The Commandment to Restore and to Build Jerusalem

Chapter 2: The Decree Of Cyrus

The decree of Cyrus-Jeremiah’s prediction-How Cyrus was stirred up-Cyrus connects his decree with God’s commandment-What Cyrus granted-Action of the Jews under this decree-The Samaritans stop the work-Cyrus did not issue the entire commandment for Jerusalem’s restoration-Situation under Ahasuerus-A wicked letter to Artaxerxes-The king decides against the Jews-The argument from these letters stated-The decree of Cyrus not repealed

The enactment of this commandment as a law of the Persian empire divides itself into three parts: 1. What Cyrus did; 2. What Darius did; 3. What Artaxerxes did. The book of Ezra, which is simply the history of the several acts, constituting the great commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, and of the going forth of that commandment in its complete form in the work of Ezra, appropriately begins with the action of Cyrus: CRBJ 18.1

“Now in the first year of Cyrus King of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying. Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of Heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth: and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God), which is in Jerusalem. and whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” Ezra 1:1-4; 2 Chronicles 36. CRBJ 18.2

That prophecy of Jeremiah which had now reached the time of its fulfillment, and which called for this special display of God’s providential power for its accomplishment, was the following: CRBJ 18.3

“For thus saith the Lord that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good work toward you in causing you to return to this place.” Jeremiah 29:10. CRBJ 19.1

The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, for he was the one to fulfill this prophecy, and the time had come for him to act. It is probable that the Lord did this (1.) By the prophet Daniel; (2.) By the angel Gabriel; (3.) By the archangel Michael. The prophet Daniel was prime minister of the Persian empire. Daniel 6. It is morally certain that Daniel showed to king Cyrus that portion of the prophecy of Isaiah in which he is called by name, and in which his acts in behalf of the Jews are foretold. Also that he showed him the prophecy of Jeremiah in which the time when these acts should be performed is given. Daniel 9; Jeremiah 29; Isaiah 44, 45. CRBJ 19.2

That part acted by the angel Gabriel in this matter is stated by himself in the vision recorded Daniel 10-12, given in the third year of Cyrus. But this was the third year of Cyrus, reckoning the two years of his joint rule with his father-in-law, Darius, and was actually the first year of his sole reign; for Daniel continued only till the first year of Cyrus. Daniel 1:21. He was now about ninety years of age, and appears to have died immediately after this vision. Daniel 12:13. CRBJ 19.3

Before this vision was given to the prophet, he was mourning three full weeks, seeking God in deep humiliation with fasting and prayer. It is every way probable that this was in the crisis of affairs with the Jews, and before Cyrus had decided to release them. But why did the Lord defer the answer to Daniel’s prayer twenty-one days? Properly speaking, there was no deferment on the part of the Lord; for Gabriel who had charge of the revelation to be given Daniel, was sent on a mission to Cyrus as soon as the prophet began to pray. Gabriel states that Cyrus withstood him twenty-one days, when Michael the great prince came to his assistance. What was it that thus engaged the united action of Daniel, Gabriel and Michael? The Lord was stirring up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to act the part assigned him in prophecy. The commandment of the God of Israel for the restoration of Jerusalem must be clothed with the legal authority of the Persian empire, and made the law and commandment of that empire. To Cyrus had been assigned by prophecy the high honor of performing the first part of this great work. He was “stirred up” to this, by the united action of Daniel, Gabriel and Michael. The first words of his decree are a direct testimony to the fact that he was proclaiming the mandate of the God of Heaven with the authority of the Persian empire. This inseparably connects the commandment of the Most High with the first Persian edict in behalf of the Jews. CRBJ 19.4

But what did Cyrus grant to the people of God? That they might go up to Jerusalem and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. This grant therefore allowed the Jews to return to their own land, and authorized them to rebuild the temple. This is the entire ground covered by the decree of Cyrus. It was indeed beginning the work at the foundation, and doing that which would naturally lead the subsequent Persian monarchs to add to and complete the existing law, until it should authorize the entire restoration of Jerusalem. But beyond these first acts, Cyrus did not go. The city itself lay in ruins; But Cyrus said nothing concerning it. Its walls round about were leveled with the ground; but there was no word of Cyrus that gave any authority for their reconstruction. Nor did Cyrus grant them the right to punish in the holy city itself, such crimes against the Divine Majesty, as idolatry, blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking, and marriages with idolaters. Yet this was in the highest degree necessary for the restoration of Jerusalem as the city of the great king. The providence of God appeared to move slowly in the restoration of the needed authority for these things, and in this divine slowness it made use of the jealous caution of the Persian monarchs; but it moved quite as fast as the Jewish people were prepared to follow. CRBJ 20.1

