I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezra 6-8.

I am unsure why the letter sent to King Darius requesting that the Persian records be searched for Cyrus the Great’s edict was sent.  On the one hand, the overall passage suggests that the sender believed that the copy of the edict presented by the Jews was a forgery.  On the other hand, their reaction to King Darius’ reply to their letter suggest they may have been genuinely seeking clarification.  In either case, the reply from King Darius was unequivocal: the Jewish efforts to rebuild the Temple were not only to not be interfered with, they were to be supported to the full capability of the local government.  As a result, work moved forward on restoring the Temple and it was rapidly rebuilt.

Once they completed rebuilding and rededicating the Temple, the Returned Exiles conducted a Passover feast at the appropriate time.  Here we learn that despite having rejected the call to take part in the rebuilding effort from the locals, the Returned Exiles welcomed those who wished to do so to join them in worshiping God.  The key part of that welcome, one which we can learn from today, was that those who wished to join them needed to abandon the pagan practices which had been added on to the worship of God and follow the Law of Moses as practiced by the Returned Exiles.  I do not put that statement, “as practiced by the Returned Exiles”, in there to imply that the practice was not consistent with the Law of Moses.  Rather I include it to note that they did not hold the people of the land to a higher standard than they did themselves.  The fact that the Returned Exiles welcomed those locals who were willing to follow their practices supports the idea that the offered help to rebuild the Temple had been offered either in bad faith or as an effort to alter the worship practices described in the Law of Moses.

With Chapter 7 we begin the account of Ezra, after whom this book is named.  It is my belief that the material from here to the end of the book were based on a record written by Ezra himself with editorial content from the scribes who combined Ezra’s record with the material earlier in the book.  The letter from King Artaxerxes commissioning Ezra contains some interesting thoughts.  It mandates that Ezra be given gold and materials for use in the Temple.  These items were to be used to petition God to look favorably on Artaxerxes and to bless him.  While Artaxerxes did not express the position of a Believer that God is the Creator and Supreme over all, he did acknowledge that God had authority and power and requested that God be petitioned on his behalf.  We should do for our government officials what Artaxerxes requested of Ezra, whether they so request or not.  

Perhaps the biggest lesson we can learn from Ezra was about handling money and valuables dedicated to the Lord.  When Ezra realized how much wealth was being sent with his group to Jerusalem his first concern was security.  However, he was embarrassed to ask the king for soldiers to accompany them because he had been bragging about how God protected those who served Him.  We learn from this passage that until this moment, Ezra believed, but he did not have faith.  However, rather than admit to the king that he did not have the faith to rely on God, he chose to rely on God.  It is a lesson we can all learn from.  Sometimes we need to step out in faith that we don’t quite have.  He trapped himself into depending on God.  One must be careful about doing this, because we can easily find ourselves trying to trap God into doing our will.  We can trap ourselves into doing God’s will, but we cannot trap God into doing ours.  I will also note that Ezra did not do this on purpose.