The Lord Restores | Ezra 1 (Mark Evans)

In the book of Ezra, God restores His people who were in exile. Cyrus, a pagan ruler, is used by God to fulfill His promise to bring the people back and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. The restoration is a display of God's greatness and faithfulness. The temple is a significant place of fellowship with God. God provides the means for the restoration and stirs up the hearts of the people to rebuild. The restoration is a result of God's covenant grace and kindness. The people are called to return to God and rely on His provision. The heads of households rise up to lead the restoration despite opposition. The restoration is a reminder that God's purposes for His people will not fail. And so, for our scripture reading this morning, we will be in Ezra chapter 1, Ezra chapter 1. And these are the words of the true and the living God. 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 his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor in whatever place he sojourns be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods, with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred up to go and rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. And all who were about them added them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered. 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. Cyrus, king of Persia, brought these out in the charge of Mithridath, the treasurer, who counted them out to Shesh-bazar, the prince of Judah. And this was the number of them, thirty basins of gold, a thousand basins of silver, twenty-nine censers, thirty bowls of gold, four hundred and ten bowls of silver, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these did Shesh-bazar bring up when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem. And the grass withers, and the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord stands forever. Let us pray. Our heavenly Father, we praise you. You are the sovereign God, using such sovereignty to fulfill your covenant faithfulness to your people, to the church from age to age, century to century. And so here we are, the people of God. And so we pray that you would give us eyes to see, and that you would give us ears to hear, that we would behold the wondrous things of your Word, that we would behold the wonders of you, our great and awesome God. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Well, given the two options, which is the more difficult? To build something or to rebuild something? For instance, is it harder to build a new home or to renovate a dilapidated house? Is it harder to plant a tree or to try and uproot and transplant a tree? Is it harder to put in a new transmission or to rebuild an old transmission? Or even if you say you've ruined a batch of bread dough, you might be tempted to just throw out that batch of dough and start over with something new. Because not in every case, but generally speaking, it's much harder, much more difficult to restore than it is to just start fresh and start new. Once salt loses its saltiness, you just throw it out and move on. Because it takes much more skill, patience, wisdom, commitment to restore and to rebuild rather than just build anew. And that is what we have in the book of Ezra. Ezra is a book all about God's restoration. The people of God needing restoration. And we see God's work of restoring His people, restoring His promises, restoring the temple, restoring His covenant. And through it all, we can see this full display of the greatness of our God, His wisdom, His skill, His power, His kindness, His faithfulness to His people. And that sets the stage as to why we are looking at Ezra specifically. Indeed, you might ask the question, why Ezra? I know I've been asked, almost as an indictment, why are we not studying Nehemiah? I've even been told by a couple of people that they're looking forward to hearing Esther being preached. And I have to remind them, you got the E right, but we're actually not going to be in Esther, we're going to be in Ezra. That perhaps just underscores how overlooked, how underappreciated the book of Ezra is. As one commentator said, this book is a neglected part of God's Word. It's a story that the church needs to hear, but rarely ever does hear. And so my prayer would be that it may not be for us. My further prayer is that for us, the people of God, we would see the way God works. Because indeed, it is true that you cannot look at the church today, you cannot look at our nation today. I'm sure you cannot look at areas of your life today and not see areas in dire need of reformation, of rebuilding, of restoring, and of repairing. And that is in many ways the main point of Ezra as a whole, that our great God sovereignly restores His people and His kingdom so that they might worship Him and that they might obey Him. Now you've probably caught that I've said the word, restore, a number of times. And so you should be asking, well, restored from what? What is God restoring His people from exactly? And so we must get our minds around the context of Ezra. And this is where some historical background is quite helpful. Because in a word, God is restoring