Ezra Devotional

Ezra 1:1

'In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing'

The miracles of the Bible leave us awestruck. In our verse today, we read that God was able to move the heart of Cyrus. This was just like He made the sea part for Moses, turned sticks into snakes, caused a stubborn Pharaoh to acknowledge Him, and even arranged for an Israelite child to be brought up as a grandchild of Pharaoh. So why should my experience in the Middle East be any different?

Take some time to think about the leaders of the Muslim world today. Some of them are always in the headlines like Cyrus was. But also consider the Moses', the Daniels and the Esthers in Muslim nations - perhaps stammering, vulnerable, seemingly insignificant people, but God has chosen to set them in places of authority and significance to make a difference.

Today the Church in Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt and other Muslim lands can take great courage from these biblical figures.

For every Moses whose life has been preserved for God's children, there has been a stubborn Pharaoh eventually forced to surrender, even brought to death to free God's people.

For every Ezra who has dedicated himself to the law of God, there has been a Cyrus who has acknowledged that God Himself is ultimately able to remove him from power.

For every Daniel who stood firm for what he believed despite the consequences, there was a Nebuchadnezzer who was filled with compassion when he saw the faithfulness and loyalty of God's child. At the same time, there were always those who poisoned the royal ear against God's people.
For every Esther placed in positions of influence to speak for her people, there was an unbelieving ruler so struck by her courageous obedience that he revised his destructive policy and saved God's people.

There will always be kings, dictators, presidents and military commanders who do not acknowledge the sovereignty of the God of the Bible. But God continues to show His mighty and righteous hand in the lives of secret believers in my world, so that the truth about Jesus can be made known there.

God is able to raise up a Cyrus for us, too, from among the presidents of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the kings of Jordon and Saudi Arabia and militant leaders from Hizbollah, Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Yes, there will be hard hearts like Artaxerxes too. One only needs to look at the lands of the Muslim world to see that. We, however, must not despair and just keep waiting for Ahmadinejad and Osama Bin Laden to change and free us. As active "thanksgivers" we must revel in the freedom God has already provided through Christ on the cross.

Since we now live under the laws of Islam, which try to cheat us of our freedom, the stage has been set for us. Which role will we audition for and choose? Will we be Ezra, not only to our own suffering brothers and sisters, but also to the spiritually blind and suffering Muslims around us?

Wherever you live in the world, there is someone nearby who represents the world of Islam and its enslavement. Are you waiting for God to turn their hearts? Or like Ezra, Esther, Daniel and other heroes of the faith, will you let God use you to touch them? Don't keep waiting for God's miracle - become part of it! Your faithfulness to a Muslim in your world will have a ripple effect that touches us all.

Ezra 1:1-7 (Burtros Paraphrase) - In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:

"This is what the President of Islamistan1 says:

" 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him in Islamistan. Anyone of his people among you-may his God be with him, and let him go up to the capitol city of Islamistan and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Islamistan. And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Islamistan.' "

Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites-everyone whose heart God had moved-prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Islamistan. All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings. Moreover, the President of Islamistan brought out the articles and keys belonging to the churches of the LORD, which his forerunners had carried away from other closed-down and padlocked churches in Islamistan and had used for their own pleasures. The President of Islamistan had them brought by his treasurer, who counted them out to all the Christian pastors and church workers in Islamistan.

Consider the shock of an announcement like this appearing in a Middle Eastern newspaper! Are we prepared as a Christian community to handle a promise and a gift of this proportion?

As members of a religious minority, we have suffered so much that we would surely be suspicious of any such declaration by our leadership. And no doubt there would be uproar among the extremists, who would come out on the streets and try to overthrow the government. It indicates the control and power the Persian kings had over their subjects, that Cyrus could with such courage declare this political turnaround. There is hardly a country in the Muslim world I could expect to support any such declaration.

What a perfect example this is of our sovereign God keeping His promises and presiding above all kings and princes of this world! We cannot make sweeping statements, insisting, "We will never get anything good from a Muslim government," because even though our governments may be set up and run by Muslims, the hearts of those Muslims were made by God.

Although our Lord is a God of free will, He can get in and stir up their hearts. They may hold the keys to our churches that they have locked up and refuse to let us have back. But He has the key to their hearts, and He can enter in and change them.