The temple was the heart of Jerusalem, its object of chief interest and of vital importance. Beyond giving the Jews permission to rebuild this, Cyrus said nothing in behalf of Jerusalem. The city itself was a natural stronghold, capable of being rendered almost impregnable. After their first subjection to the king of Babylon the inhabitants of Jerusalem had sought every opportunity to rebel against him, and had most wantonly disregarded their repeated oaths of allegiance to him. In the final siege of Jerusalem in the times of Zedekiah, so great was the strength of its fortifications, and so difficult the place to besiege on account of its natural strength, and so desperate the valor of its inhabitants, that it withstood the utmost power of Nebuchadnezzar for many months, and was not taken till the famine was so sore that no bread was left in the city. 2 Kings 25:3; Jeremiah 52:6. CRBJ 21.1

These things were well known to Cyrus, and the cautious wording of his decree attests their bearing upon his mind. Cyrus was not unaware that to allow the Jews to return to their own land and to give them permission to build their temple would cause many houses to be built in Jerusalem. But he refrains from any word that should legalize such acts. He tacitly permits what could but be the inevitable result of allowing the temple to be restored, but he carefully omits any word that should give them authority to do this, or that should legalize the restoration of that city, which after so terrible a siege had been destroyed for its rebellion. Much less did he in any manner authorize or even indirectly sanction the rebuilding of its walls. The action taken under this decree furnishes additional evidence of the most decisive character that the rebuilding of the temple and not the rebuilding of the city, was the subject of this edict. CRBJ 22.1

The decree of Cyrus being proclaimed we learn what the Jewish people understood it to authorize them to do. “They rose up,” says the sacred historian, “the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised to go up to build the HOUSE OF THE LORD which is in Jerusalem.” Ezra 1:5. CRBJ 22.2

The whole congregation that returned under this edict, was 42,360. Ezra 2:64. When they reached the house of God, i.e., its ruins, some of the chief of the fathers “offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place.” Verse 63. CRBJ 22.3

When the seventh month was come, the children of Israel “gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem;” but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. Ezra 3:1-6. CRBJ 23.1

Then they sent to Lebanon for cedar trees “according to the grant that they had of Cyrus.” And in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, they laid the foundation of the temple, and there set forward the work of the house of God. Ezra 3:7-10. Observe that it was not the rebuilding of the city, nor the restoration of its walls that they were engaged in but the work of the house of God. CRBJ 23.2

Next we read that the report of these things was carried to the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin. But the report did not affirm that they were building the city, or setting up its walls, but it was “that the children of the captivity building THE TEMPLE unto the Lord God of Israel. Ezra 4:1. CRBJ 23.3

Then they came to Zerubbabel and offered to help in the work. But he replied-and it shows just what they were doing, and just what Cyrus had commanded them to do-” Ye have nothing to do with us to build AN HOUSE unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus, the king of Persia hath commanded us.” Verse 3. CRBJ 23.4

Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building.” Verse 4. As the Jews were few in number, and had no walls of defense, it was not difficult for their enemies to do this. Moreover, they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the remaining days of Cyrus even to the reign of Darius. The prophet Daniel the prime minister of Cyrus, was now dead; and these wicked men gaining the ear of Cyrus, he would not interfere to punish the adversaries of the Jews who were forcibly hindering them from proceeding in the work of the house of God. The foundation of the temple was laid according to the prophecy of Isaiah; and this was all that took place during the life of Cyrus. Isaiah 44:28; Ezra 3, 4. The decrees of Cyrus indeed allowed the return of the Jews, and authorized the rebuilding of the temple. But when they had laid its foundation he suffered their enemies to forcibly suspend the work for the rest of his reign. Who in the light of these facts can affirm that Cyrus issued the entire commandment of the God of Heaven for the restoration of Jerusalem? CRBJ 23.5

The life of Cyrus, the first year of whose reign had been marked by such distinguished kindness toward the Jews, and whose later years were filled with indifference if not hostility toward them, ended with deep gloom resting upon that people. Nor did their circumstances improve under his successor. For the next king, Ahasuerus, the son of Cyrus, the Cambyses of the Greeks, suffered this forcible hindrance of the Jews in the rebuilding of their temple to continue without speaking one word in their behalf, though their enemies were in this very thing treating with contempt the grant of power made to the Jews by Cyrus his father. Hatred toward the worship of the true God which was being restored in Jerusalem, was the inciting cause that stirred up these heathen neighbors of the Jews to accuse them before the king of Persia, and to hinder them by force from rebuilding the temple; and the jealousy of the king at the remembrance of the former strength and greatness of Jerusalem, and the stubborn valor and independent spirit of its inhabitants that had made its subjugation by Nebuchadnezzar so great a task, was that which these wicked men took advantage of to accomplish their unholy purpose. Ezra 4:4-6. CRBJ 24.1

But under the next king the affairs of the Jews grew still more disheartening. For Artaxerxes, called by the Greeks, Smerdis the Magian, was stirred up by the enemies of the Jews to acts of positive hostility toward them. Thus wrote these wicked men: CRBJ 25.1

“Thy servants, the men on this side the river, and at such a timbre it known unto the king, that the Jews which came up from thee to us are come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations. Be it known now unto the king, that if this city be builded, and the walls set up again, then will they not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and so-thou shalt endamage the revenue of the kings. Now because we have maintenance from the king’s palace, and it was not meet for us to see the king’s dishonor, therefore have we sent and certified the king; that search may be made in the books of the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful unto kings and provinces, and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time: for which cause was this city destroyed. We certify the king that, if this city be builded again, and the walls thereof set up, this means that thou shalt have no portion on this side the river.” Ezra 4:7-16. CRBJ 25.2

