Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”
Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.
Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
This was the inventory:
gold dishes   30
silver dishes  1,000
silver pans     29
gold bowls    30
matching silver bowls        410
other articles 1,000
In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

• Ezra 1:1-11

For a link to Ezra 2, click HERE.

When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices. Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day. After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of the Lord, as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the Lord. On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.
Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.
In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. Joshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.
When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:
“He is good;
    his love toward Israel endures forever.”
And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

• Ezra 3:1-13

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Ezra 1:1 ‘cleansing’: ”But restoration also means cleansing. The spirit and the soul are cleansed by our Great High Priest who, upon our confession of sin, washes away our guilt and restores us to a place of fellowship and blessedness in His sight. A return from sin is always the work of God’s grace, as we see in Ezra 1:1: ‘The LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia.’ ”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Ezra 1:1 ‘first year’: “C. 538 B.C. Cyrus king of Persia. C. 550-530 B.C. The Lord had prophesied through Isaiah, who said of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, … saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” and to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid” ‘ (Is. 44:28). The historian Josephus records an account of the day when Daniel read Isaiah’s prophecy to Cyrus, and in response he was moved to declare the proclamation of 1:2—4 (538 B.C.). by the mouth of Jeremiah. Jeremiah had prophesied the return of the exiles after a seventy-year captivity in Babylon (Jer. 25:11; 29:10-14; cf. Dan. 9:2). This was no isolated event, but rather an outworking of the covenant promises made to Abraham in Genesis 12:1—3. the LORD stirred up. A strong expression of the fact that God sovereignly works in the lives of kings to effect His purposes (Prov. 21:1; Dan. 2:21; 4:17). made a proclamation. This was the most common form of spoken, public communication, usually from the central administration. The king would dispatch a herald, perhaps with a written document, into the city. In order to address the people, the messenger would either go to the city gate, where people often congregated for social discourse, or gather the people together in a square, occasionally by the blowing of a horn. The herald would then make the proclamation to the people. A document called the Cyrus Cylinder, recovered in reasonably good condition by archeologists, commissioned people from many lands to return to their cities to rebuild the temples to their gods, apparently as some sort of general policy of Cyrus. Whether or not this document was an extension of the proclamation made to the exiles in this passage must remain a matter of speculation (cf. 6:2—5). put it in writing. Proclamations were oral statements, usually made by a herald, which were often written down for recordkeeping.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Ezra 1:2 ‘Lord God of Heaven’: “The God of Israel was recognized as the utmost divine authority (cf. 5:12; 6:9, 10; 7:12, 21, 23), who sovereignly dispenses authority to human monarchs. a house. This refers to the second temple, which would be built after the return to the land by Zerubbabel.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Ezra 1:5 ‘God is active’: ”Verse 5 continues the theme of God’s active grace by moving people to action: ‘The family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.’
“God always takes the initiative. No one, after falling into a sinful experience, would ever come back to Christ unless God brought that person back. We see this principle clearly in the life of the exiled nation of Israel.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Ezra 1:6 ‘all those who were around them’: “A basic similarity to the Exodus is seen throughout Ezra and Nehemiah. One can hear faint echoes of the Egyptians supplying treasures in order to provide splendor for the tabernacle (cf. Ex. 11:2; 12:35, 36). Here, other nations around Israel are called to contribute. They were assisted by some of their captive countrymen, who had been born in Babylon and chose to remain, and perhaps by some Babylonians and Assyrians who were favorably disposed to Cyrus and/or the Jews.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Ezra 1:7 ‘the articles of the house of the Lord’: “Cf. 6:5. These were the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar removed when he sacked the temple (c. 605-586 B.C.; 2 Kin. 24:13; 25:14, 15; Dan. 1:2). God had preserved them (2 Chr. 36:7) with the Babylonians (cf. Dan. 5:1—4) for the return as prophesied by Jeremiah (Jer. 27:22).