We need to pray for our own discernment. That we would know what He is stirring up our hearts to do. One of the things our years of ministry have taught us is that it is not what God is telling others to do that matters. I am not responsible for making God stir the heart of my national leaders so we can have our keys back. I am responsible for recognizing how God is stirring my heart and leading me to serve Him in obedience.

Our loving God has His reasons and timing, as to why He has not yet stirred the hearts of Muslim leaders to give us back those keys of confiscated churches or return the stained glass windows and Bibles removed from churches.

As Christians we are called to pray without ceasing and listen to Him. Isaiah 30:21 tell us that we will hear a voice telling us "This is the way, walk in it," even when it seems to be a way in the wilderness. How important it is that we keep young people and the body of Christ wrapped in prayer and His protection and call on Him for those who need churches to meet in and pastors and Christians workers to care for and shepherd them. That to us will be greater than any stained glass or keys-a means for the flock to be shepherded. That is true adornment.

Only then will we be ready when Muslim rulers come to open the doors of the churches of Islamistan - ready to receive them, to disciple them and give them the water of eternal life. After all Muslim rulers, too, seek secretly for the love, grace and forgiveness of Jesus to rescue them from the trouble and unrest they experience each day.

Ezra 1:5-9 (Butros Paraphrase) - "Then the family heads of Ahmeds and Waleeds, and the Butroses and Nadiras-everyone whose heart God had moved-prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Islamistan.2 All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings. Moreover, the President of Islamistan brought out the articles and keys belonging to the churches of the LORD, which his forerunners had carried away from other closed-down and padlocked churches in Islamistan and had used for their own pleasures. The President of Islamistan had them brought by his treasurer, who counted them out to all the Christian pastors and church workers in Islamistan."

Imagine if all the families of secret believers accepted their relatives' conversions to Christ and offered to help with the move! Just soak in the depth, the absolute vastness of that miracle. God's miracles are complete.

That is why they take so long for us to see them manifest, because He is working on everyone involved-softening hearts, breaking stubborn walls, building bridges, changing opinions, removing anger, hatred and prejudice.

God revels in creating miracles, but when we are rushing Him for a miracle, just consider how many facets of it He is working on. Granting us free will means He is waiting on us to respond and be moved.

In the book of Ezra, God did not just move the heart of Cyrus. He also moved the hearts of the Jews themselves, the people to whom He made a promise. The entire onus was not on Cyrus. Cyrus was merely a facilitator who became empowered with wisdom and vision to recognize God's perspective and implement it.

Who are we praying for to be facilitators of God's work in the midst of Islamistan's Christians? Are we praying for the national leaders and focusing so much on them becoming Christians that we fail to recognize that it is the persecuted, marginalized Christians in the country who also need prayer for strengthening in their faith, so they are able to minister the love of Christ in their lands?

Pray that the work of God will be empowered and enabled through the lives of the poorest, most persecuted Christians to the wealthiest and most indifferent leaders of the nation.

Your prayers strengthen us to reach out, despite our fears.

[2] Islamistan (literally, "land of Islam"), is a fictitious Muslim country.

Ezra 1:3 - "Anyone of His people among you-may His God be with him and let him go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem."

It seems sometimes like everyone is a political expert. We can all talk about the need for a government that is sympathetic to the needs of Christians and the local church. We discuss our freedoms and our rights, and how wrong it is that the West is giving Muslims so much freedom, while Christians are denied this in Muslim-majority lands. But our hours sitting in armchairs have cost the Church a voice in the public. They have cost the Church direct interaction with the world. They have cost us our Christian engagement in love and faith with those who oppose us.

We forget about the grace of God that empowers us to look at our own shortcomings. I often wonder if an opportunity like that of Ezra 1:1 were to arise in Islamistan,3 and the government actually gave us back the keys and stained glass windows and Bibles, would the condition of the churches inside those buildings be in shambles? It would take many men and women willing to pour their lives into restarting the worship and ministries of the churches. I am reminded of children's Sunday school song where the girls and boys take turns in calling out to one another 'Girls come and help us! Boys come and help us! Building up the temple of the Lord'. Will we like the little children in Sunday school raise our voices with faith and gladness and call out to one another to build the temple?

