We’ve looked at God, we’ve looked at the treasure in earthen vessels, and now we do want to look at the world from God’s eyes. But today my heart and passion is that we begin from our Jerusalem. I want to focus on the post-exilic books of the Bible, and let’s begin with reading a few verses from Zechariah 3–4. My focus is on the Preacher’s role in rebuilding a ruined society, whether that is America or Canada or Iraq or Afghanistan. I want to read from Zechariah 3–4 essentially to give the conclusion first just in case I don’t manage my time properly.

Our Filthy Garments

For Zechariah, the background is that the decree by Cyrus has been issued that this nation that was totally destroyed should go back, start rebuilding, and start rebuilding with reestablishing the altar and the temple. Some exiles have returned under Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel. They rebuilt the altar. They laid the foundations of the temple and great opposition began. They gave up building the temple and started building their own houses, paneled houses, perhaps diverting some of the resources that were meant for the house of God to their own houses. These remnants that have returned are once again in a mess and God raised men like Haggai and Zechariah who began to bring the challenge, the word of God, to the leaders and to the people and the people began to respond.

Now, in chapter three, as you know, Zechariah has a vision of Joshua, the high priest, the religious leader of the remnant. Zechariah 3:1–5 says:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.

Now I assume that if you are anything like me, you perhaps came here with filthy clothes, aware of your own sinfulness, and Zechariah is probably not seeing a vision in the vacuum. There is probably a whispering campaign that Cyrus and everybody else gave money, gold, and silver, and that money is not going into the building of the temple. Some of it is probably going into building these paneled houses for the leaders.

You might have come to this conference aware of your own moral failure, and I hope that during these two days you have already met with Jesus afresh and seen your unrighteousness nailed to the cross and his righteousness imputed to you. If you haven’t had that personal encounter with Jesus, the second person of Trinity, during these last two days, I do hope that before you leave this place, you will have that personal meeting with Jesus where you experience fresh cleansing and renewal.

Only By My Spirit

In chapter four, Zechariah has the vision of Zerubbabel, the political leader who is supposed to be leading this great and challenging task of rebuilding a nation that has been totally ruined. In Zechariah 4:1–10, it says:

And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ ” Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

Now, here is Zerubbabel. He has given this challenging task of building this tempo that Nebuchadnezzar has totally destroyed. He’s facing opposition. He says, “I’m not no David. I’m no Solomon. I’m a small man.” And you might have come here facing mountains in your ministry. You were sent perhaps to establish a church, to pastor a difficult congregation, and you’ve been facing challenges and mountains. I hope that you have already met with the third person of the Trinity, the Spirit of God, and have been reassured that it’s not by might. You don’t have to be a David. You don’t have to be a Solomon.

It is by the Spirit that this mountain will be brought low. If you have not yet had that personal word from the Holy Spirit to your hearts reassuring you, I hope that before you leave today you will have that personal word from the Lord that although you face mountains, although you know your smallness, you’re not alone for he has promised and given his Spirit. So let’s open our hearts to hear his voice, to hear his word today.

The Process of Rebuilding

I want to focus on your Jerusalem. I hesitate to say this because some of you might hate me for saying it, but just imagine that this is October 2004 and the presidential election is in full swing. The president is being challenged by his challenger. You don’t have to think of real people but you can think of real people. This is an allegory. He’s almost like an enemy. The first lady is called upon to endorse the president. She is being watched globally because it’s a highly publicized event. A most powerful endorsement for the President is coming, and before the watching world, the first lady says, “I have decided to vote for the enemy, and not only I have decided to vote for the opponent, I have decided to become his mistress.” That’s what a significant section of the bride of Jesus Christ in America has said: “I am a mistress of Satan.”

