Message of the Week

The Little White Community Church

Scripture: Ezra 1: 1-11     April 27, 2025

Message: “Cyrus the Great!”

by Pastor George Gnade

Introduction:

1.As most of you know, my goal has been to teach you truths from all the books of the Bible. Today we will begin a new series on the Book of Ezra.

a. Ezra wrote this book to explain what happened to the Jewish people after they spent 70 yr. in captivity in Babylon.

b. He begins by telling us about Cyrus the Great and how he helped them (Ezra 1: 1-4).

2. Cyrus was one of the greatest kings  of the Persian Empire. If you are familiar with the historical setting, the Medes and the Persians conquered Babylon. But the Persians were the more powerful of the two.

a. Belshazzar was the last king of Babylon. He had put on a feast in which he dishonored the true God by using the gold and silver vessels from the temple of the Lord that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken when he defeated the Jews and took them into captivity.

b. He was enjoying his ungodly feast when a hand appeared and wrote a message on the wall that no one could interpret but Daniel (Daniel 5).

c. He told the king that God had weighed his actions on His scale of justice and found him wanting. That very night his kingdom would fall. 

3. Many believe Darius the Mede led the attack and conquered Babylon, just as Daniel had predicted. Upon hearing what happened, he chose to put Daniel at the head of his new government.

a. It did not take long to hear other stories as well such as how Daniel survived the lion’s den. It did not take long to hear and learn all about Daniel’s God.

b. I believe that Darius in turn passed this knowledge on to Cyrus the Great, who was ruling over him.

4. This is the most logical way to explain his decrees and actions in behalf of the Jews.

A. Let us begin by considering his decree that all the Jewish people would be allowed to return to their own land.

1. Since the prophets had predicted it, Cyrus believed it (Is. 44:28, Jer. 25:12. Dan. 9). In vs.2 he said: “The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.”

a. No heathen gods were called “the Lord God of heaven” except the true God. He believed this God “had appointed him” to build a new temple for Him in Jerusalem. Then he explains how that was going to happen.

b. In vs. 3, he went on to say: “Any of His people among you – may His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.”

2. Please notice how much he knew. Notice his primary concern was to please the God of the Jews. Why would he bother to build a temple for the Lord unless he was afraid of this God of heaven who could predict how nations would rise and fall?

a. Since God appointed him to his position of power, then this same God could take it from him.

b. It reminds me of how God used Moses to defeat the Egyptians and how the knowledge of this spread all the way to Jericho where Rahab said the people were all scared of Israel’s God (Joshua 2). Of course, that is why she helped the spies to escape.

c. In a similar way, Cyrus had heard so much about the God of the Jews that he was eager to help the Israelites to return to their own land.

3. In faith, he believed the prophecies made by Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel, and in faith he believed that God had chosen and appointed him to send His people back to their own land and to help them to rebuild His temple. How else would he have known “God appointed him?”

4. It reminds me of Pres. Trump who was shot in the ear. He knows he could have died, but he believes the Lord spared him and appointed him to become our next president. Now we need to pray God will help him.

B. Secondly, notice how Cyrus the Great provided for the building of God’s new temple.

1. All the neighbors of the Jews who wanted to return to their own land were commanded “to give them gold and silver with goods and livestock and with free will offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem” (Vs. 4).

a. He realized he had to help the Jews return if he was also going to assist them in rebuilding their temple.

b. This story reminds me of Moses and the people of Israel as they prepared to leave Egypt.  They were slaves who had very little. But after the ten plagues, the Egyp-tians were so scared of the God of the Jews that they voluntarily gave the Israelites all kinds of silver and gold and livestock etc. to encourage them to leave. 

2. And now, in our passage of scripture, after the Jews spent 70 years in captivity, the same thing happened all over again. God “supplied all of their needs according to His riches in glory” (Phil. 4:19). 

3. After Moses led the people out of Egypt, do you remember what happened next? 

a. On Mt. Sinai, as part of the laws that God gave them, He also commanded them to build a tabernacle so the people could worship Him wherever they went. And all the gifts they received before leaving Egypt made it possible for the people to build this place of worship.

b. So it was as the Jews returned to their own land after the exile. God expected them to use the gifts they received to build Him a new temple. And Cyrus the great made sure the people understood that and that is what they were told to do (Ezra 1:4).

In conclusion:

1. Aren’t there a lot of truths that we should learn from this passage?

a. In the ten commandments (Ex. 20), the very first one was to put no other gods ahead of our God. In fact, in Deut. 6:4-5, they were commanded to “love the Lord their God with all their hearts.” And in vs. 11, it says: “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”

b. In our day, the church of Jesus Christ is the temple of the Lord. And worshipping Him in His temple is very important to the Lord. And sharing what He gives us so the work of the Lord may go on is equally important.

2. In our culture, worship is down played and giving to the Lord is often last on our list instead of first. Many have become lovers of pleasure. And pleasure is often more important to Christians than our desire to worship and love the Lord (II Tim. 3:1-5). 

3. In Haggai chapters 1 &3, the prophet had to scold the people for putting their own houses first and God’s house last. Yes, they made the same mistakes that we often make. 

4. How strange that, in Ezra 1:1-11, we should learn how a heathen king knew and did what God expected of him while God’s own people fell so far short.

5. May God help us not to make the same mistakes.