His people from exile, a very long exile, seven decades of exile. You might remember, long ago, God makes this covenant promise with Abraham. He says, Abraham, to you will belong land, seed, and untold blessing. And Israel did experience that blessing in a limited portion for a limited time until they walk in disobedience, rebellion, even false worship. And they break covenant with God. And so as a consequence, as a covenant curse for their sins, they are exiled. They are expelled out of the promised land. And they are carried off to a foreign land. So it is vital to see that the deportation of Israel out of her land, oh, it's so much more than just an unfortunate political circumstance. No, it is the very judgment of God on Israel for not being the holy nation, the royal priesthood that she was called to be. And so there's a sense, if you're an Israelite at the time of Ezra, and you're in this foreign land living in exile, no matter how well things seem to be going, no matter how well good life might seem to be, it would always be in your consciousness and upon your heart that life is not as it should be. Right? That life is not as it should be. And that right relationship with God is not as it should be. Your heart would always be back in Jerusalem. What did we just sing from Psalm 137, when I sit down by the waters of Babylon, I can't help but weep. Right? If I forget you, oh, Jerusalem, let my tongue cleave to my mouth. That's how seriously exile would rightly penetrate into the heart of a Jew as a covenant curse. It would be always to be under the cloud of God's disfavor. Indeed, right before exile, King Zedekiah, the very last king of Israel, his own sons are executed right before him and his eyes are gouged out. That's Israel's on-ramp to exile. So they're thinking, what hope is there for us as an exiled people? What hope is there for God's people today in our own reformations? Well, you'd find it here in the book of Ezra, a book that is all about God restoring His people and rebuilding His kingdom for His glory. And so that's the setting of where we pick up in Ezra chapter 1, this time period when God's people are downcast, dismayed, quite hopeless. And so we'll walk through this chapter, lengthy though it is, just looking at three simple parts. The Lord's instrument, secondly, what is the Lord's announcement? And lastly, a look at the Lord's stirring. And from those headings alone, you can probably already grasp, okay, Ezra is not the main character. The people of God are not the main character. You see, the main character is our covenant-keeping God and His faithfulness to His people to fulfill His covenant promises. And so with that, let us dive into the Lord's instrument. And in verse 1, you do meet this very surprising character because of all the ways that God could operate, He chooses this man Cyrus, this Persian pagan ruler who is wielded by God. Notice verse 1, this ruler is raised up in order to fulfill the word that he spoke through Jeremiah. And so let's just ask, okay, well, what did God promise through Jeremiah long ago? And just lend me your ears to this promise from Jeremiah 29. How beautiful is it? Jeremiah 29 says this, thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed, I will visit you. I will fulfill my promise to you. I will bring you back to this place. I know the plans that I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with your whole heart. I will be found by you. I will restore your fortunes. I will gather you from all the nations where I have driven you and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. How amazing is that? God promises Israel, I have plans for your good. I have plans for your future. I drove you away, but I will bring you back. How encouraging would have that been to them? They would have said, you mean we're not forgotten? You mean God has not cast us off? You mean God would actually have us back? He would restore us to himself. How encouraging. And yet how discouraging, right? Because you could look at the promise with one eye and then as the other eye, you could look up and look at your circumstances and think these two things don't seem to match, right? We're still in exile. We're still under a pagan ruler and you see no possible way out. And surely you've had a similar experience. That you look at God's promises to you, to your children, to the church, promises for your good, for your welfare, and yet they don't seem to align with reality. But you see how the Lord works. How majestic it would have been to them to see if all the ways he fulfills this promise, raising up this pagan ruler Cyrus to do his bidding. And of course we see this all throughout Scripture, that God works in and through kingly leaders, and non-, even anti-Christian leaders, to further his kingdoms. My Proverbs is so clear on this, that God takes the heart of the king and he can turn it like channels of water, that whether we're talking Pharaoh, or Cyrus, or a Pontius Pilate, or a Caesar, God wills the king as his instrument and does abundantly more than all you could ask or ever even think. And so you see, Cyrus does exactly what God commands in verse 1. Cyrus makes this proclamation throughout