In ordaining gay bishops and clergy, lesbian pastors or whatever, the church has made a powerful public global declaration: “I’m a bride of Christ. I do want to live in the White House, but I want to be a mistress of Satan. I want to be a partner with the murderer and I have no problem with murdering millions of babies.” That’s what a section of the American church has said. They have said, “I don’t believe in truth. I don’t believe in the word of God and having to obey God’s word and faithfulness to God’s word.” The question is, can a nation that is on its way to destruction be saved? In fact, we are looking at a nation that was totally destroyed, that had given up her husband and had gone after, prostituting after other gods and was sacrificing the children that God had given to her to other gods and goddesses, a nation that had turned its back against God and God had destroyed it. God destroyed it because he is faithful to his word.

Now, we are going to be focusing on the process of rebuilding and rebuilding begins in Daniel 9. Daniel is now at the end of his life, the great Babylonian empire that has destroyed his nation has in turn been destroyed by the Medo-Persian emperor, Cyrus, Darius. And Darius now in verse one has been made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom. We read in Daniel 9:2–12:

In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.”

“To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity.”

In Daniel 9:15–23, he goes on to say:

“And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”

While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding.

And he goes on to say that from the time that the decree is issued for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, things will begin to happen.

The Double-Edged Sword of the Word

Now this is the first year of Darius, Cyrus. I’m inclined to think that it’s one person, Darius and Cyrus, but it doesn’t matter even if Darius is issued the decree in the name of Cyrus, the emperor in Persia. I’m inclined to think Darius is the throne name of Cyrus in Babylon. What I’d like us to notice first is that Daniel is saying, “Our nation has been destroyed because of God’s word.” The word of God is a double-edged sword. Daniel says, “You had said through Moses that if we turned away from you there would be curses, there would be destruction, and all of that has come. This destruction proves that your word is true.” That’s what Ezekiel has been saying, Daniel’s older contemporary: “I’m going to destroy you, I’m going to bring calamities upon you, and then you will know that I am God.”

But the word of God is a double-edged sword. Daniel begins the rebuilding of the temple and the city and the nation because he says:

In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes (Daniel 9:2–3).

Now the context is this, what’s happening in Daniel 9, the story part of what’s happening, is the same as what’s happening in Daniel 6. In the first year of Darius’s reign, Daniel has been exalted because Belshazzar was killed. Daniel had predicted that the nation was taken from the Babylonian and given to the Medes and Persian. Daniel has been promoted as the top three administrators of the country and the king wants to set him up as the top man because he was obviously a man of tremendous wisdom and insight and integrity.

His rivals were seeking to destroy him and have him thrown into the lion’s den, and therefore they have made this plot that for 30 days no one should pray to any god except to the king. The king has signed it and sealed the decree according to the law of the Medes and Persian which cannot be changed.

Daniel is facing a challenge. He’s a man who communicates with God, listens to God in visions and dreams, has direct communication and word from God, but he is reading the words of the Scriptures (Jeremiah). Moses has already said that the nation will be destroyed. Jeremiah has said that it will be rebuilt after 70 years. Almost 70 years have gone by. The Babylonian empire has in fact been destroyed or taken over by the Persians. This is the time that had been spoken about. He must have been thinking, “Now do I seize this movement and turn to God for forgiveness and deliverance and the rebuilding of my nation, or do I not pray? Because if I pray, I will be thrown into the lion’s den.” It’s not just back then. You are not allowed to pray in public and certainly not for public and for nations increasingly in America, and that’s by law that prayer is being curtailed. What you’re beginning to experience, he was experiencing. He was right in the midst of it, that if he prayed, he would be thrown into the lion’s den.

In Reliance Upon God

Now remember who Daniel is. He went to the same school as Harry Potter. He was in fact made the president of that school, of magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers. His life was under threat. He was being threatened by his rivals just as Harry Potter was. He could use all the magic and all the sorcery and all the witchcraft that he has learned to save himself, but he doesn’t follow that model, that pagan model which America and the West is now beginning to follow. He still lives in Tolkien’s world of Frodo Baggins.

