Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1911 — OLD TESTAMENT TIMES BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BIBLE STUDIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OLD TESTAMENT TIMES BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BIBLE STUDIES

KING CYRUS GOD’S SHEPHERD Ezra i, 1-11; ii, 64-70 —Oct. 15 | “Be retaineth not HU anger forever, because j Be deUghteth in mercy.”—Micah vii, 18. CHE hefitben gods are all vengeful. The God of the Bible alone lays claim to being a God of love, “whose mercy endureth forever,” as one of the Psalm 3 repeats again and again. Alas! how terribly our God of Wisdom, Justice, Love and Power has been misrepresented to the world, and to the Church, as a God delighting in the eternal torture of the vast majority of His crea-

tures; for if such were His provision for them, and He knew the end from the beginning, it would ; surely prove that IHe delighted in ! and intended j their torture. But when our eyes I open to a proper ; interpretation of i God’s Word, how | His character be-

comes glorious before our eyes and j commands our love and our devotion! J Today’s study relates to the release of the Israelites from their Babylonian captivity, and their return to Palestine, i This return was in exact fulfillment of the Lord’s ‘ Word at the mouth of Jeremiah, the Prophet, who specifically foretold the destruction of the city, and ! also that it would he seventy years before the return of its inhabitants.— Jeremjah xxv, 12; xxix, 10: compare II Chronicles xxxvi, 22, 23. We suggest a careful reading of the Scriptures above cited, to establish the fact that the seventy years prej dieted related to the desolation of the i city of' Jerusalem and of their land ! and not merely to the captivity of the ; people, some of whom went into captivity twenty years before the city was destroyed. Many, in applying this, have started the seventy years from the beginning of the first captivity, and thus are twenty years out of the way. One of the most wonderful things | connected with the story of Israel’s ! release from Babylonian captivity is | that Cyrus was named by the Prophet I Isaiah in advance, and called “God’s | Shepherd”—Cyrus is My * Shepherd, ; and shall perform all My pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, “Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid" (Isaiah xliv, 28). Profane history gives Cyrus a very honorable name, calling him “gracious,. Clement and just, treating men as men, and not as mere tools to be used and cast aside —a conqueror of quite a different type from any the world had previously seen.” King Cyrus’ New Method Nebuchadnezzar’s theory of government was to bring representatives of the peoples of all lands to Babylon and there make them homogeneous, choosing the best of every nationality. But when Cyrus came upon the scene, as the conqueror of the Babylonian empire, Darius, the Mede, being under him, he found that the theory of his predecessor had not worked out satisfactorily. The mixed people of Chaldea were not patriotic. Cyrus adopted the opposite plan for governing the world. He not only gave liberty to the Jews to return to their own land, and gave them assistance back, but he did the same for the people of other nations, exiled in Babylon. A brief epitome of the giving of his proclamation of liberty to the Jews is, “Thus saith Cyrus, King of Persia: All

the kingdoms of earth hath Jehovah, the God of heaven, given unto me; and He has charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there i s among you of all his people, his God be with him, and let him go to Je-

rusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Jehovah, the God of Israel (He is the God>. which is at Jerusalem; and whosoever is left, in any place where he sojourneth [unprepared for the journey], let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts, beside the free-will offering for the house of God, which is at .Jerusalem.” Dr. Peloubet says of this time, “The exiles brought together the representatives of the divided kingdom and made one nation where there had been two, welding the twelve tribes together like Iron in a furnace.” God represented this union through Ezekiel (xxxvii. 1528), by two sticks. On one was written “Judah” and on the other “The House of Israel.” These sticks were joined together, “And they shall become one in thine hand.” This was .done in the presence of the people, to show that the exiles of Israel, carried to Babylon, B. C. 722, when Samaria was destroyed. were to unite with the captives of Jndah, “And I will make them one nation, and one kidg shall be king over them all; and they shall ibe no more, fwo nations, neither shall they be divided Into two kingdoms any more at all.” Thus we see that there were no “ten lost tribes,” for whom there has been so much seeking.

Cyrus’ decree releasing the Jews.

The return from Babylon.