GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
EZRA 5:11-17
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(Tattenai continues his letter to King Darius):
11 “And this was their reply to us: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished. 12 But because our fathers angered the God of heaven, he handed them over to Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, the king of Babylon, who destroyed this house and sent the people away to Babylon. 13 However in the first year of Cyrus, King of Babylon, King Cyrus made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt. 14 In addition, the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought into a temple of Babylon– Cyrus the King removed these from that temple of Babylon, and they were handed over to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor. 15 He said to him, “Take these vessels. Go and put them back into the temple which is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.” 16 Then this same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem; and from that time until now it has been under construction, but it is not yet completed.” 17 So if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the royal archives that are there in Babylon, to see whether any decree was issued by King Cyrus for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem. And let the King send us his decision in this matter.’”
Was this Sheshbazzar, the governor, the same man as Zerubbabel? It’s possible that he was the first governor, but that he died and Zerubbabel was set up in his place. But in ancient times, especially in Babylon and Persia, men and some women had two names, such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Esther. Both Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel are given credit for having laid the foundation of the temple (Ezra 5:14-16; Haggai 1:1), which is easiest to explain if they were the same person. In his People’s Bible commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, Dr. John Brug discusses this matter in depth, along with the theory that they could be two people and not one (see p. 13). The thought that they were the same man seems to me to be the most probable.
The “great king” who built the temple was of course Solomon. The returning exiles do not presume that a Persian monarch would have heard Solomon’s name– after all, what American would know the name of the Holy Roman Emperor from four hundred years ago, or the King (or Queen) of England, or the King of Norway? (They were HRE Rudolf II, Elizabeth I, and King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway.) Yet the reference does establish the antiquity of the temple. The exiles are to be commended for not muddying the issue with confusing references to the still more ancient tabernacle.
The exiles admit: “Our fathers angered the God of heaven.” The confession is correct and makes a quick point of how the temple was ruined in the first place to need rebuilding. There is no blame laid on Nebuchadnezzar, but on the sinful Israelites. The Persians had no trouble understanding the concept of sin. Unlike secular leaders and governments today, sin was a subject that was well-understood. The idea of sin begins with the demand for obedience in the Garden of Eden, and the fall itself was a fall of sin, of turning away from God and missing the demand he had made. The word for “sin” in Genesis 4:7, where God tells Cain that sin was crouching at his door, is chata, which is one of the simplest and plainest words for “sin.” This is the word Daniel uses in his prayer (Daniel 9:20, 9:24) as well as the word used by Nehemiah for the goal of Israel’s enemy Sanballat, who “had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin” (Nehemiah 6:13). So sin was understood by the Persians, even if it was a word from their antiquity more than their more recent usage, just as modern philosophers and atheistic scientists or politicians have no concept of sin or the need for atonement.
The exiles use the title “The God of Heaven.” Abraham used this title for the Lord twice, each time while asking a servant to swear an oath (Genesis 24:3,7). Psalm 136 has a reference to the God of Heaven, and it is placed alongside Psalm 137 which is the only provably post-exilic Psalm in the Bible. But Psalm 136 also has several other names for God. Jonah uses this term when he explaining his Lord to the Phoenician sailors (Jonah 1:9), and all of the other 18 occurrences of “God of Heaven” in the Old Testament are from people either writing to Babylonian or Persian kings, or from Babylonian or Persian Kings themselves (such as Cyrus in 2 Chronicles 36:23).
The vessels that are mentioned were the various things necessary for the sacrifices in the temple. Some were bowls and cups, but many were other things such as censers, pans, brushes, and a whole variety of things. But some of them included the “gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem” and used by Babylonian King Belshazzar the night that the handwriting on the wall appeared (Daniel 5:3-5). These things were returned by Cyrus when he allowed the exiles to return. This detail might help the case of the exiles, since that incident was recent enough that some of the people would have been present, and might have their memories jogged by such details.
The exiles now asked for a search of the royal archive. Notice that they included what we would call a “keyword” for the search: the name Sheshbazzar. Since this man had been made governor by Cyrus, his name was bound to be included in more than one document, and the chances of finding the actual edict of Cyrus about the temple would have a better chance of being located.
The people of God were now using a peaceful means to carry on with the work of the Lord. They knew that they had been given permission to rebuild their temple. Now they simply needed to trust that the document could be found. But the hand of the Lord was with them. A professor friend of mine caught me after church yesterday and commented, sadly: “We live in a culture where people simply do not look after each other. They don’t care.” He was right. But we can look for opportunities to be there for one another. I think that my friend was responding to a little illustration that appeared in my sermon, from Exodus 23: “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him” (Exodus 23:4). I use that passage to help teach the Seventh Commandment, as well as the Tenth. It’s not about your best friend’s donkey, or your good neighbor’s donkey, but it’s about your enemy’s donkey. God’s will is that we would help our enemy. “Love your enemies,” Jesus said, “and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43). So if we help our enemy, we may go a long way to smoothing over whatever made us enemies in the first place. If the government or people in our culture persecute us, like Tattenai persecuted the exiles, we can respond with patience, love, kindness, and the gospel. Or at least we can respond without violence. We can, as Peter says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that even though they accuse your of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God” (1 Peter 2:12).
Forgive us Lord for our missed opportunities and our many sins. But thank you, Lord, for the forgiveness you constantly, richly and daily provide for us through your Son Jesus Christ. Let us give you glory and serve you in his name forever.
Perhaps the donkey that wandered away from a certain enemy was not his beast of burden, but his faith. Restore that to him, and you have won a friend for all eternity.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Ezra 5:11-17 A keyword search in Persia