Study the Word

Guest (Male): An important reminder we ought not forget, that's coming up next on Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller.

Most of our traditions are fun, but merely faint reminders of more important truths. We ought not forget. One such tradition is the pardoning by the president of a turkey. Though somewhat vague, it reminds us of the freedom from tyranny we enjoy today.

Well, on today's Study the Word, we'll be reminded from history of the captivity of God's people and subsequent freedom. Before we get into that scripture, Pastor Thom Keller gives a general overview of the Old and New Testaments and what ties them together. We'll meet you in Ezra chapter one.

Pastor Thom Keller: Today's lesson is going to focus on the word captivity. It was six weeks shy of their 20th wedding anniversary when Bernice, in the middle of the night, heard her husband's loud cries coming from downstairs. Bernice walked downstairs and found her husband sobbing and said rather coldly to him, "What has you upset now?"

Her husband replied, "Do you remember when we were 15 and I was 18, and your father found out that we were pregnant? He said that if I don't marry you, that I would spend the next 20 years of my life in prison." "Yes, I remember. So why are you crying?" "I would have gotten out today."

Bernice's husband felt that he was held in captivity for 20 years, but the captivity we're going to see today was light years beyond what Bernice's husband and Bernice experienced. In fact, it lasted for 70 years. We're in the book of Ezra. As you're looking that up, we want to give a little background on Ezra.

We're back in the Old Testament. We worked our way from Genesis all the way up through Second Kings, and we saw the history of the Israelites all the way up until their captivity. The last chapter in Second Kings that we studied over a year ago, Israel and Judah—Judah in the end—was carried off by Babylon into captivity.

So now we're going to go back into the Old Testament. We need to get our minds back in. A lot of times people say that there's this disconnect between the Old and New. I know the Old Testament a little bit. I know the stories. I know David and Goliath. I know Genesis. I know the flood. I know Moses led the children of Israel. I know that David was king, and after David there were a bunch of other kings. But then it just kind of ends, and then Jesus shows up.

What's this connection? What's the connection between the Old and New? Well, in the New Testament, there are four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And they basically cover a period of three years. They talk about his birth, but for the most part, the four Gospels are about three years of his life.

Then beyond the Gospels, we have from Acts to the book of Revelation. And those cover a period really of about 70 years, roughly 70 years from the time of Jesus's ministry beginning until the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation, which is probably the last book. So that's the New Testament.

But what we do not find in the New Testament is the cause and effect of obedience and the cause and effect of disobedience like we find in the Old. The beauty of the Old is you can look at a family, you can look at a man, you can look at a woman and see that her obedience or her disobedience played out through succeeding generations.

You get none of that in the New Testament because that 70-year period covers one generation, basically. But in the Old, it's so rich in the lessons that we learn from generation to generation. And for many, as I said, there's this disconnect. Today, we'd like to get rid of that disconnect.

We'd like you to see that there are historical accounts that connect the Old Testament to the New. And I hope that after today, you'll be able to see that the end of the Old Testament flows really right into the New. The Old Testament covers the period from the creation of the world and Adam and Eve's fall in the garden and adding 4,000 years to that up to the time of Christ—almost exactly 4,000 years, actually.

Except for the 400 years, the silent years they're called, the 400 years right before Jesus came, there's a historical account of Israel throughout that period. The Old Testament begins with Genesis where you know some of the things in Genesis: Adam and Eve, their fall, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Joseph, Jacob's son.

Joseph then goes into Egypt. You remember the story, his sons sell him into slavery, and he goes into Egypt. There's a famine in the land, and as a result, Joseph brings his father and his brothers back—75 people in all. And that ends the book of Genesis. Then the next book is Exodus.

And the Exodus is the story of 430 years later when Moses leads the children of Israel out of Egypt. The place where Joseph brought his family, Moses now leads them out because they had become so populated. There were so many Jews, they were so fertile, that they were a threat to the Egyptians. And so they enslaved them to keep them under so that they wouldn't rise up against them.

