Ezra 1

Answer 1: The wicked may be sometimes instruments to do God's work; though they do not design his glory, yet they may promote it. Cyrus (Ezra 1:7) was instrumental for the building God's temple in Jerusalem. There is some kind of justice, that they should have a temporal reward:…

4. Divine providence is irresistible, there is no standing in the way of God's providence to hinder it: When God's time was come for Joseph's release, the prison could hold him no longer, The king sent and loosed him (Psalm 105:20). When God would indulge the Jews with liberty i…

And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent to them such things as they required; and they spoiled the Egyptians (Exodus 12:35-36). So in the Babylonian captivity, Cyrus charges his subjects in the place where the Jews remain, to furnish t…

He shows that the strangers will willingly accompany the Jews, and that in such a way that they will not refuse to become their servants. We have seen the proof of this when the people came out of Babylon (Ezra 1:6), but this was only a small taste of those things which were don…

The return out of captivity was a remarkable dispensation of Providence. It was remarkable, that the heart of a Heathen prince, as Cyrus was, should be so inclined to favor such a design as he did, not only in giving the people liberty to return, and rebuild the city and temple,…