Ezra 6:22 (CSB)
“They observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful, having changed the Assyrian king’s attitude toward them, so that he supported them in the work on the house of the God of Israel.”
Ezra calls Darius the Assyrian king. Darius was Persian, and this is not an error. Assyria carried off the ten northern tribes in 722 BC. Babylon then broke Assyria and took Judah. Persia then overthrew Babylon. So a king ruling Assyria’s old lands is now paying to rebuild the house that Assyria’s heirs had helped destroy.
The oppression began with Assyria. It ends with Assyria. God used those kings to discipline His people, and then He used those same kings to restore them.
Notice where the joy came from. They did not manufacture it. The LORD made them joyful. Christian joy is not optimism for its own sake, and it is not ignoring the trouble in the world. It is what happens when a heart looks back and sees that God has been at work the whole time.
So how should we regard presidents and governors and courts? When they protect what is right, thank God. When they oppose the church, do not panic. The church does not rest on the favor of kings. Kings rest on the favor of God.
This was still the lesser house. But Haggai had promised that its final glory would surpass the first (Haggai 2:9), and Malachi had promised that the Lord they were seeking would suddenly come to His temple (Malachi 3:1). The cloud never returned to that building. Jesus did. He walked those courts, taught in them, and drove out the money changers. Then on a Friday afternoon outside the city walls He bowed His head and declared the work finished (John 19:30).
Nobody congratulates the hammer. The hammer was useful, but the builder gets the honor. We are the tools. Christ is the Builder.
Where have you been trusting the tool instead of the Builder?
Reflect
Look at what carried you through this year and name what you actually leaned on. Your own ability, your plans, an election, a balance in an account. Give thanks for the tools, then set your confidence back on the Builder who has never left a work unfinished.