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The Greater Purpose
by
A T Jones
Part One
To be in God's church
(All the emphasis has been added by the Protestors)
This study is based around the return of the exiles from their captivity in literal Babylon in 537BC, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its walls through the efforts of Ezra, Zerubbabel and Joshua, and Nehemiah.
In the calling out of Babylon of old time there was a greater purpose than only that of their being out of Babylon. And so it is now. This was suggested in the instruction to "let Jerusalem come into your mind."
To be out of Babylon was great and is great; yet to be in God's purpose for Jerusalem, was then and is now far greater than that - even though that be the essential preliminary to this.
Jerusalem and the temple of God were to be rebuilt, and the pure worship of God as appointed was to be restored in the world for the blessing and salvation of the nations: and this to tell of the true, the heavenly, the spiritual Jerusalem and Temple and worship.
And so it is now: except that now it is the true, the heavenly, the spiritual itself that is to be restored and established forevermore.
And the lessons of the story of that other one, are for our admonition and instruction now. Hence this line of study upon which we now are entered is one of the greatest and deepest in all the Bible.
In that experience of old, the great mass of the people, even of those who came out of Babylon and to Jerusalem, never saw this greater purpose in what they were doing: and this because they did not study the Scriptures, and did not hearken even to the living prophets in their own day. Yet it was all in fulfillment of the Scriptures that they were out of Babylon and at Jerusalem at all. This much they could recognize and be thankful for; but the great purpose of all this, and the deeper and spiritual things of the Scriptures, they were willing not to know; and so were willing to drift along and back, and miss all.
And so it is now. Therefore we must study the Scriptures on this subject.
The return
The seventy years of captivity in Babylon expired 536 B. C., the first year of the reign of Cyrus the king of Media and Persia. A hundred and seventy-six years before this, Isaiah had written the word of the Lord "to Cyrus" that he should "let go my captives, not for price nor reward." Isaiah 45:1-13. And now Cyrus had come into the kingdom of the world. There he met Daniel, who brought to him this word of the Lord that had been written to him by name a hundred and fourteen years before he was born. Cyrus received this word as the word of God to him, believed in God, and issued his decree as follows:
"Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of Heaven and earth hath given to me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (He is the God), which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem." Ezra 1:2-4.
Under this decree nearly fifty thousand people went up to the place of the ruined Jerusalem, taking with them five thousand and four hundred of the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away to Babylon. Zerubbabel was governor, and Joshua the son of Josedech was the high priest.
On the first day of the seventh month an altar was erected, and the regular worship was begun: and about six months after that the foundation of the temple was laid. Ezra, Chapter 3.
The opposition
But Satan was against all of this, and was determined that it should not succeed; and immediately he started his campaign of opposition. In the land of the Ten Tribes that had been desolated one hundred and eighty-six years before, there were now the descendents of the heathen peoples who had been put into that emptied land by the kings of Assyria [these had become the Samaritans]. These people, seeing such a great number of people with more to follow come to rebuild Jerusalem, conceived the purpose to join with them and make Jerusalem a mighty fortress; and then when the time should be ripe, to revolt and set up a kingdom of their own, embracing Palestine and all the northern country west of the Euphrates.
And now when these "adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord, then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do, and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.
But Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us." Ezra 4:1-3.
Then these adversaries, seeing that their political scheme was not going to carry, revealed their real spirit and "weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia."
These hired counsellors and tribal officials had it in their power greatly to hinder the operations at Jerusalem. For the funds were supplied from the imperial treasury, and the requisitions for money and materials must pass the counsellors and officials at the capital. And among these were the very ones who were under the bribing pay of these adversaries up in the land of Samaria; who could readily hang up and in many ways indefinitely delay any requisition or other paper or document that had to do with affairs at Jerusalem.
How powerful this opposition was at the court and headquarters of the kingdom, is shown in the tenth chapter of Daniel.
The defense
Daniel was the chief subject in the kingdom. Daniel 6:2. He being in this position, and being supremely interested in the work at Jerusalem, could not help being strongly sensible of that grand system of intrigue and particular deviltry that was being carried on in the very court of which he was a part. But against it he could not employ bribery and trickery and counter-intrigue and other deviltry. He could do better: he could appeal to God. And so he says, "In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia,... I Daniel was mourning three full weeks."
