From Babylon to Jerusalem - (Ezra) ch.1 & 2 — Zac Poonen

Ezra as the Result of Daniel’s Prayers

Ezra. The book of Ezra is a few books before the book of Psalms. This is a description of the result of Daniel's prayers that we considered when we studied the book of Daniel. And in our study of the Old Testament from Daniel, the next book to move on to logically is Ezra because we see the results of that movement which began with Daniel taking a stand for God in Babylon and thereby influencing the kings of Babylon and Persia.

And one man, it's amazing what one man can do, and his windows were open towards Jerusalem. He lived through the 70 years of captivity, prayed that God's people would go back to Jerusalem from Babylon.

Babylon and Jerusalem as Spiritual Pictures

And we know that all this has a spiritual meaning for us because when we studied the book of Revelation, we saw that Babylon and Jerusalem are pictures of spiritual entities. Babylon, the false church, the mother of harlots, it's a big system.

And in history, it began with the Roman Catholic Church, but it's multiplied in many Protestant and Pentecostal denominations. That's why it's called the mother of harlots. There are many harlots. And in contrast to that, we find in the book of Revelation, Jerusalem, the bride of Christ.

And the bride of Christ is put in contrast in Jerusalem to the spiritual harlot that claims to be married to Christ, but lives in spiritual adultery. And when we have this picture in our mind, and we find that we are living in those days where there is a harlot system, and there is the preparation of the body of Christ, which is going to be the bride of Christ when Jesus returns.

In the light of this, it's very interesting and important for us to look at these Old Testament books, particularly the books that relate to the movement of God's people from out of Babylon into Jerusalem.

And this is why after we finished Revelation, we moved into Daniel, because Daniel is the book where you see the, as it were, the baby being born in the womb of Daniel, this movement back to Babylon. And in Ezra, we see a little bit of the beginnings of that.

The Two Great Movements of Israel

So we turn to the book of Ezra, and chapter one. Now in an earlier study I mentioned that in the Old Testament, there are two big movements of the people of Israel. And both these movements of the people of Israel have a spiritual lesson for us.

One is the movement of the people of Israel from Egypt under Moses into the land of Canaan. With that movement, most Christians are very familiar, and that movement is a picture of salvation. To be under Pharaoh in Egypt is to be under Satan in the land of slavery to sin.

And to be saved out of that through the Red Sea is a picture of water baptism. And the pillar of cloud coming down from above is a picture of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And through the blood of the Lamb that was shed on the door, water baptism, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, all symbolized back there in Egypt in the deliverance of the Israelites.

God brought his people out. The other movement of the people of Israel is something which is not so well known among Christians, and that is the movement of the people of Israel from Babylon to Jerusalem.

The first was from Egypt to Canaan, a picture of deliverance from the power of sin into a life of victory. It relates to the personal life. Personally, I put the blood outside the door symbolically, thrusting in the blood of Jesus.

Personally, I go into the waters of baptism. Personally, I am baptized in the Holy Spirit, the pillar of cloud. Personally, I enter the promised land, the life of victory. But the other movement is not so much a personal movement as the movement that brings together the body of Christ.

That is the movement from Babylon to Jerusalem. And that is the movement that we've been studying. And I want you to see one contrast between these two movements. In the movement from Egypt to Canaan, it was with mighty signs and wonders that God did in the land of Egypt.

Supernatural miracles all along the way. And that is God's way when he brings people to Christ. Even in the Acts of the Apostles, we read that when people were initially brought to Christ, it's very often with supernatural healings, signs and wonders that God does to bring people out of Egypt.

But when we study in the Old Testament, the movement of God's people from Babylon to Jerusalem, we do not find any of these external supernatural signs or wonders. Rather, we see God working quietly in a sovereign way in circumstances and in people.

And whereas in Egypt, what we see is God's supernatural power and physical miracles, in Babylon, what we see is God's sovereign control over people and circumstances and governments. Now this teaches us one very important thing in relation to the work of God today.

That when it comes to delivering people from the power of Satan and sin, God does it with supernatural healings, miracles, the casting out of demons, and many other supernatural signs and wonders like he did in Egypt.

