Ezra 7:28

27,28 Two things Ezra blessed God for: 1. For his commission. If any good appear in our hearts, or in the hearts of others, we must own that God put it there, and bless him; it is he that worketh in us, both to will and to do that which is good. 2. For his encouragement: God has extended mercy to me. Ezra was a man of courage, yet he ascribed this not to his own heart, but to God's hand. If God give us his hand, we are bold and cheerful; if he withdraw it, we are weak as water. Whatever we are enabled to do for God and those around us, God must have all the glory....

Verse Ezra 7:28. _AND I WAS STRENGTHENED_] In what the king decreed he saw the hand of God; he therefore gave him the praise, and took courage. There is a most amiable spirit of piety in these reflections. Ezra simply states the case; shows what the king had determined, and tells what he said; and then points out the grand agent in the whole business-it was the Lord God of his fathers. Thus God had put it into the king's heart to beautify the house of Jehovah; and, as that house was built for the salvation of the souls of men, he gives God praise for putting it into the king's heart to repair it: he who loves God and man will rejoice in the establishment of the Divine worship, because this is the readiest way to promote the best interests of man....

EXPOSITION THE DECREE OF ARTAXERXES WITH RESPECT TO EZRA (Ezra 7:11). The present decree was of the nature of a _firman _granted to an individual. It embodied, in the first place, a certain number of provisions which were temporary. Of this character were— 1. the permission accorded to all Persian subjects of Israelite descent to accompany Ezra to Jerusalem (verse 13); 2. the commission to Ezra to convey to Jerusalem certain offerings made by the king and his chief courtiers to the God of Israel (verses 15, 19); 3. the permission given him to convey to Jerusalem the free-will offerings of Jews and others resident in Babylonia (verse 16); 4. permissi

AND HATH EXTENDED MERCY UNTO ME, BEFORE THE KING AND HIS COUNSELLORS, AND BEFORE ALL THE KING'S MIGHTY PRINCES,.... Before Artaxerxes, his seven counsellors, Ezra 7:14 and the nobles of his realm, in being appointed by them to carry their freewill offerings to Jerusalem, and the king's commands to his treasurers, with leave to take as many of the Jews with him as were willing to go: AND I WAS STRENGTHENED AS THE HAND OF THE LORD MY GOD WAS UPON ME; animated to undertake this work, and execute this commission, being under the influence of divine favour and protection: AND I GATHERED TOGETHER OUT OF ISRAEL CHIEF MEN TO GO UP WITH ME; he went about in the several parts where Israelites dwelt, and persuaded some of the principal men among them to go along with him to Jerusalem, showing them the king's decree, which gave them leave; and their names and numbers are

II. THE RETURN UNDER EZRA AND HIS REFORMATION CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The journey of Ezra to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:1)_ 2. The decree of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:11) 3. Ezra's thanksgiving (Ezra 7:27) Ezra 7:1. The record of the return under Zerubbabel and the rebuilding of the temple ends with the previous chapter. Many years passed after the temple had been built before the godly Ezra and his companions returned to Jerusalem. No record whatever is in existence covering the years which intervened between Zerubabbel's expedition and work, and Ezra's expedition. The critics claim that “it was in these apparently barren years that the priestly c

MERCY. lovingkindness, or grace. MIGHTY. Hebrew. _gibbor._ App-14. CHIEF. heads....

Ezra's Thanksgiving Abrupt transition from the letter of Artaxerxes to Ezra's thanks giving. Compare chap. Ezra 6:8, the transition from the quotation of Cyrus's decree to the words of Darius. These two verses contain Ezra's outburst of praise to God for the favours conceded by Darius. The Hebrew is here resumed....

3. Ezra's thanksgiving and compliance TEXT, Ezra 7:27-28 27 Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to adorn the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, 28 and has extended lovingkindness to me before the king and his counselors and before all the king's mighty princes. Thus I was strengthened according to the hand of the LORD my God upon me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me. COMMENT In _Ezra 7:27_ Ezra pours out his heart in gratitude to God for inciting the king to do so much for the Temple at Jerusalem. Note the personal tone of these words! _Ezra 7:28_ continues Ezra's thanks, now for

THE JOURNEY OF EZRA TO JERUSALEM 1. Now after.. Artaxerxes] The interval of time here implied amounted to more than fifty years, from the sixth year of Darius (516 b.c.) to the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus (458 b.c.). Between the reign of Darius and Artaxerxes there intervened the reign of Xerxes (485-464 b.c.), to which belong the incidents related in the book of Esther. In the early years of his successor Artaxerxes an effort was made to surround Jerusalem, with a wall (see Ezra 4:12), though with no success. Probably to the same period should be assigned the ministry of the prophet Malachi. From his writings it may be gathered that the religious and moral condition of the Jewish community at Jerusalem was very unsatisfactory. The people were divided into two sections, the one scrupulous in their religious duties, the other sceptical and indifferent ...

THE *JEWS RETURN TO JERUSALEM EZRA _ROBERT BRYCE_ CHAPTER 7 In the first 6 Chapter s of the Book of Ezra, we read about the people who returned from *exile. We read how they built the *temple of God in Jerusalem again. The events in the rest of the book happened almost 60 years later in 458 *BC. At last, the man Ezra appears in the Book of Ezra. V1 After all this happened, Ezra came during the rule of Artaxerxes, the king of Persia. Ezra was the son of Seraiah. Seraiah was the son of Azariah. Azariah was the son of Hilkiah. V2 Hilkiah was the son of Shallum. Shallum was the son of Zadok. Zadok was the son of Ahitub. V3 Ahitub was the son of Amariah. Amariah was the son of Azariah. Azariah was the son of Meraioth. V4 Meraioth was the son of Zerahiah. Zerahiah was the son o