Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to first of all look at a verse in the 103rd Psalm, Psalm 103.
And the seven first?
He made known his ways unto Moses, his act unto the children of Israel.
I'd like, with the Lord's help, to look at some of the things in connection with God's feelings with his people of old, how He allowed them to be carried into captivity, how He provided for their return, and what was produced in their hearts as a result of all these ways of God with them. And I was thinking of this verse and how wonderful it is. He made known His ways unto Moses.
As far as those looking on were concerned.
They only saw his acts. They saw what was happening, the children of Israel in slavery in Egypt. They saw how God took them through the Red Sea. They had many experiences of watching those dealings of God with his people. But Moses understood his ways. Moses was in communion with him. The Lord had appeared to him and said.
I've surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt.
I've heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows and I am come down to deliver them. An observer looking on might have just looked upon it as an ordinary thing that these people were in slavery. Might have looked at it from a political viewpoint too. But how different it was with Moses. He identified himself with the people of God.
He loved the people of God, and so God made his ways.
Known to him, and he understood what God was doing, and even in all their passage through the wilderness.
Many might have said, well, we had a time when there was no bread to eat, there was no water. But as far as Moses was concerned, we see him understanding these ways of God and what God was seeking to teach His people through these things. For it says in Deuteronomy that there was a twofold purpose in what God passed them through in that wilderness.
It says.
To humbly and approve thee and to know what was in thy heart. And the second thing was that they would learn that God was able to feed them and clothe them and care for them all through that journey until they finally reached the promised land. And so those are the lessons that we have to learn too. We have to learn the ways of God.
We have to learn that God has purposes in things that.
We pass through and we don't just, shall I say, see the acts, but through the Word of God we can see that He has a plan and He has a purpose in everything that takes place. There's absolutely nothing that takes place in this world or in the life of you and I that God doesn't have his hand in it. As the Scripture says. Who has purpose and brought it to pass when the Lord commanded it not or again.
In Daniel He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say but to itself. You may ask me why I do certain things, but we can't say. God doesn't have a right to do as He pleases. He is overall He's sovereign. Well, I say again, those two great lessons that Israel were to learn are lessons.
God would have us to learn.
He humbles us, He proves us, He shows us what within is in our heart.
Because I've often said the Bible is really the history of two men, the first man totally fallen and ruined, and the second man, the Lord from heaven. And we trace the history of the first man, whatever he's put under, whatever test or favors he's placed under, we see it always coming out of that. In me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. We don't like to admit this, but.
God says it, and we often have to prove it. Who of us haven't done something that we never thought we would do? Doesn't that show us that we don't know our own hearts, That we didn't realize what they were like? But God knew He told us just what they were like. He says they're deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. But brethren, isn't it lovely when we discover what our own hearts are?
To discover what God's heart is allows this unchanging.
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A grace that has provided salvation and has provided a throne of grace that we can come for help, has provided restoration when we have failed. Oh, how blessed to know such a God. As a little hymn says, why should I ever careful be since such a God is mine?
He watches army night and day, and tells me, Thou art mine. Throw this little verse here says, He made known his ways unto Moses, his act unto the children of Israel. Well, God would have us present to understand His ways, and this gives us peace as we see that God has revealed to us His purposes in connection with his dealings with us.
And let us not just be like people who observe what was happening.
In Israel. But rather let us be shall I stay close to the Lord, so that we would see that He has a purpose in everything that takes place.
As I said, I'd like to look at some of this in connection with God's ways, with his people of old, and if you'll turn with me to the prophet Isaiah.
And the 45th chapter.
I'd like to read first in the 44th chapter in a few verses there.
Isaiah 44 and verse 24.
Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb. I am the Lord that maketh all things that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself, that frustrated the tokens of liars, and maketh diviners mad, and turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish, that confirmeth the word of His Servant.
And performeth the counsel of his messengers that sailed to Jerusalem thou shalt be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah ye shall be built. And I will raise up the decayed places thereof. That saith to the deep be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers that say, Saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt.
Be built, and to the temple thy foundation shall be laid.
Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have Holden to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the two lead gates, and the gates shall not be shut.
I will go before thee and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in Thunder the bars of iron. I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places. Thou that thou mayest know that I, the Lord which call thee by thy name, and the God of Israel, for Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called.
By thy name I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
Then pass down to the.
Umm.
12 Bully.
I have made the earth and created man upon it.
I even my hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded. I have raised Him up in righteousness, and I will direct all His ways. He shall build my city, and He shall let go my captive, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts.
Now you know, dear friends, these verses that I have just read to you were written over 100 years before Cyrus was even born, and God is foretelling a man who hadn't yet been born. As it says here, I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. That is, God told what his name would be.
Long before he was ever born, told what he would do, told how he would accomplish his.
Purposes told how he would let the people go back to their land and not for Christ nor reward.
Well, who thought to speak to our own heart? God knows the future.
Man tries and he makes all kinds of predictions. Sometimes his predictions come out all right, but often they don't. But when God foretells something, it's just as sure as though it had already happened. It says He call us things that are not as though they were. Everything with God is the eternal presence. He doesn't need to wonder what's going to happen, because he knows.
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The future. And so he's telling this here to show us, this one who stretched out the heavens by himself, the One who upholds all things by the word of his power. That's the one with whom we have to do. Isn't it beautiful in Hebrews chapter 1, where it talks about Him and it says that He upholds all things by the word of his power. And then it says when He had by himself purged our sins.
Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. What a great consolation to those of us who know the Lord to know that the One who created all things and who upholds all things loved you and I enough to come down from Heaven's glory and go to Calvary's cross. To put away our sins so that we could be fitted to be in His presence, so that we could enjoy what's in His heart.
Sin has spoiled.
World, but it can never enter that new creation scene. And so at great cost to himself, that's what the Lord Jesus has done, and He would have you and I to know this and to enjoy it.
Well, it tells us here that He made everything, and that He frustrates the tokens of liars and makes diviners mad. How often people have predicted things, and they haven't turned out the way they planned at all, or the way they expected. And why? Well, as it says, who hath purposed and brought it to pass, when the Lord commanded it not? Oh, it's very wonderful for us to know.
That there is a God in heaven who knows all about us.
And who is concerned? Who rules all things? And so this is what he is saying to them here in the prophet Isaiah. He wants them to know the God with whom they have to do. And so he tells about what this man would do. He names him, tells how he would make a command that the people who were captives would leave their captivity. But they weren't even captives at this time.
They were still free men, so to speak, in their own land, but God knew the future. He knew that they were going to be carried away captive in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. And He's telling them this to assure their hearts that He did know the future and that they could count upon him. And brethren, doesn't that speak to you and I? He knows the future. He knows tomorrow.
I say again, everything to God is the eternal presence, and if you and I only had this confidence in our souls, what peace it would give us.
When Nebuchadnezzar finally came up against Babylon and besieged it, and their false prophets told them you're not going to go into captivity, you're going to have peace.
But he made the diviners mad because he had told before what was going to happen. And because of this, because of what they had done, why God did allow them to go into captivity. His word is sure, His word is secure. And so he tells us here.
That in the.
45th Chapter In the first verse, Whose right hand I have Holden to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the two lead gates, and the gates shall not be shut.
That is, God allowed him to go as far as he had planned and as far as he had allowed. And we know how that Cyrus came. And when Belshazzar was having that great faith, why they captured the city of Babylon, and Cyrus was the one, and now he reigns. Well, God foreknew and foretold this before.
And it wasn't the strength of his own army or his wisdom.
By itself it was God who was overall, and so it tells us here in this fourth verse. For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name.
You know the Lord has a special care for his own. He's the preserver of all men, especially of those that believe. It tells us in Ephesians chapter one that he is head over all things to the church, which is his body. And I believe when we get home to glory and God retraces His ways and lets us see his ways with us, that we're going to just marvel and see that.
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Things that happened in the world were all his own way of accomplishing his own purposes, things that we didn't understand. Perhaps down here we're going to see how that God had his own way. And just think of that little boy Moses, born and placed by his mother down in that ark of bulrushes in the Nile River.
