KEEPING the FOCUS : Part 7

KEEPING THE FOCUS : Part 7

By Darryl Henson

I want to get directly back to Ezra today. We finished up chapter 3 last time and briefly reviewing again. This picks up the story of history and is projected into prophecy via Haggai and Zechariah. This story is certainly worth our examining today, because God works in patterns. What He has done historically can be taken as a pattern for what is to come in the future. Ezra picks this story up right when Cyrus appeared and asked for volunteers to go build the temple in Jerusalem. So, Haggai and Zechariah pick it up here, in the beginning of chapter 5. They come into the scene and begin to encourage those who were there to do the job. So this setting was right after the fall of Babylon when Cyrus, king of Persia took over what had been the Babylonian Empire. Daniel apparently approached him and said, you know you happen to be in the writings of Isaiah of our God. He must have been quite impressed that he would have been mentioned there and he took a favorable attitude and decided to help the people of God. We have seen in Isaiah 44 and 45 that that is an end time prophecy directly, not a historical record of what had happen. So, we know there has to be a Cyrus show up here at the end, who is of the world and does not know God, but whom God shows the ends and outs of some historical things and leads him to the secret and hidden treasures of God. Ezra seems to indicate that those treasures would include the temple vessels. That's part of the historical pattern we have before us. Sometime right here at the end, right near the fall of Babylon today, there has to be a Cyrus appear, he has to approach the leadership of the Church, wherever that particular leadership may be, and he will offer to help the Church in building the temple of God. I find that very encouraging that God would set someone up like that and bring him to His people and be willing to work with them.

So, we went through then an inventory in chapter 2 of people that would come and we saw a separation. You have to be able to show that you are a part of the true people of God, just as they had to prove they were genealogically true Israelite's before they were allowed to help and that separation had to be made. Then in chapter 3 we saw the seventh month come and they kept the Feast of Trumpets, thereafter the Feast of Tabernacles and worked toward getting the people lined out as to who would lay the foundation of the temple of the Eternal. They had to be at least twenty years of age because that is God's view of when a person is fully responsible and mature and makes his decision on his own...age twenty. Then stood up Joshua and began to set forward the work of the Eternal God. Then they laid the foundation and the ancient men who had seen the old temple, cried and wept, laughed and danced for joy, that the foundation for a new temple was being laid. That's where we closed it out last week and it does say in the book of Haggai, chapters 2, verses 1—3 that in the end time there will be a former temple and a latter temple and that there will be old men who have seen the glory of the first or former temple and they will compare it to the latter temple which is about to be built and will weep for joy that God is re-establishing His people here at the end time. We've had a time when Worldwide has basically disappeared, it has withered as Ezekiel 17 shows. Basically disappeared from the scene and God is going to stir a remnant people to come together and build another temple to re-establish God's way. So let's pick it up in chapter 4.

Ezra 4:1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel;

Uh oh, enemies appear, adversaries. Now remember also that this was at the end of the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity and that the Church itself in this end time and this shows that the pattern all the way through is the same. The Church has now existed for a little over seventy years here in the end time. God is beginning to work toward building the latter temple. He has freed people to do that. The time element is essentially the same as it was historically in this prophecy for the end time. That is picked up in Zechariah 1 where it shows that at the end of seventy years God would begin to do something. So...

Ezra 4:1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel;

Ezra 4:2 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 ye [do]; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.

They had brought in people from various lands to replace the Jews. Of course Israel had gone north before the other ten tribes. The lost, so called, ten tribes had left. The Jews with Benjamin and Levi were the only ones left. So, when Babylon took them captive they did leave some there. But in the meantime they also moved in other peoples to repopulate and be sure that the land was farmed and things were taken care of. They basically did a replacement of the Jews by sending in these Gentile peoples. Actually they were adversaries or enemies, but they made themselves out to be friends. Now here again we have a pattern. We are going to have those if we are a part of this end time effort of the prophecies to rebuild the temple of God. I believe that the pattern shows that there will be people who come posing, to be friends, to be with us, but indeed they will be enemies. They will smile, they will say we're with you. But behind our backs they will have their knives. Whether those knives will be their teeth or literal knives, remains to be seen and it could be both, but certainly the words. So they'll want to build with us, but a difference has to be made. Now remember that this story has to do with Zerubbabel and Joshua, whom Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 prove are the two witnesses of the end time. So this historical story uses those names and God brings them forward to the end time. I don't think they'll be born with those names or we could easily identify whom God is going to use here at the end. Now does anybody know of people who were born in Worldwide maybe thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years ago, named Zerubbabel? You might find a Joshua in there, quite a few of those probably, but I doubt if you find a Zerubbabel anywhere. I've never met one and I've been around the Church for a long time. Never heard of one. But, the fulfillment will be of the job, not necessarily of the names. That's the key thing to remember there. So this has to happen. Now let's understand here that a plumb line is given to Zerubbabel. That is shown in Zechariah 4 and other places throughout the prophecies. Isaiah mentions it several times. But if you go to Revelation 11:1-3, you will find that it tells those leaders of the end time Church that they are to measure the temple. They are given a plumb line, a reed, a rod to measure uprightness. To measure spirituality, if you will. Whether people really are of the truth or whether they really aren't. A separation had to be made back here. They had to tell certain people, no you can't be a part of this. Now that is the historical pattern, will that happen again? What does it tell Zerubbabel and Joshua in the end time to do? It says measure the temple, leave out the court of the Gentiles, don't worry about them to start with. But measure the alter and them that worship therein. That is the ministry, and those that come to the temple. Now there will be some who will not like this idea. Because there are those who think we should not have a priesthood or ministry today. And that men should not tell us what to do or we should not have any in charge. But, God throughout history has always worked through men. Sorry, that's just the way it is and these prophecies tell us that's the way it will be again. Now when they are to measure the alter, the ministry and the people, God has given two men that job, two men in particular that job to determine who can and can not be apart of this. I thought I would clue us in ahead of time to know that that's the way God is going to do it. We might as well get used to the idea and that men will determine and make those decisions. They are the ones that God gives the measuring rod to, to determine uprightness and spiritual character and they will have to make hard decisions about who will be involved and who will not. That is the historical record and it is the prophetic projection. So what was the reaction back here in Ezra 4? Okay go to verse 3...