all the kingdom, and he even puts it down in writing. And now, historically, this proclamation, this was such an improbable, unlikely event that scholars for the longest time doubted that this ever actually happened. All that is, archaeologists found what is known as the Cyrus Cylinder in 1879. And that Cyrus Cylinder actually records this exact proclamation. You could go to the British Museum today and find the Cyrus Cylinder. But of course, you don't need to do that. All you have to do is read Ezra 1 and marvel at the sovereignty of God through Cyrus. And you might be wondering, okay, did Cyrus personally know the Lord? And it seems not. It seems likely that he did not know the Lord, that he was, in fact, a polytheistic pluralist. You see, for Cyrus's part, he probably thinks all that he's doing is carrying out this very shrewd political move. During this time, there were many deported groups. And so Cyrus is thinking, oh, okay, if I can kind of posture myself as this political savior who allows deported people to come back home, then I win their favor. I win the votes. I can curry favor with the masses. And of course, little does he know, he's just an instrument in God's hand doing God's bidding for God's people. What he intends for political points, God purposes to advance his kingdom. And you see that so clearly in verse 1. See that key word there, God is the one stirring him up. That every single stroke of his pen is the Lord's sovereign stirring. And we must remember that in our day, that whether we are talking Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, that these are but puppets to the puppet master. And God's purposes for his kingdom and for his church will not be thwarted. Because indeed, you may feel powerless, weak against the godless juggernaut that seems to be taking over. What we see here are God reigns and his purposes for his people will not fail. So there's the word on God's instrument. Now let's look at the Lord's announcement to a very weary people. You see in verse 2, God has invested Cyrus with this earthly power, right? Just like God gave Pilate earthly authority. Well, same thing here. He gives Cyrus this vast dominion and he has stirred him up for this specific purpose. And you see it there in verse 2, this charge to build a house, to build a house. What is this house? Of course, when you see the word house, don't think of the residential 3-2 starter home that you see all about the suburbs, right? That's not in view. House here simply means God's temple, the temple. And again, we've got to put ourselves into the sandals of the Jew and appreciate the significance of the temple and what the temple meant to them. For instance, we have in our day this expression that, quote, the church is not a building. I'm sure you've heard that, right? The church is not a building because it's the people that make up the church. But there's a sense in which a Jew of the Old Testament would have responded, what are you talking about? The church absolutely is a building. In fact, it's that building right there. And he would be pointing to the temple. And here's the key, you'd both be right. We sometimes look down our nose at the Old Testament believer. How could he be so crass as to think of religion bound up with a building? But remember, the temple was heaven on earth. The temple was the place where right sacrifices, acceptable worship, fellowship with God occurred. It marked out Israel that she, she alone is special in God's eyes. The very heart of the temple could be summed up in the phrase, I will be your God and you will be my people. At no point was the temple intended as some kind of dry, formal, externalized religious building. No, no, no. It was fellowship with God. And so these are sweet words of restoration that the temple is going to be rebuilt and they get to go back home. And you see it there in verse, verse three, whoever is among you, return home to Jerusalem. Rebuild the house because that is where God is in Jerusalem. You see it there. God dwells specifically, purposefully with his people in his chosen place. And friends, that is all the more true today. Now, of course, we're not bound to a particular city, a particular place in the new covenant. But when God's people gather together on the Lord's day to worship him rightly, God is uniquely present, you could say. He's covenantally present to bless us, that we are taken up by the Spirit to the heavenly Jerusalem, to Mount Zion, to worship the living and true God, and he in turn blesses us. That is why worship is so important then, while it's all the more important and vital now. But notice the charge in verse three is not build the house, it's to rebuild the house. So that raises another question, well, what happened to the first house, to the first temple? And just a reminder, that's a temple that was built by King Solomon. And that was a temple that was destroyed, leveled to the ground in 586 B.C. And again, as it was being destroyed, just remember as an Israelite, it would also seem as if all your hopes, all your fellowship with God was likewise being destroyed. And these survivors were deported to Babylon. And so we're right to see in this passage the