Chapter 13: The Solemn Restoration of the Ezraitic Church

The remaining parts of the reformation of the Ezraitic church — The solemn restoration of the preaching of the divine word (Nehemiah 8:1, 8) — Its neglect before the captivity — Jehoshaphat's efforts in its restoration (2 Chronicles 17:7-9) — Princes joined to the priests and Levites in that work — The diligence and success of the earliest reformers of the Christian churches in that work — The triflings of the Jews and of others — The excommunication of the Cuthaeans (Ezra 4:2, 3) — The separation of the people from impure mixtures.

I. We continue with the reformation of the church restored from captivity. We have assigned, in the third place, to these reformers the greatest diligence in the preaching of the divine word, by which the restored people, who had long lain in Babylonian darkness, might be instructed in the knowledge of God and in the proper discharge of their duty. The history of this truly divine undertaking is found at Nehemiah 8:1, 8: "All the people were gathered together; ... for they read in that book, the law of God, plainly, and by expounding the sense they gave understanding through that scripture." The duty of instructing the people through sacred sermons and solemn expositions of the word of God had been despised and neglected during the former apostasy, insofar as it pertained to the ordinary care of the priests and Levites. The extraordinary preaching of the word by the prophets was so much a matter of divine arrangement that, on that account, the church was neither to be praised nor blamed. God had ordained that "the lips of the priests should preserve knowledge" (Malachi 2:7). It was the duty of the people to seek from them the law of God, that is, the meaning of the mind of God as expounded in the law. God therefore severely rebukes the priests for their neglect of this work (Hosea 4:6). The duty of instructing the people also rested upon the Levites (Deuteronomy 33:10). Therefore, when Jehoshaphat set himself to reform the church according to the will of God, nothing was of greater concern to him than the preaching of that word throughout the whole church; but since the priests and Levites were unequal to the task — either on account of their small numbers, or because the greater part of them were entangled in the disgraceful crime of ignorance of the divine law itself — he joined to them, by common right, other men, princes and nobles, whose heart was set on the reformation of the church (2 Chronicles 17:7-9).

For the neglect of the administration of this duty is a most certain sign of ecclesiastical defection; and its careful discharge is by no means the least part of reformation. Therefore the pious reformers gave the most diligent attention to this office. Those also whom God was pleased to use in recovering His churches from the long bondage of mystical Babylon applied themselves to that work with no small and admirable success.

II. The more recent Jews hold that the Chaldaic paraphrase is indicated by those words we cited from Nehemiah. Some Christians also agree with this view, or show themselves sympathetic to this delusion, after having settled upon another opinion no less absurd concerning two kingdoms. But we have shown above that the use and mastery of the Hebrew language had not yet perished from the people, as they would have it. Furthermore, it is expressly stated that these Ezraitic speakers first read the book of the law "plainly," and then gave "understanding by exposition of the sense." To what end, I ask, would that plain reading serve, if the common people had not at all understood the very sound of the words? Therefore what is here mentioned was the restoration of the solemn divine ordinance concerning the continual preaching of the word. Next follows the excommunication, or rather the rejection, of the Cuthaeans. The history is found at Ezra 4:2, 3: "They came to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of the people, and said to them, Let us build with you: for, just as you, we seek your God; for we have not sacrificed to another since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us here. But Zerubbabel, and Joshua, with the rest of the heads of the fathers' families of Israel, said to them, It is not for you to build with us a house for our God; but we ourselves together will build for Jehovah the God of Israel." It was not participation in the divine worship that these hypocrites sought, but the favor of the Persian kings, of which the Jews were then making favorable use. For if they had sincerely sought to join themselves to the God of Israel, they were not to be rejected. But the matter was plainly otherwise, as the outcome showed; they had nothing else in their minds under the pretense of religion than what the Shechemites had in a similar case so many centuries before (Genesis 34:23).

III. To the rejection of the Samaritans was added the separation of the people from impure mixtures with profane peoples. This is narrated at length in chapters nine and ten of Ezra, and in the last chapter of Nehemiah. And so at last that arrangement of the church's reformation was completed, and Mosaic Theology was restored to its former place, honor, use, and dignity.