And out of that slavery, God delivered the children of Israel using Moses to do that. And so those books are about Moses's journey: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And then the next book that comes after that is the book of Joshua. And Joshua's the leader, the understudy of Moses who actually leads them into the promised land.

And Joshua's a man of God, a steady hand at the helm of Israel. And then after Joshua comes Judges, a very dark time. Probably the darkest time that Israel ever experienced where it says that there was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own mind. It was a dark, dark time.

After Judges, we have the little vignette of Ruth, which is during the time of the judges, showing that God is faithful to these two women. Then we go into First Samuel, which is the story of the prophet Samuel up to the first king, which was Saul. Second Samuel, Saul dies, David becomes king.

And then First and Second Kings, Solomon becomes king all the way up to Zedekiah. And what's kind of key in what we talk about this morning is that after Solomon died, the kingdom split into two kingdoms, a north and a south. Samaria in the north, Judah in the south, Israel and Judah, the north and the south.

The northern kingdom was conquered first by Assyria. The southern kingdom was conquered second by Babylon. During Solomon's reign and after, there was a moral slide in Israel that just continued until they were taken captive by Assyria and Babylon. It's almost depressing to read through the story of the kings after Solomon.

There are few little bright spots, but very few. And the country went darker and darker, deeper and deeper into apostasy, into worshipping foreign gods, into child sacrifice themselves. And God warned them if they did this. Through Moses, God warned the children of Israel that if you do this, there will be dire consequences.

Deuteronomy 28, this is what God said to Moses. If you disobey, "The Lord will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth." This happened. "And it will swoop down on you like a vulture. It is a nation whose language you do not understand." Moses wrote this 850 years before it happened.

"It is a nation whose language you do not understand, a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young. Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to death."

"They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land, the walls you trusted in to protect you, are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the Lord your God has given you. The siege and terrible distress of the enemy's attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you."

"The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, his surviving children. He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring, the flesh of one of his own children, because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all of your towns."

Did that happen? Did it? In Second Kings 25, the end of Second Kings, it says, "So in January 15, during the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city, built siege ramps against its walls. Jerusalem was kept under siege until the 11th year of King Zedekiah's reign."

By July 18th of the 11th year of Zedekiah's reign, the famine in the city became so severe and the last of the food was entirely gone. So it happened. It happened. They laid siege exactly what God threatened would happen through Moses 850 years earlier. And Second Chronicles is the book right in front of the book of Ezra.

And there is a chronological flow between what happens here in Second Kings where Judah was taken and Ezra. So if you would, turn your Bibles to Second Chronicles, which is the book right in front of Ezra, and look at Second Chronicles. We're going to read starting at verse 14, Second Chronicles 36, verse 14.

"All the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful. They followed the pagan practices of the surrounding nations, desecrating the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem." They put idols in the temple. They sacrificed to false idols in the temple, desecrating the temple.

"The Lord, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent his prophets to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and his temple. But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words. They scoffed at the prophets until the Lord's anger could no longer be restrained." And these are three of the saddest words in the whole Bible: "And there was no remedy."

"So the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them. The Babylonians killed Judah's young men, even chasing them into the temple. They had no pity on the people, killing both young and old, men and women, healthy and sick." This is exactly what was prophesied. God handed them over to Nebuchadnezzar.

"The king also took home to Babylon all the utensils large and small used in the temple of God and the treasures from both the Lord's temple and the royal palace. He also took with him all the royal princes. Then his army set fire to the temple of God, broke down the walls of Jerusalem, burned all the palaces, and completely destroyed everything of value."

"The few who survived were taken away to Babylon and they became servants of the king and his sons until the kingdom of Persia," which is Cyrus, "until the kingdom of Persia came to power. So the message of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate for 70 years, just as the prophet had said."

Then verse 22 says—and listen closely to this—"In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia," this is 538 BC, "the Lord fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecy by stirring the heart of Cyrus, King Cyrus, to put this proclamation into writing to send it throughout the kingdom. This is what the king of Persia says: 'The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build a temple at Jerusalem in the land of Judah. All of you who are the Lord's people may return to Israel for this task. May the Lord be with you.'"