Did do you think that they ever expected that he was going to be?
The deliverer whom God would use. But God had his eye upon that little boy. God had purposes in connection with him, and he was taken into the court of Pharaoh. And then God overruled circumstances, so he called him to be the deliverer who would take the people out of Egypt and bring them into the promised Land. Oh, how wonderful to see these ways of God. And you would also have expected that.
Perhaps seeing he was going to do this, that he would want some reward or he would expect these people to in some way provide for themselves. But you know when the time came that God wanted them to go back, why He just said all the prisoners free and he gave money, silver and gold and provided for their returns.
And almost unheard of things. And why? Well, because God cares for his people.
All they thought to cause us to come to Him in prayer about difficulties and trials that we have in life, because God knows everything beforehand.
They'll turn over now to Jeremiah chapter 25.
Verse 4.
Once a read verse 3 also.
From the 13th year of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and 20th year, the word of the Lord has come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, but ye have not hearkened. And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened nor inclined.
Your ear to hear.
They said, Turn thee again now, everyone, from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you, and to your Father's forever and ever.
Then passing on down to the 10th berth.
Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Nicholl come to pass. When 70 years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation saith.
Lord for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual, it desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words that I have pronounced against it, even all it is written in this book. It's Jeremiah the prophet that hath prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also, and I will recompense them.
According to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands.
Well, here we find now the time had come when there's another prophet arises, Jeremiah. The people have departed from God. They haven't listened to the warnings of Isaiah. They won't listen to the warnings of Jeremiah. They still go on in their evil way. And even though God had sent them these prophets in love to warn them and to call upon them to turn from their evil ways, they wouldn't listen.
And so finally, the time has come when God has to deal because, you know, there are two things in God's ways with us as believers. There is the grace of God and the government of God.
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The grace of God is His undeserved favor to us.
Everyone of us who know the Lord is our Savior are going to be safely home in glory, and we won't get there through anything that we have done. We'll only get there through that blessed work that the Lord Jesus accomplished because He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. His precious blood is our only title to be there.
But we can have a very rough passage in getting there, and that's the government of God. God doesn't want us as believers to have a rough passage in getting there. He wants us to walk in obedience. And the path of obedience, the Scripture says her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. To walk in communion with the Lord in the path of obedience is a safe and a happy path.
But.
When we walk in self will, it doesn't change his purposes of grace. He's going to bring everyone of his own safely home. But we find, just like it was with Israel, that God had to deal with them in his governmental ways.
But even when he had to bring this judgment upon them, is it not a wonderful thing that he actually told how long it was going to be?
He had foretold that Cyrus would be the one who would.
Open the way for them to come back. He hadn't mentioned any particular time as to just when that would take place. But now he raises up Jeremiah, who announces judgment upon them for their evil ways, tells them they're going to be in captivity. But he sets a limit on the time that it was going to be 70 years. Isn't that a comfort when we go through?
Sprawls, will you say, how long is this going to drag on? Well, we don't know, but God knows and he has set a limit. He, he knows this exactly how long It may be a length of time. 70 years certainly speaks about a whole lifetime for most of us.
And we know that when Paul had that thorn in the flesh, he had it for a lifetime. But at least we can say that God knows exactly.
Doesn't it comfort your heart that God knows exactly how much is needed? When I had to correct my children, or perhaps punish them, I didn't always know just what they needed. I wasn't always wise in the way I carried it out. But God our Father knows exactly what we need. He knows exactly the time it's at, the time limit He sets, the amount of the severity of it.
And he has a deliverer when the time comes.
Oh how how wonderful it is.
He made known His ways unto Moses, and He wants you and I, brethren, to be in the enjoyment of this. Are you going through a trial? The Lord knew beforehand that you needed it, and the Lord has is passing you through it. But He knows just how long that will last, and He has set a time and He has purposes of love towards you, as Jeremiah announced all these judgments that would come upon the people.
