Ezra 7: The Ezra-lites Return

Ezra 7:27 "Praise be to the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put it into the king's heart to bring honor to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem in this way..."

Well, seven years have gone by and Artaxerxes has taken over as king of the world. He gives a decree that the rest of Israel can now return home to Israel. The exile is over. A guy named Ezra, the priest and teacher of those remaining in Babylon is given high privilege and basically whatever he wants because the hand of God was upon him. Sounds like someone else...really the only other person we've met who is under the same type of captivity, yet given so much leash is Joseph. 

Chapter seven mainly covers Artaxerxes' letter to Ezra, essentially releasing the Israelites to return home, take whatever they need, and to put Ezra in charge of them.

It sounds like Artaxerxes wants to make sure that Israel is doing ok, and that no one messes with them. He wants to make sure that Israel has everything they need to get back on their feet, and sort of re-establish themselves as a people in Judea. He even wants to make sure that Israel has enough to buy all the necessary sacrificial animals as required by God. It is quite...eyebrow raising...? to see how the kings of these nations: Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes all follow each other and are so charitable in their treatment of Israel. Religious tolerance...probably. Something God used to Israel's advantage. 

It doesn't appear that any of these leaders particularly worshipped God as God alone. Artaxerxes at least "gets" God. He wants to bless Israel, and even explicitly says that he doesn't want to needlessly incur God's wrath. Maybe what God said to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 got back to him. But even if it didn't those who messed with Israel and God took a beatdown, at least when Israel was attuned to the will of God.

Ezra 4: Stop Building

Ezra 4:15 "In these records you will find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to kings and provinces, a place of rebellion from ancient times. That is why this city was destroyed."

The people in the area saw the rebuilding of the temple going on. They were described as enemies, so right away, that sort of sets the stage for how this interaction was going to go. They wanted to help with the reconstruction of the temple, claiming that they had been worshipping the LORD, and wanted to assist with the construction of His temple.

And they probably did worship the LORD. Among many other gods. Zerubabbel and Jeshua responded by saying it would be them alone who would rebuild the temple. One, because God was their God. Second, and probably to add a big of gravitas to an unbelieving group of foreigners, because Cyrus said so. Sometimes you need that extra bit of authority in there. As long as Cyrus was in charge, the foreigners, the enemies made it their business to inhibit the temple's construction, lodging complaints with Xerxes, the king of Persia, and then Artaxerxes. Some guys named Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and others wrote a letter to Artaxerxes, having been frustrated by the jews who would not let them help.

It's all political. Not militaristic. The route that the foreigners go in the letter to King Art talks about how if Israel is allowed to do their thing, it's basically going to cost the king a lot of money. He'd lose out on the tribute. So they appeal to his greedy side. They don't want to see the king "dishonored." Snakes.

What I find most noteworthy about the letter is in verse 15. They talk about the city being a rebellious one...troublesome, claiming that is why the city was destroyed. Very interesting. Israel was rebellious. Israel was troublesome. And these were the reasons why Jerusalem was no more. But not because Israel was rebellious or troublesome to their neighbors. They rebelled against God. It was when Israel behaved and was obedient that they were problems to their neighbors.

Of course Artaxerxes takes the bait and brings force to Israel to make them stop with this crazy building. And it took until Darius took the throne in Persia to get started again. We'll have to find out why. Artaxerxes doesn't bother to find out why Cyrus made his proclamation, instead listening only to his selfishness and greed.