:34real hard skills. All I know how to do
397. 16:36is preach. But the Lord keeps reminding
398. 16:39me through moments like Haggi and
399. 16:42Zechariah that actually the thing that
400. 16:45he's graced me to do is actually the
401. 16:48thing that kickstarts other people's
402. 16:51hard skills and allows them to do what
403. 16:53God's called them to do. And I know it
404. 16:56may seem odd to you that I would get
405. 16:58discouraged. You may be listening to me
406. 17:01like, "No way. He's just saying that."
407. 17:03Well, no, no, no. I really, seriously,
408. 17:06there's a lot of times where I'm like,
409. 17:08"Man, I just wish I had other things to
410. 17:10offer. Like, all I really do is like
411. 17:15talk. Like, that's it." But isn't it
412. 17:18crazy how the one thing that God's asked
413. 17:21me to do actually kicks like kickstarts
414. 17:25a domino effect of all these other
415. 17:27people who have all these other amazing
416. 17:29gifts. So if you're out there and you
417. 17:31have the gift to preach and teach and
418. 17:32communicate, please don't let anybody
419. 17:35look down on you and don't look down on
420. 17:37yourself. When God's people were stuck
421. 17:40and had no progress, he could have sent
422. 17:43politicians. He could have sent a
423. 17:44construction crew. He could have sent an
424. 17:46army. But he sent two preachers to
425. 17:48prophesy named Hagi and Zechariah. All
426. 17:51right. Next, the people are going to
427. 17:53celebrate Passover. And I want you to
428. 17:55see Passover is going to bookend the
429. 17:59Exodus and the exile. Why are they
430. 18:01celebrating Passover? Well, because this
431. 18:03is a new Exodus. And the same way that
432. 18:06they celebrated Passover when they left
433. 18:08captivity of Egypt to go to the promised
434. 18:10land, they are now celebrating Passover
435. 18:12again as they've left the captivity of
436. 18:15the Persian Empire to come back to the
437. 18:17promised land. Next nerdy nugget in
438. 18:19terms of timeline. Let me just go back a
439. 18:22second. Haggi and Zechariah are
440. 18:23prophesying because the work has stopped
441. 18:25for 16 years. Now, if you need a
442. 18:27refresher on Haggi and Zechariah, just
443. 18:31literally they've we've already covered
444. 18:33them on this Bible reading plan. Go find
445. 18:35the books. Go find the podcast
446. 18:38recordings from Haggi and Zechariah. One
447. 18:40of my favorite lines from Haggi and
448. 18:43Zechariah is that the people keep saying
449. 18:46to their leaders, "We're poor. We're
450. 18:48poor. We can't build God's temple
451. 18:50because we're poor. We can't build God's
452. 18:52house. We don't have the resources." And
453. 18:54one of the things that Haggi and
454. 18:56Zechariah both make very clear is, "No,
455. 18:59no, no. You've got it twisted. It's not
456. 19:01that you're poor and that's why you
457. 19:03can't build God's temple. You haven't
458. 19:05built God's temple. That's why you're
459. 19:07poor." And can I tell you something? As
460. 19:09somebody whose mom was on welfare, as
461. 19:13someone whose mom started tithing off of
462. 19:15her welfare check, man, I watched my mom
463. 19:18prioritize God's house. And as my mom
464. 19:21prioritized God's house, guess what God
465. 19:23did? God used that house to bless her
466. 19:26son with a job and ministry. So, it's
467. 19:29not that we're poor, we can't build
468. 19:31God's house. No, no, no, no, no. A
469. 19:33refusal to build God's house will keep
470. 19:35you poor. And my family broke poverty,
471. 19:37the curse of poverty in one generation
472. 19:40because my mom was tithing off of her
473. 19:42disability check and off of her welfare
474. 19:44check. I know it's natural to assume I'm
475. 19:48poor. I can't prioritize God's house.
