Thus
says Cyrus king of Persia: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the
kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem,
which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with
him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house
of the Lord, the God of Israel--he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each
survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place
with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings
for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.’
Then
rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests
and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the
house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. And all who were about them aided them
with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly
wares, besides all that was freely offered.
Cyrus
the king also 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. Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of Mithredath the
treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. And this
was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver… All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the
exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.
Ezra
1:2-11
The story of the return of the
Israelites to Jerusalem after 70 years exile in Babylon is told in the books of
Ezra and Nehemiah: the former was a priest and the latter the civil Governor. The
books cover a period of about 150 years, starting at about 539BC, when King
Cyrus released the Israelites under the leadership of Prince Sheshbazzar. The
story is especially helpful because it is used to support the principle of fundraising
for ‘Christian’ projects from governments and, by extension, businesses and
other organisations that are not ‘Christian’ in origin, ethos or practice.
In the above passage, King Cyrus
orders the return of the valuable utensils plundered from the Temple in
Jerusalem and calls on people to support the returning Israelites with gifts,
such a gold and silver objects and of animals. Some 55 years later, King
Artaxerxes renews State support for the restoration by giving Ezra and Nehemiah
further letters of authority (see, in particular, Ezra 7).
The only way to properly
understand how the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple worship were funded,
and the shared unity of purpose among the returning exiles and their State
backers, is by reading through the two books, Ezra and Nehemiah.
We need to remember that the return of the items plundered from the
Temple was, to that extent at least, fair reparation and compensation. But what
stands out for me is that what the Israelites wanted to do, the Kings wanted to be done. While it is debatable
whether the Kings believed in God exclusively,
or showed similar respect for the deities of other nations, it was enough that
they respected God, which is more than can be said of most ‘western’ governments
and businesses today. The Israelites were therefore fulfilling God’s agenda;
they were not meeting or compromising with a State or corporate agenda in order
to get funding.
To what extent does this
resemble your experience of churches and ‘Christian’ organisations seeking government
funding or corporate sponsorship?
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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