Scripture Daily

Context No. 2211 of 4322 · Ezra

Context · Reflection

Ezra 6:13-22: in context

13Then Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and their companions did accordingly with all diligence, because Darius the king had sent a decree. 14The elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. 16The children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy. 17They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18They set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God which is at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses. 19The children of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 20Because the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together, all of them were pure. They killed the Passover for all the children of the captivity, for their brothers the priests, and for themselves. 21The children of Israel who had returned out of the captivity, and all who had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel, ate, 22and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; because the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of God, the God of Israel’s house.

After years of opposition and delay, the temple in Jerusalem is finally finished and dedicated with joy. The returned exiles keep the Passover and the feast with gladness. And the account gives the reason for their joy and their success: the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Persia toward them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God. The rebuilding prospered not merely because of their effort or the king's goodwill, but because God had turned the king's heart to help them.

The striking phrase is that God turned the heart of the king toward his people. The Jews were a small, subject people, dependent on the goodwill of foreign kings for permission and support to rebuild. And that goodwill, the account says, was God's doing: he turned the king's heart to help them, to strengthen their hands in the work. The king may have thought he acted on his own judgment; but behind his decision was God, turning his heart. God moved the ruler, even a pagan ruler outside his people, to accomplish his purposes and help his own. This reveals God's sovereignty over the hearts of rulers and those in authority. We can feel that our situation depends on the decisions of people over whom we have no control, rulers, employers, authorities, whose goodwill or hostility can make or break us, and who seem entirely beyond our reach. And so they are, beyond our reach; but they are not beyond God's. The king's heart, the proverb says, is a stream of water in the LORD's hand; he turns it wherever he will. God can move the hearts of those in authority, turning them toward his purposes and toward his people, even when they do not know it is he who moves them. This gives us confidence when our situation seems to depend on the decisions of those beyond our control. We need not despair as though everything rested on the unpredictable goodwill of those in authority, for God is over their hearts, able to turn them as he turned the heart of the king toward the exiles. When the future seems to hang on the decision of some authority beyond our influence, we may pray, and trust that God can move that heart, as he moved Cyrus's spirit to send the exiles home, and the king's heart to strengthen their hands in the work. This calls us to trust God's sovereignty over the hearts of those in authority. The rebuilding prospered because God turned the king's heart; and when our own situation seems to depend on the decisions of rulers, employers, or authorities beyond our control, we may trust the God who holds their hearts in his hand, able to turn them toward his purposes and his people, and bring them to help us as he brought the king to strengthen the hands of the exiles in the work of God.

When my situation seems to depend on the decisions of rulers, employers, or authorities beyond my control, do I despair as though everything rested on their unpredictable goodwill, or can the rebuilding of the temple, which prospered because God turned the king's heart to strengthen their hands, assure me that God holds the hearts of those in authority in his hand and can turn them toward his purposes and his people, so that I trust his sovereignty over those beyond my reach and pray to the God who moves even kings' hearts?

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