incredible kindness, grace of our God. Notice the title, I titled this section, The Lord's Announcement, not Cyrus' Announcement, even though Cyrus is the one making the announcement. So why the Lord's? Because you see, it's all God's doing, it's all God's stirring. Cyrus' name may be on there on the edict, but it's all of God's doing. And let's ask the question, what have they done to deserve this restoration, to deserve this kindness from God? And we know the answer. Not only have they not deserved it, they have done everything to be ill-deserving of it, rebelling against God. And so it's by the covenant grace of God that He's calling back and reclaiming His people. And so too for us today. What is it that would lead you in repentance, that would lead a church in repentance, that would lead a nation in repentance? As Romans says, it is the kindness of God that could heal, that could bring back the wayward sinner that says, come, return to me, and I will be found by you. Now in terms of the size of this remnant, it's estimated that nearly 50,000 Israelites are packing their bags to go back home. And you may not know this about temples, but temples do not build themselves. That's a pro-tip. So you know, they're going to need all kinds of, not just people, but supplies, materials to construct this temple. And so just look at what God does in verse 4 with this proclamation. God says, the Osiris, let each survivor in whatever place he sojourns be assisted by the men of his place. With what? With silver, gold, goods, beasts, and offerings. It's got this feel of help yourselves to whatever you need on your journey. You see, God not only stirs up the way, he here also supplies the means. God not only leads them, he also provides for them. You might remember when Israel came out of Egypt, the Israelites plundered the Egyptian treasures. They took that gold from Egypt, the very gold that would soon adorn the tabernacle. And you see that same thing here in Ezra. It's a kind of second Exodus, right? This very same thing, that as they come out of exile, they are taking the Gentile treasures to rebuild God's temple. You see that pattern of plundering all throughout Scripture. And we know it reaches its climax where? Within the Lord Jesus Christ, that Christ comes and he plunders not just one God, not just one people, but he plunders the strong man himself. He binds him up and spoils him of all of his goods and reclaims all those who are God's elect. And so, too, it means for us today that we are to have a keen eye on plundering the Egyptians. What treasures are there to be reclaimed and brought back under the Lordship of Jesus Christ? And this is something we have almost entirely forgotten how to do. But just think of some historical examples. You think of the printing press, for example, that that technology was plundered. What did the printing press do? It was used to print Bible after Bible after Bible and disseminate them. And so, too, for us, that would mean the use of anything, whether it's technology, business politics, education and so forth and so on, all to be reclaimed, plundered for the use of God's kingdom. But to do so will take nothing less than the Lord's work upon their lives and the Lord's work upon our lives. And that leads us to our third point, which is the Lord's stirring. But you see immediately in verse 5, it reads this, "...then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin." And there's perhaps no clear call, plain call for men to be men, particularly if you are the head of your household, that it always starts with you, for better or for worse, and as you go, so goes your family. Because look who rises up first. It is the heads of the households. And we'll soon see they're going to have a lot opposing them and working against them. Just as no doubt, there is so much working against you, whether it be the world, the state, your own flesh, your own sin, that would have you as head be complacent, be emasculated, maybe even paralyzed in fear, cowering in shame. But hear this charge. The time is now, it's always now, to rise up. Rise up. Rise up to the occasion. And look at this great blessing that follows in its wake when men, as the head, take on the responsibility. Just look what trickles down in verse 5. Now the priest and the Levites, and then indeed you see everyone, is invigorated and rises up to do the work that must be done. That is the great blessing of headship, when headship takes on benevolent responsibility. And you see next there will be no chess beating by the men as the heads of their houses, because the only reason they can rise up, and indeed the only reason you can rise up, even if everything is working against you, it matters not, because the Almighty God is working upon the heart. And you see that exactly in verse 5, that it was God Himself who stirred them up to go and rebuild the house of the Lord. Kids, I'm sure at some point you've made hot chocolate, or maybe powdered Gatorade, or maybe another drink, and what happens? You pour in that powder, you pour in that hot cocoa, and if you don't do anything, what happens? That powder settles to the bottom of the glass. So what do you have to do? You've got