When the "three whole weeks were fulfilled" the angel of the Lord came to him and said, "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days."
That tells that the power and the deceitful working of the bribed counsellors was so great that for the interests of His cause and work in the world, God did not dare to leave Cyrus alone with them: and Cyrus perfectly friendly to all these interests! And when at last the angel must go to answer Daniel's anxious pleading, another mighty one "Michael, the first of the princes" (margin) must take his place while he was gone. Verses 2, 12, 13, 20.
This gives some idea of how much the brothers at Jerusalem were troubled in their building, and their purpose frustrated, by the adversaries in Samaria, through their hired counsellors and officials at the court of Cyrus. And this was continued all the days of Cyrus - six years, to 529 B. C.; and all the days of his successor - seven years, to 522 and all the days of his successor - eight months, to 521; "even until the reign of Darius king of Persia."
In the days of Cyrus and his son, the adversaries could not really stop the work of building at Jerusalem. But in the time of Smerdis the anti-Persian, they succeeded. They wrote to him the letter that is given in Ezra 4:11-16, and received the reply given in verses 17-22. And with this authority in their hands, they hurried up to Jerusalem "and made them to cease by force and power." And thus the work was stopped for a little while more than a year, until the second year of Darius the king - 520 B. C. In that year, both the prophets Haggai and Zechariah began to call the people again to the building of the temple.
The unseen
In Zechariah's second vision the secret, as well as the mysterious power, of all this wide extended campaign of opposition was revealed - "He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him." Zechariah 3:1.
There is the explanation: Satan was the real opposer, the master-schemer, and the subtle trickster through all. This also tells that there was a higher plane and a wider field of operations than only that of the plans and actions of men against men. The real field of operations was the unseen. The real contestants were the unseen powers and agencies. The principals were God and Satan - Satan against God; and the purposes involved, pro and con, were the purposes of these.
As soon as the work was begun again, the adversaries came up with their opposition. But the builders would not cease; for "the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease till the matter came to Darius." Ezra 5:3-5. Then the adversaries themselves brought the matter to Darius: as in Ezra 5:7-17. As this brought the fine result as related in Ezra 6:1-13 - the adversaries were compelled to aid "with speed" the work they had so long, so diligently, and at such great expense, done all they could to hinder.
"And they builded and finished it." "And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king." Ezra 6:14-15.
And it was dedicated and the full temple worship and service was re-established in the time of the Passover and feast of the unleavened bread in the month immediately following. Against all the adversaries that Satan could muster and all the resistance that he could make, the temple of God was finished, and His worship was again fully established in the world in His own chosen place and appointed way at Jerusalem.
But Satan was not yet done. He had failed to prevent God's temple being rebuilt and His own appointed worship being established in His own order; but now he would make utterly vain all of that by sweeping away in a day at one stroke all of God's people in all the vast world-empire of the Persians. And this is the story of the book of Esther.
Thus in point of time the place of the book of Esther is between the sixth and seventh chapters of Ezra.
Remember that all of this time the Persian empire was the world-empire: a hundred and twenty-seven provinces: from India to the Adriatic, and from the Danube to Ethiopia, besides colonies such as Carthage and Cadiz.
As the special favorite of the king, there had now risen to the chief place of power in the empire an Amalekite, Haman the Agagite. The Amelakites were the perpetual and high-handed enemies of Israel and of God (Exodus 17:16 margin); and this ages-long enmity was now focused in Haman. And now with Haman in possession of this world-sweep of power, Satan planned his master-stroke. He would use Haman's power to satisfy Haman's wrath, and at the same time to accomplish Satan's will, by blotting out in a day all the Jews in that whole vast empire. And that would nullify all the purpose and all the work of the rebuilding of the temple and the re-establishing of God's own appointed worship in the world; because then none of His people would be left to worship Him.
But in all of this grand scheme and intended finishing-stroke, his failure was more complete and his defeat more overwhelming than before.
Please read here the book of Esther through.
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