_EZRA'S EXPEDITION._
EZRA vii. 11-viii.
Like the earlier pilgrimage of Zerubbabel and his companions, Ezra's
great expedition was carried out under a commission from the Persian
monarch of his day. The chronicler simply calls this king "Artaxerxes"
(_Artahshashta_), a name borne by three kings of Persia; but there can
be no reasonable doubt that his reference is to the son and successor
of Xerxes--known by the Greeks as "Macrocheir," and by the Romans as
"Longimanus"--Artaxerxes "of the long hand," for this Artaxerxes alone
enjoyed a sufficiently extended reign to include both the commencement
of Ezra's public work and the later scenes in the life of Nehemiah
which the chronicler associates with the same king. Artaxerxes was but
a boy when he ascended the throne, and the mission of Ezra took place
in his earlier years, while the generous enthusiasm of the kindly
sovereign--whose gentleness has become historic--had not yet been
crushed by the cares of empire. In accordance with the usual style of
our narrative, we have his decree concerning the Jews preserved and
transcribed in full; and yet here, as in other cases, we must make
some allowance either for the literary freedom of the chronicler, or
for the Jewish sympathies of the translator; for it cannot be
supposed that a heathen, such as Artaxerxes undoubtedly was, would
have shown the knowledge of the Hebrew religion, or have owned the
faith in it, which the edict as we now have it suggests. Nevertheless,
here again, there is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of
the document, for it is quite in accord with the policy of the
previous kings Cyrus and Darius, and in its special features it
entirely agrees with the circumstances of the history.
This edict of Longimanus goes beyond any of its predecessors in
favoring the Jews, especially with regard to their religion. It is
directly and personally addressed to Ezra, whom the king may have
known as an earnest, zealous leader of the Hebrew community at
Babylon, and through him it grants to all Jewish exiles who wish to go
up to Jerusalem liberty to return to the home of their fathers. It may
be objected that after the decree of Cyrus any such fresh sanction
should not have been needed. But two generations had passed away since
the pilgrimage of the first body of returning captives, and during
this long time many things had happened to check the free action of
the Jews and to cast reproach upon their movements. For a great
expedition to start now without any orders from the reigning monarch
might excite his displeasure, and a subject people who were dependent
for their very existence on the good-will of an absolute sovereign
would naturally hesitate before they ventured to rouse his suspicions
by undertaking any considerable migration on their own account.
But Artaxerxes does much more than sanction the journey to Jerusalem;
he furthers the object of this journey with royal bounty, and he lays
a very important commission on Ezra, a commission which carries with
it the power, if not the name, of a provincial magistrate. In the
first place, the edict authorises a state endowment of the Jewish
religion. Ezra is to carry great stores to the poverty-stricken
community at Jerusalem. These are made up in part of contributions
from the Babylonian Jews, in part of generous gifts from their
friendly neighbours, and in part of grants from the royal treasury.
The temple has been rebuilt, and the funds now accumulated are not
like the bulk of those collected in the reign of Cyrus for a definite
object, the cost of which might be set down to the "Capital Account"
in the restoration of the Jews; they are destined in some measure for
improvements to the structure, but they are also to be employed in
maintenance charges, especially in supporting the costly services of
the temple. Thus the actual performance of the daily ritual at the
Jerusalem sanctuary is to be kept up by means of the revenues of the
Persian Empire. Then, the edict proceeds to favour the priesthood by
freeing that order from the burden of taxation. This "clerical
immunity," which suggests an analogy with the privileges the Christian
clergy prized so highly in the Middle Ages, is an indirect form of
increased endowment, but the manner in which the endowment is granted
calls especial attention to the privileged status of the order that
enjoys it. Thus the growing importance of the Jerusalem hierarchy is
openly fostered by the Persian king. Still further, Artaxerxes adds to
his endowment of the Jewish religion a direct legal establishment.