Frodo has also been given this ring of magic and awesome power, the ring to rule the world. He’s also tempted to use that ring for his self-defense and perhaps even to rule over others. But the mission that has been given to Frodo is to destroy that ring. It was forged in the fires of hell. That’s where he has to take and destroy it. His aim in life is not to seek power for himself. He’s not following Nietzsche’s will to power which destroyed Europe and is now ruling and ruining American society where, because God is dead, there is no savior who is coming to save us. We’ve got to become god, we’ve got to become goddesses, and we’ve got to become witches. We’ve got to become sorcerers and magicians. This is Daniel’s world, but he is seeking for God and his power.

He’s filled with his Spirit. That’s the wisdom he’s seeking. He doesn’t rely on his own dreams and his own visions. He is reading the word of God. Now it is because of Jeremiah’s words that he’s willing to keep praying even though it means being thrown into the lion’s den. Do words matter? Do propositions matter? The post-modern world cannot make sense of language. Language cannot possibly have anything to do with truth because language is an accidental product of the blind process of evolution. It’s a tool that human species evolved by chance to aid our process of survival. It cannot possibly have anything to do with truth, unless there is a God who is a personal being who does speak and he made us in his image and therefore we speak and therefore words can indeed have something to do with truth.

So Daniel believes that Jeremiah is true because he’s a prophet, he spoke from God, and this is God’s word. Therefore, he’s willing to risk his life. Seventy years are almost over. This is the time when my nation can be rebuilt.

Pessimism and Optimism

Thirty years ago or so, Ezekiel had that mighty vision. All my people were talking after Jerusalem fell the second time and the temple was destroyed, everything was burned. The remnants including Jeremiah had gone into Egypt. There was nothing left. They were saying, “Our hope is gone. We are bones, dry bones.” And Ezekiel was taken into that valley of dry bones and the Lord asked him, “Son of man, can these bones live? Is there still hope for this nation?” And Ezekiel said, “Only you know, Lord.” And the Lord said, “Prophesy to these bones.” And the preacher did his job and then the Spirit of God began to do his job and the bones came together and a mighty army was raised up for righteousness.

Now almost 30 years have gone by since that vision, which was a minority view in Ezekiel’s time because everyone had said, “Our hope is gone. Can these bones live? Is there hope for this nation?” No, no, no, no, no. We have been trained in pre-millennialism. How can there be any hope? For the last 50 years or so, the leadership of the American church has said to the American church, “You give us your billions of dollars and we will take your money to take the light to the ends of the earth, but be sure as we spread the light, darkness will keep growing. Light shall not overcome darkness. The yeast of the gospel will transform nothing. The mustard seed isn’t going to grow into a mighty tree on whom the birds of the earth can make their nest and under whose shadow the beast of the earth can find shelter. No, this earth will go from bad to worse until Jesus comes back and you are raptured.”

This pessimism has no logical connection with pre-millennialism. It has a historical connection. Where did this hope from Daniel and Jeremiah and Ezekiel come from? Western optimism came from the Bible, from an understanding of the freedom of God, that God is not bound by history. God is not bound by nature. And that transformed Western civilization as an optimistic civilization. Secularism, secular enlightenment, hijacked Christian hope, made it humanistic and said that with our own might we can bring dead bones back to life. And they built great secular ideologies culminating in fascism and Nazism and communism to create a classless scientific utopia, and that led the world into two tragic world wars. Hundreds of millions of people were killed by the end of the communist rule.

Those two world wars shattered secular Western hope. We are not as good as we thought we were. We cannot really understand how human nature is governed and we cannot use economic laws or psychological laws to create a utopia. There is no hope. That pessimism was baptized by Christian Church with biblical verses and promoted as the theology of the late great planet earth, the pessimism.