to get out your spoon, and you've got to stir it up, right? You've got to mix it in to make your drink. Well, kids, our God is the same way. Our God is the stirring God. He stirs us up. He stirs you up to love Him, to obey Him, to serve Him. That is what He delights to do, and that is what our God is doing here, both author and perfecter. And how awesome it is that the very charge He gives, He supplies the grace to perform it and to carry it out. Because just imagine, though exciting, how daunting this would be, right? You have to uproot your life. You have to uproot your family. You have to go back to the city that the last time you saw it, if you even did see it, it was being ransacked and pillaged and burned by your enemies. How hard would that be? And so, too, for us. How often you make a decision, you make a commitment, seems so uncertain in the moment, so daunting in the moment, but you can look back and see the hand of the Lord through all of it, this confidence that our God stirs us up for His work and for His purposes. And now, as God is stirring them up, you see the overflow of the heart in verse 6. This inventory of costly gold and silver are being brought out, but then at the end of verse 6, something even more particularly, these offerings that were given, you see that word there, freely, freely offered, right? These are offerings that are above and beyond, simply out of the generosity of the giver in response to God's moving of the heart, that as 2 Corinthians says, God loves a cheerful giver, that God loves when we give, not reluctantly, and not expecting any kind of return. Because how easy is it for to think of giving as a kind of clever extortion? We know this well in our day, this idea of, oh, sure, I'll give to God, but with a subtle understanding that now He owes me. I'll give to God, but only with the understanding that He is to give me a return on my investment. And such a giving, of course, does not honor God, is contrary to the very nature of God. We see here the true heart of giving, that God has stirred up His people to give generously and freely. But the Lord is not even done there with His stirring, because perhaps we have the most awesome of all in verse 7 that reads this, Cyrus also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away. And then you see in verse 8, they start counting out these basins and these bowls. And you might be thinking, this is just kitchen inventory, you know, what's the big deal about counting out plates and pots? Well, again, let's just set the context, because if not, you'll miss the massive significance of this event. You might remember Hezekiah, King Hezekiah, who was overall a pretty good king in the line of a lot of bad kings. But even Hezekiah has this great moment of foolishness, because there's Hezekiah, and the Babylonians come from far away, and they visit Hezekiah in the temple, the first temple. And Hezekiah basically turns into a tour guide, and he starts leading them through the temple, okay, and going, oh, hey, if you look over here, here's our very precious gold to your right. And if you look over here, here's our very precious silver to your left. Yeah, you'll notice it's not locked, it's not guarded at all. Oh, up here is our armory, right? Here's the inside of our national defense and our security. Again, you can see all the ways in which we are vulnerable. And I'm exaggerating it somewhat, but that's a little bit of what Hezekiah does. And so the Babylonians are just taking notes, going, okay, when we ransack this place, you take the gold, I'll take the silver, and we will clean this place out. And to make it even worse, Hezekiah's confronted, and said, what did you show the Babylonians? And Hezekiah said, well, I pretty much showed them everything. And then it's prophesied to them right then and there, Hezekiah, this will happen. This temple will be ransacked, and your sons will be taken from you by our enemies. And Hezekiah has this terribly short-sighted answer, this terribly non-generational thought. He says to himself, oh well, as long as there's peace and security in my day. So we are reminded as Christians, we are always playing the long game. We are always thinking of the generations that come after us, of covenant succession. And why? Because that's who our God is, faithfulness to a thousand generations. Because despite Hezekiah's foolishness, Isaiah also promised, one day, it'll be undone. One day, God will restore what you have done. He will restore your past sins. You should know that today. Our God is the God who can restore the years that the locusts have eaten. Because what is brought back out, and what is recovered, in verse 7, are those very vessels that were taken away and set up for false worship. You can read that line there. Look at verse 7. Carried away from Jerusalem and set up in the house of Nebuchadnezzar's gods. And see, it's not just the vessels were carried away, they were repurposed, set up in the house of a false god, celebrating that this false god had defeated Yahweh. And you see it in our day. You can go over to Europe right now and see so many glorious churches, amazing churches. And what are they being used for? Being used for a