July 1929
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world dominion to the Medo-Persian em pire. Darius the Mede reigned for two years with Cyrus as Co-Rex. These two years were transitional, during which the upheaval caused by the conquest by the Medo-Persians subsided and the govern ment became stable. Upon the death of Darius, Cyrus became the sole king. According to a prediction made by Isaiah approximately 200 years prior to this time (Isa. 44:28-45:7), Cyrus was God’s anointed whom He would use to build Jerusalem and to cause the temple foundations to be laid. Thus at the right time (God always times events and works all things together for good to those who love the Lord, Rom. 8:28) God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to issue a procla mation that all of the Jews throughout his domains should have the privilege of returning to the homeland to rebuild their temple. Cyrus was magnanimous in issuing this decree and permitted them to take treasures which they had procured in Babylon, to Jerusalem for the purpose of erecting the temple. 2. The Response to the Proclamation. Vs. 5-11. To the king’s proclamation the heads of the houses of Judah and Benjamin, priests and Levites responded. This re sponse was due to the fact that the Spirit of God moved upon their hearts and stirred them with a holy longing to re turn to the land and to rebuild the house of God. This stirring or touching of the hearts of the people was similar to God’s touching the hearts of the people of Israel when Saul was anointed king (1 Sam. 10:26). God will never force any man’s will, but upon those hearts that yearn for God and His service the Spirit of God moves and stirs. These hearts re spond to the Spirit of God as the mag netic needle responds to the pull from the magnetic pole. God gave to these responsive hearts favor with their friends and neighbors, who gave to them vast treasures for the erection of the house of God. Cyrus like wise turned over to the returning exiles the vessels of the house of God which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusa lem. III. The Joy of the Returned Exiles. Psa. 126. Psa. 126 is one of the songs of ascents —a song which the worshipers, when they went up to Jerusalem, sang. As to the human author, nothing is given in the superscription. Some would make its composition post-exilic; others would date it earlier and interpret it as a prophecy of the joy in their hearts be cause of the privilege of going to Jerur salem .to worship. If it be a prophetic statement, the prophet by the insight of the Holy Spirit saw the time after the return from Babylonian captivity and noted the joy in the hearts of the wor shipers. It is doubtless probable that, though it may have received a fulfillment in the events following the captivity, it has with in its range the return of the Hebrew people from their dispersion a m o n g the nations, and their going up to Jeru salem during the millennial or kingdom reign of Christ. This latter event will be its full and complete fulfillment. When one has been deprived of the privilege of worship, and association with other of God’s children, he misses those
blessings very much. Thus the Jews dur ing the captivity were deprived of wor shiping according to the ordinances; hence after the restoration under Zerub- babel it was indeed a joy to any true heart in Israel to have the privilege of go ing up to Jerusalem and of worshiping.- Since the fall of Jerusalem in A. D. 70 they have no longer enjoyed that priv ilege. Great will be the day when the curse is lifted, Israel restored to her fel lowship with God, the great millennial temple built in Jerusalem, and all the na tions go up to Jerusalem from year to year to worship the Great King. At that time there will be no more sighing or sorrow.
enty years. The seventy years of this prophetic utterance are to be taken liter ally, as all other Scripture is to be taken at its literal face meaning unless some thing in the context indicates otherwise. Daniel, in the sixty-eighth year of the captivity, which was the first year of Darius the Mede (Dan. 9:1) was read ing the prophecies of Jeremiah, and of course he read both the 25th and 29th chapters of Jeremiah and understood that seventy years meant seventy years. At the expiration of the seventy years, God, said Jeremiah, would visit the cap tives and perform His good word toward them in causing them to return to Pales tine. In Daniel’s reading the wonderful prophecies of Jeremiah, many of which speak of the glorious restoration when Israel shall be in her own land, the curse lifted, and the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, he concluded, doubtless, that these wonderful, glorious kingdom days would be ushered in at the end of the seventy years of captivity, which would expire within two years. Therefore Daniel prayed, confessing his own sins and the sins of the people. According to Jeremiah, God would per form His “good, word” toward the He brews in bringing them back to their own place. Every word which God speaks is designed for men’s good, hence His good word. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.” The restoration after the captivity was a part of God’s eternal plan and purpose toward Israel. A remnant of the nation, according to Ezra and Nehe- miah, returned under Zerubbabel’s leader ship. God gave the Jews another trial in their own land; but finally, when the na tion rejected Jesus as its Messiah, God thrust them out in the year A. D. 70 at the fall of Jerusalem. God’s clock stops when Israel is out of her land and fellow ship with God; but God still has plans for Israel. God’s thoughts for Israel are of peace in order to give them hope in their latter end. Though the nation is at present scat tered to the four winds and is out of touch with God, in the Great Trib ulation, “the time of Jacob’s trouble ” it, like the prodigal son, will be brought to its senses and will realize that in God only there is hope; therefore the entire nation will repent and accept its long- rejected Messiah, at which time He will come and their hopes of the glorious restoration will be fulfilled. When Israel, in her extremity, turns to the Lord and calls upon Him in genuine ness, He will answer and will gather them into their own land. The God of Israel "doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants o f the earth.” He promised that at the expiration of the seventy years He would bring back the captives. At the time of the promise, doubtless many of Israel could not see how such a promise would be fulfilled. God overrules all things (Nah. 1 :3), and uses the nations, together with their rulers, as His battle- ax and the rod of His chastisement. By the time the captivity was ended, God, in His providential way, had molded the po litical situation and had turned over II. The Return. Ezra 1 :1-11. 1. The Proclamation. Vs. 1-4.
August 25, 1929 Rebuilding th e Temple Ezra 3 :l-6:22 Devotional Reading: Psa. 122.
Golden Text: “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of Jehovah” (Psa. 122:1). L esson in O u tlin e I. Darius Hystaspes. II. Sacrifical Worship Resumed. III. Work Begun on the Temple.
IV. The Work Stopped. V. The Work Resumed. VI. The Work Completed.
I. Darius Hystaspes. 'J ’HE interpretation of the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther has been thrown into endless confusion since the days of Scaliger, the first modern chro-
nologer. This con fusion has a r i s e n by his f a n c i f u l identification of the Ahasuerus of these t h r e e b o o k s as Xerxes, the son and successor of Darius H y s t a s p e s . The
Persian ruler who figures most prom inently throughout the book of Ezra, and entirely in the books of Nehemiah and Esther, is Darius Hystaspes, the suc cessor of Pseudo-Smerdis. A very close and accurate study of these three books yields this conclusion. II. Sacrificial Worship Resumed. In the first year of Cyrus the Great, 42,360 exiles under the leadership of Zerubbabel left Babylon for Jerusalem, arriving there on the first day of the seventh month of that year (Ezra 3:1). Immediately they proceeded to build the altar of the God of Israel and to offer burnt offerings thereon, “as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God” (Ezra 3:2). It is clear that the law of Moses was held in high reverence at this time, as it had been throughout the days of the monarchy and earlier during the days of the judges, for it had come down, according to incontrovertible evi dence, from the days of Moses. It is un thinkable to suppose that fragmentary laws and documents had been collected and presented to the people as an ancient
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