I enjoy visiting friends homes and looking for the most obscure coffee cup when they offer. It is fun to try to complete the narrative of their lives from their coffee cups. For better or for worse, cups preach. Maybe the guy is generous with his money or blood (still strange for a coffee cup) or faithful at work. Whatever the case, they tell us a story.
In Ezra 1 we have cups that tell a pretty profound story.
After conquering Babylon the powerful king Cyrus makes a decree to send a bunch of the captive Jews back home to Jerusalem (538BC). Why? To build the temple and get worship going again in Israel. It is amid this dramatic announcement we read:
Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. (Ez 1.7)
What’s the big deal? When Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel he not only carried off the people but he carted off their materials for worship. Nebuchadnezzar repurposed the materials for the worship of the Lord God for the worship of his god (self).
Then in a powerful display of divine vitality, God, that is the living God, stirs the heart of the king (Ez. 1.1) to let them go. And further to take out these formerly repurposed vessels that have been perverted in their idolatry to be sent along for use in the new worship community in Israel.
This has divine sovereignty stamped all over it.
It also has a whiff of the gospel on it.
In apparent weakness there is strength. God barges in and takes what he wants. God takes vessels of worship that have been perverted and restores them to their proper function. This is much like what he does through the gospel. As a church we are about putting former vessels of idolatry on display as powerful trophies of the conquest of God.
On the surface it may just look like Cyrus is having a garage sale but it is so much more than that. The Lord God who puruses his own fame is faithfully raising up his people from the ashes of bondage. He is reviving, renewing and restoring. He takes those who were vessels or servants of idolatry and makes them his vessels of grace (Col. 1.12-14, 2.6-7, 3.1-4).
Can you imagine the story that those gold vessels would have preached as they sat in their rebuilt temple?
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! (Ps. 118.1)