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Ezra Chapter
Four
Ezra 4
Chapter Contents
The adversaries of the temple. (1-5) The building of the
temple is hindered. (6-24)
Commentary on Ezra 4:1-5
(Read Ezra 4:1-5)
Every attempt to revive true religion will stir up the
opposition of Satan, and of those in whom he works. The adversaries were the
Samaritans, who had been planted in the land of Israel, 2 Kings 17. It was plain that they did not mean
to unite in the worship of the Lord, according to his word. Let those who
discourage a good work, and weaken them that are employed in it, see whose
pattern they follow.
Commentary on Ezra 4:6-24
(Read Ezra 4:6-24)
It is an old slander, that the prosperity of the church
would be hurtful to kings and princes. Nothing can be more false, for true
godliness teaches us to honour and obey our sovereign. But where the command of
God requires one thing and the law of the land another, we must obey God rather
than man, and patiently submit to the consequences. All who love the gospel
should avoid all appearance of evil, lest they should encourage the adversaries
of the church. The world is ever ready to believe any accusation against the
people of God, and refuses to listen to them. The king suffered himself to be
imposed upon by these frauds and falsehoods. Princes see and hear with other
men's eyes and ears, and judge things as represented to them, which are often
done falsely. But God's judgment is just; he sees things as they are.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezra》
Ezra 4
Verse 1
[1] Now
when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the
captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel;
The adversaries —
The Samaritans. The relicks of the ten tribes, and the foreigners who had
joined with them.
Verse 2
[2] Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said
unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do
sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us
up hither.
With you —
This they spake not sincerely, but that by this conjunction with them, they
might pry into their counsels, and thereby find some matter of accusation
against them.
We seek —
For so they did, though in a mongrel way, 2 Kings 17:26, etc.
Esarhaddon —
Son of Sennacherib, and after him king of Assyria, who brought or sent these
persons hither, either, 1. in the day's of Salmanasar, who reigned in Assyria
but eight years before Esarhaddon; and so Esarhaddon might be one of his
commanders, and the man by whom that colony was sent. Or, 2. in the reign of
Esarhaddon, who sent this second colony to strengthen the first.
Verse 3
[3] But
Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel,
said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God;
but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus
the king of Persia hath commanded us.
With us — As
being of another nation and religion, and therefore not concerned in Cyrus's
grant, which was confined to the Israelites. Take heed, whom you go partners
with, and on whose hand you lean. While we trust God with an absolute
confidence, we must trust men with a prudent caution.
Verse 5
[5] And
hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of
Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Cyrus —
For though Cyrus still favoured the Jews, yet he was then diverted by his wars,
and his son Cambyses was left his vice-roy, who was a wicked prince, and an
enemy to the Jews.
Until —
Heb. and until, etc. not only in the reign of Cyrus but also of Cambyses, and
of the magician, after whom was Darius.
Verse 6
[6] And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they
unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
Ahasuerus — A
common name to divers kings of Persia. Cambyses the son and successor of Cyrus,
was known to be no friend to the Jewish nation.
Verse 7
[7] And
in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of
their companions, unto Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the writing of the letter
was written in the Syrian tongue, and interpreted in the Syrian tongue.
Artaxerxes —
Cambyses, called by his Chaldee name, Ahashuerus, verse 6, and here by his Persian name, Artaxerxes: by
which he is here called in the inscription of this letter, because so he was
called by himself, and others in the letters written either by him; or to him.
Interpreted — It
was written in the Chaldee or Syrian language, and in the Syrian character: for
sometimes the Chaldee or Syrian words are written in the Hebrew character.
Verse 10
[10] And
the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Asnappar brought over, and set
in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that are on this side the river, and at
such a time.
Asnapper —
Either Esarhaddon, or some other person of eminency, who was captain of this
colony, and conducted them hither.
The river —
Euphrates.
Time —
The date of the epistle was particularly expressed therein, but here it was
sufficient to note it in general.
Verse 12
[12] Be
it known unto the king, that the Jews which came up from thee to us are come
unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the
walls thereof, and joined the foundations.
Be it known, … —
This is a mere fiction, which being confidently affirmed, they thought would
easily find belief with a king whose heart and ears they possessed by their
hired counsellors.
Verse 23
[23] Now
when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai
the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the
Jews, and made them to cease by force and power.
To cease. … — As
they abused the king by their misinformations, in the obtaining of this order,
so they abused him in the execution of it; for the order was only to prevent
the walling of the city. But having power in their hands, they, on this
pretence, stopt the building of the temple. See what need we have to pray, not
only for kings, but for all in authority under them: because the quietness of
our lives depends much on the integrity and wisdom of inferior magistrates as
well as the supreme.
