and who has shown me favor before the king, his counselors, and all his powerful officials. And because the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, I took courage and gathered the leaders of Israel to return with me. Sermons
I. HE ACKNOWLEDGES GOD IN HIS COVENANT CAPACITY. 1. This is expressed in the terms "God of. (1) This is shown in the record of the Sinai covenant (see Deuteronomy 29:10-13). Thenceforward Jehovah speaks of himself as the God of Israel." (2) So in reference to the gospel covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8). (3) So likewise when all blessings culminate in the bliss of heaven, and the mercy of the covenant is fulfilled (see Revelation 21:7). 2. Covenant relationship subsists in Christ. (1) There is no covenant relationship with God apart from him. He is the impersonation of promise. He is the depositary of the promises (see Romans 15:8, 9; 2 Corinthians 1:20). (2) Hence he is distinguished as the covenant (see Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:8; Zechariah 9:11). 3. The promise of the Christ was the establishment of the covenant with the "fathers. (1) Hence the covenant in the family of Noah was limited to Shem, who was elected to be the progenitor of the promised seed (see Genesis 9:26). (2) In the family of Shem it was afterwards limited to Abraham for the same reason (see Genesis 17:7, 8). (3) In the family of Abraham Ishmael was excluded and Isaac chosen (Genesis 26:24). (4) In the family of Isaac the limitation was to Jacob (Genesis 30:13-15). (5) In the family of Jacob the restriction was to Judah (Genesis 49:8-10). (6) In the family of Judah the covenant was established with David (Psalm 89:3, 4; Jeremiah 33:19-26). (7) In the line of David the promise was fulfilled with the Virgin Mary (see Luke 1:67-79). II. HE ASCRIBES HIS SUCCESS TO THE EXTENSION TO HIM OF THE MERCY OF THE COVENANT. 1. The covenant was not established with Ezra. (1) He was of the tribe of Levi (see ver. 1-5). Levi was shut out when Judah was chosen. (2) Why then does Ezra speak of the Lord as his God? This expression may have reference to the temporal blessings of the covenant which were made over to all the tribes, and embodied in the Law. Thus, as he expresses it - 2. The mercy of the God of his fathers was extended to him. (1) Temporal blessings are extended to all who have connection with the favoured line. Thus Esau was blessed because he was the seed of Isaac, who had the promise of the holy seed (Genesis 27:39, 40). In like manner Ishmael had temporal blessings because he was the seed of Abraham (Genesis 17:20). (2) But the farther back the connection is, the farther off is the person concerned. Hence the Israelites, in general, are spoken of as nigh;" while the Gentiles, some of whom would have to go back as far as Noah before they touched a patriarch with whom the covenant was established, are spoken of as "afar off" (Ephesians 2:17). 3. To this extension of the mercy of the God of the covenant to him he attributes his influence. (1) The king of Persia, the counsellors, and the mighty princes all felt the influence of his integrity and ingenuity. The people of Israel also felt these influences. So did the "chief men" who gathered around him and acted as his lieutenants. (2) But all this influence he traces to God's mercy extended to him. What a rebuke is here to those who plume themselves upon their influence or abilities! III. HE RECOGNISES THE INTERESTS OF THE COVENANT AS THE TRUE REASON FOR THE PERSIAN FAVOUR. 1. The covenant God put it into the heart of the king. (1) God does put things into men's hearts. We should see his hand in all the good that is done by rulers and magistrates. (2) In so doing he serves the purposes of his covenant. The measures to which Artaxerxes was prompted were important links in the chain of events which issued in the advent of Messiah. The very "temple" which the king "beautified" was to become the scene of some of the grandest predicted events (Haggai 2:5-9; Malachi 3:1). Consider - 2. How the covenant has moulded history. (1) Ancient history is preserved to us only in so far as it stood related to the people of the covenant. Persian history is especially interesting in this view. (2) Modern history is no less intimately connected with the people of God. Those nations who have the purest truth of the gospel are the most influential in moulding the politics of the world. No matter how "far off" he may be, no man is so remote from the covenant as not to feel its influence in temporal blessing. Whereas every limitation of the covenant down to the advent of Messiah tended to remove collateral lines further off, now since his coming this tendency is reversed, and he is "lifted up" that he may "draw all men unto him" (see Ephesians 2:13-22). - J.A.M.
Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart. The book of Ezra contains an interesting record of the dealings of God in His providence towards His visible Church under the Persian Empire. That empire performed important services for the Church — a brief consideration of which as they are recorded in the first seven chapters of Ezra will exhibit wonderful instances of the watchful care of Providence for the Church, and open up the way for the following inferences: I. THE DECREE OF ARTAXERXES WAS RIGHT IN THE JUDGMENT OF GOD AS WELL AS IN THE JUDGMENT OF THE CHURCH. Ezra gives thanks to God for this decree and ascribes the procuring of it to the immediate hand of God. II. THAT IT IS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO OBTAIN THE COUNTENANCE AND AID OF THE CIVIL POWER IN FAVOUR OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH IN ALL AGES. It is true God can preserve and increase His Church without the aid and in spite of the opposition of kings and rulers. It multiplied amidst the exterminating persecution in Egypt; and it was not lost during the seventy years' captivity in Babylon; and for three hundred years after Christ the Church was generally persecuted by the civil powers, and yet multiplied exceedingly. But still opposition by the civil powers, and much more persecution, is in itself an evil; and the nursing care of the kings of the earth is s great blessing to the Church. III. IF CIVIL AID AND COUNTENANCE BE SO IMPORTANT TO THE CHURCH, IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL WHO LOVE THE PROSPERITY OF JERUSALEM TO ENDEAVOUR TO OBTAIN IT. Ezra did so (ver. 6), "And the king granted him all his request according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him." IV. WE OUGHT NOT TO BE DISCOURAGED FROM SEEKING THE ADEQUATE SUPPORT OF THE STATE BY THE APPARENT IMPROBABILITY OF OBTAINING IT. "Who art thou, O great mountain?" said the prophet Zechariah, in reference to the usurping Persian king, stirred up by the enemies of the Church, "before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain" (Zechariah 4:6, 7). V. THE FRIENDS OF RELIGION AND THE CHURCH OUGHT NOT TO BE UNDULY CONCERNED WHICH PARTY IS UP OR WHICH IS DOWN. When the friends of the Church are uppermost, give thanks, like Ezra, to God, who putteth it into the heart of the king to beautify His house. When the enemies are uppermost, do as David did, when he encouraged himself in the Lord his God. VI. THE FRIENDS OF THE CHURCH OUGHT NOT TO BE MUCH MOVED EITHER BY THE FLATTERIES OR THE THREATS OF THE ENEMIES. VII. THE CHURCH NEEDS, AND IS ENTITLED TO, THE PRIVATE LIBERALITY OF INDIVIDUALS AS WELL AS THE PUBLIC SUPPORT OF THE NATION. Large and liberal as were the government grants by Darius, Cyrus, and Artaxerxes, yet the voluntary liberality of the private Jews was called into exercise. So it was in the time of Moses and the kings, and so it must be as it has been in the times of the gospel. VIII. THE CHURCH OF GOD OUGHT NOT TO BE TREATED EITHER BY INDIVIDUALS OR NATIONS IN A MEAN AND stingy MANNER. Artaxerxes had not to build the temple — that was done already — but he beautified it; he laid out money on it, as some would say unnecessarily and extravagantly. But Ezra thanks God for putting such a thing as this into the king's heart, to beautify the house of God. IX. AS IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL TO SERVE AND GLORIFY GOD, SO NO ONE IS EXEMPTED FROM THE DUTY OF SUPPORTING HIS TRUE CHURCH. X. WE OUGHT NOT TO REFUSE TO ADD TO THE NUMBER OF MINISTERS AND BUILDINGS IN THE CHURCH UNTIL THE CHURCH IS PERFECTLY REFORMED. XI. THE AID OF GOVERNMENT TO THE EXTENSION OF THE CHURCH IS THE RICH GIVING TO THE POOR. XII. LET US NOT THINK THAT WE SHALL GROW POOR IF WE GIVE MUCH TO GOD. (W. Mackenzie.) 1. Unaffected humility. 2. Sincere piety. 3. Practical religiousness. II. THE GRAND OBJECT OF PRAISE. 1. The Supreme Being. 2. The Supreme Being in covenant relation with His worshippers. 3. The Supreme Being whom our fathers worshipped. III. GOOD REASONS FOR PRAISE. 1. God inspires the worthy purposes of men. 2. He beneficently influences the moral judgments of men. 3. He invigorates the heart and life of His servants. (William Jones.) To beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem One of the desires common to humanity is the desire for what is beautiful. We need not go far for evidence of this universal feeling. It is seen declaring itself in the little flower that lends a nameless grace to the cottage window, in many a simple ornament and picture to be found in the homes of labour and in the preference given to some spot favoured with more than usual sweetness and charm. The desire for beauty and the expressions of it are the creation of the Divine inbreathing. To limit human conduct to what is strictly