How Cyrus, king of Persia, came to know the Lord God of heaven, we do not know; but God has His own ways of bringing His Word before such a man. It is all very remarkable for the heathen conquerors thought their gods were superior to the gods of the conquered. But the Word of God is unlike any other word in this world. It can find its way into the heart of kings who never heard of it before, and when it does, what a wonderful change it makes.
When we read Cyrus’ proclamation in Ezra 1, we are made to feel that he was one who had come to know the Lord, and this is remarkable, for evidently he had started out as a heathen king. We learn from this proclamation that the house of the Lord was to be built in Jerusalem, that any one of the Jews was at liberty to go back there; also those who did not go were to help their brethren with silver and gold, with beasts and freewill offerings for the house of God at Jerusalem. The effect of this was that many of the Jews, including some of the priests and Lites desired to go, “With all those whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem.”
Another remarkable thing Cyrus did was to bring forth the 5,400 vessels of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem. These he turned over to a prince of Judah named Sheshbazzar, whom he made governor. Surely it was the overruling hand of God that caused the previous kings to keep these precious vessels separate, so that at the proper time they could be returned to Jerusalem. Sheshbazzar is evidently a Chaldean or Persian name given to Zeruababel, of whom we read in chapter 2.
In chapter 2 we have a register of the names of the remnant who returned with Zerubbabel to Judah and Jerusalem. We can learn from this that whatever the response His grace produces in our hearts, it is precious to God, and the very names of His people are given as an encouragement to all to walk in His ways, to be identified with His interests, and to be faithful in an evil day.
The Lord had caused this list to be preserved because of His promises to His people who must prove that they were the children of Abraham. The priests must be of the house of Aaron, and the Levites must be of the tribe of Levi. Some of the priests had married into a prominent family of Judah and because they took the name of that family, they had lost their identity as priests. They sought to regain it now, but were unable to by the registry, so they were put out of the priesthood as polluted. They could not eat of the most holy things until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummin. These two words meaning “lights and perfections,” refer to something in the high priest’s garments which had been lost and never recovered on their return from Babylon. Evidently they answered questions from the Lord by these. What was said really meant that only the Lord could reveal the true status of these priests. Where there has been failure in what the Lord has entrusted to man, He does not restore it completely as it was at the first, but He does restore sufficiently for faith to go on. The ark was never mentioned after their return from captivity; evidently it was not the Lord’s mind to restore it to them.
ML 03/01/1959