At the return of the Jews to Babylon, each family went to its own city and dwelt there. In the seventh month of the year however, "the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem," (Ezra 3:1) and an altar was erected on which they might offer their burnt offerings. At that time the foundation of the temple was not laid, but steps were taken to prepare the necessary material, and, seven months later, the builders commenced operations, under the oversight of the priests and Levites.
When the foundation stones were laid, there was great rejoicing among the people. Musical instruments were brought, and songs of praise and thanksgiving arose to God, "because He is good, for His mercy endures for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout." (Ezra 3:11)
It was indeed an occasion for thanksgiving that God had not cast off His people, but had again delivered them out of the hand of their enemies. Another chance was being given to Israel to be unto God a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, exalted high above all other peoples as the children of the Most High, "a wise and understanding nation." (Deuteronomy 4:6)
We may learn a lesson from Israel's joy on this occasion. To outward appearance their situation was not an enviable one. Hostile nations were all around them, and they themselves were poor and few in number. How came they to be shouting for joy? It was the blessing of the Lord that brought the rejoicing, and they had opened the way for the blessing to come by their liberality in contributing to the erection of the temple. Although Cyrus had undertaken to meet the expenses, the people desired to have their part in the work, and they offered freely for the house of God according to their ability: "And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the house of the Lord which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place: They gave after their ability unto the treasure of the work threescore and one thousand drams of gold, and five thousand pound of silver, and one hundred priests' garments." (Ezra 2:68-69)
The times of greatest rejoicing in Israel's history had been the occasions when they gave freely of their substance to the work of God.
The Gospel calls upon men to show liberality of spirit, not because its object is to impoverish its recipients, but because God gives everything freely. We are called to be channels of the manifold grace of God, and we never can give it away as fast as God will pour it into us. The only reason why men lack is because they refuse to be channels to others. God tells why some are cursed. It is because they rob Him of His own. "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (Malachi 3:8-10)
So if we would find comfort in adversity, and joy in tribulation, let us open our hearts as Israel did, and remember God's claims on us, and bless the poor and the needy. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rereward. Then shall you call, and the Lord shall answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in obscurity, and your darkness be as the noonday: And the Lord shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones: and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." (Isaiah 58:6-11)
Yet while many shouted aloud for joy, there were some among the people, "ancient men, that had seen the first house," (Ezra 3:12) who wept with a loud voice as they thought of the old-time splendor of the temple. Their lamentation was so loud "that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people." (Ezra 3:13)
The old men may have been wrong in allowing themselves to cast a cloud of discouragement over the day's rejoicings, but it may be too, that the younger generation needed to be reminded of the evil that had befallen their backsliding fathers. The Lord deals tenderly with all, and He declared later by His prophets to those who lovingly recalled the glories of the earlier temple, "Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work: for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you: fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is my, and the gold is my, says the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, says the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, says the Lord of hosts." (Haggai 2:3-9)
The Desire of all nations should come and fill it with His glory. The discontented were warned by another prophet not to despise the day of small things. "For who has despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth." (Zechariah 4:9)
Satan was determined to thwart, if he could, the re-establishment of God's people in their own land. He had rejoiced to see Jerusalem laid low and its people go into captivity. His feelings are expressed in the rejoicing of Tyre. "Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste." (Ezekiel 26:2)
Satan himself was the king of Tyrus as plainly appears from Ezekiel 28:11-19, and so expected to have complete control over the earth, now that he had gained the victory over the one nation which withstood him. But in the captivity of His people, God's strength had been made perfect in weakness, and He had won for himself a glorious name. Now that Satan saw Israel returning to Jerusalem, he set himself once more to the work of their destruction.
The adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity built the temple of the God of Israel, and they came to offer their services. They claimed to worship the true God, and said that they had sacrificed unto Him since the days that Esar-Haddon, king of Assyria, had brought them to the cities of Samaria. But the superstitious character of their perverted worship can be seen from the record in: "And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. ... So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day." (2 Kings 17:24,41)
The Lord had warned Israel not to enter into relations with the surrounding peoples, because they had made the land unclean, from one end to the other, with the filthiness of their abominations. "The land, unto which you go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever." (Ezra 9:11-12)
Zerubbabel and the rest of the fathers of Israel acted on this instruction and refused to allow the people of the land to co-operate with them. Then these showed their true colors, by opposing the work all they could, hiring counselors at the Persian court to frustrate the purpose of Israel, and writing complaints to the king.
Satan's most deadly devices often come in the guise of offers of friendly assistance. But if we hold fast to the Word of God, and make no move that He does not command, it will not be long before the cloven hoof of the tempter will show itself, as it did on this occasion.
