1 God, 2 prophets, 3 kings

And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia; and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

Ezra 6:14-15

Through the hard work of God’s people, the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt. God orchestrated this task by using two prophets to keep the spiritual priorities of His people in line. God sovereignly decreed the temple to be rebuilt by moving the hearts of three pagan kings to resource the project. So after seventy years of brokenness and neglect, the temple of the Lord was restored. This was significant. This was the first real sign that the exile was ending. Jews would return home to worship God in His temple again.

I am reminded of how God works. It helps me understand how to pray for my times, in a generation of faith that seems now to be in a kind of antagonistic cultural exile. Christian voices are moving to the margin. But it is not the end. For the Jews to come out of Babylon by the decree of Persia in order to rebuild their live this order of events had to happen: One God spoke through two prophets and moved three kings to fulfill His sovereign plan. Obedience to God’s sovereignty + obedience to His revelation + obedience to divinely moved secular authority = achievement.

Jewish leaders like Ezra and later Nehemiah had to obey the call of God. Returning exiles had to make the first priority the rebuilding of the temple, then move on to prioritize the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. God brought His prophets to them to encourage, motivate, and even rebuke them about this obedience to His sovereign decree. God moved even the most pagan Persian kings to resource and support this work so that His promise to Israel could still be fulfilled. Nothing will stand in the way of a sovereign God’s decree. And today that decree is to make disciples of Jesus among the nations of this world, teaching them to obey all His commands. Jesus is similarly sovereign so that His will prospers. We must similarly obey. I will trust that God does still work like this!