Ask that God stir the hearts of Christian men and women to serve our churches here. Working with young people and living in this environment myself, I know how easy it is to blame governments and Muslims for everything. The first generation of Christians in Islamistan fought the pressures of being a minority, like those under Babylonian captivity. Not entirely accepted they became a persecuted community. The second generation saw the failure, pointlessness and punishment that came from fighting the persecution and oppression. Then the third generation, my generation, we have seen the scars of our parents and grandparents and learned to adapt. We simply want to avoid walking those same roads.

However, the generation following us, my children, nephews and nieces, are just sick of walking a tight rope. I see evidence of frustration and desperation. I see signs of a coming eruption; how they need to tame their annoyance at the road blocks that they encounter when they try to be successful and want a better life!

This new generation are beginning to question the oppression and the failures of their people, suffering from the roadblocks set up by our culture, Islam, a Muslim government and above all by the prince of lies. So the stirring up of their hearts is imperative to the freedom of the Church.

True freedom is not something the government will give us. True freedom is when regardless of how they have seen their parents suffer; our children start preparing to be built into a people of power, and refuse to worry about whether we have security at our gates.

When faced with the story of freedom from Babylonian captivity, I was challenged to stop seeking excuses for why the world is moving further away from the Gospel. We all agree that we need change in the Church. But do we truly believe that will begin with me and you? We must accept the challenge, wherever are we are, to become part of the Church-the Body of Christ, the fellowship of believers. Become part of God's building project, like Ezra did with the temple. Take heed of the Spirit's stirring in your heart and follow His commands. Your obedience to do this matters in supporting us, that we become people of power in a barren place, where our church buildings have been confiscated, thousands of Bibles taken away and believers killed. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus told us to obey and seek His Kingdom; it is then, He promised, that all else will be added unto us.

[3] Islamistan (literally, "land of Islam"), is a fictitious Muslim country.

Ezra 1:2 (King Cyrus' decree) - "The LORD, the God of heaven... has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah."

Ezra 4:21 (King Artaxerxes' decree) - "Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order."

Ezra 6:7-8, 10 (King Darius' decree) - "Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God....so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons."

As a Middle Eastern Christian, I am always encouraged and excited to read these decrees. I am encouraged even by Artaxerxes' rebuke and decree to stop building the temple. This truly is the story of my people. How I wept and still weep to realize that these men were unbelievers who were not of God's chosen people, yet they were chosen by God to play a part in the story of His children--their captivity, their freedom and their future.

The whole idea of leadership in the Middle East and Southeast Asia is one of power and control. Elitism and wealth rule, so one engages very little with the grassroots. Perhaps the oppression of Christians in the Middle East and the allocation of the grassroots to their helpless lot may well suit the upper wealthier classes. That is why the whole idea of my president saying that he acknowledges the God of the Christians as THE GOD, THE CREATOR, would most certainly be a miracle. It is like saying he acknowledges the God of the worthless and honourless lower classes.

Who are the powerful people in your community, your neighbourhood, your life? What makes them powerful? Who gave them this power? Analyze their power in light of the sovereignty of God. You may be answerable to them, and they may be in a position to make your life and your circumstances difficult, just like the leaders of Muslim countries have the power to make the lives of converts to Christianity difficult, and the lives of Christians in general difficult. But despite this, they only have the power God gives to them. They are only able to push you so far. For that journey on which you experience the abuse over you, there is strength, courage and faith on offer to you. As Ezra did, you have the opportunity to take from the same God true love and pure grace, and offer them to the Artaxerxes4 in your life.

What it is you are seeking? Is it power? Remember when the Jews were given permission by Cyrus to go back and build their temple, at the same time the Evil One was reacting by stirring evil in the hearts of those who were the enemies of Judah and Benjamin (Ezra 4:1). They were the ones who sought the ear of Artaxerxes and brought the building of the temple to a halt. Who is seeking the ear of the leadership?

Pray for Christians in the Middle East to rise up and reach out to their leaders and people in authority. If we don't minister the Gospel to them, someone else will try to steal their attention. If they are extremists, enemies of the children of God, enemies of the lion of Judah, then only their unrighteous lives will reach places of power, and the Church's cause will be hurt. So pray for those like Esther to be placed close to those with power, so that the lives of God's people may be spared and the church's cause be furthered.