Now I don’t have the time to study that and I’m sorry that the bookstore didn’t order Wim Rietkerk’s book, The Future of Great Planet Earth. But in that book, the texts that have been interpreted to defend pessimism are reexamined. I would recommend that book. Wim took over the presidency of L’Abri Fellowship from Dr. Schaffer. So he’s not a lightweight, although no American publisher would publish his book because they think that the American church isn’t going to read a book which is optimistic towards the future.

Premillennialism has no logical relationship to pessimism. It is more like Tolkien’s vision. At the end of the second volume, The Two Towers, the fort is under siege and the hordes are attacking. It’s hopeless. Everything is being destroyed. There is absolutely no chance of victory. Why keep fighting? They say, “Surrender and compromise with the evil one. We will save your life.” They keep fighting. Why? Because Gandalf said, “At sunrise, look to the east, I’m coming.” The fact that he’s coming gives hope to keep fighting because victory is on our side. Pre-millennialism ought to be a doctrine of hope but it has become a doctrine of pessimism because for 50 years or so, secular pessimism has been baptized with biblical verses and the church has communicated pessimism.

Any hope that came during the last 50 years or so in western civilization came from the new age, that Shirley MacLaine can become a god. Now she would prefer to be a goddess, but when she wrote Out on a Limb she was trying to become God. Any hope that came to the West came from the new age because the church wasn’t preaching the message of hope except in after life, in heaven, but that his will could be done on this earth was not part of our message.

Nothing Impossible with God

Daniel, however, sees that Jeremiah says that after this tremendous destruction and calamity, there will be returning. Another awakening is possible, another revival is possible, another reformation is possible. So he is willing to risk his life. He’s praying, “Lord, I’m being told not to pray, but whether I live or die doesn’t matter.”

There are two things that I’d like us to notice about Daniel’s prayer. I’ve already communicated one heresy, which is pessimism. I’ve challenged the mainstream evangelical pessimism of America. The second in chapter nine, is that Daniel says:

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans — in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years (Daniel 9:1–2).

He understood. He was seeking understanding. This is what he was commended for. You are highly esteemed because you are seeking insight and wisdom and understanding. Why is he seeking understanding? Why is the nation destroyed? Let’s take a very quick survey of why Israel was destroyed.

A Survey of Israel’s Rebellion

Let’s begin with Isaiah. He is the one who begins this mighty prophecy of doom. He is a prophet of doom, although his message ultimately is a message of tremendous hope. Isaiah says:

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
     for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
     but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its owner,
     and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know,
     my people do not understand (Isaiah 1:2–3).

What’s the problem with Israel? The problem is that Israel does not know. “My people do not understand,” therefore, they have slid into sin. Horrible sin. Isaiah 1:21 says, “See how the faithful city has become a harlot. She once was full of justice. Now it costs a great deal to obtain any justice.” Righteousness used to dwell in her, but now murderers in every city are legally permitted. Her silver has become dross. Her dollar is dying. Her rulers are rebels, companions of Enrons and WorldComs. Where does this degeneration come from? Isaiah says:

The ox knows its owner,
     and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know,
     my people do not understand (Isaiah 1:2–3).

Isaiah 5:13 says:

Therefore my people go into exile
     for lack of knowledge;
their honored men go hungry,
     and their multitude is parched with thirst.

Ignorant of the Way of the Lord

Jeremiah 5:1–6 says:

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
     look and take note!
Search her squares to see
     if you can find a man,
one who does justice
     and seeks truth,
that I may pardon her.
Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
     yet they swear falsely.
O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
You have struck them down,
     but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
     but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
     they have refused to repent.

Then I said, “These are only the poor;
     they have no sense;
for they do not know the way of the Lord,
     the justice of their God.
I will go to the great
     and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the Lord,
     the justice of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
     they had burst the bonds.
Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down . . .

That’s what Jeremiah says in chapter 8. Why will the nation be destroyed? Jeremiah 8:7–9 says:

Even the stork in the heavens
     knows her times,
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane
     keep the time of their coming,
but my people know not
     the rules of the Lord.

