Chronicles and Ezra Readings
Our readings cover the last four chapters in 2 Chronicles, all of the first five chapters of Ezra which is given in our schedule, and Psalms 42 to 44. Chronicles sketches very rapidly the decline of the kingdom of Judah. Hezekiah prayed for an extension of life. In the fifteen years added to his life, Manasseh was born, one of the wickedest kings that Judah ever had; and his reign was one of the longest, 55 years. And yet he is a marvelous instance of God's wonderful mercy; for humbling himself after he was taken prisoner by the Assyrians, God restored him, Manasseh learned to know Him, and God accepted him. What is said to be his prayer is found in the Apocrypha. He was followed by Amon his son, a wicked king; and he by Josiah, one of the best and most devoted of kings, and one whom Jeremiah so lamented. After Josiah, came the swift descent of Judah under the reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, until Jerusalem was utterly laid waste, and her holy house was burned. In our lessons in Ezra we omit verses 3-63, inclusive, of the second chapter. They are simply a list of the names and number of the children of Israel that returned from the captivity. The whole book of Ezra is given to the return from the Babylonian captivity. First we have a decree of Cyrus as recorded in the first chapter, broad enough to cover all Israel, the ten tribes as well as the two, and the feeble response to that, of only 49,897, all told, returning. In chapter 4 we have a story of the work of the Samaritans, a mixed people who opposed the children of Israel in the building of the temple; and the stopping of their work in the building, caused by the king of Persia called Artaxerxes, who was really the false Smerdis, a usurper. His work was undone by kings that followed. Psalms 42, 43, and 44 are psalms of encouragement to those who are downcast, especially Psalms 42 and 43, which begin with mourning and lamentation, but end with assurances and hope. From Psalm 44 Paul quotes in Romans 8. The writer of Psalm 44, looking upon Israel in her backslidden, persecuted condition, says, "We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." But Paul lifts it above all these things, and declares in Romans 8, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."