Ezra is charged to see that the law of his God is observed throughout
the whole region extending up from the Euphrates to Jerusalem. This
can only be meant to apply to the Jews who were scattered over the
wide area, especially those of Syria. Still the mandate is startling
enough, especially when we take into account the heavy sanctions with
which it is weighted, for Ezra has authority given him to enforce
obedience by excommunication, by fine, by imprisonment, and even by
the death-penalty. "The law of his God" is named side by side with
"the law of the king."[81] and the two are to be obeyed equally.
Fortunately, owing to the unsettled condition of the country as well
as to Ezra's own somewhat unpractical disposition, the reformer never
seems to have put his great powers fully to the test.
[81] Ezra vii. 26.
Now, as in the previous cases of Cyrus and Darius, we are confronted
with the question, How came the Persian king to issue such a decree?
It has been suggested that as Egypt was in revolt at the time, he
desired to strengthen the friendly colony at Jerusalem as a western
bulwark. But, as we have seen in the case of Cyrus, the Jews were too
few and feeble to be taken much account of among the gigantic forces
of the vast empire; and, moreover, it was not the military
fortification of Jerusalem--certainly a valuable stronghold when well
maintained--but the religious services of the temple and the
observance of The Law that this edict aimed at aiding and encouraging.
No doubt in times of unsettlement the king would behave most
favourably towards a loyal section of his people. Still, more must be
assigned as an adequate motive for his action. Ezra is charged as a
special commissioner to investigate the condition of the Jews in
Palestine. He is to "inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem."[82]
Inasmuch as it was customary for the Persian monarchs to send out
inspectors from time to time to examine and report on the condition
of the more remote districts of their extensive empire, it has been
plausibly suggested that Ezra may have been similarly employed. But in
the chronicler's report of the edict we read, immediately after the
injunction to make the investigation, an important addition describing
how this was to be done, viz., "According to the law of thy God which
is in thine hand,"[83] which shows that Ezra's inquiry was to be of a
religious character, and as a preliminary to the exaction of obedience
to the Jewish law. It may be said that this clause was not a part of
the original decree; but the drift of the edict is religious
throughout rather than political, and therefore the clause in question
is fully in harmony with its character. There is one sentence which is
of the deepest significance, if only we can believe that it embodies
an original utterance of the king himself--"Whatsoever is commanded by
the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of
heaven; _for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king
and his sons_?"[84] While his empire was threatened by dangerous
revolts, Artaxerxes seems to have desired to conciliate the God whom
the most devout of his people regarded with supreme awe.
[82] Ezra vii. 14.
[83] Ezra. vii. 14.
[84] Ezra vii. 23.
What is more clear and at the same time more important is the great
truth detected by Ezra and recorded by him in a grateful burst of
praise. Without any warning the chronicler suddenly breaks off his own
narrative, written in the third person, to insert a narrative written
by Ezra himself in the first person--beginning at Ezra vii. 27 and
continued down to Ezra x. The scribe opens by blessing God--"the Lord
God of our fathers," who had "put such a thing in the king's heart as
to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem."[85] This,
then, was a Divine movement. It can only be accounted for by ascribing
the original impulse to God. Natural motives of policy or of
superstition may have been providentially manipulated, but the hand
that used them was the hand of God. The man who can perceive this
immense fact at the very outset of his career is fit for any
enterprise. His transcendent faith will carry him through difficulties
that would be insuperable to the worldly schemer.
[85] Ezra vii. 27.
Passing from the thought of the Divine influence on Artaxerxes, Ezra
further praises God because he has himself received "mercy ... before
the king and his counsellors, and before all the king's mighty
princes."[86] This personal thanksgiving is evidently called forth by
the scribe's consideration of the part assigned to him in the royal
edict. There was enough in that edict to make the head of a
self-seeking, ambitious man swim with vanity. But we can see from the
first that Ezra is of a higher character. The burning passion that
consumes him has not a particle of hunger for self-aggrandisement; it
is wholly generated by devotion to the law of his God. In the
narrowness and bigotry that characterise his later conduct as a
reformer, some may suspect the action of that subtle self-will which
creeps unawares into the conduct of some of the noblest men. Still the
last thing that Ezra seeks, and the last thing that he cares for when
it is thrust upon him, is the glory of earthly greatness.