But when he is bringing people out of Babylon into Jerusalem, it is not necessarily with supernatural signs and wonders and thunder and lightning, but rather in a quiet and in a hidden way, not so impressive in the eyes of carnal believers, but yet a much deeper work in reality.

And so that's something that we must bear in mind. Now there were two other prophets that I want to mention before I enter the book of Ezra, who also prophesied around the period of the Babylonian captivity.

Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the New Covenant

I mentioned them before. One was Jeremiah, who prophesied for about 40 or more years, immediately before the children of Israel went into Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar. And the burden of Jeremiah's prophecy, and whenever you read the book of Jeremiah you can bear this in mind, that Jeremiah had one burden, to turn God's people away from their sin so that they don't end up in Babylon.

That's the ministry we need today. And in Jeremiah, we find perhaps for the first time in the Old Testament, a prophecy concerning what we call the new covenant. And I just want to turn to that chapter for a moment.

Jeremiah 32 verse 40, he says, I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will turn away, I will not turn away from them, I will put the fear of me in their hearts. And a little more clearly in Jeremiah 31 verse 31, behold the days are coming, and this is what is quoted in Hebrews chapter 8, Jeremiah 31 31, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Now Jeremiah was the first prophet in the Old Testament who used the words, a new covenant. Not like the covenant verse 32, which I made with their fathers when I took them out of Egypt, verse 32. But this is the covenant, I will write my laws within them and on their heart, I will write it.

And this is the new covenant age in which we live. I just want to mention this fact, it's very important for us to bear in mind that Jeremiah, the man who preached and preached for 40 or more years to prevent God's people from going to Babylon, was the first prophet who spoke about the new covenant.

Now the second prophet who spoke about the new covenant was Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet who succeeded Jeremiah. Jeremiah did not succeed in turning God's people away from Babylon, they did not listen to him and they went into Babylon.

But God was merciful and God sent a prophet to his people in Babylon and that was Ezekiel. So Ezekiel came up as a prophet after the Israelites had gone into captivity. And we read in Ezekiel 36 that Ezekiel also speaks about this new covenant, though he calls it a new heart and a new spirit.

In Ezekiel 36 he says in verse 26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. Verse 27, I will put my holy spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And we know that that is the new covenant.

Now there are no prophets in the old testament who speak about the new covenant as clearly as Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And it's very significant that both these prophets prophesy in relation to Babylon. What does that teach us in relation to what we are speaking of today?

Just this, that the fundamental difference between spiritual Babylon and spiritual Jerusalem is this, that in spiritual Babylon they have no understanding of the new covenant. Everything is old covenant.

The priests and pastors are old covenant priests and pastors. They type according to the old covenant. They are defeated in their sins according to their old covenant. They have forgiveness of sins like they had in the old covenant.

They have special robes and dresses for their priests like in the old covenant. They have a special building called a temple or a church like in the old covenant. They are not a body but they are a congregation like in the old covenant.

It is 100 old covenant. It is the new covenant that moves us out of Babylon into Jerusalem. And that's why Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the first two prophets who speak about the new covenant. This is what delivers us.

We must keep that in mind that if I do not have spiritual revelation in my heart on the new covenant and all that is involved in the new covenant, I shall never experience, even if I sit in any particular assembly, I shall never experience that deliverance from spiritual Babylon and becoming a part of spiritual Jerusalem, the bride of Christ.

This is why an understanding of the new covenant is absolutely fundamental to being a part of Jerusalem. Now we can move to Ezra and we get a little bit of background to the study of this book. When we studied the book of Daniel, we had considered the last few verses of 2nd Chronicles 36, which is the book that immediately precedes Ezra.

Cyrus and God’s Sovereignty Over Kings

So if you just look above the book of Ezra to the top of the page, you'll find the last few verses of 2nd Chronicles 36. And you remember it says there in 2nd Chronicles 36 verse 20 that the king of Babylon carried the people away to Babylon.

They were servants to him until the rule of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of 2nd Chronicles 36 verse 21, by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its Sabbath. You see, they had cheated God of 70 years of leaving the land fallow during 490 years and God caught up with them by sending them to Babylon for 70 years so that they could not till the land for 70 years.