How can you say, “We are wise,
     and the law of the Lord is with us”?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
     has made it into a lie.
The wise men shall be put to shame;
     they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
     so what wisdom is in them?

Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge

That’s how Ezekiel understands the problem of Israel. In Ezekiel’s 52 chapters, 65 times God says, “I will do this, that, and the other. Then you will know . . .” It’s a lack of knowledge. After Ezekiel is Daniel, a man who became 10 times wiser than the wisest men in Babylon. A man in whom the Spirit of God, a spirit of wisdom and understanding and insight was dwelling, but we are already looking in Daniel, so let’s not stay there. Let’s just turn to Hosea and see one more verse to see how the prophets understood what will destroy the nation. Hosea 4:5–6 says:

You shall stumble by day;
     the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;
     and I will destroy your mother.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
     because you have rejected knowledge,
     I reject you from being a priest to me . . .

Hosea 4:14 says:

I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
     nor your brides when they commit adultery;
for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
     and sacrifice with cult prostitutes,
and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.

So what has destroyed the nation? This is the perspective of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Hosea. A people without understanding will come to ruin. It doesn’t matter if your forefathers were great and you have become a great nation. A people who turn away from truth, from understanding, will come to ruin, but God’s heart is to bless the nations.

A Heart to Bless and Restore

The Bible is a story. The Old Testament is a story of a bunch of slaves colonized by the British — I mean, the Egyptians — and becoming a mighty nation, a bunch of slaves becoming a mighty nation. Twelve tribes were trying to be one nation. As long as they can survive as one nation, they are mighty and strong. When tribalism takes over, nationalism collapses, the nation disintegrates and goes into slavery. And now we are looking at the story of how a nation that has been totally ruined, totally destroyed is rebuilt. We’ll talk about nationalism in a few minutes. Let’s continue with understanding knowledge and wisdom.

God’s heart is to bless the nations, nations that have been destroyed like Afghanistan or Iraq or North Korea or Sudan or Rwanda or whatever. His heart is to bless them. He chose Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so that through their descendants he could bless the nations of the earth. A nation that was chosen to be the light to the nations has now become darkness itself, and therefore what is God going to do? The nation is going to be destroyed because it has turned away from truth, turned away from wisdom and understanding. Yet God’s commitment is to bless the nations. Therefore, what is he going to do? Let’s turn back to Isaiah who begins this understanding of perspective or diagnosis. Isaiah 11:1–9 says:

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
     and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
     the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
     the Spirit of counsel and might,
     the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
     or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
     and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
     and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
     and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
     and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
     and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
     their young shall lie down together;
     and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
     and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
     in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
     as the waters cover the sea.

The nation is going to be destroyed for lack of understanding and wisdom. And what is God going to do to bless the nations? He’s going to baptize his servant with the Spirit and this will be the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge and understanding and counsel and power that flows from wisdom. And then through this servant who is baptized with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, he will fill the nations with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. And that is what will bring healing, not protests against wars and our activism. That’s what is going to bring healing to the nations.

By His Knowledge

Now, one could of course continue to look at many verses, but let’s go to Isaiah 53, this is the passage of course about the passion of Christ. We had sinned and all our iniquities had been put upon him, “By his stripes, we are healed.” Isaiah 53:11 says:

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
     make many to be accounted righteous,
     and he shall bear their iniquities.

Doesn’t he justify by his blood? Isaiah says, “By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many,” because it’s lack of knowledge that has destroyed the nation. What does knowledge have to do with justification? What is eternal life? Eternal life is to know him. And who can make him known? The one who knows him and came from him to make him known to us, and that’s why we are studying him. If we don’t know him, we don’t know anything. So here’s Daniel. He’s reading the word of God so that he might know the truth. He knows the truth, that in 70 years Israel is to be rebuilt and therefore he’s willing to lay down his life, pray by defying King’s decree, and be willing to be thrown into the lion’s den. And the next morning when the king comes to the lion’s den and sees Daniel is still alive, the king is absolutely stunned.

