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…

If here it be said, that the Members of the Parochial Assemblies are not brought in by their own voluntary profession, but by the Authority and Proclamation of the Prince, and therefore they have no such Covenant. The Answer is, that the Christian Prince does but his duty when h…

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…

Of the Ark we shall have occasion to treat afterwards, and of its fictitious hiding by Jeremiah; or Josiah, as the Jews fancy. This we may observe for the present, that as it is certain, that it was carried away by the Babylonians among other vessels of gold belonging to the Tem…

The people returning from their captivity with Zerubbabel in the days of Cyrus had laid the foundation of the Temple; but having begun their work, great opposition was made against it, and great discouragements they met withal, as it will fall out with all men that engage in the…

The first year it is of this second date of the Kingdom of Cyrus, which may have any relation to the time here limited; for while he was King of Persia only, he could have nothing to do with the Jews, nor make any Decree for the building of the Temple, both the people and place…

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,…

For they do not look upon the Word as their Rule, seeing (as they dream) they have a Light within them, beyond that more sure Word of Prophecy, which the Apostle Peter prefers to a voice from Heaven. Indeed, they have so little veneration for the Scriptures, that they will not s…