Ezra 6:22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel
I was watching a snippet of a rugby game recently and was amazed by just how chaotic it appeared. It looked like a lot of fun. Guys were throwing the ball, hitting each other, and running for all they were worth, but to me, not being one who has played rugby before, it looked totally chaotic.
Sometimes I watch ants. It is amazing all that they do. Recently, I was watching two ants pull a worm carcass back to their hill. They would come to an obstacle, a twig or something that they couldn’t get their cargo around, so they would separate ways, seem to be talking, come back together, and find another way. I was thinking, “Does an ant have a brain? What kind of purpose or goal would an ant be able to embody?” I don’t know. My point is, that whether you are watching a rugby game, a bunch of ants, the news, or your own life, this world can seem utterly chaotic.
The book of Ezra records the story of God giving His people a second chance. They had been uprooted from all they knew and were back in Jerusalem, which was a new thing for them, having been raised in captivity. They were trying to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed by their enemies years before.
Ezra 6:22 says, “And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of the God, the God of Israel.” So, God gave them joy and God gave this king some inspiration and animation to help them with this task of rebuilding the temple. What you find in this story is that God is sovereign; God is in control.
So many of the stories and centuries of Jewish history are of captivity, whether it is Babylon, Rome, Egypt, or modern history. So, it is easy to miss, but God is sovereign and in control. Let me address this because maybe your head is cocked and you are thinking, “God is in control of this chaotic universe?” Well, God’s sovereignty does not mean an absence of trouble or problems. Ezra 4:1 says, “Now, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel…” What follows is a whole world of trouble. First, the adversaries tried to sabotage the work of the rebuilding of the temple. Then, they sowed dissention and deceit. Finally, they appealed to the governing king of the known world. They had all kinds of trouble.
In Ezra 4:24 it says, “Then ceased the work of the house of God.” Ezra 5:2 says, “Then…began to build the house of God.” There were fifteen years between the cessation of the work and the restarting of the work. For many people, fifteen years is the entirety of the life they can remember. It is a long time and a lot of trouble. Maybe you are in the middle of trouble right now and you don’t see any design in it.
God’s sovereignty does not mean that there are no kings or other authorities. You can look at Ezra 4-6 and you find all kinds of kings. These kings were pagan by upbringing, conquering by habit, and in control. There are letters that went back and forth from the kings about this project of building the temple. Some people tried to stop it and God’s people wanted to continue it. But these people were in a world absent of authority. Sometimes we think, “I obey God, not man.” You are not obeying God if there are not human authorities in your life. So many times those human authorities are flawed whether it is a president, a pastor, or a parent. Authority is not perfect and sometimes it is downright rotten. But just because the authorities you see are not perfect does not mean that God is not sovereign.
Finally, God’s sovereignty does mean that God is independent. God is not just a bigger version of you. A god who would never disagree with you is probably not God. It is probably a bigger version of you. God is sovereign, in control, and independent.