In the 31St chapter, he breaks out with these wonderful words. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn me. That is, His ways with us are always in love as well as in wisdom. He knows exactly as I say what is needed. So He announced the time that this captivity would last.
And mentions the name of the man who would.
Carry out the captivity. Now we could Nazareth and how he would do this and how he would do it also to other nations and then how God would have to deal with him. Now if you turn over to Daniel.
Daniel, Chapter 9.
Verse one.
In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.
In the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years.
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Or out the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation of Jerusalem. And I sent my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God.
Keep the covenant and mercy to.
That keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments, we have sinned, and have done in committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants, the prophets, which spake in Thy name to our kings, our Princess, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
All our righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces as it is, as at this day.
To the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off.
Through all the countries where the Thou hast driven them because of their trespass, that they have trespassed against Thee. O Lord, to us belong with confusion of faith, to our kings, to our Princess, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.
And then the 61St O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee.
Let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from Thy city, Jerusalem, my holy mountain, because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
Well, here we see now the responsibility side. It was because of their failure that God had allowed them to be carried into captivity. But he also had set a time. And now we find here is one who had been carried into captivity, and he values the word of God. He's searching it and he finds something in it that's a great comfort and consolation to him because he sees that God.
I had intended this to bring them to repentance, and he turned to the Lord. And this brings before us the importance of reading the word of God. How often when we're in trial, we don't read the word of God. We're smart under the trial. We get upset and perhaps rebellious. But in the case of Daniel, during his captivity, we see how he was faithful to the Lord. He submitted and.
When he had to go to school in Babylon, he was very faithful and tells us that when he was required to do certain things that he couldn't do as a person who feared God, he refused and he was tested for it too. And then later on when the king decreed that everyone was to give up praying and no one was to make a request for.
To God or man for.
30 days. Why, He just went to his room and prayed as usual. In his captivity he sought to be faithful and he could have rebelled. But I've enjoyed the first chapter of Daniel. It says three things that the Lord gave him. It says that the Lord had given them into the hands of the king of Babylon. It says the Lord brought him into favor with the Prince of the eunuchs, who was placed over him.
And then it also says that the Lord gave him wisdom.
An understanding. And so he took everything from the Lord.
If he was a captive in Babylon, he said, well, the Lord has allowed that. It was the Lord that gave us into the half of nephew Nazar. If he was placed in a difficult spot, he didn't say, well, I think I can prove to that man that I'm right. He looked to the Lord about it. He prayed and the Lord brought him into favor and thanked the law with the Prince of the eunuchs. You know the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers, the rivers of water.
Are you in a situation and you say, but I'll never change that person's mind. No, perhaps you can't, but God can. God can. I've seen it happen many times that when I'm in situation looked impossible. Why pray about it? And you might be surprised to see because God fashions people's hearts and God brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the Prince of the eunuchs.
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And then when he got along well in school, he didn't say I'm clever, I'm at the top of my class. Instead of this, he said, well, the Lord help me. And so when he got through, he got a a good job, but he didn't let his job go to his head when it was a test of faithfulness. He'd rather be thrown into the den of lions than give up the source of all his strength. And that was in prayer.
And so you see, even in all those years of captivity when he was.
In Babylon he sought to be faithful to his Lord, he said.
Trying situation, but the Lord says when you see this happen, look up the most high rules in the Kingdom of men. The Lord is coming. He's our deliverer from the coming rock. And so this is what you see with Daniel.
And you see too, that he was a humble person. He takes the place of identifying himself with the people of God in all their failure. And I think this is a very, very important thing for us as Christians. It isn't for us to take the attitude, well, other people might do this, but I couldn't do it and I wouldn't do it.
Anyone of us are capable of anything. If the Lord doesn't keep us, we need to be like Daniel. He didn't say, well the people ought to be humble. He said to us belongs confusion of faith. He identifies himself with the people. He takes the humble place and it says God resisteth the crowd, but give us grace to the humble. And I believe, brethren, in the difficulties that we're passing through and some of us feel it very keenly, what we're passing through.
