https://esv.literalword.com/?q=Ezra+1
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Monday, 29 December 2025:
Here is a short video overview of Ezra and Nehamiah — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkETkRv9tG8
Key Theme: The heart of man’s problem is the problem of man’s heart. A holistic transformation of the heart is required if God’s people are ever going to truly love, obey, and enjoy their God. Until your will is truly His will, your life His life, you will be disappointed. God is after your character, not merely your compliance.
Ezra 1:1 — 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, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
The book of Ezra opens not with Israel’s initiative but with God’s sovereignty. Judah is still in exile, powerless, scattered, and without leverage, yet the narrative begins with God keeping His word. The return from exile is not the result of political evolution or human repentance finally reaching critical mass; it is the fulfillment of prophecy spoken decades earlier through Jeremiah. God’s purposes move on schedule, even when His people are dislocated, discouraged, or disciplined. History does not drift; it unfolds under divine governance. This verse establishes a foundational truth for the entire book: restoration begins with God’s initiative. Before walls are rebuilt, before worship is restored, before obedience is renewed, God moves first. Spiritual renewal always starts with God stirring hearts, not with human resolve alone.
The striking phrase is that the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. God acts on the heart of a pagan king who does not belong to the covenant people. Cyrus is not converted here, but he is commissioned. This reminds us that God is not limited to working through believers. He governs kings, nations, and empires to accomplish His redemptive plan. Human authority is never ultimate authority. Even the most powerful ruler in the world is responsive to the unseen hand of God.
This is a warning that just because something is used by God doesn’t mean that it is approved by God or favored by God. And though everyone on earth benefits from God’s grace, not everyone receives the special grace of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ – reconciliation with God and abundant eternal life. God used Cyrus like God used Nebuchadnezzar, for His purposes but not to their credit. Today, many people do impressive works in the Name of Christ, used by God to grace needy people, but never come to know Christ or become like Christ. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23) Don’t just be used by God, seek to truly know God, to be known by Him, and to become one with Him. This is God’s desire for you (John 17 & Romans 8:29)
Ezra 1:2 — “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”
Cyrus acknowledges the LORD as the God of heaven, a title emphasizing God’s supremacy over all earthly realms. This is not covenant language, but it is truthful language. God has revealed enough of Himself to make His authority unmistakable. Cyrus recognizes that his power is delegated, not inherent, and that his success comes from a higher throne.
The phrase “he has charged me” underscores divine assignment. God gives tasks even to those who do not yet fully know Him. This dismantles the idea that God only works through ideal instruments. He works through willing instruments. Cyrus becomes an agent of restoration, not because of his righteousness, but because of God’s faithfulness.
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) However, He wasn’t saying obey me to prove that you love me, He was saying those who love me will naturally obey me – but from a heart of love, not from a heart of fear, pride, or obligation. God can quite easily make people do what He wants, but He is seeking people who truly want to, people who have His heart, His mind, and who rely on His strength continually – branches connected to the Vine (John 15). When a person is united with Him, obedience is natural, easy, fulfillment.
– 1 John 5:3 — For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
The rebuilding of the house of the LORD is the priority. God does not begin with rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls or restoring political independence. He begins with worship. Restoration always starts with the presence of God among His people, not with external security or national strength. Only when worship comes before work does work become worship. Only when work is done as an outpouring of the life of Christ does the work have any life in it. If Christ isn’t at the center of what you are doing, what you are doing is in vain, even if it appears to be effective.
Ezra 1:3 — “Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel — he is the God who is in Jerusalem.”
The invitation is voluntary. Cyrus does not force anyone to return. Restoration requires response. God opens the door, but individuals must choose to walk through it. After seventy years in exile, many Jews had established lives in Babylon. Returning meant risk, sacrifice, uncertainty, and hard labor. Obedience would be costly.
This verse exposes a timeless tension: freedom can be more intimidating than captivity. Some will prefer comfort over calling. God’s work moves forward through those willing to leave what is familiar in order to rebuild what is sacred. Some people might say, “God would never ask you to do something you can’t do.” However, God always asks you to do what you can’t do so you and the world around you can see what He can do even through someone like you – the world doesn’t need another talented person in whom to place their hope, the world needs Jesus Christ. Faith takes you past your natural abilities to experience the supernatural, to experience God’s love at work – “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
The emphasis again is on God’s presence. The house is rebuilt not as a monument, but as a dwelling place. God is not reclaiming real estate; He is restoring relationship.
Ezra 1:4 — “And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”
Provision accompanies calling. God does not send His people back empty-handed. The same nations that once benefited from Israel’s captivity now finance Israel’s restoration. What looked like loss becomes resource. God redeems time, wealth, and opportunity in ways His people could never orchestrate. This is a pattern of how God works within the hearts of people for sake of His people. Remember God did the same thing during the great exodus: “The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.” (Exodus 12:35-36) God continues to work this way for those who trust Him and obey Him out of love for Him:
– Deuteronomy 6:4-6, 10-15 — “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart…. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you—for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.”
The phrase freewill offerings is important. Restoration is not funded by coercion but by willing generosity. When God stirs hearts, generosity follows naturally. The rebuilding of God’s house is a shared responsibility, involving both those who go and those who stay.
This verse also echoes the Exodus pattern, when Israel left Egypt with silver and gold. God is forming a new exodus, reminding His people that He is the same Redeemer who brings them out, provides for them, and leads them home.
Ezra 1:5 — Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.
Not everyone goes, but those who do are clearly identified: their spirits are stirred by God, and they respond in faith. This is not mass enthusiasm; it is spiritual awakening. God does not need everyone to move; He knows the right people will move.