Verse 24
[24] Then
ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto
the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Darius —
Darius the son of Hystaspes, successor of Cambyses.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezra》
04 Chapter 4
Verses 1-5
Verses 1-3
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard.
The proposal of the Samaritans to the Jews
I. The proposal
made by the Samaritans
1. Plausible in its form.
2. But evil in itself.
II. The proposal
rejected by the jews.
1. An exclusive obligation in relation to the work is asserted.
2. The alleged similarity of worship is indirectly denied.
3. The command of Cyrus is adduced in support of this rejection. This
was prudent. “Be ye wise as serpents,” etc.
4. The rejection of the proposal was unanimous.
5. The rejection of the proposal was prompt and decided. (William
Jones.)
The proposals of the wicked and how to treat them
I. That the wicked
often propose to enter into alliance with the good. These alliances are of
different kinds.
1. Commercial.
2. Social
3. Matrimonial.
4. Religious.
II. That the
proposals of the wicked for alliance with the good are often supported by
plausible reasons.
III. That the
alliances proposed by the wicked are always perilous to the good.
IV. That the
proposals of the wicked for alliance with the good should always be firmly
rejected. (William Jones.)
The uses of an enemy
1. The having one is proof that you are somebody. Wishy-washy, empty,
worthless people, never have enemies. Men who never move, never run against
anything; and when a man is thoroughly dead and utterly buried, nothing ever
runs against him. To be run against, is proof of existence and position; to run
against something, is proof of motion.
2. An enemy is, to say the least, not partial to you. He will not
flatter. He will not exaggerate your virtues. It is very probable that he will
slightly magnify your faults. The benefit of that is twofold. It permits you to
know that you have faults; it makes them visible and so manageable. Your enemy
does for you this valuable work.
3. In addition, your enemy keeps you wide awake. He does not let you
sleep at your post. There are two that always keep wash--namely, the lover and
the hater. Your lover watches, that you may sleep. He keeps off noises,
excludes light, adjusts surroundings, that nothing may disturb you. Your hater
watches that you may not sleep. He stirs you up when you are napping. He keeps
your faculties on the alert.
4. He is a detective among your friends. You need to know who your
friends are, and who are not, and who are your enemies. The last of these three
will discriminate the other two. When your enemy goes to one who is neither
friend nor enemy, and assails you, me indifferent one will have nothing to say
or chime in, not because he is your enemy, but because it is so much easier to
assent than to oppose, and especially than to refute. But your friend will take
up cudgels for you on the instant. He will deny everything and insist on proof,
and proving is very hard work. Follow your enemy and you will find your
friends, for he will have developed them so that they cannot be mistaken. The
next best thing to having a hundred real friends, is to have one open enemy. (C.
F. Deems, D. D.)
The adversary an abiding quantity in life
The adversary is a man who seeks to discover flaws, disadvantages,
mistakes; a man who magnifies all that is unworthy until he makes a great sore
and wound of it, so as to offend as many as possible; he knows how the work
could have been better done; he sees where every mistake has been committed;
and under his breath, or above it, as circumstances may suggest, he curses the
builders and their building, and thinks that such an edifice built by such men
is but an incubus which the earth is doomed to bear. Regard the criticism of
adversaries as inevitable. If we think of it only as incidental, occasional,
characteristic of a moment’s experience, we shall treat it too lightly; the
adversary is an abiding quantity in life. (J. Parker, D. D)
Let us build with you. Beware of your associates
Beware of your associates. With some men we ought not to build even
God’s house. We may spoil the sacred edifice by taking money made by the ruin
of men. The Samaritans who thus spoke to Zerubbabel and to the chief of the
fathers were not telling an absolute lie. No absolute lie can ever do much in
the world; its very nakedness would cause it to be driven out of society; it
must wear some rag of truth. The Samaritans in the ancient time did worship God
after their fashion, but they did not give up a single idolatrous practice;
they wanted to have two religions--to serve in some sort all the gods there
were, and then when one failed they could flee to another; so they would build
any wall, any altar, any city, any sanctuary; they wanted to be at peace with
all the gods, then they would know what to do in the day of adversity. We have
spoken of the Samaritans of the ancient time: why not speak of the Samaritans of the
present day who wish to do this very thing--men who can bow their heads in
prayer, and drink toasts to the devil? “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” (J.
