Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord.
The restoration of the sacred vessels
I. The preservation of the sacred vessels (Ezra 1:7-8). These are the vessels which are mentioned in 2 Chronicles 36:7 and Daniel 1:2. In the providence of God most of these vessels were remarkably preserved, to be in due time restored to their original place and uses. Learn: Since God is so careful of the mere vessels consecrated to His service, may we not rest assured that He will much more preserve His consecrated people?
II. The numeration of the sacred vessels. This numbering indicates--
1. The reverent care of Cyrus for these sacred vessels.
2. The grave responsibility of Sheshbazzar for these sacred vessels.
Learn: That persons, places, and things which are devoted to religious uses should be reverently regarded by us.
III. The restoration of the sacred vessels (verse 11).
1. This was a fulfilment of prophecy (Jeremiah 27:22).
2. This is an illustration of the restoration of perverted things to their true uses.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the great restorer of the violated order and the broken harmony of the universe of God. (William Jones.)
The restitution of the stolen vessels
This appears to be more than an act of generosity or justice. A certain religious import belongs to it. It put an end to an ancient insult offered by Babylon to the God of Israel, and it might be taken as an act of homage offered to Jehovah by Cyrus. Yet it was only a restitution, a return of what was God’s before, and so a type of every gift man makes to God. (Walter F. Adeney, M. D.)
Mithredath
It is not without significance that the treasurer who handed over their temple prosperity to the Jews was named “Mithredath”--a word that means “given by Mithra,” or “devoted to Mithra.” This suggests that the Persian sun-god was honoured among the servants of Cyrus, and yet that one who by name at least was especially associated with this divinity was constrained to honour the God of Israel. Next to Judaism and Christianity, the worship of Mithra showed the greatest vitality of all religions in Western Asia, and later even in Europe. So vigorous was it as recently as the commencement of the Christian era, that M. Renan has remarked that if the Roman world had not become Christian it would have become Mithrastic. In the homage paid by Mithredath to the God of Israel may we not see an image of the recognition of the claims of the Supreme by our priests of the sun--Kepler, Newton, Faraday? (Walter F. Adeney, M. D.)
A restoration of misappropriated property
There was a great restoration of misappropriated property. What a restoration there will one day be. What have men taken away from God’s Church? Nearly everything they could lay hands on. They have taken away gold, art, music, miracles, inspiration, rationalism, morality, science, and they have left God a very bare house. When the period of spiritual revival has come, and the holy issue is wrought out in all its meaning, all these things will be brought back again. Art will come with her brush and pencil, and say, “I will beautify the house of God’s revelation.” Music will bring back her harp and her instrument of ten strings, and her cymbals and organs, and say, “Make me a handmaid in God’s house, for all I have and am must belong to Him”; and Reason--exiled, expatriated Reason shall return, saying “They have kept me in vile servitude; admit me to my Father’s house.” And Science will come and pray; and Morality will say, “They have been trying to divorce me from theology, from right religious motive and impulse, and I have died like a flower that has been plucked; restore me to my vital relations, and I will once more bloom in the house of God.” (J. Parker, D. D).