a. Help comes even from the most unexpected
Prophet Jeremiah had prophesied that the Israelites would stay in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-14, 32:36-38).
v1 After Cyrus king of Persi conquered Babylon, God moved [stirred, put in motion] his heart.
**This was in order to fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah *** For no word returns to God without being fulfilled – Isaiah 55:11***
After his heart was moved, he made a proclamation [verbally ad in writing] and said,
v2 “The Lord, the God of heaven…….has appointed/charged me to build a House t Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”
***There after he welcomed all the captives [set them free] who wanted to go bak home and hep in rebuilding the Temple [**The temple is precious to God**]
b. God moves all peoples hearts for unity of purpose – ‘His temple’
v5 The family heads, the priests and Levites – everyone whose heart God had moved –prepared to go up and build God’s house.
- People give freely – silver, gold, cattle, and freewill offering for God’s house (v4).
- Everything that had been stolen / lost is returned (v7) – King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem.
- God’s hand is upon his people
Ezra 7:6 – King Artaxerxes granted Ezra all that he requested because the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
v9 Ezra reached Jerusalem because the good hand of his God was upon him.
Ezra 8:31 – God’s hand was upon them, and delivered them from the hand of the enemy and ambushes along the way.
***God’s hand was behind all these events for the sake of His Temple*** Despite the opposition that was there in Chapter 4.
In His time, God makes all things beautiful – Ecclesiastes 3:11