He thinks, “Boy, who can do this? This is the Almighty God, the angel of the Lord.” Maybe it’s the second person of Trinity who is walking in the fiery furnace in chapter three. Maybe he came in Daniel 6 in the lion’s den. He saved Daniel. The whole experience had such a mighty and moving impact on the king that he issued the decree. The end of Second Chronicles chapter one of Ezra that is being referred to in chapter nine is that the decree will be issued that the Lord is God. Yahweh is God. Therefore you, his people, go back to Jerusalem, build a temple, and here is the silver and gold. That was the impact of Daniel’s prayer and what accompanied it.

What happened in chapter six and chapter nine in the first year of the reign of Cyrus? God’s mighty power was displayed as he risked his life, not as when he tried to use his magic and sorcery to kill his opponents who were trying to take his life, but he laid down his life for truth. And as he laid down his life for truth, the king was able to see the truth because his eyes were opened. And the King was able to issue the decree for rebuilding. We might as well read it. Let’s just look at the last two verses of 2 Chronicles. Second Chronicles 36:22–23 says:

Now 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: “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. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’”

And that’s what Ezra begins the story of rebuilding with. He begins with the same edict:

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: “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 (Ezra 1:1–2).

Do you see the impact of Daniel’s understanding of truth and his faithfulness to truth at the risk of his life and the consequence of a rumbling in the rally of death, of dry bones, of a mighty army beginning to rise up together to go and rebuild the nation?

Daniel’s Nationalism

Let’s dwell for a few minutes on Daniel’s nationalism. Here is Daniel in Babylon, right in the White House. Here’s the Chief of Staff with the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Emperor. He could have a good time for himself, but he’s sitting in sackcloth and ashes praying for his nation. He’s risking his life to be thrown into the lion’s den so that God might forgive his nation and rebuild his nation. This is amazing.

There are people living in slavery in North Korea. There are people living in slavery around the world starving. During the last few years, about 25,000 farmers in India have committed suicide because of indebtedness. While the middle class economy is rising, the masses are suffering and that’s why they’re revolting against the upper class leadership. That’s one factor. But none of these nations where there’s been slavery, oppression, brutality for decades and decades and centuries, rise up for freedom. They don’t sacrifice their lives for their nation so that the nation might be free because nationalism is not as common as sentiment as you might assume it to be.

Nationalism was not a part of Western civilization either just a few hundred years ago. Imagine a situation where, God forbid, terrorists assassinated the president and vice president here. You don’t have a President if that happens. Can you consider the possibility that you will go to the Canadians and say, “Please give us a President,” or to the Mexicans that, “We don’t have a President. Please give us a President.” That’s unthinkable. But that’s what the British did a few hundred years ago. When they didn’t have a King, they went to the Germans, “Please give us a King.” They went to the Dutch, “Please give us a King.”

That’s how William of Orange came with The Bloodless Revolution because the British went to the Dutch and said, “Please give us a King. We don’t have a King.” How could they do that? Well, a king had to be royalty. A king didn’t have to be British. There was no sentiment of nationalism. How did Western nationalism come about? The American Revolution was launched by rag-tag pastors in villages. They led the revolution. Where did the sentiment of nationalism come from? India never produced a Gandhi in 700 years when the Muslims ruled over us before the British started ruling. There was no Gandhi in 18th century India.

Mahatma Gandhi studied in England. Indian nationalism is in the book which Eric showed you. It began with a convert to Christianity who was a poet and began to write poetry, taking John Milton as his model. Nationalism is a peculiarly biblical sentiment and it forged the Western mind only after the Reformation when the Bible was translated and spread.