liberal church, a mosque, a restaurant, a pub, a tourist attraction. And as they say, how far is America behind Europe? Not all that far. But what is the response here? God looks down from heaven and He says, I will not give my glory to another. I will not have my vessels set up in the house of a false god. I will not have my name be anything less than the name that is above all names. And so look at what happens in verses 8 through 11. These vessels, the very vessels that were carried away, they're counted out. And this full inventory is given, even as verse 11 gives us that sum total, 5,400 vessels of gold and silver. And so what you can imagine is that as each pot is counted out and this clang sounds into the pile, it would be a clang of God's victory, right? Each basin that is thrown into the pile and it makes a clang, it would be this clang of God's supreme victory, that God is doing what He promised to do. He is returning His people home with restored, reclaimed treasure that was once used in false worship. And so indeed, all of this, God's full restoration, points us forward to what? As we ask the question, okay, how will God plunder, not just one false god, not just one nation, but how will God plunder all the principalities and powers of darkness? How will God build the true temple, the everlasting temple? How is it that God will restore and reclaim sinners to Himself, to have fellowship with Him, to be in right relationship with Him? We know how it is. That it is through the Lord Jesus Christ, that through Him and Him alone, God is summing up all things in heaven and on earth in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see the preview of it right here in Ezra chapter 1. And so as we begin to close, let us lay up in our hearts three uses of this great opening to the book of Ezra. Firstly, the sovereignty of God. Because let's just ask a simple question. Just how much was God in control here? So we've seen God raised up a pagan king named Cyrus to give His announcement. Then God stirred up a sluggish, lethargic people to respond to His announcement. Then God reclaimed the stolen treasure from years ago and is sending His people back home with their arms full. God's complete and total control about sums up the answer to just how much was God in control. And you see, too, that God's sovereignty does not work at random. Sometimes we think of God's sovereignty as this kind of lightning storm. It's got this capricious energy. No, you see, God uses His sovereign power, according to His good will, to accomplish His purposes. And that leads to our second point. Not just God who is sovereign, but the God who is faithful. God who is faithful. Because what have we seen? Remember that we began with this promise. This promise made through Jeremiah. Plans for their welfare. Plans for their good now being fulfilled. And that was a promise that in all reality, all logic, all circumstances would have rendered impossible. Right? There the people of God are in a foreign land. They have no control, no political power, no means. And even if they did have the means, which they didn't, they didn't have the zeal. They didn't have the gusto to do what needed to be done. What happened? Our great God was faithful to His promise. And that is where we must go. We must hang our faith upon all of God's promises. To be like Abraham, who did not waver when he considered what? When he considered the promise of God. He was fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised to do. And is that you this morning? Are you fully convinced that God is able to do what He has promised to do? And that leads us to our final point. God not only sovereign, God not only faithful, but the God who stirs up. That our God is a stirring God. What have we seen? Not only did God stir up Cyrus to give this decree, God stirred up His people to respond and obey the decree. It took nothing less than God moving the heart. And maybe that's you this morning. Maybe you are asleep. Maybe you are complacent. Maybe you are lukewarm. And you say, God's Word no longer moves me. The love of Christ no longer compels me. I have such little zeal for the Kingdom of God. I have such little zeal when it comes time to pray. My heart is as hard as stone. Well, see here is your hope. Who is the God you serve? You serve the God who stirs the heart to accomplish His purposes so that you might walk in faith and it be to His glory. Let us pray. Our great God and Heavenly Father, we do praise You for who You are, that You are the God who is faithful unto a thousand generations. And so what does that mean for us? That means You are faithful to this generation, to our generation. And so we pray that You would heal us from within, that just as You stir to them, that You would stir us up. For we know there is so much work to be done, so much to be rebuilt, so much to be recovered, so much even to press on for the upward call of God that is in Christ Jesus. And here we are to confess, what can we do of our own strength? Not one thing. But we know You are the God who works in us both to will and to do according to Your pleasure. And so we pray that that would be true in our life. In His name we pray, Amen.