[4] There was more than one King Artaxerxes. This one is a reference to the Artexers who haulted the work on the temple – ie different from the one who sent Ezra to Jerusalem.

Ezra 4:14 - "Now since we are under obligation to the palace and it is not proper for us to see the king dishonored..."

Daniel 6:6b-7 - "O King Darius live forever! The royal administrators... have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any God or man during the next thirty days, except to you O king, shall be thrown into the lions' den."

Daniel 3:1, 6 - "King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold...Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace."

The Babylonian kings possessed incredible power, affluence, wealth and influence. In the Muslim world, leaders will not demand that they be worshiped or prayed to, nor are they likely to ask anyone to bow down to them, as that is reserved for Allah alone. Nonetheless, they consider themselves next to God in some ways. Spiritual leaders and holy men hold great power over the people and are almost deified in some ways, while worshipped in other, less conscious ways.

As Christians we pray for their hearts to be turned to Christ and away from Islam. There are many layers to their faith and beliefs that the Holy Spirit needs to work on. Become as informed about them as possible so you understand how to pray for them. The life of a rich Muslim man is very much like the life of a Babylonian king. To become a president in my part of the world, wealth and status are prerequisites. Politics can be family dominated in some cases, with power going from generation to generation.

Ask God to lay a Muslim national leader or clerical leader on your heart. These men have grown up with access to the best of education, exposure to the West, money, servants, power and most importantly, people who obey them. The best Islamic teachers were given to them, and their life is full of luxuries, so they have never thought to question Islam. Who in their right mind would question a system that gives them so much?

They settle into a comfortable niche, engrained with the ideology that Allah is the only God and Mohammad his last prophet. Their mothers and Islamic tutors have indoctrinated them against 'Western' Christian thinking that God could have a Son, teaching them that Jesus was just a prophet named Isa. They have been told that Jesus' teachings were abused by the apostles who began the Christian faith, so as a religion it is alien and even haram or "defiled" for Muslims. Christians are condemned as sinners because they are guilty of shirk, the crime of bringing a human into a carnal relationship with Allah, and then believing that God can be broken into three gods.

Some of these men and women have attended Christian schools and colleges in their own lands or in the West. Some from more liberal families have had Christian training and teaching alongside their Muslim instruction and declare themselves "liberated." But even so, their Islamic teaching underlies their whole mindset. Clearly this reveals the angel of light from 2 Corinthians 11:14 at work, masquerading for the media and the world to see how "openminded and enlightened" they are.

It is important to understand who it is standing in front of TV cameras making those speeches, dressed in smart suits and looking pristine. They may speak beautiful English and may woo the international media, but make no mistake: they have been made to believe there is no Holy Spirit, that Jesus is not God and that God does not speak to us anymore. They believe God only gives us signs and dreams through Djinn (spirits). They are being used at the whim of the Evil One.

Their only interest is to satisfy their own desires, to promote their own honor and the honor of Islam. And so for them to recognize the stirring of the God of the Christians is revolutionary. Just as in Ezra's time, whenever the work of God begins, there are always those who will tap into the weaknesses and power hunger of these men who want to keep Christians as far as possible from power and authority.

It is easier to pray for someone with nothing, because they have great needs. But it is men and women who have no reason to want to change their faith or try to find it in their hearts to bless Christians in their neighborhoods, in their offices, in their colleges and schools and in their lands - they are the harder ones to pray for. That is a victory for the JESUS SIDE, against the Evil one trying to defeat the Church and God's Kingdom.

As you pray for the Muslim world today, consider that it is no small matter for the ruler of a Muslim nation to be stirred by the Holy Spirit to bless the Christians with freedom, churches and rights. It would be a victory of epic proportions. Every such victory is precious, no matter if it is kings or presidents, holy men or imams - or streetcleaners and day laborers.

Give thanks that God stirred the hearts of Cyrus and Darius centuries ago.

Give thanks that God's power and might forever outlive the reign of the Babylonians, and that He is able and longing to do the same amazing acts of mercy for His people today. Then, start looking for where you fit into His plan.