This was a cruel, malicious falsehood, and it was as full of deep subtlety and craft as of malicious untruth. Instead of stating the honest truth that the Jews were simply building the temple of the Lord, they with Satanic malice and falsehood, excite the deep-seated jealousy of the king by telling him that the Jews were rebuilding Jerusalem itself, and had already set up the walls and fortifications of that rebellious and bad city, and that if he did not interfere to arrest the work they would rebel against him. Nor did the malice of this letter exhaust itself in the statement of this falsehood. Observe the artful manner in which the letter next misleads the mind of the king. He is requested to search the book of the records of his fathers. For what purpose? That he may ascertain just what Cyrus had authorized the Jews to do? Far from it. They turn his mind into a very different channel of inquiry. They set him to examine the history of the subjugation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and of its several acts of rebellion against him, until destroyed by him with a terrible destruction, after withstanding his mighty army during a siege of many months. The result was precisely what these evil men intended: CRBJ 25.3

“Then sent the king an answer unto Rehum the chancelor, and to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their companions that dwell in Samaria, and unto the rest beyond the river, Peace, and at such a time. The letter which ye sent unto us hath been plainly read before me. And I commanded, and search hath been made, and it is found that this city of old hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein. There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the river; and toll, tribute, and custom was paid unto them. Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded, until another commandment shall be given from me. Take heed now that ye fail not to do this; why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings?” Ezra 4:17-22. CRBJ 26.1

Had these wicked men simply stated the truth that the Jews were rebuilding the temple, and requested the king to examine the records of his predecessors, that he might learn whether authority had been granted them to do this, no such letter as this would have been written by the king. But this letter shows several things of importance. 1. The extreme jealousy of the kings of Persia relative to the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and hence the caution with which they granted power to the Jews for the restoration of that city. 2. Strong additional evidence that the decree of Cyrus did not authorize the rebuilding of Jerusalem, or the king, instead of being moved so powerfully against the Jews, would have modified his displeasure against them, by the statement that they had authority from his predecessors for doing the work which their enemies charged them with doing. 3. This letter of the king forbids the building of Jerusalem, which shows that the decree of Cyrus did not authorize that act, or else that the Lord suffered the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem, to be repealed before it was acted upon. 4. That while this prohibition shows that the authority for rebuilding Jerusalem had not yet been granted, it does not stand in the way of that part of the great commandment of Daniel 9:25, being issued at any time; for it is a prohibition against such time as royal authority for that act be granted. See verse 21 in which this remarkable clause is recorded. CRBJ 26.2

When this letter reached the adversaries of the Jews, they went up in haste to Jerusalem and made them cease from the work by force and power. The next verse states just what it was that was brought to a close. It was not the work of rebuilding the city and setting up its walls which they had been accused of doing before the king. But it was the work of the temple, the very thing that Cyrus had authorized them to do that was stopped by force. Thus states the record: CRBJ 27.1

“Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.” Ezra 4:24. The fact that the adversaries of the Jews were able to stop them by force with so little trouble is another proof that all that they had said before the king relative to the Jews’ having set up the walls of Jerusalem was false. These wicked men were without any excuse, for they were told in the first place just what Cyrus had granted, viz., that the temple should be built, and had offered to help in the work; but because they were allowed no part in this, they went to the king with a report that said not one word of what the Jews were really doing, but that consisted wholly in charging them with doing that of which the decree of Cyrus said nothing. Ezra 4:1-24. CRBJ 28.1

This Artaxerxes who thus gave ear to the enemies of the Jews, must be carefully distinguished from that Artaxerxes who reigned some seventy years later and who granted to Ezra all his request in behalf of Jerusalem. Ezra 7. But this first Artaxerxes did not repeal or invalidate one word of the decree of Cyrus, for that related only to the building of the temple, while he forbade the building of the city and its walls, which their enemies falsely accused them of doing. Had the decree of Cyrus authorized the rebuilding of the city as well as the rebuilding of the temple, this act of Artaxerxes would have repealed an important part of that decree before it had been acted upon. But as that commandment of Cyrus related only to the temple, and this prohibition of Artaxerxes said nothing concerning the temple, but related wholly to what the enemies of the Jews falsely accused them of doing, it left the decree of Cyrus unrepealed, untouched, and in full force. The providence of God which put forth the great commandment for the restoration of Jerusalem by separate and successive acts, allowed no one of these to be repealed until the whole commandment was complete and carried into execution. That the decree of Cyrus was not repealed by this act of Artaxerxes, we have ample proof in that the Lord’s prophets some two years later, under this very state of things stirred up the people, as we shall presently read, to resume the building of the temple. But the people of God when compelled by force to desist from the work, were utterly disheartened, and ceased all effort till the second year of Darius, the next king, when the prophets Haggai and Zechariah incited them again to action. CRBJ 28.2