Ezra 4:3 But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, 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.

“But Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel,” So it's not just two, but there are others who are also principal or chief men as Micah 5 says. “Said to them, you have nothing to do with us to build an house to our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.” So Cyrus will come to God's people and he will say the temple, Jerusalem have to be built as Isaiah 44, the last verse says. And then it will up to the leadership that God has placed in the Church to determine who is qualified and who is not.

Ezra 4:4 Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,

So they were adversaries, they came and posed as friends but when they were turned away, then they became outright enemies and did all they could to weaken and stop the process. I would like to think that it would be easy to build the end time temple, but God shows here in an historical pattern that it will not be so. There will be adversaries, there will be enemies. Now maybe we can harken back a bit to Worldwide, you know Worldwide in many respects is sort of receding in our rear view mirror and can hardly be seen anymore. Over twenty years ago since Herbert Armstrong died and the Tkach bunch took over. So in a way it's ancient history, but there was, somewhat of a pattern there. In a minor way I think Herbert Armstrong and his son did fulfill the building of a temple. They were not the final two. But they certainly built a temple of God in the end time. And had the character of Zerubbabel, and GTA had the problems of Joshua. I don't know that he ever repented, perhaps he did and I hope so. But that was a short lived situation. There were enemies that entered in. We were raided by Rader. We had the staph infection of Stavrinides. We had Baccioci who backed in and the Tkachs who brought their gangster ideas from Chicago and became part and parcel with and part of the leadership of that Church. They were not turned away. They were not told you cannot build with us and look what happened. They were allowed to be there and they wormed their way in and they destroyed it. I would not be at all surprised to find out some time that Rader and his bunch were involved with the state of California in destroying what was there. They did everything they could to weaken it and ultimately of course the two unclean birds of Zechariah 5, which I would assume at this point were Joseph senior and junior set the Church on it's base on it's own foundation in Babylon. There it has withered and died according to Ezekiel 17 and the parable and riddle that is there. So, in a way that is ancient history isn't it? I think there is certainly some parallels there in what will happen with the latter temple that happened in the former temple because Ezra doesn't pick it up at that point. Now there was a time ten years ago, when I tried to apply Ezra more to Worldwide Church of God and what had happened there, but truly speaking, Ezra picks up at the fall of Babylon, Cyrus shows up and begins to work with the people of God at about that same time. Worldwide is indeed in the rear view mirror when this story in Ezra actually begins. We are very near that juncture now. If you've been watching the news, it appears we are very close to the financial collapse of Babylon. Whether it hangs on another month or two or six or eight or ten remains to be seen. But the cracks are getting bigger and bigger and the wall is leaning further outward as Isaiah indicates before it actually collapses. So I think we are very near this. Especially since there have to be some old guys around who can remember Worldwide at it's best and see the temple built in glory at the end. So, there is a period in time in which it has to be built and these guys are getting more and more toothless all along. I'd say most of them are past seventy now and singing songs from seventy on up maybe. Much of what happened in I think in Worldwide we are going to see again, picking this story up at the time Cyrus appears on the scene and moving forward from there. Because God does work in patterns, whether its from 2000 years ago or 4000 years ago or even our recent history that you and I can remember, those patterns will still be there in the Church. So I expect that the end time temple will have enemies. In fact we've even made comments about how as God shows his hand to the world, everyone is going to hate it. That is shown in the book of Revelation very clearly that the whole world will follow the Beast and only a very, very, very few people will be faithful to God. The rest of the world will be an enemy and what is the historical pattern here is only a minor fraction of the world wide implication of the prophetic story. In other words, this isn't just a pattern repeated on a small scale, this will be repeated on an international scale. It will include all peoples everywhere. So, prepare for not just a little disagreement, prepare for total disagreement and absolute war, which will occur before this is over. When God tells his remnant people I will make you a new threshing instrument with teeth and you will come down on the governments, the mountains of this world. That's mentioned in Isaiah as well as in the book of Micah. So, there will be enemies, just as here. But, as he said, we are going to do what Cyrus says needs to be done and what the Bible echoes throughout.