God is Always at Work for the Good of Those Who Love Him
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 29 Aug 2010 in From Steve's Study ::
I thought I’d just share with you a wonderful story I read in my quiet times this week that perfectly illustrates the concept we saw in Romans 8:28, that “God is always at work for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purposes”.
It comes from the book of Ezra. As I’m sure you’re aware, the book of Ezra is set in the time of the exile in Babylon. Some of the people of Israel had been allowed to go back to Jerusalem to start rebuilding. However, for those who were now “locals” in the surrounding area were not too keen. When their initial attempts to stop the building failed, they decided to write a letter to King the Mede (Ezra 5). In short, their letter basically said, “we think you should know that we saw the Israelites rebuilding their temple. They said that the king had said they could, but we didn’t believe them. So we thought you ought to know what’s happening and to check if what they said was true.
Sounds like a neighbour writing to the Council to complain about your extension! (Not that that would happen in East Lindfield!)
The response they got from Darius (Ezra 6) was not quite what they had expected however. Here’s a snippet or two: “Let the temple be rebuilt… and its foundation be laid. … moreover… their expenses are to be fully paid from [your own] treasury… furthermore, if anyone changes this edict, a beam is to pulled from his house and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it!”
The reason Darius responded this way, we are told is that “the Lord had… changed the attitude of the king of Assyria, so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel”. God had a plan to bring his people back from Israel & no whinging neighbours were going to put a stop to it.
Now, I don’t think we can “claim” this passage as a promise that we’ll never have any problems getting DA’s through council (would that we could!), but it is a graphic illustration of God at work for the good of those who love him.
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