Then they will be able to offer sacrifices of a sweet aroma to the God of heaven and to pray for the lives of the king and his sons. Sermons I. THE INSTRUCTION FOUNDED UPON THE DECREE OF CYRUS (vers. 6, 7). 1. The instruction is intrinsically good. (1) Do not hinder the work of God. (2) Do not molest those who are engaged in it. Good men would receive it gladly. The work of God is their work. Those engaged in it their fellows. 2. But to the wicked it is mortifying. (1) Not to all equally so. The governor, Tatnai, did not commit himself to the opposition in the spirit of bitterness. Therefore to him the turn of events might not be mortifying. (2) But to the Apharsachites it would be intensely so. Their opposition was malicious (see ch. 4.). Therefore the frustration of their purposes would sting them to the quick. Lesson - Never do anything that may involve humiliation. Reflection - What an agony of mortification there will be in the vanquished insolence of the lost! II. THE REQUISITION MADE BY DARIUS (vers. 8-10). 1. That from the king's revenue from beyond the river expenses be given to the builders of God's house. (1) Not from the kingdom in general, but from that portion whence the opposition came. What a public defeat! Yet not so public as that of the enemies of Christ before an assembled universe in the great day of judgment. (2) The leaders of the opposition are the very persons required to raise and make these payments. What a retribution! Eye for eye; tooth for tooth. 2. That all they required for sacrifice and offering should be supplied. (1) For burnt offerings "young bullocks and rams and lambs." (2) For meat and drink offerings "wheat, salt, oil, and wine." In the service of God there is nourishment and refreshment (see John 4:34; John 6:27, 55). (3) These, "according to the appointment of the priests, to be given day by day without fail." We need the continual efficacy of the sacrifice of Calvary. We need a daily supply of spiritual as well as natural food. 3. Their patriotism and loyalty concerned in carrying out this. (1) Patriotism. To avert the anger of the God of heaven. To conciliate his favour. The blessing of God is essential to the prosperity of a nation (Job 12:16-25; Psalm 75:6, 7; Daniel 2:21). (2) Loyalty. To ensure his blessing upon the king and his sons (see 1 Kings 11:11-13; 1 Kings 13:33, 34). III. THE MALEDICTION DENOUNCED UPON THOSE WHO MAY FAIL TO FULFIL THE REQUISITION (vers. 11, 12). 1. Civil penalties. (1) His house to be demolished. Infliction not only upon his person, but also on his family. (2) The timber of it to be made into a cross or gibbet for his crucifixion or destruction. Thus held up to public execration (see Deuteronomy 21:22, 23). (3) The place of his house to be made a dunghill. That his very memory might be abhorrent to men. 2. The vengeance of heaven imprecated. (1) Civil penalties are for the breach of the royal decree; the vengeance of heaven for "putting their hand" to injure the "house of God" (see Joshua 6:26; 1 Samuel 14:24). (2) This vengeance imprecated upon "kings;" may refer to deputies, and particularly to Tatnai and Shethar-boznai. (3) It is also called down upon the "people." Those "of the land" particularly intended. Query - Does not this suggest a belief in a future state; for if the civil penalties are to the death, what more can there he else? Let us "fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." - J.A.M.
