The Pulpit Commentary — Ezra — Section 104

4 _; X; 3 )· He had a vivid_ consciousness of his mission, and the nearness of God to h~m m its fulfil~e~t ; agam and again he refers his success to "the good hand of his God upon him. ' 2. Ezra had courage, but it was the courage of the student • not impulsive, but meditative. He knew and feared the dangers of the way • but he knew how to conquer fear (viii. 21-23). He needed to be aroused to effort: and when ~e was called to action he prepared himself for it by consecration (x. 4 6). There 1s a ~hysical, ~nd there is also a moral, courage ; that is the most enddring bravery which, knowing of dangers, faces them, trembles but advances, which supplies the lack of impulse by resolve. The "fear of the Lord" casts out all other fear. 3. The sensitive conscience and tender sytnpathy of the recluse are also his. Contrast )1is ':Ilanifest~tion of fe~~ing with t~at ?f. N~hemiah wh~n confronted with glaring impiety (eh. ix.; Neh. xm.). Nehem1ah1smd1gnant, Ezra 1s overwhelmed. Nehemiah " contends," Ezra weeps. Nehemiah curses the transgressors, and smites them and plucks off their hair, and "makes them '' amend ; Ezra is prostrate from mo;ning until evening, solemnly intercedes with God on their behalf, and wine the people to c~mcem and repentance. This i~ the s:icrificial spi~t, feeling and confessing the sms of others as our own, bearmg their transgressions, and recovering them by suffering ; it is the lesson of the cross, the Christian spirit. 4. The firmness even ruthlessness, ·with which he commands the separation of the husbands fro~ their wives and children also bespeak the man of the study. None have shewn them- selves more able to rise above family ties, none have more imperiously demanded this sacrifice from others, than those whose lofty ideal, cherished in the cell, has known none of the abatement which we learn to make in social intercourse. There is room for such men in history, and a work sometimes which none can do so well as they. Here are, unquestionably, the elements of a noble character. Not the only noble type, nor need we inquire if the noblest; enough that hie was the character required for the reforms he inaugurated. Nehemiah was not called to do over again the work Ezra did. The style of Nehemiah's record (Neh. xiii. 23-28) indicates a very different state of things from that which Ezra found. This is the true test of the value uf a man's character, that he is fit for the work he has to do; the test of his worth is that be does it effectually. II. THE REFORMATION EzRA WROUGHT. He went up on a twofold errand. His own object was to teach the people " the words of the commandment of the Lord, anJ of his statutes to Israel." Disobedience of these bad always been the crying sin of the nation, and bad entailed on it its woes (ix. 7); the new favour God had extended to them would be forfeited if they disregarded his laws (ix. 14). And the disobedience tliat would provoke God might be through ignorance as well as through presumption. A nation perishes through ignorance ; th1, violation of the Divine order brings social disorganisation and ruin, it needs not that the violation be wilful. In the sacrifice offered on his arrival, together with the renewal of consecration-the burnt offering, and the feast of thanksgiving-the peace-offering, there occurs again the touching sin-offering, twelve he-goats are sacrificed to acknowledge and ask pardon for sins of ignorance. In the disordered state of the times it was certain there must have been many defects in the people's service, many errors, many transgressions of which they were not conscious, and these must be confessed. Then be was charged with a double mission from Artaxerxes, the gentle prince at that time reigning over Persia. The furnishing of the temple was to be proceeded with; he was laden with gifts for this purpose (viii. 25-27); he was charged to attend to its service, and empowered to draw from the royal revenues what was needed for a stately ritual (vii 16, 17, 22). He was also commissioned to set magistrates and judges over the people charged with the administration of Jewish law, and he was empowered to execute it (vii. 25, 26). Artaxerxes knew that the law of the Lord was more than a mere ritual, that it prescribed social customs and regulated the life of the people, and he sympathised with Nehemiah's desire to re-establish its rule. One great reform, however, overshadows all other works of Ezra ; when this is rec:orded the book abruptly closes, as if Ezra's work was done. The story of Ezra's dismay at hearing of the marriages of the Jews with the heathen, and his prompt diB8olution of the marriages, is so far removed from the tolerant spirit of modern Christendom that it needs some special observations, 1. These were idolatrous OH, YII, 1-10.] THE BOOK OF EZRA. 109