Ezra 1:8














Then rose up, etc. The edict of Cyrus had been issued (see vers. 2 4). The voice of God was in the voice of the king (see ver. 1). But who responded?

I. THE CHIEFS OF THE FATHERS OF JUDAH AND BENJAMIN RESPONDED.

1. Happy the people whose magistrates lead them nobly.

(1) In politics. The voice of the king. The purpose of that voice.

(2) In religion. The voice of God. The purpose of that voice: immediate; ulterior with respect to fulfilment of prophecy, etc.

2. Politics cannot be divorced from religion.

(1) God has joined them in the constitution of our nature.

(2) He holds citizens, as such, responsible to himself.

(3) Experience proves that godly men are the best citizens.

3. Evil rulers are scourges of God to wicked peoples.

(1) Not appointed without his providence (see Isaiah 3:4).

(2) Rulers are no worse than their people.

Representative governments - responsibility of the franchise. In hereditary magistracies (see Isaiah 1:10). "Rulers of Sodom" associated with "people of Gomorrah" (see Isaiah 1:25, 26). When the vices of a people are purged away, then worthy magistrates are raised up to them.

II. THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES RESPONDED.

1. Priests, leaders in religion.

(1) Sons of Aaron - type of Christ, also of Christians.

(2) Offices at the altar.

(3) Offices in the sanctuary.

2. Levites, leaders in literature.

(1) Scattered in Israel - schoolmasters, scribes of the law (2 Chronicles 34:13).

(2) Services about the temple. Literature should be the handmaid of religion. When otherwise, inversion of God's order fearfully mischievous.

III. SKILFUL ARTIFICERS RESPONDED. Those whose spirit God hath raised to go up and build the house of the Lord.

1. All useful labour is from God.

(1) He is the Author of our faculties.

(2) His providence furnishes opportunities for their culture.

2. All talent should be devoted to God.

(1) In building up his material temple.

(2) In furthering the building of his living temple.

(3) In our secular calling (see 1 Corinthians 10:31).

IV. A WILLING PEOPLE RESPONDED.

1. All they that were about them.

(1) Not all the nation. Some elected to remain in Babylon. Gain of merchandise, etc., etc. So it is still when God calls us to forsake the world.

(2) Those responded whose sympathies were true - "about them." Frequently the children of godly persons elect the service of Christ.

2. These strengthened their hands.

(1) True sympathy is help. Moral influence of virtuous citizens strengthens the hands of magistrates.

(2) Where sympathy is true it will furnish active help. Gifts from the wealthy - viz., things of "gold and silver," "goods," "beasts," viz., for transport (see Ezra 2:66, 67); "precious things." Gifts from the multitude - "freewill offerings." All is precious that comes from a loyal heart.

1. Learn that religion and politics may be harmonised without resorting to compulsion. The response was voluntary. Uniformity is not unity. Endless variety in living things.

2. Harmony in religion and politics is truest when free. With compulsion comes resistance and contention. Admit the principle of coercion, then the question is not between religion and politics, as abstract principles, but becomes often an ambitious and unholy strife. - J. A. M.

Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord.
I. THE PRESERVATION OF THE SACRED VESSELS (vers. 7, 8). These are the vessels which are mentioned in 2 Chronicles 36:7 and Daniel 1:2. In the providence of God most of these vessels were remarkably preserved, to be in due time restored to their original place and uses. Learn: Since God is so careful of the mere vessels consecrated to His service, may we not rest assured that He will much more preserve His consecrated people?

II. THE NUMERATION OF THE SACRED VESSELS. This numbering indicates —

1. The reverent care of Cyrus for these sacred vessels.

2. The grave responsibility of Sheshbazzar for these sacred vessels.Learn: That persons, places, and things which are devoted to religious uses should be reverently regarded by us.

III. THE RESTORATION OF THE SACRED VESSELS (ver. 11).

1. This was a fulfilment of prophecy (Jeremiah 27:22).

2. This is an illustration of the restoration of perverted things to their true uses.The Lord Jesus Christ is the great restorer of the violated order and the broken harmony of the universe of God.

(William Jones.)

This appears to be more than an act of generosity or justice. A certain religious import belongs to it. It put an end to an ancient insult offered by Babylon to the God of Israel, and it might be taken as an act of homage offered to Jehovah by Cyrus. Yet it was only a restitution, a return of what was God's before, and so a type of every gift man makes to God.

(Walter F. Adeney, M. D.)

It is not without significance that the treasurer who handed over their temple prosperity to the Jews was named "Mithredath" — a word that means "given by Mithra," or "devoted to Mithra." This suggests that the Persian sun-god was honoured among the servants of Cyrus, and yet that one who by name at least was especially associated with this divinity was constrained to honour the God of Israel. Next to Judaism and Christianity, the worship of Mithra showed the greatest vitality of all religions in Western Asia, and later even in Europe. So vigorous was it as recently as the commencement of the Christian era, that M. Renan has remarked that if the Roman world had not become Christian it would have become Mithrastic. In the homage paid by Mithredath to the God of Israel may we not see an image of the recognition of the claims of the Supreme by our priests of the sun — Kepler, Newton, Faraday?

