Chapter 7

THE HEROES WHO FAILED

IN THE FIRST PART of this book we have been concerned with the truth concerning the rebellion in the world today. We have seen how, and where the rebellion began. We have seen how and why God has provided the complete answer to the results of sin and rebellion in the heart of man. We have made the study practical and shown how we ourselves can be involved in a living way with the fulness of Christ.

In this second part I want us to look into some of the stories in the Old Testament to find illustrations of the very situations we have been considering. I have been encouraged these last few years, as I have dug into the Old Testament, to see the tremendous message it has for today. Far from being an old-fashioned book, it is amazingly relevant to today’s
situations and needs.

We will see ourselves portrayed in many areas of failure and misjudgment as we look at men and women like ourselves moving into situations brought about by their own rebellious choice.

The Bible tells us to examine their motives and measure their failures for one express purpose: that we may learn from them and allow the Spirit to guide us into His own ways.

I have seen again and again how the Spirit has taken an Old Testament story and through its message He has spoken with real convicting power. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God in a unique way. There is an anointing on the written

Word that has power to break through to the tough heart, the confused mind, the careless life, and even to the antagonistic personality. My prayer is that what God has done many times before, He will be pleased to do once more—through His own Word, for His own glory.

Our first story will be found in several books, as we build up the continuity, but we can make a start by looking at the third to the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Haggai, chapter 1 and verses 5-7: ‘Now therefore thus saith the LORD of Hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.”

This is straight talk from the mouth of God, an analysis of failure. People doing all the right things, but getting all the wrong answers. The words were applied to a special group of people, as we shall see in a moment. But the point to consider is that these words are eternal truth; this is what happens to all God’s people when certain things happen. Verse 6 could be a vivid description of some churches today. I have come across churches where the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, where there is no false teaching, but these same words could be written across the whole church program.
Much sowing but little reaping, much “eating” but no satisfaction, plenty of activities and a sound financial position—but a sense of bankruptcy over all the work.

This is why the message we are considering in these next few chapters is so vital to the present-day church. Remember that when God does a diagnosis of a spiritual disease, He always gives the correct prescription for a cure.

Not only is this true of some churches, it is more true of many Christians. I meet such fine people. There is plenty of activity, but no productivity; plenty of going, but no arriving; much hunger, but no satisfaction; having a spiritual thirst but never able to quench the dryness.

To all such the Lord still says, “Consider your ways.” Who were these people in Haggai who presented such a discouraging picture? The sad and strange thing is that they were a group of heroes. We will see what wonderful people they were, great in character and noble in courage, and yet in the most pitiful condition.

The story begins back in the book of 2 Chronicles. This book contains thirty-six chapters and tells the unfolding story of the kings of Judah. It is essentially a countdown to destruction. It shows the increasing spiritual and social sin of the nation. It recounts how God sent prophets to warn the
people of the consequences of their continued sin. We see and hear prophets pleading with the people to forsake their idols and to get right with God.

Then the pace quickened. Idolatry increased. God’s word became more threatening. The people were told that if they continue in their rebellious ways, then the Lord will destroy His holy temple and obliterate Jerusalem as a city. To this they responded with foolish incredulity. They said, “God
would never do such a thing. Destroy His own temple—never! Destroy Jerusalem—never!”

The tragedy was they thought they could sin and get away with it. Just as today some people say, “God would never destroy America. It is God’s own country. He would never allow it to happen!”

They counted on the love of God, but forgot the holiness of God and the eternal faithfulness of His promises for not only peace but also punishment.

Thus it is we come to chapter 36, the end of the story. When this chapter begins, there were still twenty-two and a half years left before the blow is to fall, but no one cared. The years passed by. Twenty-two, twenty-one, twenty—until there were eleven years left on the clock of grace.

The last king to reign was Zedekiah. He was twenty-one years old and as heedless as the rest. Verse 12 recounts that “he ... humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of God.” Where sin had abounded, it did much more abound. Verse 14 records, “Moreover all
the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of God which he had allowed in Jerusalem.”

The wonderful thing is to see the reaction of God to this ugly and evil situation. Verse 15 tells that God continued to send His messengers to them “because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place.” What an amazing contrast, the contempt of the people and the compassion of God. But the years ticked by relentlessly, as verse 16 recounts, “they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words,
and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against the people, till there was no remedy.” What awful words—”till there was no remedy”!

They had rebelled, gone their own way, walked in complete independence—and then the blow fell. All that God said and promised came true. Jerusalem was destroyed, the walls were demolished; worst of all, the beautiful, glittering holy temple was burned, along with every other consumable building. There was a fearful slaughter of the inhabitants, and the survivors were taken away to Babylon. When the
final curtain fell, Jerusalem was nothing but a heap of chaotic rubble and burned-out buildings.

God had said what He meant, and He meant what He said —but they learned their lesson too late!

The ruin that had been Jerusalem remained uncared for and neglected for seventy years. Stop a moment, and get a good picture of how Jerusalem might have looked at the end of those seventy forgotten years. Think of the initial chaotic ruin, then see it covered with the weeds and trees and bushes of seventy years growth. The chances are it would have been almost unrecognizable. The wasted years of rebellious living had produced a wasted place of ruin and tragedy.

But that was not the end of the story so far as God was concerned. God had His plans all ready for a new start. Just as He had prophesied, so it came to pass.

At the end of the seventy years, God moved the heart of King Cyrus to proclaim a message to all the Jews in his kingdom.