Leadership responds first. Heads of households, priests, and Levites step forward. Restoration requires spiritual leadership willing to act before results are guaranteed. These men are not responding to emotion but to calling, in faith to the God who is faithful and true.
This verse reinforces a crucial truth: external permission is meaningless without internal conviction. Cyrus opens the way, but only God stirs the heart. Sustainable obedience always flows from inward transformation.
The Lord stirs the spirit and directs the hearts of people as He desires in accordance with His will, plan and promises. God stirred the spirt of the king of Persia and spirits of select Israelites to rebuild the temple according to His promise proclaimed through the prophet Jeremiah that the exiles would one day return to Jerusalem. Both unbelievers (along with believers) dedicate tremendous resources to honoring and glorifying God as a matter of national policy, similar to what we observe in Exodus 12:35-36 and many other places in the Bible. Only God, not political action, can incite such a movement.
How God’s divine sovereignty over all things incorporates our responsibility to choose and our ultimate accountability to Him is beyond our complete understanding. However, we know that God is faithful, we are called to be faithful, and our desire and ability to obey requires the revelation of God through His word, constant prayer, and the leading of the Holy Spirit – “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding,” (Proverbs 2:6) If you desire to be used by God, go to God. Don’t come up with your own ideas and trust in your own abilities. Also, if you are worried about the heart and decisions of other people (family members, friends, neighbors, employers, political leaders, etc.), go to God who inspires the hearts and decisions of people – “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7) Additional verses for consideration —
– Proverbs 21:1 — The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
– John 6:44 — No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
– Ephesians 2:8 — For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God….
– 2 Timothy 1:7 — …for God gave us a spirit….
– 1 Corinthians 2:12, 13 — Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
– Romans 8:26 — Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
– Romans 8:14 — For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
– John 3:5-8 — Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit…. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
– Ezekiel 36:26 — And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
– Hebrews 10:16 — “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”
– 2 Thessalonians 3:5 — May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
– 1 Thessalonians 3:13 — …so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
– Malachi 4:6: “And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers….
– Romans 5:5 — God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
– Galatians 1:15 — But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace….
– Philippians 1:6 — And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
– 1 Thessalonians 5:24 — He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
– Colossians 1:29 — For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
– 2 Timothy 1:9 — …who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began….
– 1 John 4:13 — By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
– 1 John 4:19 — We love because he first loved us.
Ezra 1:6 — And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered.
God aligns community support around obedience. When God calls someone forward, He often moves others to support them. This is how the body functions. Restoration is communal, not isolated.
The repeated emphasis on freewill generosity highlights that obedience produces joy, not resentment. Giving becomes worship when it flows from a heart aligned with God’s purposes.
Ezra 1:7-8 — Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
God restores what was stolen. The sacred vessels, once displayed as trophies of Babylonian victory, are returned for worship. What the enemy repurposed for idolatry is reclaimed for holiness.
Nothing dedicated to God is ever permanently lost. Time, calling, gifting, even years wasted in exile can be restored. God is not only rebuilding structures; He is restoring identity and purpose.
Sheshbazzar’s role reminds us that restoration requires stewardship. Sacred things must be handled carefully, intentionally, and faithfully.
Ezra 1:9-11 — And this was the number of them…. All the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.
The inventory matters. God is a God of detail. Restoration is not vague or sentimental; it is concrete, measurable, and accountable. What God restores, He restores fully. We can approach God confidently and comfortably, be we should never approach God casually or complacently. Our Abba, Daddy, remains Holy, Holy, Holy, and should be honored and worshipped accordingly. Don’t allow familiarity to breed contempt.
The chapter ends with movement. The exiles are brought up. The long season of displacement gives way to the slow, difficult work of rebuilding. Redemption does not end exile instantly; it begins a process of faithful obedience. You might rally the motivation to act, but do you have the faith to endure, persevere, persist, wait, and even obey wholeheartedly with no apparent reward in your lifetime?
– I Corinthians 15:19 — If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Ezra 1 teaches that restoration begins when God stirs hearts and when His people respond in faith, not when circumstances are ideal. God fulfills His word, uses unexpected instruments, provides resources, and calls His people to respond in faith. As we continue to read Ezra, pay close attention to how the story unfolds with a disappointing close – “Ezra… mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles (Ezra 10:6),” heartache, harshness, brokenness. Obedience without love is the worst kind of disobedience (rejecting the First Commandment and Great Commandment), pharisaical externalism which has no real power, life, or value and cannot transform or last. The Book of Ezra is not intended to rob you of hope but rather point you to Hope in Jesus Christ which is a life of eternal love, not dead legalism.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) — 29 December 2025: Ask God to stir your heart again. Identify one area where comfort, fear, or familiarity has kept you in spiritual exile. Take one obedient step toward rebuilding what God has called you to restore, trusting that provision follows obedience. Also, dig deep – consider your true motives – are you seeking blessings from God or the ultimate blessing of God Himself? If all you are after is results, you will be disappointed. If what you are after is reconciliation (oneness with God (John 17), you will be delighted.
Pray: “Lord, You are faithful to Your word and sovereign over all things. Stir my heart where it has grown settled, cautious, or distracted. Give me courage to respond when You open doors, and humility to trust that You are already at work ahead of me. Restore what has been lost, reclaim what has been misused, and rebuild in me a heart devoted to Your presence. I surrender my comfort, my plans, and my timing to You. Lead me forward in obedience and trust. Amen.”
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