Ezra 6:1














In the letter of Tatnai to Darius he advised that search should be made to ascertain whether there existed any decree of Cyrus authorising the building of the temple at Jerusalem. Search was accordingly made, and the roll recovered. The decree may be viewed as consisting of three parts: -

I. THE AUTHENTICATION.

1. The author's signature. "Cyrus the king."

(1) This name calls to mind the remarkable prophecies of Isaiah, in which, a century before his time, he was surnamed (see Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1, 13).

(2) The same God that inspired the prophecy found means to bring it under the notice of the king. Cyrus accordingly accepted the Divine commission (2 Chronicles 36:23; Ezra 1:2, 3). Lesson - We should trust that providence which rules all rulers.

2. The date of the document. "In the first year of Cyrus."

(1) This date, B.C. 536, recalls the prophecy of Jeremiah, which assigned seventy years for the duration of the captivity. These were now completed.

(2) This prophecy also seems to have been brought under the notice of Cyrus (2 Chronicles 36:22; Ezra 1:1). Lesson

(a) Let us see the hand of God in everything.

(b) Nothing is too trivial to be mentioned in prayer.

3. The place of its custody

(1) Tatnai specified "the king's treasure house at Babylon"(Ezra 5:17). Probably because the decree may have been signed there. Search was made accordingly at that treasure house in the royal library, but the document was not found. The malignity of the Apharsachites would now be gratified.

(2) Further search was made at Achmetha, "in the palace that is in the province of the Medes." Here the roll was recovered. Note -

(a) God watches over the true.

(b) The triumphing of the wicked is transient.

II. THE MATTER "CONCERNING THE HOUSE OF GOD AT JERUSALEM."

1. "Let the house be builded.

(1) At Jerusalem. The place which God chose to put his name there (see 1 Kings 8:29; 2 Chronicles 7:12; Psalm 78:67, 68; Psalm 87:1, 2). God favoured particular places for his worship.

1. To serve typical purposes.

2. To keep his people from mingling with idolaters. Note - In this spiritual dispensation these reasons no longer obtain (see John 4:20-24).

(2) Where they offered sacrifices." Levitical sacrifices were restricted to the temple because the Shechinah and sacred fire were there; and this ordinance kept the people from sacrificing on high places with idolaters. For this latter reason, though the Shechinah and fire were absent from the second temple, still the ancient place of sacrificing is respected. Lesson - Every species of idolatry should be scrupulously avoided.

2. The manner in which it was to be done.

(1) "Let the foundations be strongly laid." These typified Christ, upon whom the fabric of his Church is built (see Matthew 16:16-18; 1 Corinthians 3:11; Ephesians 2:20-22). Note - We may confidently rest on him the whole weight of our eternal interests.

(2) "The height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits." This differed from Solomon's temple, first, in that it was larger; and secondly, in that it was square. Solomon's temple was thirty cubits high and sixty broad. The New Jerusalem also is foursquare (see Revelation 21:16). The cube was by the ancients regarded as a figure of perfection and universality, and, in the typical temple, may anticipate these qualities of the heavenly state of the Church.

(3) "Three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber" (see Ezra 5:8). The timber seems to have been laid upon every third course of stones. Note - This timber built in amongst the stones would facilitate that destruction of the temple by fire described by Josephus.

3. How the cost was to be defrayed.

(1) "Let the expenses be given out of the king's house" (see Ezra 3:7). Note - The hearts of princes are in God's hands. Prayer should be made to him rather than recourse be had to precarious expedients for raising funds for his work.

(2) The royal bounty was not such as to preclude the necessity for contributions from the people of God (see Ezra 1:3, 4; Ezra 2:68, 69). Note - There is valuable moral education in liberality.

III. THE MATTER CONCERNING THE SACRED VESSELS.

1. Vessels of the metals.

(1) These were taken as figures of the servants of God (see Romans 9:21-23; 2 Timothy 2:20, 21).

(2) "Of gold and silver." Showing the preciousness of the saints (see Psalm 49:7, 8; Matthew 16:26; 1 Peter 1:18, 19).

2. Removed by Nebuchadnezzar.

(1) Taken from the temple. The sin of the people was the cause. The removal of the vessels was therefore a sign to them of their apostasy.

(2) Taken to Babylon. Type of the confusion of the world. Placed there in the temple of his god (see Ezra 1:7, 8; Ezra 5:14). Thence taken out only to make sport for the licentious (see Daniel 5:2-4). What a graphic figure of the condition of the backslider!

3. Now to be restored.

(1) "Brought back again to the temple." Sign of the hope a backslider may cherish in the mercy of God.

(2) Restored "every one to his place," i.e. every one that was restored. Many things were wanting in the second temple, and some of the vessels may have been lost. Backsliders must not presume upon an infallible final perseverance of the saints. - J.A.M.

And search was made in the house of the rolls.
Learn —

1. Honest and thorough investigation promotes the interests of religion and of the Church of God.

2. The advantage of written history.

3. How great should be our gratitude for the sacred writings.

(William Jones.)

One of Mr. Layard's most valuable discoveries was that of a set of chambers in a palace at Koyunjik, the whole of the floor of which was covered more than a foot deep with terra-cotta tablets inscribed with public records. A similar collection has been recently found in the neighbourhood of Babylon. In some such record-house the search for the edict of Cyrus was made.

(W. F. Adeney, M. A.)

A record thus written
The record here referred to was of what had been done for the house and service of God. It was a religious record such as I propose we should now read of the past year. Records are made of changes of what is altering from day to day in that great empire of change of which we are all subjects. This law of change is often spoken of as a melancholy law. It is better to regard it as the decree of growth and progress. It is the ordinance of escape from old limitations, and the impulse of rising to new stages of life to gain fresh energy of thought and will. A state of sameness or immobility would be in truth a wretched doom. The record of any year is not a record of sadness or decay alone, even as respects this world, but very much of delight and advancement.