The book of Ezra, which follows the final chapter of 2 Chronicles, repeats God’s challenge almost word for word. Almost as if the Lord had the end and the beginning in His hands.

We read in Ezra 1:2, 3 these thrilling words: “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 an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judab. 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.” This was the dawn of a new day, a beginning for God and His people.

Notice carefully what the call was for: “to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” God asked for one thing only, volunteers who would be willing to leave all and build a house for God. Incidentally, see the pathetic way in which the Word says “Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” Directions were needed to pinpoint a place which no longer existed
on the map of human history.

This message of Cyrus was blazed throughout his great kingdom. Every Jewish synagogue might have had the message read out for the ears of all the people attending. It perhaps became the one topic of conversation for all Jews. The more they heard it, the more their hearts would be searched.

Psalm 137 tells us the kind of song they sang during the seventy wasted years: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion . . . How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land? . . . If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem . . . If I do not remember thee . . . if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” This is what they sang; now what would they do? Singing nostalgic words to plaintive music is one thing; leaving all and stepping out for God is another.

The pages of all history record the amazing capacity of the Jews to rise from the depths of utter poverty to wealth and abundance. This is especially true of the land of Israel today. No one who has been there will ever forget the miracle of rebirth which can be seen in so many places. God has given His people a unique capacity to succeed in business, especially in the world of high finance.

This has ever been so; Joseph in Egypt is an outstanding example. It was so in the day of Cyrus. Seventy years before, the people of Jerusalem had struggled their weary way across the desert to stumble finally into a strange land, captives of the conqueror Nebuchadnezzar.

But that was seventy years ago! Over two generations had passed, and Jewish children were born who had never seen Jerusalem. Anyone remembering Jerusalem was well over seventy years old. Following the pattern of their unique ability to rise and prosper, there now were many Jews living in affluence. Babylon had much to offer in the way of sumptuous living if you had the right kind of money.

Thus it was that the challenge of God through Cyrus came to a people at ease and at peace. Most of them had never seen Jerusalem. They had sung nostalgic songs as they rested at ease in their lovely homes; but singing sad songs in the cool shade and slogging it out over miles of hot dusty sand are two different things.

Try and recapture what God was asking, and what was entailed in that one word obedience. It meant foot slogging for five months over wilderness country. It meant arriving at a site which would be almost unrecognizable because of the years of growth covering the area. Then there would be many months of “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” as they cleared the site, uprooting scrub, bushes, and tearing out trees. Remember, all this had to be done with bare hands; there were no tractors, bulldozers, or earth moving machinery. There were no stores to which they could go to replace broken tools, no cool drinks at the local drug store. Just work, work, and more work! And they could not catch a quick jet back to Babylon it was a once for all decision, a one way trip!

Put yourself in the sandals of one of these successful Jewish businessmen in Babylon. Count the cost. Think of your wife and family—no schools for the children! No future but the hard grind of sweating and building. What would you have done? Would you have gone, or would you have found a
thousand good reasons for staying in Babylon and promoting prayer groups for those dear missionaries in Jerusalem? 

I want us to see the caliber of the people who made that great decision. They were not just enthusiastic supporters of a church program. They had counted the cost. They were sacrificing their family and their fortune down to the last shekel.
They meant business. They were one of the finest groups of heroes ever to appear in the pages of Jewish history. We salute their courage, their devotion, their love to God. We see in them a challenge to our own hearts.

And yet these are the same people we met in Haggai, chapter 1, when our story began. Impossible, you say! How could it be? That is why we are studying their experiences, so that we can learn a deep lesson. They were heroes, yes; but they failed.

But before we finish this chapter, let us see time heroes in action, in all time glory of sweat and suffering. Turn to Ezra 2 and there you will see the roll of honor. Here we have detailed for us the numbers of those who stepped out for God, and time places from which they came They are listed in family groups. Some of time groups were large, such as the 2,056 who came with the man, appropriately named Bigvai, verse 14. Others were much smaller, such as the party of 42 who came with Azmaveth, verse 24. But every one was a hero for God.

Verse 64 tells us the whole group numbered 42,360. We find from verse 65 that there were 7,337 servants; so they must have been people of some substance to possess so many servants. An interesting comment in the same verse is that they had a mixed choir of two hundred. They took their music with them!

Verses 66 and 67 tell how many animals they possessed, 8,136 all told. From this we can see that many people walked on foot. They surely meant business.

A very sad and revealing incident comes to light in verse 59. When these heroes finally made it to Jerusalem they reported in by families to the official in charge of party membership. He had a book containing the list of true Jewish families, and as each one came and gave his name, he ticked him off the list.

One group came to him, “but they could not show their father’s house, arid their seed, whether they were of Israel.” What a shock for these people! They had just finished the long journey only to find out that they did not belong. They looked like Jews, behaved like Jews, and they had made the
same wearisome trip: only to discover that they were not eligible. They did not belong!

In Matthew 7:22-23 we have a prophecy from the lips of the Lord Jesus which describes a similar situation: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, .1 never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity.”

These people in Jesus’ story also thought they belonged to Him because of what they did and where they went. Notice His terrible comment: “I never knew you.” Not that Jesus had forgotten them; He never knew them. In John 10:27-28 Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life.”

This group who arrived at Jerusalem, only to be rejected, were also heroes; but they also failed because they did not belong.

There may be some one reading these words and this may be your case. You may look like a true Christian, behave like a Christian, go where Christians go, do what Christians do. That alone isn’t enough. Do you belong? Does Jesus know

you personally?