On Earth as Is in Heaven

Let me just give a very simple illustration. The Puritan fathers, when they were sailing to America, they intentionally sailed in a direction opposite to the direction of the holy land. Why are they called “pilgrims”? They’re not going on a pilgrimage. Well, they are coming here to find their holy land — a land where Jesus is Lord, where God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. Let me just read, if I can find quickly in my book, The Missionary Conspiracy: Letters to a Post-Modern Hindu, a poem by William Blake, which is still sung in the Anglican church as a hymn. Here’s William Blake. The poem is called “Jerusalem”:

And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green: And was the holy Lamb of God, On England’s pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here, Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold: Bring me my arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand: Till we have built Jerusalem, In England’s green & pleasant Land.

This was the mindset for people who are praying, thy kingdom come. They thought, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That your will should be done. It’s not being done in England and Holland, tyranny is ruling there. Therefore, we are going to America where we might build a city of God where God’s will is done, a light for the nations.” If this is the place where God’s will is to be done, then I have every reason to love this place, every reason to desire that he is honored here and his will is done here, not Satan’s will, not the murderer’s will.

Building from the Ruins

Now, that was the mindset, which along with The Bible came to our nation. If our nation, India is rising, that book on William Carey is just not a biography of the missionary. It’s a worldview book which contrasts Christian worldview and the Hindu worldview. It shows how the Bible began to build modern India.

Well, I was going to tell the whole story and I’m still on one verse in Daniel 9, so let’s get on with the story. That here is Daniel who has been reading the word of God, although he does see dreams and visions and hear God’s voice, he’s reading the words, believing them to be true, and laying down his life. A mighty miracle happens. The king can now see God and issues the decree, “Go back, build his temple.”

When Zerubbabel and Joshua have gone back to rebuild, it’s a hopeless situation. Security is the number one issue as it is in Washington DC, as it is in Iraq, and as it is in Pakistan. The President’s life is not safe. Security is the number one issue. Economics is a mess and Haggai talks about it, that you harvested much but you have nothing. Political, legal structures just aren’t there in place. How do you begin to build a nation that has been totally destroyed?

They begin with building the altar, with worship. They begin building the temple, listening to the word of God — preachers, pulpit, prophet. Now, why begin with worship? As you go into these nations, why plant churches? There are hungry people who are starving to death. Why begin with worship in the process of rebuilding? They begin with worship, for one thing because now they know God, that he is not simply a great creator, not simply an awesome, awful judge, but he’s a mighty and compassionate Redeemer. He has saved them from their slavery and delivered them from their captivity. Now they know him as the Savior and they begin to worship him. That brings hope and optimism, which becomes the philosophical worldview and theological foundation for having any hope for the future of your nation. Because he is a Savior, because he does come into our history and act into our history, therefore, there is hope.

We have enjoyed this rich music, and that’s one of the things we love about Bethlehem Baptist Church. I can’t say it is next to Pastor Piper’s preaching, but at perhaps the same level, the worship. We love it. But you can’t go into a mosque anywhere in the world and see a worship band, a keyboard, a guitar, or a piano. There is no music in a mosque. Why? Because God isn’t the Savior. There isn’t a message of “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.” In some Buddhist temples, you do have music. There was no music in Buddhism anywhere until 10, 15, or 20 years ago, until Westerners began to convert to Buddhism.

The West became a singing civilization through Augustine. We looked at Augustine and I better not go much about it. My first chapter in the book of the millennium is, “How did the West become a Singing Civilization?” You might think this is normal. It is normal for you, but music is banned. Even listening to music has tremendous restrictions in Saudi Arabia. In post-Taliban Afghanistan, which is under American occupation, a woman cannot sing in public, not only before you, but even on radio where her face cannot be seen. She cannot sing to mixed audiences.