[86] Ezra vii. 28.
Ezra's aim in leading the expedition may be gathered from the
reflection of it in the royal edict, since that edict was doubtless
drawn up with the express purpose of furthering the project of the
favoured Jew. Ezra puts the beautifying of the temple in the front of
his grateful words of praise to God. But the personal commission
entrusted to Ezra goes much further. The decree significantly
recognises the fact that he is to carry up to Jerusalem a copy of the
Sacred Law. It refers to "the law of thy God which is in thine
hand."[87] We shall hear more of this hereafter. Meanwhile it is
important to see that the law, obedience to which Ezra is empowered to
exact, is to be conveyed by him to Jerusalem. Thus he is both to
introduce it to the notice of the people, and to see that it does not
remain a dead letter among them. He is to teach it to those who do not
know it.[88] At the same time these people are distinctly separated
from others, who are expressly described as "all such as know the laws
of thy God."[89] This plainly implies that both the Jerusalem Jews,
and those west of the Euphrates generally, were not all of them
ignorant of the Divine Torah. Some of them, at all events, knew the
laws they were to be made to obey. Still they may not have possessed
them in any written form. The plural term "laws" is here used, while
the written compilation which Ezra carried up with him is described in
the singular as "The Law." Ezra, then, having searched out The Law and
tested it in his own experience, is now eager to take it up to
Jerusalem, and get it executed among his fellow-countrymen at the
religious metropolis as well as among the scattered Jews of the
provincial districts. His great purpose is to make what he believes to
be the will of God known, and to see that it is obeyed. The very idea
of a Torah implies a Divine will in religion. It presses upon our
notice the often-forgotten fact that God has something to say to us
about our conduct, that when we are serving Him it is not enough to be
zealous, that we must also be obedient. Obedience is the keynote of
Judaism. It is not less prominent in Christianity. The only difference
is that Christians are freed from the shackles of a literal law in
order that they may carry out "the law of liberty," by doing the will
of God from the heart as loyal disciples of Jesus Christ, so that for
us, as for the Jews, obedience is the most fundamental fact of
religion. We can walk by faith in the freedom of sons; but that
implies that we have "the obedience of faith." The ruling principle of
our Lord's life is expressed in the words "I delight to do Thy will, O
My God," and this must be the ruling principle in the life of every
true Christian.
[87] Ezra vii. 14.
[88] Ezra vii. 25.
[89] _Ibid._
Equipped with a royal edict, provided with rich contributions,
inspired with a great religious purpose, confident that the hand of
his God was upon him, Ezra collected his volunteers, and proceeded to
carry out his commission with all practicable speed. In his record of
the journey, he first sets down a list of the families that
accompanied him. It is interesting to notice names that had occurred
in the earlier list of the followers of Zerubbabel, showing that some
of the descendants of those who refused to go on the first expedition
took part in the second. They remind us of Christiana and her
children, who would not join the Pilgrim when he set out from the City
of Destruction, but who subsequently followed in his footsteps.
But there was little at Jerusalem to attract a new expedition; for the
glamour which had surrounded the first return, with a son of David at
its head, had faded in grievous disappointments; and the second series
of pilgrims had to carry with them the torch with which to rekindle
the flames of devotion.
Ezra states that when he had marshalled his forces he spent three days
with them by a river called the "Ahava," apparently because it flowed
by a town of that name. The exact site of the camp cannot be
determined, although it could not have been far from Babylon, and the
river must have been either one of the tributaries of the Euphrates or
a canal cut through its alluvial plain. The only plausible conjecture
of a definite site settles upon a place now known as _Hit_, in the
neighbourhood of some bitumen springs; and the interest of this place
may be found in the fact that here the usual caravan route leaves the
fertile Valley of the Euphrates and plunges into the waterless desert.
