“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ““ ‘The Lord, the 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.”
~ Ezra 1:2
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you know a guy or kid whose name is Sheshbazzar? Ezra knew a Sheshbazzar. Ezra called Sheshbazzar a prince. Ezra lived over 2500 years ago. Ezra was from the Israelite people group. Ezra’s name means help. Ezra was a well-known scribe and priest. Scribes copied what other guys – like Moses, had written. Scribes and priests were from the Levi tribal clan. Levi was one of Jacob’s sons. Jacob had his name changed by God to Israel. Because of a famine, Israel ended up about 3850 years ago relocating his family in Egypt. God had Moses about 400 years later lead Israel’s sons’ extended families out of Egypt – where they were being used as slaves, back to the land that He had promised their patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that they would always have as their very own land to live in if . . . it took God’s specially chosen guys and gals about 800 years to make such a mess out of living in the land that God had given to them to always to have as their very own land to live in if . . . that God had to send enemy armies into the land to overrun the land and to take away as captive slaves God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids. The chronicler – at the end of his historical report on the years that God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids lived in the land that God had given to them to always to have as their very own land to live in if . . . and then how the land was taken away from them, reports almost the same things that Ezra does when Ezra begins his report in Ezra 1 of God’s specially chosen guys and gals resettling Jerusalem. About the time that God had His specially chosen guys and gals taken away to be captive slaves by the Babylonian army, God had a prophet – Jeremiah, tell His specially chosen guys and gals that they would be returning to the land He had given to them to always to have as their very own. God – through Jeremiah, told His specially chosen guys and gals that they would have to live as captive slaves in Babylonia for 70 years before He would allow them to return to the land that He had promised them would always be their land. Do you know how God’s continuously unfolding perfect plan works? Even though your grandmaa and grandpaa know that they are living in God’s continuously unfolding perfect plan; they cannot begin to explain how God’s continuously unfolding perfect plan works.
Every guy, gal and kid who has ever lived, is presently living and will live on planet Earth will live in God’s continuously unfolding perfect plan that He has for every moment and movement of His creation. Your grandpaa is sure that you will hear a guy or gal someday say that a guy, gal or kid is not living in God’s perfect will. Before God created planet Earth, God knew what was going to take place every nanosecond of every day on planet Earth. God always knows what you are going to do, what you are going to say and what you are going to think. There is an order in everything that God has done, is doing and will do. God said that His specially chosen guys and gals would return in 70 years to the land He had given to them about 800 years earlier – and that is precisely what happened. God’s preordained plan was for the army of a county called Persia to defeat the Babylonian army. After the Persia army conquered Babylonia, Cyrus – Persia’s king, had God impress on him to tell His specially chosen guys and gals that they could return to their land. Cyrus was called by Isaiah the Lord’s ‘shepherd’ or the Lord’s ‘anointed’. Cyrus was not a true believer in God but . . . God employed every guy, gal and kid who lived on planet Earth, is employing every guy, gal and kid who is presently living on planet Earth and will employ every guy, gal and kid who will live on planet Earth to play a role in His continuously unfolding perfect plan. Even though Cyrus would help other countries that worshipped inanimate idols made from wood, stone and metal to return to their countries with their idol gods, Ezra – in verse 2, reports what Cyrus said ‘“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ““ ‘The Lord, the 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.” It is apparent that it was very important to Cyrus that guys, gals and kids everywhere on planet Earth had the freedom to worship the god or gods who they wanted to worship.
2539 years after Cyrus had Sheshbazzar return to Jerusalem with 5,400 articles of gold and silver which were to be used in the rebuilding of God’s temple in Jerusalem, there are countries today that do not have the freedom to worship the one true God. How would you like to be told that you cannot worship the one true God? You can attend a church in your country to worship the one true God. God sometimes teaches His specially elected guys, gals and kids to know Him by taking away from them the freedom to worship Him. God did this when He had His specially chosen guys and gals captured by Assyrian and Babylonian armies. Even though not every guy, gal and kid returned to the land that God had given to His specially chosen guys and gals, it still must have been a very special blessing for Sheshbazzar to lead a group of God’s specially chosen exiled guys, gals and kids home to Jerusalem. It took Sheshbazzar and the guys, gals and kids who were with him about four months to make the long walk from where they lived in Babylon to Jerusalem. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are really glad that they are in God’s continuously unfolding perfect plan for their lives. Your grandmaa and grandpaa wish that they were living a whole lot closer to you but they know that if they were, they would miss all the reward blessings that they are receiving from God as they help to build His church here in Guatemala. Sheshbazzar got to be the guy who got to take things to Jerusalem so that God could be worshipped in Jerusalem again. What do you hope that God will have you do for His sake?
Ezra 1 (162)