p. 15 | SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 4, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 40.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS

LESSON 3.—OCTOBER 15.—RETURNING FROM CAPTIVITY.

Lesson Scripture, Ezra 1, A. R. V.

(1) "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, (2) Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath Jehovah, the God of heaven, given me; and He hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. (3) Whosoever there is among you of all His people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Jehovah, the God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. (4) And whosoever is left, in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the freewill-offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.

(5) "Then rose up the heads of fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, even all whose spirit God had stirred to go up to build the house of Jehovah which is in Jerusalem. (6) And all they that were round about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered. (7) Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of Jehovah, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put in the house of his gods; (8) even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. (9) And this is the number of them: thirty platters of gold, a thousand platters of silver, nine and twenty knives, (10) thirty bowls of gold, silver bowls of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand, (11) All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when they of the captivity were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem." Golden Text.—"The Lord hath done great things." Ps. 126:3.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

(1) At what time did the events noted in this lesson take place? Whose word was due to be fulfilled? To this end what did the Lord do? Verse 1. Note 1. (2) With what declaration did Cyrus introduce his proclamation? Verse 2. (3) What permission was given to the captive Jews? Verse 3. (4) What were the remainder of the people to do? Verse 4. Note 2. (5) What response was made to the proclamation? Verse 5. Note 3. (6) What liberality was shown to those who volunteered to return? Verse 6. Note 4. (7) What was turned over to them by the king. Verses 7, 8. Note 5. (8) What vessels were specially numbered? Verses 9, 10. (9) What was the whole number of vessels? Who brought these to Jerusalem? Verse 11. Note 6.

NOTES.

1. After the overthrow of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, Darius the Mede reigned two years, and was succeeded by Cyrus the Persian. As Daniel prospered in the reign of Cyrus (Dan. 6:28), it is highly probable that it was he who brought to Cyrus' attention the prophecy of Jer. 29:10-14; also that of Isa. 44:24 to 45:1. This is all the more probable because Daniel says that in the first year of Darius he was considering this prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the time. Dan. 9:1, 2. It was well that Cyrus put the decree in writing, else the work of building the wall of Jerusalem would have been delayed much more than it was. In the time of King Artaxerxes, complaint was made by the enemies of Judah that they would rebel as soon as they got their city walled, and the work was stopped for a while, until, on appeal from Jerusalem, the decree of Cyrus was looked up, and the work allowed to proceed by King Darius II. See Ezra 4:7-24; 6:1, 2.

2. Now was Judah's great opportunity. It was a test of their belief in God's Word and their trust in His care. There was not only the prophecy of Jeremiah before noted, also in Jer. 25:11-14, but there were the wonderful promises given by Ezekiel while in exile. The decree of Cyrus included the entire people of the captivity, if they were minded to return; but there was no compulsion about it. God never enforces His special blessings. These are conditioned on belief of His Word. Mark 5:35, 36; 9:23, 24; 11:24; John 3:16.

3. "All whose spirit God had stirred."—God can not stir the spirits of those whose spirits will not respond to the appeals of His Spirit, through His Word. The rejection of His Word leaves the spirit of man dormant so far as any operation of the Holy Spirit is possible. Men who affect the power of the Holy Spirit while ignoring or perverting the Word of God, are simply deceived by the enemy of souls. The most remarkable feature of the whole movement was that only about fifty thousand captives availed themselves of the opportunity to return. This was hardly more than one-sixth of them. Rawlinson says that "especially those of the wealthier classes preferred to remain." It was an arduous undertaking, and they chose to hold on to their comfortable situations, while others lacked courage.

4. All this liberality on the part of the people, and more, was due to these captives, as they were leaving much behind in the way of cultivated and improved fields, besides the public service they had rendered during the seventy years. It was as much their due as the gifts of the Egyptians were due to Israel on their leaving Egypt.

5. It was a defilement of the sacred vessels of the Lord's house to place them in a heathen temple, in the house dedicated to a false god. It would be hard to imagine a more degraded use of them in a general way; yet there could not have been a more secure place for their preservation. When the Philistines captured the ark of God, and placed it in the house of their god Dagon, the idol could not be kept on its feet, and many of the people were afflicted with disease. But in the case of the sacred vessels everything had been placed in Nebuchadnezzar's hands by the Lord Himself, because His own people had become "worse than the heathen;" and the heathen king had done the best he knew, and perhaps the best that could be done under the circumstances.

6. The vessels specified were not quite half of the whole number. The rest were probably of smaller size and of less value. Sheshbazzar was the Persian name of Zerubbabel. Note the statement in Ezra 3:8 and 5:16.