Even if Ezra decided to avoid the difficult desert track, and to take
his heavy caravan round through Northern Syria by way of Aleppo and
the Valley of the Orontes--an extended journey which would account for
the three months spent on the road--it would still be natural for him
to pause at the parting of the ways and review the gathered host. One
result of this review was the startling discovery that there were no
Levites in the whole company. We were struck with the fact that but a
very small and disproportionate number of these officials accompanied
the earlier pilgrimage of Zerubbabel, and we saw the probable
explanation in the disappointment if not the disaffection of the
Levites at their degradation by Ezekiel. The more rigid arrangement of
Ezra's edition of The Law, which gave them a definite and permanent
place in a second rank, below the priesthood, was not likely to
encourage them to volunteer for the new expedition. Nothing is more
difficult than self-effacement even in the service of God.
There was a community of Levites at a place called Casiphia,[90] under
the direction of a leader named Iddo. It would be interesting to think
that this community was really a sort of Levitical college, a school
of students of the Torah; but we have no data to go upon in forming an
opinion. One thing is certain. We cannot suppose that the new edition
of The Law had been drawn up in this community of the Levites, because
Ezra had started with it in his hand as the charter of his great
enterprise; nor, indeed, in any other Levitical college, because it
was not at all according to the mind of the Levites.
[90] The site of this town has not been identified. It could not have
been far from Ahava.
After completing his company by the addition of the Levites, Ezra made a
solemn religious preparation for his journey. Like the Israelites after the
defeat at Gibeah in their retributive war with Benjamin;[91] like the
penitent people at Mizpeh, in the days of Samuel, when they put away their
idols;[92] like Jehoshaphat and his subjects when rumours of a threatened
invasion filled them with apprehension,[93]--Ezra and his followers fasted
and humbled themselves before God in view of their hazardous undertaking.
The fasting was a natural sign of the humiliation, and this prostration
before God was at once a confession of sin and an admission of absolute
dependence on His mercy. Thus the people reveal themselves as the "poor in
spirit" to whom our Lord directs his first beatitude. They are those who
humble themselves, and therefore those whom God will exalt.
[91] Judges xx. 26.
[92] 1 Sam. vii. 6.
[93] 2 Chron. xx. 3.
We must not confound this state of self-humiliation before God with
the totally different condition of abject fear which shrinks from
danger in contemptible cowardice. The very opposite to that is the
attitude of these humble pilgrims. Like the Puritan soldiers who
became bold as lions before man in the day of battle, just because
they had spent the night in fasting and tears and self-abasement
before God, Ezra and his people rose from their penitential fast,
calmly prepared to face all dangers in the invincible might of God.
There seems to have been some enemy whom Ezra knew to be threatening
his path, for when he got safely to the end of his journey he gave
thanks for God's protection from this foe;[94] and, in any case, so
wealthy a caravan as his was would provoke the cupidity of the roving
hordes of Bedouin that infested the Syrian wastes. Ezra's first
thought was to ask for an escort; but he tells us that he was ashamed
to do so, as this would imply distrust in God.[95] Whatever we may
think of his logic, we must be struck by his splendid faith, and the
loyalty which would run a great risk rather than suffer what might
seem like dishonour to his God. Here was one of God's heroes. We
cannot but connect the preliminary fast with this courageous attitude
of Ezra's. So in tales of chivalry we read how knights were braced by
prayer and fast and vigil to enter the most terrible conflicts with
talismans of victory. In an age of rushing activity it is hard to find
the hidden springs of strength in their calm retreats. The glare of
publicity starts us on the wrong track, by tempting us to advertise
our own excellences, instead of abasing ourselves in the dust before
God. Yet is it not now as true as ever that no boasted might of man
can be in any way comparable to the Divine strength which takes
possession of those who completely surrender their wills to God? Happy
are they who have the grace to walk in the valley of humiliation, for
this leads to the armoury of supernatural power!
[94] Ezra viii. 31.
[95] Ezra viii. 22.