Even has gathered to the Lord's name. The answer is for us to be in this state like Daniel humbling ourselves under God's mighty hand, acknowledging that his hand has allowed it. He could prevent anything and he could turn as we find the course of kings and everything. And Daniel didn't make a petition to the king so that they could get back. He didn't say, well, I have found in the prophecy of Jeremiah that we're supposed to go back.
So let's all join together and sign a petition so we can get rights and get back. No, he prayed to the God of heaven. That's that's his resource because the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. And so we see the Lord God knew everything beforehand foretold it. He made known his ways to his people who wanted to listen to him. Yet we find also.
That suited state of soul.
With Daniel, and what joy it must have been to the heart of Daniel to know that the time had come when God was going to deliver his people. And I say again, what joy we ought to have in all that we see taking place to look up and say, well, it's very trying, it's very difficult, but the Lord is coming soon. What a what a blessed thing. What a blessed hope, the Book of Revelation.
Full of warnings of the most awful judgment, A time of trouble such as never was, since there was a nation.
But the heart of the one who writes that John was Even so come Lord Jesus.
Yes, his heart was taken up with the coming of the Lord. That was the way he looked for deliverance. He didn't expect it from man. And so we see this beautiful attitude now with Daniel. Now if you go back to the book of Ezra.
To vote five books before the Psalms, Ezra.
Chapter 1.
Now in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia.
That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his Kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem.
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Which is in Judah.
Who is there among you of all his people? His God? Be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the House of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem, and whosoever remaineth in any place where he saw adjourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the free will offering for the House of God.
God that is in Jerusalem then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah, and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build a House of the Lord, which is at Jerusalem.
And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things. Beside all that was willingly offered also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the House of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the House of his God. Even those did Cyrus the king of Persia bring forth by the hand of.
Ephrata the Treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheth Bazar the Prince of Judah, and this is the number of them 30 charges of gold, 1000. Chargers of silver, 99 and 20 knives, 30 basins of gold, silver basins of a second sort, 410, and other vessels, 1000.
All the vessels of gold and of silver were 5400.
All these dead Cheshire.
Bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon under Jerusalem.
Well, I'm sure your mind goes back to what we read in Isaiah chapter 44 and five. And there we see that God had told this man's name before he was born. He said I surname you, you don't know me, but I'm going to tell what you're going to do. I'm going to frustrate the tokens of liars and make diviners mad. That is, they may have all kinds of ideas, but it says heaven and earth shall pass away. But my.
My word shall not pass away. And so as soon as this great King Cyrus became king in the very first year of his reign, why he does this? Exactly what God said.
It's true that God had already wrought in the heart of Daniel and He had taken the humble place so that he could rejoice in this blessing. And you know, if you and I are walking before the Lord, why we expect Him to come in. We expect his power to be made manifest. We expect Him to display his goodness. And so I'm sure this was no surprise to Daniel. He had already found that in the.
Scriptures and he had already taken a humble place as not deserving it at all.
So this great king, he now puts all this in writing, tells them that they can go back, provide silver and gold for them, and make all provisions for them to go back. And God even mentions all the small details about the things that were given, the number of vessels that were brought, given to them to go back.
And we also see too that not only.
Did God stir up the heart of the king? But he also stirred up the heart of the people to be willing.
And he delights to stir up our hearts too.
I hope this afternoon that when we read something like this, my heart and your heart will be stirred. How are we just settling down and saying, well, we're living in the last days, there's no use. Everything seems to be so difficult that I think it's not worthwhile struggling against the current. It's too hard in the school, it's too hard in the office, it's even too hard in the assembly to try and be faithful to the Lord.
Oh brethren, let's not be discouraged. May the Lord stir our hearts just like He did with these people.
These people were content to leave Babylon and go back to their own land. It wasn't going to be easy for them. We'll read perhaps a little bit of how they went back, and it wasn't very easy or pleasant for them, but nevertheless, the Lord protected them and the Lord cared for them. And you and I can walk in peace in the midst of a world that's upset.
Little hymn says through scenes of strife and desert life we tread in peace our way. That was the pathway of the Lord Jesus when he was born by.
