PART 1
1. THE FIRST RETURN FROM THE CAPTIVITY
EXPOSITION
THE DECREE OF CYRUS (Ezra 1:1-4). The origin of the return is found in an exertion of Divine influence on the mind of a heathen king, who was moved thereby to put forth a proclamation or decree, addressed to all the people of the Lord God of Israel dwelling in any part of his dominions, granting them free permission to return to their own land, and at the same time recommending his other subjects to expedite their departure by giving them out of their abundance gold, silver, goods, and cattle, so that none should be hindered by poverty from taking advantage of the king's kindness. Many things are remarkable in this decree:—
1. Its promulgation by a heathen king, spontaneously as it would seem;
2. Its recognition of a single supreme God, "the Lord God of heaven;"
3. Its declaration that the supreme God had "charged" the king to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem; and
4. Its actual origination in a "stir" of the king's spirit by God himself.
The secret government of the world by Jehovah is, in part, opened to us, and we see how great political events, anteriorly improbable, are brought about by his action on men's hearts; we see that he does not leave, has never left, the heathen wholly to themselves, but condescends to put thoughts into their minds, and bend their wills, and so bring about his purposes. We see, moreover, that the heathen were not universally without some knowledge of the true God; and especially we perceive that in Persia at this date there was a distinct recognition of a single supreme Deity, and an identification of this Deity with Jehovah, the God of the Jews. This fact throws light on the whole history of the Jews under the Persians—on the friendly tone of the decrees of Darius (Ezra 6:6-12) and Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:12-26), on the amicable relations between the latter king and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:2-8), on the position occupied by Mordecai under Ahasuerus (Esther 10:2, Esther 10:3), on the quiet submission of the entire people to the Persian yoke for above two centuries, and on their faithful adherence to the cause of the last Persian king when he was attacked by Alexander (Joseph. 'Ant. Jud.,' Nehemiah 11:8, Nehemiah 11:3). A religious sympathy, it is clear, united the two nations. We must not, however, carry this notion too far, or regard the Persian religion with too favourable an eye. The native literature shows that the Persians worshipped more gods than one, although one was supreme, and that their religion was moreover dualistic, involving a belief in a principle of evil, co-eternal and almost co-equal with the principle of good.