476. 19:50Well, my mom was poor. We're actually
477. 19:52launching, you know, a a top givers
478. 19:55group at the garden. That's the church
479. 19:56that we're planting right now. That top
480. 19:58givers group is going to be called the
481. 19:59vineyard. And somebody asked me, is
482. 20:01there a certain amount of money that I
483. 20:02need to give in order to be a part of
484. 20:04that group? And I said, no, actually, I
485. 20:05I don't like a culture of you have to
486. 20:08give a certain dollar amount because
487. 20:10I've got a friend uh in Atlanta. I've
488. 20:12preached for him a bunch of times. Uh
489. 20:14his name is Pastor Michael Turner. He's
490. 20:16a amazing guy. He tells a story about
491. 20:19his mom. His mom was a single mom and
492. 20:22she was a top giver at the church, but
493. 20:24she was a waitress at a restaurant. And
494. 20:26all she did in order to become a a top
495. 20:29giver was she tithed off of her paycheck
496. 20:32and offer her tips. But on the weekends,
497. 20:34she decided all the tips that she made
498. 20:37on Friday and Saturday would go to God's
499. 20:40house. So, she became a top giver not
500. 20:42because of equal gifts, but because of
501. 20:45equal sacrifice. God's never asking,
502. 20:48well, if you you if you give $25,000,
503. 20:51you can be a part of this group in
504. 20:52church. And no knock on churches who do
505. 20:55it that way, but we've just decided at
506. 20:57the garden, we're going to do it in a
507. 20:58way that anyone from any socioeconomic
508. 21:01background could be a part of the
509. 21:03vineyard cuz it's not about giving a
510. 21:05certain dollar amount. It's about going
511. 21:07above and beyond the 10%. If you're
512. 21:10willing to go above and beyond the 10%,
513. 21:12I don't care if you are a waitress at a
514. 21:15restaurant or if you manage a brokerage
515. 21:18account at a at a stock exchange. I
516. 21:20don't care what you do. To me, it's the
517. 21:23sacrifice that matters, not the dollar
518. 21:25amount. All right, last couple nerdy
519. 21:27nuggets. Question. Anyone notice how
520. 21:30Ezra has not yet been mentioned? EZRA IS
521. 21:33NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. WELL, we're going
522. 21:34to get introduced to Ezra tomorrow in
523. 21:37chapter 7. Okay? because this entire
524. 21:39first wave is all about Zerubbable and
525. 21:42Zerubbable's uh mission to rebuild the
526. 21:46temple. Tomorrow we're going to get into
527. 21:49the next section and I want you to
528. 21:51remember Ezra and Nehemiah are all one
529. 21:53book. Okay. So, tomorrow we're going to
530. 21:56get into the section of Ezra 7:10, which
531. 22:00is going to really focus on the third
532. 22:02wave of returnees to Jerusalem led by
533. 22:06Ezra. And then after that, the day after
534. 22:10tomorrow, we'll start with Nehemiah. And
535. 22:13Nehemiah chapters 1-7 will all be about
536. 22:16a third wave of the exiles coming back
537. 22:19home. Remember, there were three waves
538. 22:22of deportation. 605 BC, 597 BC, and 586
539. 22:27BC. Five waves of exile. I mean, sorry,
540. 22:32three waves of exile. Okay, three waves
541. 22:35of exile. 605 BC, 597 BC, and 586 BC.
542. 22:41Three waves of exile. Therefore, there's
543. 22:43going to be three waves of return. Those
544. 22:46returns are going to be with Zerubbabel,
545. 22:48with Ezra, and with Nehemiah. And not
546. 22:50only do the people need to return, but
547. 22:52they need to rebuild and they need to
548. 22:54repent. So tomorrow the focus is not
549. 22:58going to be on rebuilding. The temple is
550. 23:00going to get rebuilt in the reading that
551. 23:02we've covered today. And the the focus
552. 23:05tomorrow is going to be on Torah
553. 23:07obedience. Ezra is going to lead a
554. 23:11spiritual awakening. Now, last thing
555. 23:14I'll say before we wrap up today,
556. 23:17family, the wait is over. for my brand
557. 23:20new book, Crushing [music] Chaos, is out
558. 23:23now and available everywhere books
559. 23:25[music] are sold literally today. I
560. 23:28walked into a Barnes & Noble and I
561. 23:31signed a bunch of copies at a physical
562. 23:33location. So, you can grab this book
563. 23:35[music]
564. 23:36at a physical Barnes & Noble or you can
565. 23:38go to a Books a Million or Amazon or
566. 23:41anywhere books are sold and grab a copy.
