Good morning. Have you ever prayed that someone have a change of heart, or to act in obedience to God’s will even when it seems unlikely that they would do so? The circumstances that would cause us to feel the need to lift this prayer to God may be widely different, but I would say that most of us have prayed in this way from time to time. Today’s thought is that God has demonstrated His power to change the hearts and minds of people, often among those we would least expect. Consider how God brought about the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.
To begin, God stirred up the greedy heart of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and used him as an instrument to discipline His people. This was all according to prophecy, and in fact, God made it clear that at the appropriate time after they returned their hearts to Him, He would restore His people. Isaiah and Jeremiah were prophets of God who spoke in detail of this hundreds of years before it came about.
When the time was right for the “remnant” (those faithful of God’s people in exile) to come out of bondage, their first job was to rebuild the temple which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed. However, God’s people were impoverished captives who had neither the means nor the opportunity to do the job. It was time for God to “stir up” minds and hearts.
The end of 2 Chronicles and the beginning of Ezra are much the same: In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart (stirred up the spirit is what is literally said) of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’” Ezra 1:1-3
Doesn’t this sound as though king Cyrus was a true believer in Jehovah, Almighty God? He was not. However, God “stirred him up inside” and moved his heart to do His will. God moved him not only to release the people, but to return the stolen items of gold and silver back to the temple in Jerusalem, and to set in motion a plan to pay for it!
The work of rebuilding the temple began, but it was strongly opposed and as years passed, the work was not finished and was no longer progressing.
So, God stirred up Cyrus’ replacement, king Darius. Was Darius a believer in Jehovah, God Almighty? No, he was not. But after God was at work within him, he ordered a search of the archives to find out what Cyrus had said on the matter. Darius reaffirmed those orders, and then he added: Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God: Their expenses are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop. Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, male lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and olive oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given them daily without fail, so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons. Furthermore, I decree that if anyone defies this edict, a beam is to be pulled from their house and they are to be impaled on it. And for this crime their house is to be made a pile of rubble. May God, who has caused his Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to change this decree or to destroy this temple in Jerusalem.
I Darius have decreed it. Let it be carried out with diligence. Ezra 6:7-12
God worked within the hearts of these kings, and they obeyed Him. For our thought today I wanted to reaffirm the righteousness of prayers that are asking God to work in the hearts of people you would never expect to obey him.
Are there government officials that do not know the Lord and who need divine encouragement that they will act righteously and in accordance with His will? Most definitely! Do you pray for them, and for God “stir their hearts” that they might carry out His will?
Such prayers are, I believe, righteous. We should not forget that it is well established in God’s Word that He will work within the hearts and minds of people who do not know Him or love Him. It is within God’s power to do amazing things, often with human “instruments” that we would have thought extremely unlikely to oblige Him.
Pray for the unlikely. When it is within the will of God, amazing things will happen!
Vern