useful would impoverish existence and rob it of half its interest and grace. If utility were to be the sole standard of human action, the mother would be forbidden to kiss her child and the mourner to shed a tear at the graveside of a friend. According to this, to admire the glowing sunset or to lift our eyes in wonder to the star-spangled sky would be foolishness. The spires and monuments of our cities, the ornamental facings of our buildings, the taste and skill displayed in the laying out of our public parks and gardens, according to this system of appraisement, would be wasteful and worthless. Man desires beauty in the house of God because of its fittingness; we feel it to be in harmony with God's works above and around us to introduce something of the beautiful into the house of prayer and praise. The feeling of hostility in the presence of flagrant abuses of art is now passing away. There is no inevitable alliance between artistic arrangement and idolatrous practices-superstition need never be the offspring of the beautiful; and if good taste is desirable in the home, there is even stronger reason to give it fitting expression in the house of God. We are learners in the school of One who was greater than the temple, One who was altogether lovely, whose loveliness was the loveliness of perfect deeds, and whose beauty was the beauty of holiness. With this beauty we must adorn life's daily temple, taking care that no image of falsehood, uncleanness, or dishonour mars its fairness and grieves the Holy Spirit that would dwell within.(W. Proudfoot, M. A.) So long as our streets are walled with barren brick, and our eyes rest continually, in our daily life, on objects utterly ugly, or of inconsistent and meaningless design, it may be a doubtful question whether the faculties of eye and mind which are capable of perceiving beauty, having been left without food during the whole of our active life, should suddenly be feasted upon entering a place of worship, and colour and music and sculpture should delight the senses and stir the curiosity of men unaccustomed to such appeal, at the moment when they are required to compose themselves for acts of devotion; but it cannot be a question at all, that if once familiarised with beautiful form and colour, we shall desire to see this also in the house of prayer; its absence will disturb instead of assisting devotion; and we shall feel it as vain to ask whether, with our own house full of goodly craftsmanship, we should worship God in a house destitute of it as to ask whether a pilgrim, whose day's journey has led him through fair woods and by sweet waters, must at evening turn aside into some barren place to pray.(J. Ruskin.). People Aaron, Abishua, Ahitub, Amariah, Artaxerxes, Azariah, Bukki, Eleazar, Ezra, Hilkiah, Israelites, Levites, Meraioth, Phinehas, Seraiah, Shallum, Uzzi, Zadok, ZerahiahPlaces Babylonia, Beyond the River, Jerusalem, PersiaTopics Advisers, Assembled, Captains, Chief, Counsellors, Counselors, Courage, Extended, Favor, Gather, Gathered, Got, Government, Heads, Kindness, King's, Leading, Love, Loving, Lovingkindness, Mercy, Mighty, Myself, Officers, Officials, Powerful, Princes, Steadfast, Strengthened, Stretched, Strong, ThusOutline 1. Ezra goes up to Jerusalem11. The gracious commission of Artaxerxes to Ezra 27. Ezra blesses God for this favor Dictionary of Bible Themes Ezra 7:28 1085 God, love of 1055 God, grace and mercy Library Appendix. The Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament. 1. The Greek word Apocrypha, hidden, that is, hidden or secret books, was early applied by the fathers of the Christian church to anonymous or spurious books that falsely laid claim to be a part of the inspired word. By some, as Jerome, the term was extended to all the books incorporated by the Alexandrine Jews, in their Greek version, into the proper canon of the Old Testament, a few of which books, though not inspired, are undoubtedly genuine. Another designation of the books in question … E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Reading the Law with Tears and Joy Rome and Ephesus Authorship of the Pentateuch. Of Antichrist, and his Ruin: and of the Slaying the Witnesses. Brave Encouragements General Account of Jesus' Teaching. The Section Chap. I. -iii. Formation and History of the Hebrew Canon. Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature The Historical Books. Influences that Gave Rise to the Priestly Laws and Histories Ezra-Nehemiah Links Ezra 7:28 NIVEzra 7:28 NLT Ezra 7:28 ESV Ezra 7:28 NASB Ezra 7:28 KJV Ezra 7:28 Bible Apps Ezra 7:28 Parallel Ezra 7:28 Biblia Paralela Ezra 7:28 Chinese Bible Ezra 7:28 French Bible Ezra 7:28 German Bible Ezra 7:28 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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