God is very exact in his judgments. And all the days of its desolation it kept Sabbath until 70 years were complete. And then what happened when the 70 years were complete? Now, verse 22 of 2nd Chronicles 36, in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.

And you know what happened in that 70 year period? That is what we studied in the book of Daniel. Daniel was the man who stood there for 70 years and turned the tide in God's favor. One man, he's an amazing man.

I just want to say one thing about some of these prophets whom God raised up. Just an encouragement to young people. Daniel was a young man when he stood for God. Jeremiah, you read in chapter 1, was a young man, so young that he didn't even feel that God could make him a prophet.

Another prophet who turned God's people towards building the temple is Zechariah. He was a young man, you read in Zechariah chapter 2. And it's very interesting significance that although it was an 80 year old man, Moses, who took the Israelites out from Egypt, when it came to the movement from Babylon to Jerusalem, the main instruments in God's hands were people who were young.

Of course, they grew older, but they started out as young people. That's a challenge to every young person today. On the day of Pentecost, every apostle who stood there was below 33 years of age. It's with such a group that God built his church.

That's just for our encouragement. Now these two verses here, 2 Chronicles 36 verse 22 and 23, are repeated word for word in verses 1, 2, and 3 of Ezra chapter 1. It's a continuation as it were, exactly the same words.

In the first year, Ezra chapter 1 verse 1, of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia. Now we are back again right in the first verse, in the first sentence, to that great theme that we have been studying in the book of Daniel, and that is the sovereignty of God.

I mentioned that in order to move out of Babylon into Jerusalem, there must be a clear understanding of the new covenant. I also want to say, brothers and sisters, that one great fact on which we need revelation in this movement from Babylon to Jerusalem is the total sovereignty of God.

The sovereignty of God over kings, over superpowers, over super emperors. Sometimes we find it difficult to have faith that God can move the mind of some petty boss of ours, some petty official. And here, in all the books connected with the movement from Babylon to Jerusalem, we'll see that as we study other books later on, the one great theme of the sovereignty of God over all men and over rulers comes through very clearly.

And in the very first verse, Cyrus was the king of the greatest superpower that existed in the world at that time, the kingdom of Media Persia, that overthrew Babylon, as we studied in Daniel. But the Lord could move the heart of that king, of the one whom the world called the greatest emperor on earth.

The Lord had no problem stirring him up to do what it says in the first verse, to fulfill what he had spoken more than 70 years earlier through his humble servant, Jeremiah. Wonderful. You see, what God's humble servants, who are despised and rejected, speak here and there is far more important than all the edicts and the orders passed by kings.

Because God speaks through his servants. There's a very beautiful illustration of this in the Gospel of Luke. If you turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 3, it's a very beautiful verse there, passage of scripture, Luke chapter 3 verses 1 and 2.

It tells us about all the great rulers, right down from Caesar, down to the smallest petty governor in the land of Palestine, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius Caesar was the greatest emperor on earth at that particular time.

And Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea, he was the big shot there. And Herod was the big shot in Galilee. And his brother Philip was the big shot in the region of Aitheria and Trachonitis. And Lysanias was the big shot in Abilene.

And the archbishops Annas and Caiaphas were the big shots in the church. And the word of God bypassed all these big shots and came to an ordinary man out in the wilderness called John. Wonderful. Praise God.

It's the same today. It bypasses all the political big shots and the religious big shots and comes down to a humble man of God who is seeking God's face, who has humbled himself, who is walking in fear and trembling before God, who fears God and therefore fears no man, who lives before God's face.

Now the reason I say that brothers and sisters is the challenge that comes to us today from that example of John the Baptist, which we just read, is John the Baptist was the forerunner to prepare the world for the first coming of Christ.

Today God needs people to be forerunners to prepare the world and the church for the second coming of Christ and it will be the same story repeated all over again. God's word will bypass the political big shots, the religious big shots and come to humble brothers who are living before God's face.

So what's the challenge? The challenge that comes to us is be a man like John in these days. Be a man like Jeremiah, like Daniel, like Ezekiel. And so we see back to Ezra chapter one, we can look at a verse in Proverbs 21 before we get there.

