Search The Scriptures —Study 3 — Ezra 4

Study 3 From the Book of Ezra is: Ezra 4

1.      Is not co-operation with others in work for God most desirable? Why then did the Jews refuse to co-operate with those who claimed to share their faith and who offered to help them to achiever their great spiritual objective? Cf. 2 Ki. 17:24, 32, 33. See also Mt. 7:15; and contrast 3 Jn. 8 with 2 Jn. 11. 

2.      What was the reaction of the frustrated adversaries? Cf. Am. 7:10; Lk. 23:2; Acts 17:7 for similar incidents. What price did Zerubbabel and his fellow-Jews have to pay for their faithfulness? Do you know of any modern parallels? Note Eph. 6:18-20.

Notes

1.      Verses 1-3. ‘The proposal to unite in building the temple was a political move; for in old -world ideas, co-operation in temple-building was incorporation in national unity. The calculation, no doubt, was that if the returning exiles could be united with the much more numerous Samaritans, they would soon be absorbed in them’

2.      Verse 5. ‘Until the reign of Darius’: (cf. verse 24. It was a period of a bout sixteen years.)

3.      Verse 6:24. Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes are kings who succeeded Darius (cf.7:1). This indicates that these verses refer to a later period than do verses 1-5, and this is confirmed by the fact that the letters of verses 11-16 and 17-22 concern the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, not of the Temple. Some think the passage belongs chronologically to the time between Ezr. 10 and Ne. 1.

LINK TO THE VERSES LISTED