Parker, D. D)
Simulated unselfishness
How oftentimes are people overcome by manner, by persuasiveness of
tone, by assumed gentleness of spirit! The young creature is often so overcome;
she says she knows he who has spoken to her is not a bad man; whatever he be he
has a guileless tongue; his words are well chosen; he speaks them as a man
might speak them who knows the gentleness of pity, all the sympathy of love; it
is impossible that he can be simulating such tenderness; it is impossible that
he can for selfish reasons be putting himself to such inconvenience and
sacrifice. It is to-morrow that she finds out that beneath the velvet there lay
the claw of the tiger. Nothing stands but character--real, simple, transparent,
solid character. That will bear a thousand blasts of opposition and hostility,
and at the end will seem the richer, the chester, for the rude discipline
through which it has passed. (J. Parker, D. D)
The true builders of the spiritual temple of God
That Christian work should be done only by Christians may be
supported by the following reasons.
I. They alone will
build on the true foundation.
II. They alone will
build with the true materials.
III. They alone will
build in accordance with the true plan.
IV. They alone will
build with the true aim. This is the glory of God.
V. They alone will
build in the true spirit. That of--
1. Obedience.
2. Humility.
3. Patience.
4. Trust in God.
5. Self-consecration. (William Jones.)
Compromising help refused
How strangely history repeats itself. In this early struggle
between the Jews and the Samaritans we have a foreshadow of many a struggle in
the Christian Church. When Paul and the other apostles went forth preaching the
Gospel, the Greeks
and the Romans would willingly enough have tolerated Christianity if Christianity
would but tolerate their idolatrous systems. They would even have patronised
the new religion, and would have offered no opposition to the erection of an
image of Jesus amongst the images of other gods. But, when they saw that
Christianity demanded the renouncing of idolatry and the exclusive worship of
the one living and true God, at once priests, rulers, and people rose in arms
against the preachers. Every obstacle was placed in the way of the spread of
Christianity. But in spite of all persecution the Church prospered. Idolatry
fought for its life and gradually lost every battle, until, in the fourth and
fifth centuries, the Gospel had conquered the Roman Empire, and Christianity
became the nominal religion of all her people. This is the battle, too, that
the Church has to fight to-day. We can and we ought to be liberal in many
things, but the followers of Jesus dare not be so liberal as to allow men of
the world and men of sin to engage hand in hand with them in the Master’s work. The Church ought,
and she does, invite into her fellowship all classes. However fallen and bad
men may be they are welcome to enter the Church. But they must leave the world
and their sins behind them. There cannot be two masters. Christ must have the
whole heart, the whole strength, and the entire devotion. (J. Menzies.)
Questionable money help should be refused
The Church will take money from anybody; the whole Christian
Church in all her ramifications and communions cheats herself into the
persuasion that she can take the money of bad men and turn it to good uses.
Grander would be the Church, more virgin in her beauty and loveliness, more
snow-like in her incorruptibleness, if she could say to every bad man who
offers her assistance, Ye have nothing to do with us in building the house of
our God: the
windows shall remain unglazed, and the roof-beams unslated, before we will
touch money made by the sale of poison or by practices that are marked by the
utmost corruption and evil. (J. Parker, D. D)
Doubtful men a source of weakness to a church
Thus we can learn from the Old Testament a good deal that would
bear immediate modern application. This is the right answer to all doubtful
Christians as well as to all unbelievers. We should say to them, So long as you
are doubtful you are not helpful:
your character is gone on one side, and therefore it is ineffective on the
other. But would not this class of discipline and scope of criticism shear down
the congregations? Certainly. Would God they were shorn down! Every doubtful
man amongst us is a loss, a source of weakness, a point of perplexity and
vexation. We are only unanimous when we axe one in moral faith and consent. The
critic will do us no good; the clever man who sees our metaphysical error will
keep us back:
only the soul that has given itself to Christ, out-and-out, in an unbargaining
surrender, can really stand fire in the great war, end build through all
weathers, and hope even in the midst of darkness. We may have too many people
round about us; we may be overburdened and obstructed by numbers. The Church
owes not a little of its strength to the purity of its discipline. (J.
Parker, D. D)
Mental penetration in leaders
Leaders must be critical. The man who has little responsibility
can soon achieve a reputation for energy. Leaders must halt, hesitate, balance,
and compare things, and come to conclusions supported by the largest
inferences., There are men who would take a short and ready method in
accomplishing their purpose:
there are men of rude strength, of undisciplined and unsanctified force. But
Zerubbabel and Jeshua must look at all the offers of assistance, and ask what
their real value is; they must go into the sanctuary of motive, into the arcana
of purpose end under-meanings. Zerubbabel and Jeshua--men who could undertake
to build a city--were men who had mental penetration; they could see into other
men. They saw into the Samaritan adversaries, and said, “Ye have nothing to do with us to build an
house unto our God.” (J. Parker, D. D)
.
Verses 4-24
Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of
Judah.
The hostility of the Samaritans to the Jews
I. The tactics of
the wicked. If they cannot bend the good to their wishes and aims by plausible
pretences, they alter their tactics and betake themselves to unscrupulous
opposition in various forms.