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Herod made a decree to destroy all the babies from 2 years old and under, but God took care of his beloved son and he was carried down into Egypt and brought back after Herod the king had died. They took up stones to cast at him on different occasions, but he just passed through the midst of them. And he said, I do cures today and tomorrow and the third day I shall be persecuted.
Amid all the opposition, in other words, he knew that God his Father had called him to that pathway in which he was walking here of perfect obedience, and nothing turned him aside. Well, brethren, may you and I have that purpose apart. It's not going to be easy.
Brethren in other lands are perhaps even while I'm talking in prison and suffering for the name of Christ. And I want to tell you that we don't need to expect it's going to be easier. There are things that have happened that some of us never, never expected that we to see happen even among us. And it only proves to us that we are living in the last days. But does that mean that we can't count upon God?
That we can't know that he's overall.
How I say again, the most High rules in the Kingdom of men, and that blessed one His head over all things to the Church, which is His body.
And we find even with Job, when the Sabeans came up and took away some of his possessions and the strong wind blew down some of his things, he didn't say the Lord gave in. The Sabeans have taken away. He said the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. He saw God's hand in everything. Paul was a prisoner and he could have said I'm a prisoner under a very.
Cool A very cruel.
Man named Nero, but he said I Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. Oh, I think that's so beautiful. He he totally submitted. And what was the result of his being in prison?
We have those invaluable letters that he was inspired to write in prison. What a blessing those prison epistles have been to the Church of God. We think of those wonderful epistles and the precious truth that's brought in them. Oh, God overruled that imprisonment of Paul to bring out that blessing for the Church of God. Oh, it's a very blessed thing for us.
Well, those in Babylon who?
Heart stirred them up. They were willing to make this journey. It wasn't easy. Later on in the book you'll see that there were enemies by the way, and when they were carrying these vessels that were so valuable, you may be sure that the enemy wasn't going to leave them alone. And yet when they prayed and looked to the Lord, He was able, and He did protect them along the way.
Because nothing happens by chance.
In our lives.
If he allows a trial, it's always for our good and blessing.
Well now we find in the 2nd chapter that God gives a record of all these ones that came up and you'll notice how he mentions the name of many.
And tells about how they were willing to make this trip. But I think it's interesting to see that in the 36th verse he speaks of the priest.
The children of Jedediah, of the House of Joshua. And in the 40th verse he speaks about the Levites. In the 41St verse he speaks about the singers.
And you see how that there were many people that God also provided, those who as God provided in those days, there was those who there were those rather who were provided to.
Be the virtual help, shall I say, to the people of God. I've provided this as well. Then the Levites were servants. I don't know where the singers, you might say, well, the Lord doesn't take particular notice of what I.
How he does, he does, and he knows all about what you desire to do for him. Of course, in Christianity, every believer is a priest.
But in regard to the Levites, they were servants.
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And you know, it's a very great privilege to do little things for the Lord. He values. Even a cup of cold waters given in his name tells us that the service of epiphytes was to pray for the Saints. And so there may be hidden services that we don't know about, but the Lord does. And so it even mentions the singers, you know.
That's a very wonderful thing I've been enjoying late. What a wonderful privilege seeing.
Yeah, you know, there's no two birds that can sing in harmony. If you have the the most beautiful singing birds, you never heard them harmonize their voices. They can. God didn't make them that way. But God gave to us as humans a wonderful privilege that 1000 people and more can join their voices together and make one sound in praising and thanking the Lord. And the Lord values that. It's a great privilege for us to sing together.
The praises of the Lord, it says singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. It doesn't make it anymore sweet to the Lord. When there's a musical instrument, it might make it more sweet to a person, but we're not seeing the people. We're seeing to the Lord, and the Lord sees the melody in the heart. I'm not saying the enjoyment of sound is wrong, but in worship, what God wants is what comes from the heart.
And that is what he desires and so.
Come together. Isn't it a wonderful thing that we can join our voices? Oh, God, even mentions the singers. We're glad that some people know how to raise the humans too. The Lord provides in all these things. You know, I was very struck. Perhaps this is a kind of a little personal thing, but I, I used to think sometimes that if I raise the tune that wasn't just right or perhaps too high or something. I thought, well, it was just a chance that I made a mistake.