Now we're going to go right into Ezra. Look at what it says in Ezra 1: "In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecy by stirring the heart of Cyrus to put this proclamation into the writing and to send it throughout his kingdom. This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: 'The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a temple at Jerusalem in the land of Judah.'"

Did you notice something? Exactly the same words. Word for word. The end of Second Chronicles, same as the beginning of Ezra. And what we learn from that is there's a chronological flow from the end of Second Chronicles right into Ezra. Now, the reason for this is that Chronicles and Ezra were originally one book because it was a historical account of Judah that just continued on.

Later, it was split into two separate books, but in the beginning, it was just one book, which made that flow a bit more obvious. Now in verse one, it speaks of this King of Persia, Cyrus. Let's first begin by looking at some of these kingdoms that are involved. And this is critical as we go on and look at the book of Ezra, that we have an understanding of this.

First, let's look—begin by looking at—the Assyrians. Assyria was founded prior to 2000 BC, but they only became the world power for about 300 years, lasting up until the time they were conquered by Babylon in 625 BC. The capital of the Assyrians was Nineveh. So Assyria conquered Samaria in the north, the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, and carried the people off into Assyria and dispersed them.

Their plan was so that there would not be these seditions and rebellions among ethnic people. When they conquered a land, they would split the people up. And if they took, say, a thousand people, they'd send 10 into this country, 10 into this country, 20 into this country, 40 into this country, 10 into this country, so that they would not ever get together as an ethnic group and create problems.

It was their way of dealing with this. Now again, that's critical as we go through this. You'll see why later on. But nearly a hundred years later in 625 BC, Babylon conquered Assyria. And in 606 BC, Nebuchadnezzar became the first king of Babylon. I did want to mention one more thing, that this Assyria, this Nineveh, was the same Nineveh that Jonah went to preach to.

So when you think about the Assyrians, when you think about Nineveh, remember that was where Jonah went. Again, Assyria conquered Israel in the north. Judah was still free. Assyria did not conquer Judah, only the north. In 606 though, Nebuchadnezzar became the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was the mightiest of all the Babylonian kings, and he reigned for 45 years.

He beautified the city of Babylon beyond description, the hanging gardens of Babylon. It was an incredible city. And under Nebuchadnezzar, they also dispersed people among foreign nations. They would take them and split them up for the same reason. And again, it's important to remember that.

The Assyrians did that, the Babylonians did that. It was Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who carried the southern kingdom into captivity, including Daniel and Ezekiel—the teenager Daniel and Ezekiel. In the book of Daniel, we discover that King Nebuchadnezzar took a great liking to Daniel.

This is the same Nebuchadnezzar that ordered that the statue of gold 90 feet tall be made and be worshipped. It's the same Nebuchadnezzar that when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow to that idol, they were thrown into the fiery furnace at the command of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.

It was the same Nebuchadnezzar who for seven years was deposed and went insane and ate grass like a cow eats grass for seven years as God said would happen to him because of his pride. And at the end of the seven years, he came back to his right mind and regained the kingdom of Babylon. It's that same Nebuchadnezzar that was king during the time that Daniel wrote much of his book and who was a favorite of his.

And this Babylonian Empire lasted exactly, exactly 70 years. And Judah was in captivity during these exact same 70 years. Now, this 70-year period in exile was prophesied by Jeremiah 61 years before it happened. Jeremiah the prophet says, "This is what the Lord says: You will be in Babylon for 70 years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I promised and bring you home again."

Jeremiah wrote this in 597 BC. It happened 61 years later. And who was it that conquered Babylon? Babylon was then conquered. Babylon had a 300-foot high wall all around it. That's 30 stories, folks. That wall went 35 feet down into the ground, so nobody could dig under it. It encompassed 60 miles, a 300-foot wall that ran 60 miles.

And they were conquered by Cyrus and the Persian Empire. And how did he do it? How do you take a city like that? It's a fascinating story. This is the historical account. A battle was fought a short distance from the city of Babylon in which the Babylonians were soundly defeated by the Persian King Cyrus, whereupon they withdrew into their city.

