Focus Passage: Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi
Have you ever felt lost in life? You have a job. You have a house and a family, but you feel like you are just treading water? A lot of us have had that feeling. We have moved in the direction that we think we are supposed to be, but we just feel empty and feel like nothing good is really happening. It must have felt like that for the Jews who returned from Babylon. Our story today is about eighty years after their return to Palestine. The nation is dirt poor and is under the Persian Empire whose kingdom is far away. The people feel lost. God’s answer is to send three people to help rebuild his people. Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi all have a part to play in the rebuilding of the nation. Their work will end the Old Testament record 400 years before Jesus is born. They are our last stop in the Old Testament as we see a loving Father care for His people.
A. Rebuilding Worship Ezra 7:17 60 years after the temple had been rebuilt, God opened the heart of a man named Ezra to bring spiritual renewal to the people of Judah. Now Ezra was a direct descendant of the line of Aaron and the high priests who had devoted himself to the study of the Law of the Lord. He gathered priests and Levite descendants to help him bring the worship of God to the people who were largely just going through the motions of worship. God wanted His people to know Him.
B. Rebuilding Righteousness Mal 2:11 Having taken on the ways of the pagans around them, the people are helped by both Ezra and Malachi to live like children of God. The times were tough in those sixty years and the people slowly adopted the practices of the people around them. God would reinstruct them in righteous life. He would show them how to have a better life by having values and character. He would help them to see that they should respond to his love by honoring him with their gifts.
C. Rebuilding their home Neh 6:15-16 God realized that if His people were going to keep their values and character, they needed a safe place to live as His people. For that reason, God put it on the heart of a man named Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so that the people could worship God in peace. He went before the Persian emperor and asked for time and the resources to rebuild the walls. God moved the emperor’s heart to grant all that Nehemiah asked. God’s people had a home.
D. Rebuilding Faith Neh. 8:3 Four or five days after the wall was built, there was one more thing to do. God’s people had to understand God’s ways so that the people would live Godly lives in this new found city. For one whole morning, Ezra read the books of Moses to the people. Then a group of priests fanned out and explained the words of God to the people. It was God reclaiming the hearts of his people. God wanted them to understand His path for their lives.
The pieces are in place, but now the real challenge of rebuilding is whether the people will actually rebuild their lives. Some argued with Malachi, Ezra and Nehemiah about what it meant to return. Malachi offers a simple test. Are you giving of your time and resources to the Lord? People still struggle with giving God control of their lives. God offers a simple test. Give yourself to me and see if I don’t provide for you and take care of you. God is ready to commit to those who commit to Him. He is ready to bless those who open their lives to Him so that they feel His love and have their needs met. Those who only half build their lives will have only some of the blessings. God wants us to have the full joy and He is ready to do anything that it takes for those who trust Him to have that joy.
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