Until I read a little article and I it said that if we were really in communion with the Lord that he would help us to start it in the right pitch and he would help us to start a tune so that others could join. I don't think we should just take it as a matter of course that any of us can start. It's a very wonderful thing when it's a tune that all can join in happy harmony and our voices blend together. The Lord provides the singers. So the singers here were.
Among those who came and they're mentioned here.
And there's also an interesting thing about these.
These, Nathaniel, as I understand that these nanthonyms, and there's quite a number of them too, they were the descendants, I believe, of the Gibeonites. And you know, these Gibeonites didn't have a very good background. They had come and deceived poor Joshua and the elders of the people of God. And they might have, they might have thought there was no service for them.
Because it says that Joshua warned them that they had.
Saved him and he made them healers of wood and drawers of water. But I think it's very lovely to see that these men and women know though too, who were hewers of wood and drawers of water. Now we see that they're engaged in happy service for the Lord instead of smarting underwritten, saying, well, because of our background, we're no use.
They come forward and they have learned to value.
The things of the Lord and when this company returns back, we see a large number of these Nathan IMS these people who might have got smart as an upset because of what had happened in their past thought isn't it beautiful to see them among this number? And then there's another 2 here, the 55th verse, the children of Solomon's servants.
I looked this up too, to see and I found out these children of Solomon's servants. They Solomon's servants were actually Gentiles who had been drawn into service under this great King Solomon, whose reign, as we know, is a picture of the coming time of glory when the Lord Jesus reigns from sea to sea and from pole to pole. And so these people were actually Gentiles, but they.
That identified themselves with the people of God. And so there's a large number of these ones that are mentioned here as the children of Solomon's servants. You say, well, I, I don't have the same privileges as others. I don't have the same background. I haven't been brought up in the meeting and I haven't all the privileges. Well, was it only those who had a background among the people of God who came back? Oh, no, no, there were those who didn't.
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But there were those who valued the Lord, who valued His place, who valued his service. And so God takes particular notice of all these things. He knows all about us. He knows about our backgrounds and everything with these Vivianites. That was a bad background with the children of Solomon's servants.
Why? It wasn't particularly necessarily a bad background, but they might have said well.
Well, outside of the privileges that they weren't, they partook of this and I think it's lovely to see these people brought in.
I know there's a little perhaps a sad note here. It speaks about in the 61St verse.
And the children of the of the children of the priests, the children of Habii, the children of cause, the children of Brasilia, which took a wife of the daughters of Brasilii to Gileadite, and was called after their name. These thought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found. Therefore were they as polluted put from the priesthood.
And the tirshatha that the governor said unto them that they should.
Not even the most holy thing till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.
These people couldn't show their genealogy because they had made links with those who were not among the people of God.
And you know, this to me is a little sad note here. How do we value the privilege of being among the people of God? It tells us that be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And these had gone out and they had.
Apparently married outside and had given up their visualit ish name shall I say, and identified themselves with that which was outside of all the promises that God had given. And I believe this is the son of mourning to us. It doesn't say that they were not believers, but they had lost something. It says they were as polluted put from the priesthood, that is they didn't have the privileges that they might have.
Enjoyed and how often it saw that we can lose our privileges if we don't walk in separation from the world. I believe showing their genealogy. I don't take it here in a literal sense, but in a spiritual sense in applying it to ourselves. How do you show your genealogy?
Well, you show your genealogy by acting as one who is in the family of God.
Their Prince Charles, who is the heir to the British throne, had come over here and had acted totally inconsistent with the position that he is in, heir to the throne and representing the British, the British sovereignty. Why? You would have said, well, he's a disgrace to the royalty of Britain. You would have said that even though he was in that family, he would say he's not worthy for such a thing. He's not acting like a person.
Who is in such a wonderful position? Even he himself said I have to be careful because someday I may be the King of England, and I have to be careful. Well, brethren, don't we have to be careful?
