Chapter 50—Ezra, the Priest and Scribe
About seventy years after the return of the first company of exiles
under Zerubbabel and Joshua, Artaxerxes Longimanus came to the
throne of Medo-Persia. The name of this king is connected with
sacred history by a series of remarkable providences. It was during
his reign that Ezra and Nehemiah lived and labored. He is the one
who in 457 B.C. issued the third and final decree for the restoration
of Jerusalem. His reign saw the return of a company of Jews under
Ezra, the completion of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah and his
associates, the reorganization of the temple services, and the great
religious reformations instituted by Ezra and Nehemiah. During his
long rule he often showed favor to God’s people, and in his trusted
and well-beloved Jewish friends, Ezra and Nehemiah, he recognized
men of God’s appointment, raised up for a special work.
The experience of Ezra while living among the Jews who remained
in Babylon was so unusual that it attracted the favorable notice of
King Artaxerxes, with whom he talked freely regarding the power of
[608]
the God of heaven, and the divine purpose in restoring the Jews to
Jerusalem.
Born of the sons of Aaron, Ezra had been given a priestly training;
and in addition to this he had acquired a familiarity with the writings of
the magicians, the astrologers, and the wise men of the Medo-Persian
realm. But he was not satisfied with his spiritual condition. He longed
to be in full harmony with God; he longed for wisdom to carry out
the divine will. And so he “prepared his heart to seek the law of the
Lord, and to do it.”
Ezra 7:10
. This led him to apply himself diligently
to a study of the history of God’s people, as recorded in the writings
of prophets and kings. He searched the historical and poetical books
of the Bible to learn why the Lord had permitted Jerusalem to be
destroyed and His people carried captive into a heathen land.
To the experiences of Israel from the time the promise was made to
Abraham, Ezra gave special thought. He studied the instruction given
at Mount Sinai and through the long period of wilderness wandering.
396