God’s Word for You

Ezra 4:17-24 the chief gifts of God on earth

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, July 10, 2025

17 The king sent this reply:

    “To Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their associates who live in Samaria and in the rest of the Trans-Euphrates: Greeting.
    And now 18 the letter which you sent to us has been translated and read before me. 19 I have issued a decree. A search has been made, and it has been discovered that this city has risen up against kings from of old; and that it has been a place of rebellion and revolt. 20 Also, powerful kings have ruled over Jerusalem, and they ruled over the whole Trans-Euphrates, to whom tributes, custom tariffs, and tolls were paid. 21 Therefore issue a decree to stop these men, and that this city will be not rebuilt until a decree is issued by me. 22 And be diligent. Do not neglect this matter; why should damage increase to the harm of the king?”

The reply from King Artaxerxes was the response that the enemies of Israel had hoped for. He had looked for a document that confirmed what they claimed about Israel’s rebelliousness. The records went back in time before the return fifty years before, into the time of the Babylonians before Persia. There they had without a doubt found reports of kings like Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, who had been unable to pay the tributes demanded again and again by the Babylonians. On paper, this sounded like rebellion.

The natural course would be to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. As a city, it should surly be left standing. It was a source of income. But with defensive walls it could oppose a military force, perhaps even defeat an attack, and rise up once again as a power in the region.

Artaxerxes was careful to include two points in his orders. The first was the use of the term batél. This word normally means to cease or stop, but in the pa’el Aramaic stem (the equivalent of the Hebrew piel), it takes on a causative force: “Make them stop.” It is debatable whether the Aramaic pa’el or pu’al stems enjoyed the rich variety of uses of the Hebrew piel and pual stems, but there is nothing to be gained by omitting them from a study of this interesting side of Northwest Semitic grammar as it is used in the Word of God.

Secondly, Artaxerxes covers himself by the quick phrase “until a decree is issued by me.” The Medes and Persians had a law that made it impossible to repeal any law (Daniel 6:8,23; Esther 1:19). For this king, it was probably second nature to include such a clause. In this way, he could not be steered into a corner by his own advisors, as we read about happening to King Darius in the matter of Daniel in the lion’s den.

23 Then, when the copy of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their associates, they went without delay to the Jews at Jerusalem. They compelled them to stop, using the force of an army. 24 So the work on the House of God in Jerusalem stopped; and it continued to be stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Behaving something like Salome trying to please her mother Herodias (Mark 6:24-25), the governor and his scribe hurried off to Jerusalem. They were thrilled to be able to have permission to tell God’s people to stop acting like God’s people. They forced the Jews to stop building the walls, but not satisfied with the King’s order, they apparently brought a military force with them. The phrase is literally “an arm of power” or “a powerful arm,” perhaps like “a mighty hand” (1 Peter 5:6, and Baruch 2:11 in the Apocrypha). But it is probable that they brought an arm, as it were, or their army, just to make it clear that they meant business. “Power” (chayil) can have the sense of “army” in both Aramaic (Daniel 3:20, 4:32) and Hebrew (Exodus 14:4; Esther 8:11).

Faced with this, what were the Israelites to do? Artaxerxes had put an end to the project. They had received earlier approval, but that was for the construction of the temple, and by implication, their homes. Cyrus had not actually said anything about the walls of Jerusalem. There were many hopes in the building of those walls, but enemies had now flown out like locusts coming out in the sunlight (Nahum 3:17). The Fourth Commandment will be obeyed, even if it means bending the knee to a government that is opposed to our teachings. The Persians allowed the Jews to rebuild their temple, but they objected to the repair of the wall. The wall was not necessary for the daily sacrifices nor for any of their festivals, not since tents and open desert had served for so long for the same worship.

Even a hostile government deserves our prayers. Paul says: “I urge that prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness (1 Timothy 2:1-2). With one another, it is best if we make appeals on the basis of love (Philemon 1:9), but the government carries the sword and is to be feared (Romans 13:4). The government and the church have authority over us all, but in different ways, and they are different from one another, naturally separate, and they must not be mixed together, even by those who have good intentions. “Our teachers have been compelled to show the difference between the power of the church and the power of the sword (that is, the government), and they have taught that on account of God’s command both are to be held in reverence and honor as the chief gifts of God on earth” (Augsburg Confession).

Pray for your leaders in the church, and your leaders in the civil government. If either have become crosses for you to carry, pray that God will help you bear up under it! God is merciful, and he is forgiving. And he uses such crosses to strengthen us, as we saw again and again when we meditated together on Lamentations this past Lent. Pray, and pray without stopping.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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