Graham continued his fascinating series on Ezra this morning.

Ezra part 7 [ 40:10 ] Play in Popup | Download

Ezra 6:14 So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.

1) Build
It would take another four years to completion of the temple.

2) Prosper
Not toiling but productive, fulfilling labour. To understand this prospering that God gave to them we need to see their previous poverty. Their poverty was a poverty of great material gain without God’s blessing.

See the preaching of Haggai concerning this. Haggai 1:5-11
Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it. This is what the LORD Almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the LORD. You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD Almighty. Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labour of your hands.

3) Under the preaching
Haggai 1:2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’

Haggai proclaimed a message that was very much of that moment. Zechariah lifted their gaze to see into the future they were working for, with the coming of the Messiah and the return – the second coming of the Messiah, Jesus.

The thing that made the difference and got the people believing again was the preaching.

The inspired word of God has power.

Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel
Romans 1:17 Just as it is written
Romans 10:14 How can they hear without someone preaching to them
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path

There has been a brief loss of confidence in the ministry of preaching in the last decade or so, even in evangelical churches. Powerpoint and video have replaced preaching in some places. This lack of confidence in the power of the spoken word has been dented by the oratory skills of the new US president. If he can do that with political and motivational material, how much more can people be changed by the proclamation of the living scriptures?

When I place my life under the preaching of others I choose those who will unfold scripture. I avoid the feel-good messages lifted from self-help books and business management techniques. I want the Word! Only that living seed will abide within me and give hope and strength when things get difficult and provide me with direction when the path I follow gets indistinct.

How receive the word? Read it, feed on it, hear it.

Live the Way, obey the voice that speaks to you through scripture

James 1:22-25
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it- he will be blessed in what he does.

Matthew 7:26
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.