1. Ezra 1:1 (ESV)
  2. Application

God is in control

Ezra 1:1 (ESV)

1 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:

Do you think if God was in charge of the aspirations of this pagan Persian monarch and leader [Cyrus] that he is not in charge of the details of your own life and family? And all those little things that you are worried and concerned about, and bring to the house of God with you as you gather together for worship [every Sunday]? God is in control. God is in absolute and total control of every event and every detail, and every facet that happens. Providence: it is a kind of biblical historiography. God is in charge here. You want to know why these things happen? God did it. God moved his heart.1

Derek W. H. Thomas