Podcast Introduction

Today is History Tuesday. We’ll read Ezra chapters 1-5. I’m calling today’s episode “Unlikely Allies.”

Comments on Ezra 1-5

Introduction to Ezra

The previous book, 2 Chronicles ended with the fall of Jerusalem. All the articles from the temple removed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, and the temple itself was set ablaze. The walls of the city were torn down. The people were taken into what would be a 70 year captivity, as was prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah.

Ezra 1 

And now as Ezra opens, the 70 years have come and gone. God has judged Babylon as Jeremiah also prophesied. It has been wiped out. And God moves on the heart King Cyrus of Persia, who is ruler of the land that once belonged to Nebuchadnezzar, and Cyrus decreed that the Jewish exiles may return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. And notice that this happens in Cyrus’ first year as king. God’s judgement of 70 years of exile is over, and He sees to it that they are set free.

Having been in bondage all this time, the people are poor, so Cyrus volunteers to pay for the rebuilding of the temple out of his own resources, and he returns all of the temple articles to them. 

Missing from the list of returned items is the altar of incense, the table of showbread, the bronze altar, the golden lampstand and the ark of the covenant. These were probably lost, destroyed or stolen when the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.

Ezra 3

Once the people got to Jerusalem and settled into their towns, the first thing they did was build the altar on the exact same spot that the original altar had been. Even before beginning construction on the temple, they built the altar. I believe they did this because of their desire to be obedient to the Lord. They wanted to resume the burnt offerings for the atonement of sin, and the morning and evening burnt offerings that were required according to the Law. They wanted God’s blessing on the entire project, and to neglect this would not be a good beginning. Commentator Alexander Maclaren said, “There cannot be a temple without an altar, but there may be an altar without a temple. God meets men at the place of sacrifice, even though there be no house for His name.”

Later in the chapter when the construction begins, the old men who had seen the previous temple, before it was destroyed, wept when the foundation was laid. Listen to Adam Clarkes words, “They saw that the glory had departed from Israel; in their circumstances it was impossible to build such a house as the first temple was; and had this been even possible, still it would have been greatly inferior, because it wanted the ark of the covenant, the heavenly fire, the mercy-seat, the heavenly manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the divine shechinah, the spirit of prophecy and most probably the Urim and Thummim.” 

But those who were younger and had never seen the first temple rejoiced because this was an important accomplishment in the restoration of the temple, and the worship that would happen here.

Ezra 4

The enemies of Judah and Benjamin requested to join in the building of the temple saying, “Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God…” The fact is, no they didn’t seek the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They also worshipped other gods, so that precluded them from truly seeking the true God. God forbids the worship of other Gods. You can’t worship Him and false gods. 

Wisely, Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households turned them down flat. 

Which is what we should do, beloved when we are called to do a work for the Lord, and a non-believer wants to join in. It would be like going on a missionary trip and inviting a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Scientologist to join in the work. Or in choosing a marriage partner, a believer should not date, let alone marry an unbeliever. It’s called being unequally yoked, and we invite heartache if we ignore God’s Word in this. 

After they were rejected, they decided that if they couldn’t sabotage the work from within, they would attack it from without. They went to king Ahasuerus and made accusations against the people of Judah, trying to get him to stop the work. Later they went to Artaxerxes with similar charges, and he stopped the project in its tracks. For 15 years, no work was done.

Ezra 5

You will probably remember that we read the book of Haggai a couple weeks ago, and just last Friday we read the first seven chapters of Zechariah. Both of these prophets spoke to the people about resuming the work on the temple, which they did. But the governor of the region and some of his men asked them under what authority they were working on the project. As a bureaucrat, he was probably just making sure the building permits were pulled and so forth, because he allowed them to continue until he could confirm that it was okay. This was the hand of God, in my opinion. He could have put a stop to the construction, but he did not.

He wrote a letter to Darius the king, giving an unbiased report on what was happening. And he suggested to  Darius that he check to see if King Cyrus of Babylon had truly given a decree that the work be done, and if he (Darius) would allow it to be completed.

Beloved, sometimes God moves on the most unlikely people in accomplishing His will! 

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 1-2 HCSB; Ch. 3-4 NASB; Ch. 5 NLT

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