It will be noticed that when Israel repulsed the offer of their would-be allies, they rested their position on the commission given to them by Cyrus. We might wonder that they did not take higher ground, but it was true that they were as much the servants of Cyrus as ever. They recognized this. Ezra in his prayer, recorded in the 9th chapter, said, "For we are bondmen; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia." (Ezra 9:9,RV) and Nehemiah confessed also, "Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that You gave unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold we are servants in it. And it yields much increase unto the kings whom You have set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress." (Nehemiah 9:36-37)
In all this God's infinite patience and long-suffering stand out. Since His people would not serve Him in prosperity, He goes with them into poverty and servitude. "In all their affliction He was afflicted." (Isaiah 63:9) "[He] delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the adversary's hand." (Psalm 78:61)
He desired to have a throne among a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, but He had to be content with an enslaved, backsliding and despised people. Yet, for all this, He did not forsake them.
No matter how low we fall, we may know that God has not cast us off, and that even in the depths of sin and misery, He is able to make known "the exceeding greatness of His power toward those who believe." (Ephesians 1:19)
So let no one think that God cannot do a great work for such as him, for He has chosen to hamper himself with every possible phase of human weakness in order that He may display to men how strong He is to save. The base and despised are His elect. "For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence." (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)
There is one most important feature about this period of Bible history with which every Christian should be acquainted. The time of "the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem," (Daniel 9:25) marks the commencement of a prophetic period, revealed to Daniel, (Daniel 9:24-27) which gives the time of Christ's first advent. Seventy weeks are mentioned, divided into three portions,--seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and one week. In prophecy, a day stands for a year, so that the full term here brought view is one of 490 years.
Now it is important to fix the date of the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, for from this point the years must be reckoned. Without going into details, it is clear that the command was not fully given until the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, (See Ezra 7) which was 457 BC. The Scripture (Ezra 6:14) shows that the decree of Artaxerxes must be included in the commandment. Therefore in 457 BC, the 490 years began. In seven weeks, or 49 years, the city of Jerusalem was rebuilt. Another sixty-two weeks equal 434 days, or 434 years, and Messiah appeared on the same in 27 AD. In the midst of the last week, after three and a half year's ministry, He was "cut off, but not for himself, and in another three and a half years, the period closed with the stoning of Stephen and the preaching or the Gospel in every direction." (Daniel 9:26)
We saw, in the last lesson, that the restoration of the temple under Cyrus was but the beginning of a great work which Christ was to do for His holy temple, the church. To Daniel was revealed the time when Christ would come, "to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." (Daniel 9:24)
In a previous vision he had seen how long the sanctuary of God should be defiled and trodden under foot. It was to be for 2,300 days, or years. (Daniel 8:14) Both of the periods we have mentioned refer to the same subject, and both begin at the same time, 457 BC. The 2,300 years, therefore, ended in 1844. Then began the work of the cleansing of the sanctuary.
What took place in 1844? Great light began to shine into the hearts of many at that time from the prophetic Word, and many rejoiced in the discovery that the coming of the Lord was nigh. They saw the importance of being sanctified through the truth, and living by every word of God.
At this very time, the three angels' messages of Revelation 14, which are to be proclaimed just before the second coming of Christ, (Revelation 14:7-16) began to be studied and understood, and one of those declare, that Babylon is fallen, and all must come out of her. As we saw last week, these who come out of Babylon must be observers of God's Sabbath, and in that very year of 1844, light came on the Sabbath truth, and many began the observance of the seventh day.
From that time to this, the Word of God has been opening more and more, and its purifying power has been working on men's hearts, to make them meet temples for the Spirit of God, cleansing the sanctuary. It is true that men have been slow of heart to believe, but because God has waited to be gracious for so many years, let no reader conclude that it was a mistake to believe that the end of all things is at hand. Let him rather "account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation," (2 Peter 3:15) and see that he cause no delay himself by refusing to walk in the light that comes to him. Meantime, the message of the everlasting Gospel with its final appeal to men, is encircling the earth, and it will not be long before the Israel of God will be gathered from all places where they have been driven. (Jeremiah 29:14; 40:12)
Remember that when the Jews left Babylon in the days of Cyrus, they were a feeble and despised people, yet the arm of their God was not shortened, and although they were confronted with hardship and contempt, yet their lot was more to be desired than that of any people on the earth.
So now, although the wealthy and the learned turn away from God's call to come out of Babylon, rest in His power, and be sanctified through His truth, so that only the humble and despised are connected with the message, it will be better to share the reproach of Christ than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. (Hebrews 11:25) "Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come." (Revelation 14:7)--Present Truth, August 24, 1899--Notes on the International Sunday-School Lessons--Ezra 3:10; 4:5
E.J. Waggoner