We're children of a king. We're in a place of privilege. Are we acting like it? I don't mean that. You go and look up and say my father and my grandfather were in the meeting. I don't mean that and I don't believe that's the thought in the 1St at all. But am I showing in my life that I'm a child of God?
Am I really showing so that others looking at me? It says about the early disciples. They perceived that they were unlearned then, but they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.
They're the people that know us, see our genealogy. Do they see that we are really walking in separation from the world? As I was saying to the children that we're careful about the friends that we choose because it says in the Psalms, I'm going to say the verse again. I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy precepts.
So we see there was terror here as to those who couldn't show their genealogy, and it needs to be terror as to whether you and I are showing by our lives that we belong to Christ, that we're separated to Him, that He has won our hearts and our lives are the evidence.
Well, and in the end of the chapter.
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It's interesting also what it tells us here.
65th verse beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were 7330 and seven, and there were among them 200 singing man and singing women.
Their horses were 730 and six, their mules 240 and two they're camels 430 and five, their ***** 6720.
No, I really enjoy noticing these verses here because you and I might have expected that in this chapter that all we would find was just the names of the people that had come back. But is God interested in other things in our lives? It's true that we can say through grace we put our trust in the Lord Jesus that we belong to Him. We can say that we're among the number of His own. We can say that.
We have a home in heaven.
But is God interested in the things here? I think it's so interesting in this chapter if they see that he talks about the number of animals that they had. Because God cares about your car, he cares about the place you live. He cares about everything in your life. Little song says why should I have a careful day since it's a God is mine. He watches army night and day and tells me that our minds.
And brethren, as we meditate upon these things and we see that God foreknew all about this captivity, that he told the length of it, that he stirred up the heart of Daniel, and that he finally stirred up the heart of Cyrus, and then stirred up the heart of the people, then tells us about the people that would come back. And now he shows us that he's interested in all these small details.
You might think, well, Lord's only interested in my spiritual good, whether I read my Bible, and whether.
I come to the meetings and try to follow the Lord, but he is it says your father knoweth that she has needed these things before He asks him, and so he cares about all those necessary things in our life. I really marveled when I read this chapter to see God talking an actual number of the horse of the of the animals that they had their horses and their mules and their.
Masses and all about them, even the number of singers that were among them. All this little bit of detail given and then it says in the 68th verse.
And some of the chief of the fathers, which came to the House of the Lord, which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the House of God, to set it up in his place.
They gave after their ability under the treasure of the work and so on. And the 70th, 1St so the priests and the Levites and some of the people and the singers and the porters, and then dwelt in their cities and all Israel in their cities. Now they've come back, the Lord has taken notice of everything and they were carrying a lot back. But some of them said, well, I can always add a little bit to it and so.
Even though they had been given such abundance to carry back. It makes me think of what?
David said to Solomon he had made tremendous provision for the building of the temple, and I'm sure that as Solomon looked at it, he might have said well.
David provide my father, David my father's provided so much. I can't add anything to that. And David said these beautiful words he said, and thou may have sad there too.
Thou may have said there to you might say, well, I don't think I could add anything. I don't think I could say anything. I think everything has been said and there's no use to me to try. You don't know a little word that you say, a song of praise that comes from your heart, what it means to the Lord, what it means to your brethren. He, he notices those little extras, you say, well, there's a lot of older brothers and they.
They know the hymns better than me, and I might just pick the the right one or something. But isn't this lovely after killing? But all the things that were given by the leaders and nobles and everything that talks about are those whose hearts would touch, and they added to it. And each one of us have our privilege. It says everyone of you at the song hath an interpretation and so on. The Lord has something for each one to do.
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Well, may the Lord help us to learn in these things.
It's very precious to trace these things. If you go on with Ezra, you'll see how much there is that God can teach us from what we have in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. But I think this little setting helps us to understand the ways of God to give us peace and courage as we cease to go on in a difficult day. Let me quote the verse again.
He may have known his ways unto Moses.
His act under the children of Israel. He wants you and I to know His ways and then to delight to say our times are in my hands.