567. 23:44If you enjoy reading the Bible from an
568. 23:47ancient perspective, if you understand
569. 23:49that the beauty of scripture is actually
570. 23:51knowing it in context, then you'll love
571. 23:54this book. And if there's any chaos in
572. 23:57your personal life, I think that reading
573. 24:00the Bible from an ancient perspective
574. 24:02can actually help to crush the [music]
575. 24:03chaos in your life. I think this book is
576. 24:06going to be a New York Times bestseller.
577. 24:07I really do. I think we wrote a good
578. 24:10one. I think you should get a copy
579. 24:12today. All right, back to the episode.
580. 24:15This is honestly a little bit of
581. 24:16context, but I knew that if I started
582. 24:18with it, it would take too long. So, I
583. 24:20wanted to get through all the nerdy
584. 24:21nuggets first. And now I'll give you
585. 24:22context. Okay, Ezra 1-6, Ezra 7-10, and
586. 24:26Nehemiah 1-7 all follow the same format,
587. 24:29and it's a four-part format. Okay, each
588. 24:33of these sections are going to start
589. 24:35with a king making a decree. So, in Ezra
590. 24:381-6, it's Cyrus who commissions the
591. 24:40rebuilding of the temple. In Ezra 7-10,
592. 24:43it's Artis Xerxes who commisss Ezra to
593. 24:45establish the law of God. And then in
594. 24:47Nehemiah 1-7, it's Artis Xerxes who
595. 24:49grants Nehemiah permission to rebuild
596. 24:52Jerusalem. Okay. Second, the returned
597. 24:55Israelites are going to face opposition.
598. 24:57That's the second thing that's going to
599. 24:58happen in the pattern. Okay? Whether
600. 25:00it's the enemies of Judah, whether it's
601. 25:02Ezra discovering that there are mixed
602. 25:04marriages in Ezra 9, or whether it's San
603. 25:06Balot and Tobaya who opposed the
604. 25:08rebuilding of the wall in Nehemiah
605. 25:10chapters 2 through six. Third is that
606. 25:13the returnees, the returned Israelites
607. 25:16are going to have to overcome that
608. 25:18opposition. Okay? And then fourth, this
609. 25:22one is tough. We're going to get an
610. 25:25anticlimactic resolution. an
611. 25:28anticlimactic resolution. So for today
612. 25:31in Ezra 1-6, we're going to get a mixed
613. 25:34response to the temple. Some people are
614. 25:36going to be happy that the temple is
615. 25:37built and some people are going to weep
616. 25:40that the temple is built because you may
617. 25:42already realize this. When the temple of
618. 25:46Solomon was built, the fire from heaven
619. 25:48came and filled it. When the tabernacle
620. 25:50of Moses was built, the fire of heaven
621. 25:53came and filled it. the smoke came and
622. 25:56filled the cloud of the pillar of cloud
623. 25:59like literally I mean the priests
624. 26:02couldn't even do their jobs and so
625. 26:04Zerubbable is going to build this temple
626. 26:06and no glory is going to enter it until
627. 26:09a couple named Mary and Joseph bring
628. 26:12baby Jesus to Zerubbable's temple in
629. 26:15Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In the
630. 26:18opening chapters of the Bible, baby
631. 26:19Jesus is going to get brought to the
632. 26:21temple. Remember Simeon and Anna?
633. 26:24They're a prophet and prophetist. They
634. 26:26can't believe that the king has now come
635. 26:28to the temple. And so the glory is not
636. 26:31going to come in the form of fire or
637. 26:34smoke, but the glory is going to come in
638. 26:36the form of God incarnate in the person
639. 26:39of Jesus. And so when you get to the end
640. 26:43of today's reading, which is the end of
641. 26:45just one section, you should go like,
642. 26:48"Okay, I'm so glad they overcame the
643. 26:49opposition." Man, that response was
644. 26:52lackluster. And this is why in Zechariah
645. 26:55uh and in Haggi the prophets are going
646. 26:57to be saying to Zerubbables not by power
647. 27:00nor by might but by my spirit says the
648. 27:02Lord God. Zerubbable I mean sorry
649. 27:04Zechariah and Haggi are also going to
650. 27:06say do not despise a day of small
651. 27:08beginnings. Why? Because there's people
652. 27:10in the crowd weeping that the temple has
653. 27:12been constructed. And they're weeping
654. 27:15because the temple looks kind of puny in
655. 27:20relation to what they knew as a previous
656. 27:23temple 70 years prior. Which leads us
657. 27:26seamlessly into our timeless truths for
658. 27:28the day. Do not despise the day of small
659. 27:31beginnings. How encouraging. Of course,
660. 27:33Haggi and Zechariah would say that to
661. 27:35Zerubbable. Hey man, you ran your race.
