SERMON - The Rise of Caesar & The Blessing of Christian Princes
The NXR Podcast
NXR STUDIOS
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2024
⏱️ 64 minutes
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Summary
At the opening of the book of Ezra, the condition of the government in Babylon, where Israel was being held captive, was this: Nebuchadnezzar took many of the people of Israel captive in the first year of his reign. Nebuchadnezzar ruled for forty-five years, followed by his son Evil-merodach for twenty-three years, and then his grandson Belshazzar for three years, totaling seventy years. Nebuchadnezzar was judged by God for many sins, not least of which was his indifference towards Israel which was demonstrated by his failure to release his prisoners, as mentioned in Isaiah 14:17. Daniel warned Nebuchadnezzar that showing mercy to the Jews would have prolonged his peace (Daniel 4:27), but the king of Babylon refused. Therefore, Babylon's sins reached their limit, leading to its destruction by Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, as recorded in Daniel 5. When Darius grew old, he passed the government to Cyrus, who, in turn, played a key role in the Jews' liberation.
“The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. Note, The hearts of kings are in the hand of the Lord, and, like the [rivers] of water, he turneth them which way soever he will. It is said of Cyrus that he knew not God, nor how to serve him; but God knew him, and how to serve himself by him (Isaiah 45:4). God governs the world by his influence on the spirits of men, and, whatever good is done at any time, it is God that stirs up the spirit to do it, puts thoughts into the mind, gives to the understanding to form a right judgment, and directs the will which way he pleases. Whatever good offices therefore are, at any time, done for the church of God, [God] must have the glory of them.” -Matthew Henry
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | a new series through the book of Ezra. |
| 0:02.0 | Much anticipated. We've been talking about it for a few months. We took a break for |
| 0:06.0 | multiple months after completing a preaching series through the book of Joshua. |
| 0:11.0 | In a nutshell, God used Joshua as commander and chief of Israel at the time, the successor of Moses, |
| 0:20.0 | to enter into the promised land for the very first time |
| 0:23.6 | and to lead Israel and actually conquering the land and establishing Israel in that land, |
| 0:30.4 | to conquer and drive out all of their enemies. |
| 0:33.4 | And so we preached through the book of Joshua, and that's one of the major themes that we saw. |
| 0:36.6 | We know that Joshua also serves as a type of Christ that is a symbol pointing towards the higher and greater and ultimate Joshua, Yeshua, deliverer, who is Jesus. |
| 0:46.8 | And that what Joshua did in a literal sense, driving out people that were enemies of God, and many of them in a very literal sense were not |
| 0:56.6 | actually people, but demonic hybrids. Joshua being used by God to drive out descendants of the |
| 1:05.3 | Nephlam and different demonic peoples and pagan peoples out of the promised land so that Israel, the people of God, |
| 1:12.9 | could be established there and build a holy city to the Lord. That's what Joshua did in a very |
| 1:18.2 | physical sense, and that's what Christ has done in the ultimate and spiritual sense, by virtue of |
| 1:24.2 | his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. |
| 1:31.9 | Ezra, however, the book of Ezra is similar to the book of Joshua, |
| 1:36.3 | except instead of the initial conquering of the land, |
| 1:41.5 | Ezra depicts for us a picture of rebuilding the ruins after the people of God have gone in and conquered the land, but then due to |
| 1:46.3 | their disobedience, rebellion against God and his statutes, they were allowed in God's sovereignty |
| 1:53.2 | by way of discipline for their sin. God allowed them to be conquered once again. And so Joshua is |
| 2:00.1 | going into the land for the first time, Israel going |
| 2:02.4 | into the land, conquering the land, and building a city for God. Ezra is after 70 years of exile |
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