The Pulpit Commentary — Ezra — Section 15

Judaism in its relation to modern history. The true destiny of Israel is now revealed, to exist ns a "leaven II among the nations. The Divine purpose in the Israelitish people is accomplished in Christendom ; religious susceptibility, fitness for inspiration, has been the signe.l endowment of the Jews ; theirs is a spiritual, not a national, glory. And the modem history of the unconverted remnant is not without signifi- cance ; we see in them the natural stock out of which Christendom has grown. The tenacity and steadfastness which still characterise the race, their patience, gentleness, e..nd readiness to serve or to rule, are some of the elements of their fitness to affect most intimately the history of the world, some of their qualifications to be the depositary of the promises of God. The period of the return is sometimes contrasted with that of the exodus as an unheroic with an heroic time. It is easy to exaggerate the force of this contrast. That is not an unheroic or uneventful history which contains, as its heart, the story of the Maccabees. Even in these two books-Ezra and Nehemiah-the narratives of the rebuilding of the altar, the foundation and dedication of the temple, the building of the walls of Jerusalem, and the reorganisation of a corrupt society, are not inglorious. The tact, the courage, the patience, the fidelity displayed awaken admiration ; and some of the incidents strike the imagination and stir the soul. The true contrast is rather that between ancient and modern life, the conceptions e.nd conditions of the old and the new world. Instead of miracle, we read the story of providential guidance and of homely virtues winning the hearts of the captors. We are involved in the details of foreign policy, brought face to face with the intrigues of Oriental rulers. The successive fortunes of the great heathen states profoundly affect the fortunes of the Jews. Their history is becoming international, cosmopolitan. A new source of interest appears in these books, commonly reputed dull, as we perceive this. The history affects us not by its contrasts with our more commonplace life, but by its revelations of the Divine and noble in the common- place; it appeals not to our wonder, but to our sympathy. The period of the exodus was marked by a splendid cycle of miracles inaugurated by Moses, and fitfully appearing down to far later days. In the period of the monarchy God revealed himself in a succession of prophets; men whose glory and whose main office it was to declare the great moral principles of the Divine rule into which they had the insight of spiritual genius ; but who yet had often conferred upon them a predictive gift, a power to foresee and to foretell events, which fixed attention on their utterances and confirmed their mission as from God. The period of which we are now speaking was marked by regard for law ; the reverence for God as the God of order which characterises modern thought and modern piety had here its birth. Ezra was "a priest," but he was also, and even more, 11 a scribe ; 11 and the scribe, as Dean Stanley points out, was the forerunner of the Christian minister. We have wise men still, men of marvellous spiritual insight, ability to read the secrets of the human heart and to forecast human story ; not these, however, but " pastors and teachers II a.re the officers of the Church. With the study of the law began the recognition of the sphere of the intellect in religion, the interpretation of God's will. The synagogue-in which, and not in the temple, the Christian congregation finds its historic origin-dates from this time; and so does the common school of the Jews. All this is of profound significance ; it is the beginning of a religious revolution. ~od will henceforth be increasingly conceived of, not as interfering with, but direct- mis, !he course _of events. Study is to take the place of signs ; the knowledge of his w11l 1s to be gamed, not through rare and fitful glimpses and glances, but by constant thought and careful reasoning. Two lessons may be noted here- First, AS TO THE PROVIDENCE OF Goo. " The fall of Sardis and Babylon was the starting-point of European life ; and it is a singular coincidence that the beginning of Grecian art and philosophy, and the foundation of the Roman constitution, synchronize with the triumph of the Arian race in the East. 111 Similarly, Christ came "·in the fulness of the times," when Gentile history, as well as Jewish expectation, bad "prepared the way of the Lord. 11 These coincidences have an evidential value ; 1 S,;nith's 'Pictiona.ry of tbe Bible,' art. 'Cyrus.' 14 THE BOOK OF EZRA. [co. 1. 5-11.