Here they shut themselves up, and they made light of his siege. They mocked it, they made fun of it, having laid in store provisions for many years in preparation against this attack. For when they saw Cyrus conquering nation after nation, the people of Babylon were convinced that he would never stop and that their turn would come at last.

Cyrus was now reduced to great perplexity. He didn't know what to do as time went on. Some made one suggestion, another another. Or possibly he thought of the plan himself. There is a river that enters the city. You can see that it's the Tigris that went right through the city of Babylon.

He would place an army with orders to march into the town by the bed of the stream as soon as the water became shallow enough. He then withdrew himself off with the unwarlike portion of his host. He went back to the backland to the Tigris. By a canal, he diverted the water into a basin, which was at that time a marsh, on which the river sank to such an extent that the natural stream became fordable.

He diverted the Tigris river. He had his soldiers dig a trench that would divert the water into a lower marsh area. And because the Tigris went down, he could march into the city through the bed of this stream. If you think about what size river it was he diverted, I think that was some formidable job.

The story continues and says, "Hereupon the Persian Cyrus entered the stream, which had now sunk to reach about up midway to a man's thigh, and thus he got into the town." Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus was about to do, or had they noticed their danger, they would never have allowed the Persians to enter the city but would have destroyed them utterly.

For they would have made fast all their street gates, which gave access to the river, and mounting upon the walls that were formed on either side of the river, they would have so caught Cyrus as it were in a trap. But it was the Persians came upon them by surprise and so took the city.

Owing to the vast size of the place, 60 miles around, the inhabitants of the central parts knew nothing about what had happened, but as they were engaged in a festival that day, they continued dancing and reveling until they learned about the capture. Such then were the circumstances of the taking of Babylon.

But Cyrus, who took power in 549 BC, their plan for dealing with conquered people was very different. As we said, Assyria dispersed the people. Babylon dispersed the people. Instead of dispersing the people, Persia allowed them to live in their own land, even sending people that had been displaced by Assyria and Babylon, even sending them back to their homeland.

George Hegel in his work *The Philosophy of History* says this, quote, "The Persian Empire is an empire consisting of a number of states which are indeed dependent, but which have retained their own individuality, their manners and their laws. The general enactments binding upon all did not infringe upon their political and social idiosyncrasies, but even protected and maintained them so that each of the nations that constitute the whole, each had its own form of constitution."

"The Persian Empire extends over a multitude of nations, but leaves to each one its own particular character. Some even have kings of their own, with each one having a distinct language, arms, ways of life, and customs, leaving each of them free. Thereby a stop is to be put to that barbarism and ferocity with which the nations had previously been subjected under the Assyrians and Babylonians."

So when we read Ezra 1:1 to 4, let's read that: "In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia"—this is the beginning of the book we're studying now. This is Ezra 1, the background. Cyrus's plan is to bring all peoples back to their homeland. "In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given through Jeremiah."

Guest (Male): Fascinating history and an important reminder Pastor Thom Keller has given us on Study the Word. When God warns us about something, we need to take heed because it will happen just like He said.

Well, there you have the first of many studies in our series in Ezra. We hope you can join us from start to finish. You can hear this message again by going online to CCLEB.com. Again, we're at CCLEB.com. There are many other messages for your growth and edification there too.

Or call and request a CD copy at 717-507-7862. That's 717-507-7862. Here in the month of November, we're pleased to offer you a book by D.L. Moody we think you'll benefit from. It's called *Your Victory in Jesus*. If you're a Christian, you have victory. And that victory was secured by Christ at the cross.

But the question that remains is, are you living in victory? Join D.L. Moody as he explores true victory and start to experience the overcoming life ruled by Christ instead of fear. For a gift of any amount, we'll send this your way with our thanks. So call today: 717-507-7862.

Or you can write to Study the Word: 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. You're invited to worship with us here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, where Thom serves as pastor. Visit CCLEB.com for our service times and see what's coming up at the church there too.

When you get a chance, download our free Android app. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play store. Next time on Study the Word, we'll pick up where we left off in Ezra chapter one with Pastor Thom Keller. We'll look for you then.