And search was made in the house of the rolls. Learn —1. Honest and thorough investigation promotes the interests of religion and of the Church of God. 2. The advantage of written history. 3. How great should be our gratitude for the sacred writings. (William Jones.) (W. F. Adeney, M. A.) A record thus written The record here referred to was of what had been done for the house and service of God. It was a religious record such as I propose we should now read of the past year. Records are made of changes of what is altering from day to day in that great empire of change of which we are all subjects. This law of change is often spoken of as a melancholy law. It is better to regard it as the decree of growth and progress. It is the ordinance of escape from old limitations, and the impulse of rising to new stages of life to gain fresh energy of thought and will. A state of sameness or immobility would be in truth a wretched doom. The record of any year is not a record of sadness or decay alone, even as respects this world, but very much of delight and advancement.I. THE FIRST CHAPTER IS THAT OF NEW BEING, BIRTH AND GROWTH. Many houses have been made the scenes of holy gladness by the gifts of God's creative and inspiring power. What trust so great as that of a living spirit, with its own individual nature and with capacities for a peculiar development of intellectual and moral strength? With what reverent, trembling sense of responsibility it should be received! What office so high in rank, so great in opportunity, so large in patronage or susceptible of good, with such hope and fear wrapped up in it, as the parental once? What expanding of outward nature or unfolding of earthly ambition is really so grand and affecting as that of an undying soul? No changes of material growth, of splendid seasons and solemn spectacles can equal this. It makes the purest inspiration of love, it turns self-sacrifice into a pleasure; it plies the inventive faculties with all knowledge and wisdom to provide for the beloved object; it draws the mind into long foresight of its benefit and improvement; and by the force of mingling filial and parental communications exalts the soul to a perception of the relation of all to Him who is the common Father. Life's record, then, is not all of gloomy change and irreparable privation, but of strength enhancing, existence renovating, and of new possession. II. BUT I MUST TURN THIS ILLUMINATED LEAF OF THE RECORD TO A PACE VEILED IN SHADES. It is the record of sickness and decline. And what shall we say of this change? We cannot make our record all pleasant and cheerful if we would. The skeleton that the Egyptians carried to their banquets will intrude upon every feast of our earthly joy and fling its ghastly shadow both across the avenues of our immediate thought and along the vistas of our farthest recollection. But although sickness comes with very sharp instrumentalities, yet she comes with a bright retinue. Patience, resignation, spiritual thoughts of God and of futurity come with her. As the most blazing effulgence of heaven sleeps within the black cloud, so in the lowering darkness and eclipse of bodily suffering often lies the very brilliance of a spiritual and Divine glory. III. WE NOW TURN THE LAST LEAF OF OUR RECORD. It ends, like all earthly records, with death. God by His Son Jesus Christ lifts up the burden of sadness that settles down on a record like this. Being dead in the body, our departed friends yet speak for truth and goodness more loudly and more persuasively than when their words fell on our outward hearing. They have gone that they might awaken our virtue, and that they might chill and discourage our worldly lusts. Like the stars, though with a warmer attraction, they lift and beckon us up. The light burns on, the fountain flows, the music sounds for us. Neither is this final change and record in the providence of God a ground for lamentation. It is rather a declaration of our native dignity as His children. It is the announcement of our glorious destiny. It is a summons to us to gird up our loins, trim our lamps, watch and be ready. (C. A. Bartol.) People Apharesachites, Apharsachites, Artaxerxes, Cyrus, Darius, Haggai, Iddo, Levites, Nebuchadnezzar, Shethar, Shetharboznai, Tatnai, ZechariahPlaces Assyria, Babylon, Babylonia, Beyond the River, Ecbatana, Jerusalem, Media, PersiaTopics Acceptable, Aroma, Bringing, Heaven, Heavens, Odours, Offer, Offerings, Pleasant, Pleasing, Prayers, Praying, Present, Sacrifices, Savor, Savors, Savour, Savours, Smell, Sons, Sweet, Well-beingOutline 1. Darius, finding the decree of Cyrus, makes a new decree for building13. By the help of Tattenai and Shethar-Bozenai the temple is finished 16. The feast of the dedication is kept 19. and the Passover Dictionary of Bible Themes Ezra 6:10 8243 ethics, social Library God the Joy-Bringer'They kept the feast ... seven days with joy; for the Lord had made them joyful.'--EZRA vi. 22. Twenty years of hard work and many disappointments and dangers had at last, for the Israelites returning from the captivity, been crowned by the completion of the Temple. It was a poor affair as compared with the magnificent house that had stood upon Zion; and so some of them 'despised the day of small things.' They were ringed about by enemies; they were feeble in themselves; there was a great deal to … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The New Temple and Its Worship The "Fraternity" of Pharisees The Johannine Writings Brave Encouragements A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox. 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