662. 27:38You did your job. There was an
663. 27:39assignment that God had for you which
664. 27:41was to rebuild the temple. And at some
665. 27:43point, you've got to ask yourself the
666. 27:45question, do you want applause from
667. 27:47heaven or do you want applause from
668. 27:48people? Because if you want applause
669. 27:50from people, then you're going to get
670. 27:51real discouraged. You're going to be
671. 27:54you're going to despise the day of small
672. 27:55beginnings. But I promise you that the
673. 27:59temple of Solomon in the tabernacle of
674. 28:01Moses are going to encounter something
675. 28:03are that your temples the rubbable is
676. 28:06going to encounter something or
677. 28:07experience something that these better
678. 28:10temples or bigger temples never
679. 28:12experience and that's that Jesus at the
680. 28:14age of 8 days old and 12 and 33 are
681. 28:19going to walk through the halls and walk
682. 28:22through the stones that you've laid
683. 28:24down. Jesus, the King of Kings and the
684. 28:27Lord of Lords, is actually going to walk
685. 28:28through Zerubbable's temple, not
686. 28:30Solomon's temple, and not Moses'
687. 28:32tabernacle. And that that'll make me
688. 28:35want to not despise the day of small
689. 28:37beginnings. There's this I call this the
690. 28:39Mandela effect. Well, not I. Everybody
691. 28:41calls it the Mandela effect. Uh you can
692. 28:43Google Mandela effect if you don't know
693. 28:45what I'm talking about. There's kind of
694. 28:46low-key conspiracy theories of like
695. 28:48communal false memories. these things
696. 28:50that we all think happened at some
697. 28:53point, but they actually didn't. Like
698. 28:55the spelling of Baronstein bears or the
699. 28:57spelling of Chick-fil-A or whether or
700. 28:58not there was a cornicopia of fruit uh
701. 29:01for the fruit of the loom logo. Anyway,
702. 29:04one of these Mandela effects is from the
703. 29:06Field of Dreams. And everybody thinks
704. 29:08that the line from that movie is if you
705. 29:10build it, they will come. But actually,
706. 29:12if you go watch that movie, the line is
707. 29:14if you build it, he will come. And man,
708. 29:17if I could go back in time and say
709. 29:19something to Zerubbable, that's what I
710. 29:20would say, sir. If you build it, he will
711. 29:23come. We don't build it so that people
712. 29:25would be happy. We don't build so that
713. 29:27people would applaud. We build so that
714. 29:30God can say, "Well done, my good and
715. 29:32faithful servant." So, if you're in
716. 29:34ministry, if you're rebuilding your life
717. 29:36or whatever your season is right now,
718. 29:38maybe your season is marked by
719. 29:40rebuilding and resistance. I would say
720. 29:42the same words that Zechariah and Hagi
721. 29:44said to Zerubbable. Don't despise a day
722. 29:45of small beginnings. Maybe, just maybe.
723. 29:48If you remain faithful, then heaven will
724. 29:51applaud your work. Maybe not people, but
725. 29:55definitely heaven. That's the goal. And
726. 29:57that's not just true for Zerubbable,
727. 29:59Haggi, Ezra, Zechariah. That's true for
728. 30:02you, and that's true for me. I love you
729. 30:04guys. I'm so proud of you. Especially if
730. 30:06you're on a streak. Tomorrow we're going
731. 30:08to finish up the book of Ezra. We got
732. 30:10day 3:41 here, the Bible department
733. 30:13podcast, Ezra 7 through10. It's going to
734. 30:15be fantastic. And then we got Nehemiah.
735. 30:18I can't wait. I'll see you tomorrow.
736. 30:19Love you. Peace. Thanks so much for
737. 30:22joining us on the Bible podcast. If this
738. 30:25episode was helpful, how about you leave
739. 30:27a comment, share with a friend, and
740. 30:29subscribe so that you never miss an
741. 30:31episode. To learn more about the show,
742. 30:33head to the bible department.com. We'll
743. 30:36see you right back here tomorrow.