The Roots of Worship

They begin to worship because everything else flows. Even the concept, the very idea of nation, if you’re talking about nation building, the very concept of nationalism and nationhood has no meaning unless you begin with a sovereign God, as Paul stood in Athens and declared that he has created boundaries and fixed them in different times and places and created nations. The professors in University of Minnesota, in universities in America, who are deconstructing the concept of nation are right. Without an understanding of a sovereign God, you cannot have any justification. You have to say that nations are artificial constructs. There is no reason for America and Mexico not to be one nation.

There is no basis for you to know that you exist as an individual unless you begin with God. That’s what Calvin is saying, that knowledge of man and of God is connected. We cannot know ourselves if there is no God. A hundred years ago, Nietzsche said, “God is dead,” and he was astute enough to understand that if God is dead everything that flowed in European civilization from the notion of biblical God is also dead. It cannot be sustained. What he didn’t foresee is that if God is dead, then Nietzsche is dead. Nietzsche cannot exist as an individual self. The postmodern psychologists and literary critics who are peeling the onion of self realize that as you begin to peel the onion of self, there is no self. There is no soul. You can’t exist as a self, as a soul, if God is dead.

So why should we be knowing God? Because if we don’t know God, we cannot have life — eternal life or any kind of life. We cannot exist. You might think that common sense can sustain a civilization which was built by the Bible. The West is now in the fourth phase of its big picture. Western civilization began with Rome. Caesar is Lord. He’s the source of civilizational authority. There is pluralism. You can believe whatever you want to believe, as long as Caesar permits it. If you do what he doesn’t want you to do, you can become a torch in his garden.

Jesus challenged that totalitarianism. He said, “Give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but unto God, what belongs to God.” That set a conflict in church and Caesar. Caesar lost. Rome lost. The church took over the leadership. It was the biggest structure. The Bishop of Rome placed himself as the source of civilizational authority, but power corrupted the church. Absolute power corrupted it absolutely. The Pope was deciding whether Henry VIII could divorce and whether Tyndale could translate the New Testament or not. The Pope was the source of civilizational authority.

When it got corrupted, the Reformers stood up and said, “If this is God’s word, this should be the source of authority.” That was destroyed during the last 200 years or so, particularly during the 20th century, and now dark ages are coming in because the Western civilization has no source of information, knowledge, truth, or falsehood — of right and wrong or good and evil. That’s why there is mess, and that’s why this Book of the Millennium Project is seeking to reestablish the authority of God’s word.

Forward in the Building Project

Now, that’s what Daniel is doing, and as he begins to do that, when the exiles return, they begin with rebuilding the altar (worship) because knowledge of God, worship of God, is the source of everything else, including our knowledge of ourselves and our understanding of human rights and human freedom. The building is opposed, and then preachers stand up — Haggai and Zechariah. That’s the role that I really wanted to talk about, but you’ll have to study it on your own — the preacher’s role in building the nation.

Let’s conclude with where we began. Opposition has been so intense that they’ve stopped building. For almost 16 years, they’re not building. They’re building their own paneled houses. They’re not building the church, they’re not building the temple of God. They’re supposed to go to the uttermost parts of the earth but they’re feeling defeated in their own little parish. There has been moral compromise. Perhaps some of the money is being diverted to build their own houses. So there is the whispering campaign against Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel. That’s where Haggai comes with the word. They listen and they repent. They’ve ignored the prophets earlier, but now there is a revival because they respond to God’s word. This is not simply about nation buildings. It’s fascinating to look at each of these characters. They are personally promised things.

So Joshua, as he stands there with filthy rags, aware of his sinfulness and unrighteousness, receives God’s word that his iniquities, his filthy clothes, are removed and he is given the robes of righteousness. As Zerubbabel feels that he cannot do it because he’s no Solomon and no David, he’s given this reassuring word: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.” Can we really believe that these bones can live, these nations can be rebuilt, that they can become light to the nations? It’s not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit. The question is that as we leave this place, will we take the time to meet with God personally to be touched by him?