Your Plan Is Good

843 Acres post: Ended and Delayed Plans
BY BETHANY

M’Cheyne: Ez 6 (text | audio, 4:21 min)
Acts 6 (text | audio, 2:20 min)

Frustration: In 586 BC, the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and exiled most of the Israelites. About 50 years later, Cyrus of Persia brought an end to the Babylonian Empire. In 538 BC, he issued a decree that allowed the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. [1] Although more than 42,000 exiles returned, the locals (the Samaritans) tried to stop them from rebuilding. They told the emperor Artaxerxes that the city being rebuilt was rebellious and untrustworthy. [2] He believed them and stopped construction.

Delay: Nothing happened for fifteen years. [3] The people were back in Israel, but the temple—that is, the presence of the Lord—was in ruins.

Courage: The Lord then sent prophets—Haggai and Zechariah—to inspire them to build again. Once again, however, the Samaritans opposed them and wrote a letter to the new emperor Darius. This time, however, the plan backfired. Darius searched the imperial archives and found Cyrus’s original decree. He said, “Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover … the cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue.” [4]

Desire: “The best laid schemes of mice and men,” writes Robert Burns, “often go awry.” Here, both the plans of the Samaritans and the Jews went awry—the Samaritans’ plans were ended; the Jews’ plans were delayed. But the Lord ultimately prospered the plans of the Jews because they wanted what He wanted—that is, they wanted Him to dwell among them and He wanted that, too.

Prayer: Lord, Starts and stops happen in our lives and, when our “best laid plans” are frustrated, we confess that we often get discouraged and confused. Yet we know that your plan are good. If we knew everything today that you know, we would choose the same thing you do. Therefore, we ask you to shape our hearts. Make us desire what you desire. Then your promise will be true: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” [5] For your presence in our midst will be our greatest desire. Amen.