God’s Timing

By |Published On: May 10, 2018|Categories: 4-Minute Radio Program|

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a little lesson from the book of Ezra.

Welcome to “Joni and Friends” where I always love to share fascinating insights from scripture, and the book of Ezra is full of them. Because there’s a little story in that book that shows—I should say proves—how God can turn things around in the most amazing ways. Let me set the scene: The Israelites had been exiled in Babylon for seventy-some years. Then, out of nowhere, the Lord stirred up Cyrus, the king of Persia, to send this scruffy bunch of exiles back to Jerusalem so they could rebuild their temple. Who would have dreamed it would happen that way? But the best was yet to come. First, though, rebuilding the temple was not easy. The Jewish refugees had enemies, troublemakers who didn’t want to see the temple rebuilt, and so these troublemakers started bullying God’s people. Threats were made; there was vandalism; all this really frightened the people and they became discouraged. And it wasn’t long before work on the temple ground to a halt. They just put down their hammers and chisels; they stopped mixing mortar and abandoned all work on the temple.

Imagine how frustrating that was. God had seemingly opened the door for the Jews to rebuild the temple, yet everything was against them. The Israelites encountered nothing but opposition. Why would the Lord prevent that which He wanted? Then came the turnaround, and here is the incredibly fascinating way it happened: You see God sent two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to inspire the people to begin building again. Of course, the enemies were still hanging around. Those enemies thought to themselves: ‘”Hmmm, we know how we can keep these people from getting back to work on their temple.” We’ll discourage them even further. We’ll go to the top. We’ll go right to the new king of Persia.So in an attempt to demoralize the people again, these enemies wrote a letter to Darius, the new king of Persia, asking him to stop, once and for all, the building of this temple. But the letter backfired. You see, Darius did a little research on his own and found the original decree from Cyrus, and the result was stunning: This is what Darius wrote back to those troublemakers. In fact, his words are recorded in Ezra Chapter 6, and he writes, “Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. The expenses of these men are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury.” Isn’t that awesome? Darius wrote back that the troublemakers were to leave the work on God’s house alone, and what’s more, they were to pay the full cost of rebuilding out of their own local tax money.

Now you can see why God had planned all those setbacks, all those demoralizing things that happened to God’s people. God did that to ensure that once Darius got involved, the temple would not only be built but be paid for! Now I pray that this little lesson from the book of Ezra will really refresh your heart today. Because it just may be that you are in the middle of some setback. Maybe God has opened a door of ministry or opportunity for you only to seemingly slam it shut. Well, remember these words from the book of Ezra Chapter 6. As well as these words from an old hymn, “Judge not the Lord by what you sense, but trust Him for His grace. Behind His frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.”

And hey, friend, if you’ve benefitted today from this little lesson, if you’ve been inspired to persevere through the disappointments know that God has a plan; He has a design. If this lesson has blessed you, then pass on the inspiration to your Facebook friends. Just go on my radio page today at joniandfriends.org and hit the Facebook share button at the bottom of this radio transcript and pass on the lesson from Ezra Chapter 6.

Previously aired as #8097 on 5/14/13

© Joni and Friends

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