[Brother V]

Ezra 1-3

Well, we are through with the era of both the Judah and Israel kings. We now head into the first return of some of the people of Judah. Remember the last king of Judah was Zedekiah, under his .. um.. leadership all the people of Judah (save a couple left behind to care for the land, according to 2 Kings 25) were taken away to Babylon.

Ezra 1

1 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,

Remember, the people were taken away in roughly 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Suddenly, we aren't talking about Babylon (Iraq) but we are talking about Persia (Iran). So what happened?

Iran attacked Iraq. In 539 BC, Cyrus defeated the Babylonians. In taking that land over; he assumed rule of the remaining Hebrews that were left. Not much is recorded about this 47 year period. The people just did like they were told. Babylon worked to create a race-less society, so there could have been at least 2 or 3 generations born in this captivity (and some really old timers still around). The blood line could have been diluted quite a bit. The Levites and Kohanim would have had difficulty maintaining the purity of their lines; but apparently they were able to do it.

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 an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

In 587 the remaining Jews in Judah revolted so Nebuchadnezzar destroyed most of Jerusalem and also the temple. Cyrus had been told by God to rebuild the temple.

3 Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.

It's amazing that Cyrus was that much a follower of the LORD. Was he really a follower of God, or did he just act that way to try to get more gods on his side. He was ruler of most of the known world at the time. Remember the taunting of Sennacherib or Assyria? He claimed that gods were worthless. Would Cyrus think the opposite and try to have each of his captured peoples rebuild their temples? Or was he really motivated by the LORD to build the temple?

Well, Cyrus allowed whoever wanted to go the ability to leave. He gave them gold and silver and everything they would need. He also gave the items that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple.

Ezra 2

1 Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city;

Ezra 2 is a list of the people who went the first time to go build the temple.

2 Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

Zerubbabel is the grandson of Jehoiachin, the second to last king of Judah. Jeshua ben Jozadak was the head of the priests at the time. Nehemiah later wrote his own book, which the jews call Ezra 2.

64 The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore,

42,360 people went back. They also took 7,337 servants and 200 singing men and women.

Ezra 3.

2 Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.

The return was in 536, so it had been 50 years since the altar was in use.

3 And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.

They also kept the feast of tabernacles and also did daily offerings.

8 Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD.

They first built the altar, then started to build the temple around it.

11 And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

Everyone was happy that the new temple was being built.

12 But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:

There were still people around who had seen the previous temple (pre-Nebuchadnezzar) these guys cried for joy when the cornerstone was laid.

So what have we learned today?

1. If you conquer Babylon, you then apparently have to return the jews to "their homeland".

2. Cyrus really thought highly of the LORD, proclaiming Him to be the one true God.

3. While the Jews were held by the Persians, this WAS NOT where they got the idea that they would need a messiah. The template for Jesus WAS NOT Mithra. They DID NOT get the idea for a messiah from the Egyptians hundred of years earlier when they were influenced by Osiris. Their need for a messiah was all their own, Jesus was not an amalgamation of previous sun gods, that had pieces picked up from other people who held the hebrews captive!

YIC
V

[Ahimaaz Smith]

Glory, glory, glory! Nothing exites me as much as starting a new Book of the Bible. And Ezra is an especially uplifting Book, because it speaks of reconnecting with the Lord. I can only imagine what we will learn, Brother V, from your commentary on this great Book.

A few footnotes on today's reading:

Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods; Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives, Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. ll the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem. Ezra 1:7-11.

Some skeptics have noted that 30 chargers of gold, a thousand of silver, nine and twenty knives, thirty basons of gold, 410 silver basons, and 1,000 other vessels adds up to 2,499, which is a tad shy of 5,400. It is clear, however, that verses 8-10 aren't meant to be an enumeration (if they were, then why mention knives, which aren't vessels?). There were simply some other vessels, in addition to the "other vessels a thousand," that were not deemed worthy of a special mention.

Ezra 2 is an interesting text, listing the persons who returned to Judah from exile in Babylon. Athiests point out that there are 19 differences between the list presented here and the list of the same event in Nehemiah 7. I can't run through them all, but here's an illustrative example:

The children of Bani, six hundred forty and two. Ezra 2:10

The children of Binnui, six hundred forty and eight. Nehemiah 7:15

Why is it that, virtually every time the Bible reports numbers of the same event in different places, the numbers don't agree? Some say it's because the Bible is just a text put together by fallible men rather than a perfect document from God. They are wrong. The real reason is that God wants to be sure we are paying attention, so he inspired the writers of the Biblical accounts to give different interpretations. Pay close attention, since this is important (anything the Lord wanted twice in his Holy Bible has to be especially important). Both lists start exactly the same way:

Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city; Ezra 2:1, Nehemiah 7:6

Note that these verses refer to two sets of persons, those who had been carried away, and those who came again into Jerusalem and Judah! In each case, the smaller number between the two indicates the children who were removed, and the larger number refers to the number of children who returned. You didn't think the populations remained exactly the same over the course of 50 years of captivity, did you?

And yes, I know that if you add the numbers in Ezra up they total 29,818, whereas Ezra 2:64 says the whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore. That's because the writer of the Book of Ezra never said that the list was exclusive. There were lots of people who returned who didn't have cities named after their patriarchs, and they make up the extra 12,542. It's sad, though, that in such a short time, the Jews dwindled from the tens of millions or more needed to support the size of the armies under the kings to a total of 30,000.

There are some issues with the numbers of singing men and women who returned from exile (see Ezra 2:65 and Nehemiah 7:67) and the amount of gold, silver, and preists garments they gave away (Ezra 2:69 and Nehemaih 7:72), but I'm sure by now you can figure out why there is no contradiction there, either.

One final note on Ezra 2: Verse 63 says, and the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim. The Mormons claim that their prophet, Joseph Smith, used the Urim and Thummim to translate the Book of Mormon. This is demonstrably false, since (1) Urim and Thummim are plural, not singular, and (2) there was no trans-Atlantic air freight service to New York back in Biblical times. One more reason the Mormons will burn in Hell.

In Ezra 3, Nehemiah 12:1, Haggai 1:1, Matthew 1:12, and Luke 3:27, we see that Zerubbabel is the son of Shealtiel, whereas, as I'm sure you remember, 1 Chronicles 3:19 lists Pedaiah as Zerubbabel's dad. This kind of thing comes up a lot in the Bible, and the answer is always the same: sometimes Zerubbabel's dad went by Shealtiel, and sometimes the Biblical writers used his nickname, Pedaiah.