Proverbs 21 verse 1 it says, here is a fulfillment of this verse in Ezra 1. Proverbs 21 verse 1. The king's heart and the reason why the Lord uses the word king is because in those days the kings were the big shots.

Today a king has no power, but in those days the kings were the big shots. You can put the president of the United States or the president of Russia or the prime minister of some country, whoever has got power, that person's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, like rivers of water.

He turns it, turns what? The king's heart wherever he wishes, not where the king wishes, where God wishes. This is one of the amazing verses in the Old Testament about the sovereignty of God. And when we read a verse like that, we must do what David says in Psalm 1.

Cyrus’s Proclamation and Isaiah’s Prophecy

And what is that? Meditate on that verse. How do we meditate on that verse? We say, well Lord, let me meditate on how a river flows. You see, we've seen rivers, at least diagrams of it in maps. And have you noticed there's not a single river in the whole world that flows dead straight.

All rivers flowing this way, that way, very easy to see when you're flying in the air, but you see that even on a map. Now the point is this, this river that is flowing down eastwards for a few miles, after a while suddenly it turns course and flows westwards, exactly the opposite direction.

And Proverbs 21, 1 says that the king is determined to do this particular thing, and God can turn his mind in such a way, because he's got to fulfill the word of the Lord by his servant Jeremiah or John or X, Y or Z, anyone who has stood for God, and God's going to turn him to do exactly the opposite, like the rivers of water.

Wonderful. Even the kings of Media and Persia, who had a phrase, which we studied in Daniel, which we saw in Daniel, called the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be changed. But God could change it.

God could change the law of the Medes and the Persians without any problem at all. And so we see the Lord stirred up the heart of this king Cyrus, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord, which he had given through his humble servant Jeremiah.

And Cyrus all of a sudden made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and he put it in writing, saying, thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, Ezra chapter 1 and verse 2, the Lord, the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth.

You see, that was one big difference between Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar never realized that the Lord, the God of heaven had given him all the kingdoms of the earth. And Cyrus, just by the way, uses the word Jehovah in verse 2.

Jehovah, he recognized that Jehovah was the true God. The God of heaven has given me, he's the one who's given me, I didn't get it because of my cleverness or my military strategy, God has given me all the kingdoms of the earth.

And God, Jehovah, has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Now, if you turn to the book of Isaiah and chapter 45, about 200 years before Cyrus lived, Isaiah the prophet made a prophecy.

It's one of those remarkable prophecies in the Old Testament where a person is named. Many Old Testament prophecies, there's no name, but this is one of the only Old Testament prophecies where there is a name.

And the name is this, Isaiah chapter 44, verse 28, the Lord says, it is I who says of Cyrus, now Cyrus was going to be born more than 150 years later. Isaiah is prophesying about someone who's going to be born 150 years later at a time when even Nebuchadnezzar had not become the ruler of Babylon.

Before the existence of Nebuchadnezzar, Isaiah prophesied. He said, he's my shepherd. He will perform my desire and he will declare of Jerusalem she will be built. And of the temple, your foundation will be laid.

That says the Lord to Cyrus is anointed, whom I've taken by the right hand to subdue nations before him and to lose the loins of kings, to open doors so that gates will not be shut and so on. For the sake of Jacob, my servant was for and Israel, my chosen one, I have called you by name.

I've given you a title of honor. Even though you're not a Jew, you have not known me, but the Lord can stir up a man's heart like that. Now this is written, brothers and sisters, for our encouragement.

The rulers of the world today of the great countries and the small countries, God knew them by name before they existed, before they were born. And he has decided how to move their hearts when the right time comes.

For what purpose? To fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by his humble apostles in the New Testament and which has come down to us who are living in these last days, so that Jerusalem can be built. Wonderful.

It's tremendous to belong to such a God. And so what was the burden in Cyrus' heart? God moved him and that's written to teach us that God can move any power today for the purpose of building his body, the body of Christ on earth.

This is why we are an undefeatable people when we come to building the body of Christ. It is impossible. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church which I built, Jesus said. There's a spirit of triumph in the hearts of those who have committed themselves to build the body of Christ.