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Ezra 2:2 ‘Zerubbabel’: “This man was the rightful leader of Judah in that he was of the lineage of David through Jehoiachin (cf. 1 Chr. 3:17). He did not serve as king (cf. the curse on Jehoiachin’s line, Jer. 22:24-30), but was still in the messianic line because the curse was bypassed (cf. Matt. 1:12; Luke 3:27) in Luke’s genealogy by tracing the lineage through David’s son, Nathan. His name means ‘offspring of Babylon,’ indicating his place of birth. He, rather than Cyrus’ political appointee Sheshbazzar (cf. 1:11), led Judah according to God’s will. Jeshua. The high priest of the first return whose name means ‘Jehovah saves.’ He is called Joshua in Haggai 1:1 and Zechariah 3:1. His father Jozadak (3:2) had been exiled (cf. 1 Chr. 6:15). He came from the lineage of Levi, Aaron, Eleazar, and Phinehas; thus he was legitimately in the line of the high priest (cf. Num. 25:10-13). Nehemiah … Mordecai. These are not the same men in Nehemiah or Esther.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Ezra 2:43-54 ‘Nethinim’: “These were temple servants, descendants of the Gibeonites who performed servile duties at the temple.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Ezra 2:63 ‘Urim and Thummim’: “See note on Exodus 28:30. These objects, kept in the breastplate of the high priest, were used to determine God’s will.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Ezra 3:2 ‘Jeshua … and Zerubbabel’: “The recognized spiritual and civil leaders, respectively. See notes on 2:2. as it is written in the Law of Moses. The burnt offerings were in accord with Leviticus 1:3-17.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Ezra 3:7 ‘masons … carpenters … cedar logs’: “The process of rebuilding the temple sounds similar to the original construction under Solomon (1 Kin. 5; 6; 1 Chr. 22; 2 Chr. 2). Sidon and Tyre … Joppa. The materials were shipped from the Phoenician ports of Sidon and Tyre south to Joppa, the main seaport, about thirty-five miles from Jerusalem. permission which they had from Cyrus. Cf. 1:2-4.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Ezra 3:11-13 ‘mixed emotions’: ”The second act of the returning Jews was to lay the foundation of the temple, and it was met with mixed feelings of both tears and shouts of joy…
“Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever come back to God after a time of coldness and withdrawal—a period of captivity to sin’s power? Do you remember that great sense of joy as His Spirit reestablished the foundations of communion within your heart? Yes, there was rejoicing, but there was also sorrow and regret for the lost and wasted years.
“That mix of emotions is exactly what is portrayed here: tears of joy mingled with tears of sorrow as the people see the temple foundation being laid.”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Ezra 3:11 ‘God’s Eternal Love for Israel’: “On the festive occasion of laying the foundation for the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, the assembled priests and Levites sing public songs of praise, ‘praising and giving thanks to the LORD, saying, “For He is good, For His lovingkindness is upon Israel forever” ‘ (3:11).
“Most likely the words recorded within the text are merely a brief marker quotation, signaling the praise song’s expanded content, which could be Psalm 100, 106, 136, or a combination of these historic exaltations of worship. The proclamation of Gods mercy (Hebrew, chesed or His undying covenant loving loyalty) is based upon the unconditional promises contained within the Abrahamic Covenant, which was established with Abraham and his progeny (Genesis 12:1-3,7; 13:14-17;15:1-21;17:1-21; 22:15-18).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Ezra 3:12 ‘the first temple.’: “The temple built by Solomon (cf. 1 Kin. 5-7). wept with a loud voice. The first temple had been destroyed fifty years earlier. The old men, who would have been about sixty years or older, knew that this second temple did not begin to match the splendor of Solomon’s temple nor did the presence of God reside within it (cf. Hag. 2:1-4; Zech. 4:9, 10). The nation was small and weak, the temple smaller and less beautiful by far. There were no riches as in David’s and Solomon’s days. The ark was gone. But most disappointing was the absence of God’s Shekinah glory. Thus the weeping. shouted … for joy. For those who did not have a point of comparison, this was a great moment. Possibly Psalm 126 was written and sung for this occasion.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

My Thoughts

The Lord placed the burden on Cyrus to not just have the people of Judah returned to Judah, but to give them back the articles stolen from the temple.  Also they were to return with livestock, gold and silver from others who wished to give a free will offering.  He made this as a proclamation, but he also wrote it down so that there was a record.  All the items stolen from the temple were inventoried and given to Sheshbazzar, a governor of the province and possibly part of David’s line.

