God’s Word for You

Ezra 1:5-11 Gifts returned to God’s people

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, July 1, 2025

5 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, every one whose spirit God had stirred, rose up to go up to rebuild the House of the LORD in Jerusalem. 6 And all their neighbors helped them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, besides everything else that was freely offered. 7 King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the House of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.

Although there may have been a small remnant of some of the other tribes (2 Chronicles 34:6), it was mostly the people of four tribes, Judah, Benjamin, Simeon and Levi, who survived the captivity. Here the wealth of the neighbors in Babylon was distributed among the people returning, and this included more than money, but such valuables as “goods and livestock.” They were going to be able to return and begin farming with herds and flocks, and perhaps seed for crops as well.

Another parting gift came from King Cyrus himself. Other religions had images of their gods; idols and other representations, that would have been confiscated by the conquerors. Israel, however, did not make images of God. The second part of the First Commandment is “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or on the earth beneath or in the water below” (Exodus 20:4). Therefore, Nebuchadnezzar had confiscated all the gold, silver and bronze furnishings and fittings of the temple. He had even displayed them in his own palace (or temple) as a kind of “Israelite Museum” (2 Chronicles 36:7,10). Now in keeping with his order to restore worship to the Lord in Jerusalem, Cyrus sent back the various furnishings he found that Nebuchadnezzar had confiscated.

8 King Cyrus of Persia brought these out in charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 9 And this was the inventory:
  30 gold dishes,
  1000 silver dishes,
  29 pans,
10 30 gold bowls,
  410 silver bowls of another sort,
  and 1000 other vessels.
11 The total of all the gold and silver vessels was 5,400.
Sheshbazzar brought all these things back when the exiles returned from Babylon to Jerusalem.

An important official delivered the property to the prince who appeared to be the senior official among the Jews. This was Sheshbazzar. He is named only four times in the Scriptures, all in Ezra. Twice, he is mentioned in this context (1:8, 1:11) and twice more in connection with the first foundation of the rebuilding of the temple (5:14, 5:16). Some think that he is the predecessor of Zerubbabel, who is always named after this as governor and who appears 25 times in the Scriptures. Was Zebubbabel another name given to the same man? Are they the same man? We can’t come down on either nail with any confidence. What we know for certain is that Sheshbazzar, not Zerubbabel, was prince of Israel at this moment, and he is the one who officially received the temple furnishings from the treasurer of the Persians.

Certain readers will naturally want to do the math along with verse 11 and find out if the short list of numbers adds up. It does not. The 2,499 items listed in verses 9 and 10 are 2,901 items short of the 5,400 total, therefore there must have been a large number of other items. The first thing that comes to my mind is the inventory from the original tabernacle, which Solomon probably replaced, along with other replacement items that had become worn or cracked over the years, but which had been consecrated for temple service, and therefore would not simply have been thrown out or melted down into some ordinary thing like a new set of spoons. Since the 2,091 total is so similar to the 2,499 count, I think that this is the difference in the two groups: The items in use when Nebuchadnezzar plundered the temple, and the similar items that were retired from use and were kept in one of the storerooms in the temple courts. However, the additional items could also have been small or miscellaneous things that did not fit into the four categories of “dishes, pans, bowls, or vessels.” Certainly lamps and candlesticks as well as things like wick trimmers and trays (Exodus 25:37), poles and accessories (Exodus 35:14), bronze gratings, basins, posts, and bases (Exodus 35:16-17) and other things. However the difference is tallied, the final total of 5,400 must be taken as the correct sum total.

Let us drink in this chapter in a spiritual sense. We, the true Israel (Micah 4:1; Galatians 6:16), were bound by Satan’s chains, but the Lord himself came to break the yoke from off our necks and tore off our bonds, freeing us from the slavery to sin and death (Jeremiah 30:8). Christ crushed Satan’s power (Genesis 3:15). Like a victor who pursued his enemy and crushed him, he did not stop or turn back until everything under Satan’s power was released (2 Samuel 22:38). And now he has brought us back, restoring what was ruined (Amos 9:11; Acts 15:16).

What does this mean for us? It means that all of the things that sin brought down on the world: death, pain, grief, shame, and hell itself, are all undone. Christ has restored us. The ruler who held all of those things back from us has been forced to restore them, and there has been a precise accounting of everything. “The sting of death is sin,” but both of those are overthrown (1 Corinthians 15:16). “The power of the devil” was over us, but Christ has healed us (Acts 10:28). Under the curse of sin, man’s days are “pain and grief, and even at night his mind does not rest” (Ecclesiastes 2:23). But these, too, are overcome by Christ, for “your grief will turn to joy” (John 16:20), and “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4), and “you will find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16; Matthew 11:29). And the total of all of these restored things, these blessings of the victory of the cross? “The saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever” (Daniel 7:18). And for us who have put our trust in Jesus, the blessings of heaven will be like the grain stored up in Egypt by Joseph: “Like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure” (Genesis 41:49).

Joy, mercy, contentment, peace, love, reunion with loved ones, praise to God, and life everlasting—beyond measure. This is the gift of Christ who was crucified for us, and who rose to give us life. For “he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Romans 8:11). As Luther sang in his very first hymn for congregations (1523):

Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice,
With exultations springing,
And with united heart and voice
And holy rapture singing,
Proclaim the wonders God has done,
How his right arm the vict’ry won,
How dearly it has cost him!

But God beheld my wretched state
Before the world’s foundation,
And, mindful of his mercies great,
He planned my soul’s salvation.
A Father’s heart he turned to me,
Sought my redemption fervently;
He gave his dearest treasure.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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