Obey God - Not Man - Ezra 1-5

Ezra 5:11 (ESV)

And this was their reply to us: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.

The above verse is a gem in the midst of a lot of trash talk.  The scene we have in Ezra is that the Jews were released by King Cyrus to return to Jerusalem to build the Temple.  Note:

Ezra 1:2-3 (ESV)

“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

However, the mixed nations who took possession of the land during the Jew’s captivity for 70 years, had an issue with that.  They reached out to the king an appealed to his cash flow and the king shut the work down:

Ezra 4:21-22 (ESV)

Therefore make a decree that these men be made to cease, and that this city be not rebuilt, until a decree is made by me. And take care not to be slack in this matter. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the king?”

However, through the prophetic words of Haggai’s and Zechariah, the Jews started the work up again. This time, not because of the decree of King Cyrus, but because it was right before God.  There is one thing to do work for God becuase man gives us permission.  There is another thing to do work for God because it is in our calling and it is right before God.   The motivation should not be that we are “allowed” to do something for God.  The motivation should be that we are “obedient” to do something for God.   This was the change in the mindset of the Jewish people.  They no longer wanted to just fulfill a foreign king’s plan.  They wanted to complete the sovereign King’s mission.   Peter gives us a similar look at this thought:

Acts 5:27-29 (ESV)

And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.