(Walter F. Adeney, M. D.)

There was a great restoration of misappropriated property. What a restoration there will one day be. What have men taken away from God's Church? Nearly everything they could lay hands on. They have taken away gold, art, music, miracles, inspiration, rationalism, morality, science, and they have left God a very bare house. When the period of spiritual revival has come, and the holy issue is wrought out in all its meaning, all these things will be brought back again. Art will come with her brush and pencil, and say, "I will beautify the house of God's revelation." Music will bring back her harp and her instrument of ten strings, and her cymbals and organs, and say, "Make me a handmaid in God's house, for all I have and am must belong to Him"; and Reason — exiled, expatriated Reason shall return, saying "They have kept me in vile servitude; admit me to my Father's house." And Science will come and pray; and Morality will say, "They have been trying to divorce me from theology, from right religious motive and impulse, and I have died like a flower that has been plucked; restore me to my vital relations, and I will once more bloom in the house of God."

(J. Parker, D. D).

People
Benjamin, Cyrus, Jeremiah, Mithredath, Nebuchadnezzar, Sheshbazzar
Places
Babylonia, Jerusalem, Persia
Topics
Bring, Bringeth, Charge, Counted, Cyrus, Forth, Judah, Keeper, Mithredath, Mith'redath, Numbered, Numbereth, Numbering, Persia, Prince, Ruler, Sheshbazzar, Shesh-baz'zar, Treasurer, Wealth, Yea
Outline
1. The proclamation of Cyrus for the building of the temple
5. The people provide for their return
7. Cyrus restores the vessels of the temple to Sheshbazzar

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezra 1:8

     5327   governors
     5459   prince

Ezra 1:1-11

     4333   gold

Library
The Eve of the Restoration
'Now 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, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 2. Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3. Who is there among you of all His people? his God
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Youthful Confessors
'But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. 9. Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. 10. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink; for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Extracts No. vi.
[Here twelve pages or more of the objector's manuscript are omitted, as the nature of his arguments will pretty fully appear in the reply; and as he has been obliged to rescind the ground he had taken, it is not expedient to publish his remarks. That the reader may see a little of the manner, however, in which he has given up his part of the argument, the following is inserted.] "Speaking however on the evidences of revelation, you have stated some things worthy of serious consideration; which if
Hosea Ballou—A Series of Letters In Defence of Divine Revelation

Of Antichrist, and his Ruin: and of the Slaying the Witnesses.
BY JOHN BUNYAN PREFATORY REMARKS BY THE EDITOR This important treatise was prepared for the press, and left by the author, at his decease, to the care of his surviving friend for publication. It first appeared in a collection of his works in folio, 1692; and although a subject of universal interest; most admirably elucidated; no edition has been published in a separate form. Antichrist has agitated the Christian world from the earliest ages; and his craft has been to mislead the thoughtless, by
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Greater Prophets.
1. We have already seen (Chap. 15, Nos. 11 and 12) that from Moses to Samuel the appearances of prophets were infrequent; that with Samuel and the prophetical school established by him there began a new era, in which the prophets were recognized as a distinct order of men in the Theocracy; and that the age of written prophecy did not begin till about the reign of Uzziah, some three centuries after Samuel. The Jewish division of the latter prophets--prophets in the more restricted sense of the
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The Historical Books.
1. In the Pentateuch we have the establishment of the Theocracy, with the preparatory and accompanying history pertaining to it. The province of the historical books is to unfold its practiced working, and to show how, under the divine superintendence and guidance, it accomplished the end for which it was given. They contain, therefore, primarily, a history of God's dealings with the covenant people under the economy which he had imposed upon them. They look at the course of human events on the
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

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.

The Iranian Conquest
Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving in Coste and Flandin. The vignette, drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a statuette in terra-cotta, found in Southern Russia, represents a young Scythian. The Iranian religions--Cyrus in Lydia and at Babylon: Cambyses in Egypt --Darius and the organisation of the empire. The Median empire is the least known of all those which held sway for a time over the destinies of a portion of Western Asia. The reason of this is not to be ascribed to the shortness of its duration:
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 9

The Justice of God
The next attribute is God's justice. All God's attributes are identical, and are the same with his essence. Though he has several attributes whereby he is made known to us, yet he has but one essence. A cedar tree may have several branches, yet it is but one cedar. So there are several attributes of God whereby we conceive of him, but only one entire essence. Well, then, concerning God's justice. Deut 32:4. Just and right is he.' Job 37:23. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

God's Sovereignty and the Human Will
"It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2: 13). Concerning the nature and the power of fallen man's will, the greatest confusion prevails today, and the most erroneous views are held, even by many of God's children. The popular idea now prevailing, and which is taught from the great majority of pulpits, is that man has a "free will," and that salvation comes to the sinner through his will co-operating with the Holy Spirit. To deny the "free will" of man,
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

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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