CONTENTS
The book of Ezra, from the commencement of it to the conclusion, contains a very interesting record in the history of the church. It opens with the proclamation of Cyrus, king of Persia, to permit the Jews to return from their captivity in Babylon to Jerusalem. Here is an account of the return of certain of the people. The rebuilding of the temple; and the vessels of the temple, carried away in the captivity, brought back and restored.
This first year of Cyrus was immediately upon the finishing the 70th year of Israel's captivity. This is a great point in this history to attend to, inasmuch as it becomes a confirmation of the word of God concerning the desolation of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 25:11-12. Now, whoever is desirous to make the calculation will find, that it corresponds; perhaps to a day, as the case of Egypt, in the deliverance of Israel from thence, did before. Exodus 12:40-42. Calculating by the reigns of the several kings of Judah, and comparing with the reigns of the kings of Babylon from the first of Judah's captivity, it will be found completing the seventy years exactly. Jeremiah 52:1 with 2 Kings 25:27-30. The captivity of the people began in the first year it should seem, of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned 45 years. To him succeeded his son Evilmerodach, who reigned twenty-three years. And after him his son Belshazzar, whose reign was about two years. So that those periods added together make seventy years. But what is worthy also of equal regard is, that the end of Israel's captivity was the end of the Babylonish empire. The Lord had taken Babylon as a rod to correct his people; but when that purpose was accomplished, the rod is cast away. No doubt Babylon mightily oppressed poor Israel, as we read in that pathetic mournful song of the church on the occasion, Psalms 137:1. And Daniel intimates as much when standing up before Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4:27. But Reader! perhaps the most interesting account of any to be attended to in this wonderful subject, was concerning the instrument by whom the Lord wrought the deliverance of his people, I mean Cyrus, concerning whom the prophet Isaiah had been commissioned two hundred years before Cyrus was born, to tell the church both of his name and the deliverance he should accomplish. Before you go further in the history, I beg you to pause here, and to read the forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah's prophecy, and diligently attend to what the prophet, or rather the Holy Ghost by the prophet, tells the church. The two leaved gates, which the Lord promised to open him, were probably those mighty gates under the walls of Babylon which had no entrance but through the great river. And the loins of kings the Lord promised to loose. Now was this astonishing prediction accomplished when Belshazzar trembled in the very night when the impious monarch was slain and Babylon taken? Daniel 5:30; Daniel 5:30. And may we not add, that as the Lord condescended to call Cyrus his anointed on this grand concern, was he not a type of our adorable anointed Jesus, whom the Father from everlasting anointed to deliver the prisoners out of prison, and them that sat in darkness out of the prison house? Isaiah 42:6-7. Reader! never lose sight of this, I beg of you. For what a sweet testimony is here afforded of Jesus, that everything, and all events, had a reference to him. And is not this indeed the first and principal sense and meaning of what Jehovah said to Cyrus on this occasion before he was born, (calling, as the apostle saith, things that are not as though they were) when the Lord said, For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect. Isaiah 45:4. Is not Jacob here named for Jesus? And was not Jacob's seed blessed in and for Jesus's sake? Yes! Jesus is the Holy One, the elect, the beloved of the Father. And in his name, and for his sake, both Israel and his seed are blessed.