II. The venality of
the wicked. The Samaritans “hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their
purposes.” It is reasonable to infer that these counsellors were men of some
skill and resource and power of persuasion who deliberately exercised their
abilities in an evil cause for gain.
III. The temporary
triumph of the wicked.
IV. The freedom
allowed by God to the wicked. (William Jones.)
The antagonism of the world to the Church
This antagonism as here illustrated is--
I. Persistent.
II. Authoritative.
III. Combined.
IV. Unscrupulous.
V. Plausible.
1. In their profession of loyalty to the king.
2. In their presentation of proof of their assertions. (J. Parker,
D. D)
.
Verses 6-23
Verse 14
Now because we have maintenance from the king’s palace.
Good cause for great zeal
I. We acknowledge
a very gracious fact.
1. We have been maintained from the King’s palace--
2. Our maintenance from the King’s palace has cost His Majesty dear.
He spared not His own Son.
3. We have had a bountiful supply.
4. We have had an unfailing portion.
5. The supply has ennobled us.
6. How cheering it is to have such a soul-satisfying portion in God.
II. Here is a duty
recognised. By every sense of propriety we are bound not to see God
dishonoured--
1. By ourselves.
2. By those who dwell under our roof.
3. By those with whom we have influence; particularly those who
desire to unite with us in Church fellowship. We must not receive into our
membership persons of unhallowed life--those who know not the truth as it is in
Jesus.
4. By the mutilation and misrepresentation of His Word.
5. By a neglect of His ordinances.
6. By a general decline of His Church.
7. By so many rejecting His gospel. We cannot prevent their doing so,
but we can weep for them, pray for them, etc.
III. A course of
action pursued. “Certified the king.” It is a holy exercise of the saints to
report to the Lord the sins and the sorrows they observe among the people and
to plead for their removal. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 15
That search may be made in the book of the records of thy fathers.
Church registers
in a general view, all human records are interesting, if they are
scarcely more than registers of names. Those names are always appended to some
act or event, however concisely stated, and thus these mere catalogues serve to
show us how they who have gone before us have been occupied, and are the founts
and rills which flow into the great stream of human history; or, rather
perhaps, to change the metaphor, are among the foundation-stones on which the
fabric of human history is reared; they are low and concealed from observation,
but are nevertheless essential to the building. Nothing can be apparently more
devoid of interest than the pages of a church register; and yet, let us look at
it nearly and intently, and with a reference to the principle just intimated,
and interest will be found in every column, in every name. Consider--
I. The register of
baptisms.
II. The register of
marriages.
III. The register of
deaths. (F. W. P. Greenwood.)
Verses 17-24
Them sent the king an answer.
The temporary triumph of the wicked
I. Examine the
letter of the king. This letter suggests--
1. That the subtlety of the wicked frequently obtains a temporary
triumph over the good.
2. That one generation frequently suffers through the sins of another
and earlier one. The Jews smarted for their sins of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah.
3. That the cause of God is frequently reproached and hindered by the
evil conduct of some of its adherents. The rebellions of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah
were now made use of to asperse the Jews and to stop the work of God. All who
love the gospel should therefore walk circumspectly.
II. The action of
the Samaritans. “Now when the copy of king Artaxerxes’ letter was read,” etc.
Their action was--
1. Prompt.
2. Personal.
3. Powerful.
Learn:
1. That the temporary triumph of a cause or a party is not a proof of
its righteousness. The death and burial of Christ.
2. That we are not competent to judge the relation of the present
events to the purpose and providence of the great God. (William Jones.)
Unto the rest beyond the
river, Peace.
Peace beyond the river
I. The advent
message of the church to sinners is, “Beyond the river, Peace!”, She tells of a
promised land and arouses the slaves of sin.
II. Christ is come
and with Him peace, but we must go to meet Him.
III. The road
thither is hard--We must cross the river of self-denial. A legend says that
once a wanderer went to a city, and the first man he met said to him, “Of
course you come to see our famous statue?” and each one he met in that town
told him of the famous statue; and, moreover, each one prided himself in having
something to do with it:
this one to guard it; that one to keep it clean, and so forth. As the traveller
stood before it he asked, “Who is this?” “Oh! we’ve forgotten his name,” was
the reply, “but that’s no matter, it is a splendid statue, and the glory of our
town.” Sadly the wanderer turned away, and do you know, dear people, as he went
out of the gate some little children cried, “Why, that is the man our famous
statue was put up to!” Is it not still possible for men and women to be
church-goers and church-workers, to be proud of their Church, and yet the
Living Christ passes by unknown? (The Literacy Churchman.)
.
Verse 24
──《The Biblical Illustrator》