But immediately at the beginning of Ezra 2, we never hear of Sheshbazzar.  We hear of Zerubbabel instead.  Some scholars think this is the same person, but both of the names are Babylonian names.  Zerubbabel means seed of Babylon.  Whether these are two different people or one person, Zerubbabel was the leader of the people for the first remnant that returned.

Most of Ezra 2 is a census of the people, but there were some people who claimed to be Levites who could not trace their heritage back to someone known within the family.  It mentions in Ezra 2:63, that these people were considered unclean, that is unclean to perform Levitical duties, until a priest ministered with the Urim and Thummim.  This was established in Exodus 28:30, a means to cast lots, with the Urim and Thummim over the high priest’s heart.  Proverbs 16:33 says the casting lots shows God’s decision.  All tied back to the Urim and Thummim.  Thus if casting lots said that these undocumented members of the Levites were indeed Levites, the lots showed God’s decision, as did those who were disqualified.

Again, the livestock was inventoried.  They needed beasts of burden to return the free will offerings and the implements for the temple.

Under Zerubbabel’s supervision, they built the altar and began making morning and evening sacrifices in the seventh month.  They celebrated the feast of tabernacles according to the Law of Moses.  Cyrus had ordered the neighbors to assist.  With olive oil for trade, the remnant traded the olive oil for cedar logs to build the temple.  The Levites supervised the masons in setting the foundation for the temple.  They gathered the musicians and sang praises to God according to the instructions of King David.  Some people shouted for joy, but for those who had seen the splendor of Solomon’s temple, they wept.  The combined noise was heard from a great distance away.

It looks like the people are being very careful to follow all instructions, both those of Moses and those of King David.

Many denominations have wandered from the teachings in the Bible.  Can we repent?  Can we turn back?  Or will God’s wrath destroy those denominations?

This is our decision to make.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Ezra 1: 1. Which factors from Cyrus‘ story have also shaped who you are: (a) Building projects? (b) Mercy toward others? (c) Service offerings? (d) Family ties? Explain.
“2. What does the polytheist Cyrus believe about the locale of the Lord? What do you believe about God’s ‘primary address’ or sphere of influence?
“3. God moves hearts of kings and families alike to do his will (vv.1,5). How has God ‘moved your heart’?
“4. If you must wait, as Israel did, for God to restore your place in his service, are you content to do so? Or pushing for change? How so?
Ezra 2: 1. What is your ‘rainbow coalition,’ or most ethnically diverse group, of which you are an active part? How does that group help you celebrate differences?
“2. What family records do you keep: (a) Diary? (b) Old letters? (c) Photo album? (d) Memorabilia? Why do you keep them? What would an inventory of them indicate about the kind of person you are, or the kind of family you come from?
“3. When have you experienced a time of ‘spiritual restoration’: After lapsing in your faith? After moving away from organized religion? After a time out to explore other things? After an intervention by someone else? Some other crisis event?
“4. This chapter underscores the importance of spiritual ancestors to Israel. Do you know who yours are? What has been passed on to you, spiritually, from your ancestors? What one quality are you now developing as one of God’s people that you want to pass along to any children and grandchildren? How do you intend to do this? What ideas does this chapter give you in that regard?
Ezra 3:1-6 Rebuilding the Altar 1. How does your zeal compare to theirs? Does worship come first for you? Or when most convenient? Why?
“2. On what basis are you building your altar to the Lord? What do you sacrifice there?
Ezra 3:7-13 Rebuilding the Temple 1. Ezra had the temple rebuilt on Solomon’s original foundations. What is the lesson for you in this?
“2. What ‘cornerstone ceremony’ has helped you celebrate new beginnings (e.g., in your marriage; in your work; your retirement; your life with God)?
“3. Ezra waited for the second year post-exile before doing what he wanted. How patient are you (with self, God, or others) when waiting for a new beginning?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There is one set of questions each for Ezra 1 and 2.  Ezra 3 has two sets of questions as noted.

The term “rainbow coalition” in question 1 of Ezra 2, was spawned by the civil rights movement of the 1960s.  It meant a variety of skin color. The rainbows used today may be for inclusivity, but there is a lot of inequality and exclusivity, in that Christians are often silenced.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.