Nothing can discourage them because they have seen from the Old Testament that it's a sovereign God who moves kings and everyone else towards this direction. Right? Let's turn back to Ezra. The Lord has appointed Cyrus to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah.

Going to Jerusalem and Supporting the Builders

And then he says in verse 3, whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord. Think that a heathen king is telling the Jews, go and build a temple brothers, go and build the house of God in Jerusalem.

He is the God who is in Jerusalem and every survivor, Ezra 1 .4, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a free will offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.

There's no compulsion there. He says, whoever wants to go, verse 3, let him go. I just want to say there's no compulsion in moving out of Babylon either. Cyrus knew that. We don't force people out of Babylon.

You want to stay there, stay. And you want to come out and build God's house in Jerusalem, come out and build it. But the point is this, there are two categories of people here. First, verse 3, those who go up to Jerusalem, the people exist even today.

Verse 4, and every survivor, that is those who are left, who stay behind, those who are not so keen on going to Jerusalem. Why is it there are some Jews who are not so keen on going to Jerusalem? Because Jerusalem is in ruins.

Babylon is like New York or something like that, you know, who would want to come from there to some ruined place and live there? And they say, well brother, we'll support you financially. Well, that's fine.

Cyrus says, all right, that's the second category of people, those who don't want to go to build God's house because it's too much trouble to go there and it's all primitive conditions over there. He says, all right, then you give silver and gold.

But I want to tell you something, as you read through the book of Ezra, it's all right, there were some people who gave silver and gold, we don't even know their names, but God has kept an exact list, as you come to chapter 2 you see that, of those who actually went and built God's house.

But there is no list of those who gave money. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Because our money has no value to God, if we have not first given our bodies and our life. In the New Testament there are two chapters on the subject of giving, and those two chapters in the episodes are in 2nd Corinthians 8 and 2nd Corinthians 9.

And you notice here in 2nd Corinthians 8 and 2nd Corinthians 9, one very interesting thing. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 8, Paul is writing about the Christians in Macedonia, who gave from, even though they were poor, it says in 2nd Corinthians 8 too, they were poor believers.

Sometimes poor believers think that they cannot give anything to God, that's why they become still poorer. But these poor believers, they learned how to give out of their poverty, they were liberals. It says they didn't give great riches, verse 3, they gave according to their ability.

Maybe a few pices or whatever it was, the widow's mite, that was good enough. But they gave, and they gave beyond their ability. Begging us, saying please receive this ball to help the brothers and sisters in need.

And this, verse 5, this is the verse I want you to notice, not as we expected. They first, notice this, they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God, then they gave their money.

And so we find these two chapters, 2nd Corinthians 8 and 2nd Corinthians 9, which deal with giving, teach us that first we have to give ourselves. That's what we see in Ezra chapter 1 verse 3 and 4. Two categories of people, one, those who actually go from Babylon to Jerusalem to build the house, they suffer a lot of inconvenience, a lot of difficulties, they have to give up their comfortable homes in Babylon, sell it, give up their businesses.

During those 70 years, some of those Jews, you can imagine, must have set up flourishing businesses in Babylon. And to give up all that, and to start all over again, for something like Abraham, leaving Ur of the Chaldees, they did it.

And God took note of those who made those sacrifices, for what? Not for themselves, but to build the house of God. And this has an application for us even today. The house of God is built where there are those who have learned not to seek their own, but who have learned to give up financial gain, honor of the world, honor of Christendom, and many other ways, who've stood for the truth, and that standing up has cost them something.

It has cost them position, it has cost them money, financially they have suffered, many other ways. But they decided to go, and God makes a careful note of all those people. But then there's the other category of people, who want to stay where they are and support these people financially.

Yeah, they also do that, but God doesn't keep a list of their names. And so we see, Cyrus was a wise man, he knew that some people wouldn't be too keen on going. He says, alright, we might as well get them to at least give some of their money, which they've earned here, to build God's house.

God’s Record of Sacrifice

Then we read in Ezra 1 verse 5, the same God who stirred up Cyrus' heart to make this proclamation, we read, the heads of the father's households of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites arose, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and rebuild the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.