I. THE FIRST CHAPTER IS THAT OF NEW BEING, BIRTH AND GROWTH. Many houses have been made the scenes of holy gladness by the gifts of God's creative and inspiring power. What trust so great as that of a living spirit, with its own individual nature and with capacities for a peculiar development of intellectual and moral strength? With what reverent, trembling sense of responsibility it should be received! What office so high in rank, so great in opportunity, so large in patronage or susceptible of good, with such hope and fear wrapped up in it, as the parental once? What expanding of outward nature or unfolding of earthly ambition is really so grand and affecting as that of an undying soul? No changes of material growth, of splendid seasons and solemn spectacles can equal this. It makes the purest inspiration of love, it turns self-sacrifice into a pleasure; it plies the inventive faculties with all knowledge and wisdom to provide for the beloved object; it draws the mind into long foresight of its benefit and improvement; and by the force of mingling filial and parental communications exalts the soul to a perception of the relation of all to Him who is the common Father. Life's record, then, is not all of gloomy change and irreparable privation, but of strength enhancing, existence renovating, and of new possession.

II. BUT I MUST TURN THIS ILLUMINATED LEAF OF THE RECORD TO A PACE VEILED IN SHADES. It is the record of sickness and decline. And what shall we say of this change? We cannot make our record all pleasant and cheerful if we would. The skeleton that the Egyptians carried to their banquets will intrude upon every feast of our earthly joy and fling its ghastly shadow both across the avenues of our immediate thought and along the vistas of our farthest recollection. But although sickness comes with very sharp instrumentalities, yet she comes with a bright retinue. Patience, resignation, spiritual thoughts of God and of futurity come with her. As the most blazing effulgence of heaven sleeps within the black cloud, so in the lowering darkness and eclipse of bodily suffering often lies the very brilliance of a spiritual and Divine glory.

III. WE NOW TURN THE LAST LEAF OF OUR RECORD. It ends, like all earthly records, with death. God by His Son Jesus Christ lifts up the burden of sadness that settles down on a record like this. Being dead in the body, our departed friends yet speak for truth and goodness more loudly and more persuasively than when their words fell on our outward hearing. They have gone that they might awaken our virtue, and that they might chill and discourage our worldly lusts. Like the stars, though with a warmer attraction, they lift and beckon us up. The light burns on, the fountain flows, the music sounds for us. Neither is this final change and record in the providence of God a ground for lamentation. It is rather a declaration of our native dignity as His children. It is the announcement of our glorious destiny. It is a summons to us to gird up our loins, trim our lamps, watch and be ready.

(C. A. Bartol.)

People
Apharesachites, Apharsachites, Artaxerxes, Cyrus, Darius, Haggai, Iddo, Levites, Nebuchadnezzar, Shethar, Shetharboznai, Tatnai, Zechariah
Places
Assyria, Babylon, Babylonia, Beyond the River, Ecbatana, Jerusalem, Media, Persia
Topics
Archives, Babylon, Babylonia, Books, Darius, Decree, Documents, Issued, Laid, Order, Orders, Placed, Records, Rolls, Search, Searched, Sought, Stored, Treasures, Treasuries, Treasury, Value
Outline
1. Darius, finding the decree of Cyrus, makes a new decree for building
13. By the help of Tattenai and Shethar-Bozenai the temple is finished
16. The feast of the dedication is kept
19. and the Passover

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezra 6:1-2

     5558   storing

Ezra 6:1-4

     4366   stones

Library
God the Joy-Bringer
'They kept the feast ... seven days with joy; for the Lord had made them joyful.'--EZRA vi. 22. Twenty years of hard work and many disappointments and dangers had at last, for the Israelites returning from the captivity, been crowned by the completion of the Temple. It was a poor affair as compared with the magnificent house that had stood upon Zion; and so some of them 'despised the day of small things.' They were ringed about by enemies; they were feeble in themselves; there was a great deal to
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The New Temple and Its Worship
'And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo: and they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15. And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. 16. And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The "Fraternity" of Pharisees
To realise the state of religious society at the time of our Lord, the fact that the Pharisees were a regular "order," and that there were many such "fraternities," in great measure the outcome of the original Pharisees, must always be kept in view. For the New Testament simply transports us among contemporary scenes and actors, taking the then existent state of things, so to speak, for granted. But the fact referred to explains many seemingly strange circumstances, and casts fresh light upon all.
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

The Johannine Writings
BY the Johannine writings are meant the Apocalypse and the fourth gospel, as well as the three catholic epistles to which the name of John is traditionally attached. It is not possible to enter here into a review of the critical questions connected with them, and especially into the question of their authorship. The most recent criticism, while it seems to bring the traditional authorship into greater uncertainty, approaches more nearly than was once common to the position of tradition in another
James Denney—The Death of Christ

Brave Encouragements
'In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, 2. Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, 3. Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? 4. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox.
[In the Prospectus of our Publication it was stated, that one discourse, at least, would be given in each number. A strict adherence to this arrangement, however, it is found, would exclude from our pages some of the most talented discourses of our early Divines; and it is therefore deemed expedient to depart from it as occasion may require. The following Sermon will occupy two numbers, and we hope, that from its intrinsic value, its historical interest, and the illustrious name of its author, it
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

Ezra-Nehemiah
Some of the most complicated problems in Hebrew history as well as in the literary criticism of the Old Testament gather about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Apart from these books, all that we know of the origin and early history of Judaism is inferential. They are our only historical sources for that period; and if in them we have, as we seem to have, authentic memoirs, fragmentary though they be, written by the two men who, more than any other, gave permanent shape and direction to Judaism, then
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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