Does that mean that those people who did not go to Jerusalem, God did not stir their spirit? No. Then we'd have to put the blame on God for their not leaving Babylon. And that's what some people do. They say, well, brother, the Lord's led me to stay here, where I am.

The blame's on God for staying in Babylon. But I'll tell you why they stayed in Babylon, because God tried to stir them and they couldn't be stirred. They were solidly established, they didn't want to be stirred.

They didn't want to be moved. But there were certain people in Babylon who were responsive. And I think those are the people who had a burden, like Daniel, who had a burden. Lord, who had their windows open to Jerusalem, like Daniel, who wanted to see a pure testimony for God on earth.

And God was able to move their hearts easily. And like that, even today, here and there, God finds those who have a burden for a pure testimony, who are fed up of all the traditionalism and the ritualism and the corruption there is in Christendom, and who are concerned, who are burdened, that there will be a pure testimony for the glory of Christ on earth in different places.

And those are the people whose hearts God can stir. God can't stir everybody's heart because some people don't want to be stirred. It's too inconvenient to be stirred. And so, it says, some people God could stir up their spirits.

And once God has stirred up their spirits, then He could stir their bodies pretty easily. And then their bodies also moved out of Babylon. And they began to move, they sold their possessions, they sold their businesses.

They did a lot of sacrifices, but that's not even mentioned there. It's an amazing thing. You can imagine when all these people moved out of Babylon into Jerusalem, what a lot of things. They had to uproot their homes, to sell their things, sell their businesses, move on.

But not one word is mentioned about all that sacrifice, which teaches us one thing, that when it comes to building the body of Christ, brothers and sisters, whatever sacrifice we may make, it's not even worth mentioning.

It's not worth being put on record anywhere. Because if God has chosen you to build the body of Christ, that is such a tremendous privilege and honor, that it's a shame and a disgrace for us even to think that we've made some sacrifice for that.

Oh dear, no. No mention of all that they had to give up. They just got up and went, it says. But all that is involved in that one sentence, they got up and went. We can imagine all the sacrifices hidden behind.

But they had the honor and the privilege of building the house of God. Then all those about them, encouraged them. Here were the second category of people who supported them financially, tried to relieve their consciences thereby, by giving a little money out of the millions they had earned.

Gold and goods and cattle, aside from all that, was given as a free will offering. And verse 7, Cyrus, here's another thing that God moved Cyrus to do. Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem all the costly articles that were used in the temple.

And you remember, in Belshazzar's feast, he was drinking in those vessels. Now King Cyrus, he brought out all these vessels and gave it to Shezbazar, the prince of Judah. Shezbazar was the heathen name, which the Babylonians gave him.

His Jewish name was Zerubbabel. And he was the leader of the tribe of David. You read of him in Matthew chapter 1. If there was a king in Judah, it would have been Zerubbabel. He's called the prince of Judah.

But he was the man, now this was their number, he was the man who collected these vessels. 30 gold dishes, 1 ,000 silver dishes, 29 duplicates, 30 gold bowls, 410 silver bowls of the second kind, 1 ,000 other articles.

And all the articles of gold and silver numbered 5 ,400. And Shezbazar brought them all up with the exiles and went up from Babylon to Jerusalem. A beautiful phrase at the end of chapter 1, from Babylon to Jerusalem.

That was this movement. And we see here that the leader of this group, he did not have to beg for money. Babylon is built with money. You read that in Revelation chapter 18. Money is the big thing. They're always begging for money.

And all these Christian organizations that are always running short of money. There's something wrong there. Zerubbabel had no problem at all. The silver and the gold belongs to the Lord. And he can provide us everything that we need, if we are dedicated to build God's house.

That's the second thing we learn from chapter 1. Not only that the great powers in the world, God can move them to fulfill His purpose, but also that God can move people to give money for the building of God's house without begging, without prayer letters, without borrowing, without doing anything that's dishonoring to Christ.

If we are committed to the building of the body of Christ, the silver and the gold and the whole world belongs to the Lord. The earth is the Lord's and everything that is in it. Let me turn you to Psalm 50.