With two cities, Jerusalem and Shushan, we find associated two feasts, both kept with joy, but for very diverse reasons. We read of them in Ezra 6:15-22 and Esther 8:15-17. These feasts were held practically at the same time. The book of Ezra gives us the religious decree of King Cyrus, a man marked out by God for this special purpose, nearly 200 years before his birth (Isaiah 45:1-7; 2 Chron. 36:22,23).

In Ezra 9:8,9 in prayer, Ezra acknowledges that the iniquity of God's people had brought them into bondage to a Gentile king, but God had shown grace "to leave a remnant to escape, and to give a nail in His holy place." Thus a reviving in their bondage is given to set up the house of God.

In chapter one of Ezra we find the proclamation of the king, who declares that God had charged him to build Him a house at Jerusalem, and Cyrus calls upon the willing-hearted among the Jews to do it. About 42,000 responded (Ezra 2:64), and the Spirit of God attaches so much importance to these, that the names are repeated in Nehemiah 7. In chapter three the returned people are seen around Jerusalem (at that time a blackened ruin), and their first act was to set up the "altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of God." They also kept the feasts, though as yet the Temple foundation was not laid.

It is interesting to notice all was done "as it is written," and "together." Keeping the Word of God and happy, holy unity marked this remnant. No walls surrounded Jerusalem, no temple was yet builded, but the setting up of the altar and the offering of the burnt-offering was a most blessed evidence of entire trust in God, and this made them more secure, "abiding under the shadow of the Almighty," than when Jerusalem was surrounded by walls.

At the close of chapter three the foundation of the temple was laid. The younger generation, regarding the mercies shown, and the reviving in their bondage, trusting that a brighter future was at hand, shouted for joy; while the ancient men, who had seen the temple in all its magnificence, realizing the sin, the ruin, the shame which had overtaken the nation, wept with a loud voice, so that the noise of the weeping could not be discerned from the noise of the shouting (vers. 12,13).

In chapter four the work is stopped, through fear of the enemy, but in the next chapter, admonished and encouraged by the words of Haggai, the prophet (see Haggai, chaps. 1,2), they make a fresh start, obeying the Lord's voice and fearing Him, counting upon His assurance, "I am with you," and "Fear ye not." What a blessed incentive was His promise, "My Spirit remaineth among you, fear not!" And again, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts, and in this place I will give PEACE, saith the Lord of hosts" (Haggai 2:9). What assurance must the words of Jehovah, "From this day will I bless you," have imparted to those who, though so feeble, desired to keep His Word and not deny His name. God ever delights to bless His people, but obedience must ever precede the blessing, for happiness lies in obedience.

Turning again to Ezra we find, in chapter six, the house finished. The watchful eye of God had been upon that feeble band, and every machination of the enemy had been brought to naught. They had wrought, sustained by the Word of God through His servants, and now, the Temple finished, there comes the dedication. The priests and Levites were there in their courses, according to the law of Moses. We read that they "offered at the dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and for a SIN OFFERING FOR ALL ISRAEL twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel."

And here be it noted how this remnant clave to the written Word! The city was a ruin, no stately walls surrounded it, enemies abounded on all sides, and the mass of the nation were not with them, but still scattered throughout the vast dominions of the Persian king; yet they offered for ALL ISRAEL, and "killed the passover for all the children of the captivity," though absent, and perhaps disinterested.

At the close (ver. 22) comes the FEAST. It was kept by two classes of persons, we are told. First, "The children of Israel which were come again out of captivity," and secondly, "All such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the heathen of the land" (ver. 21). They were helpers of one another's joy, and we read, "The Lord had made them joyful." It was a divine joy, the joy of communion shared at the divine center-Jerusalem, where God had been pleased to place His name. They are privileged, while fully owning the complete failure of Israel and without ignoring their fellow-Israelites, to keep God's feast, as in days of old, according to the divine pattern. How eloquently all this speaks to us today, and what analogy exists between the past and the present.

Another city is before us in the book of Esther. Shushan was the city of a great king, but a heathen king. How impossible to compare it with Jerusalem, city of the great King! Here, too, a feast was kept. Those who kept it were the same race and people as those who returned to Jerusalem and built the house. Those in Shushan were those for whom the sin-offering was offered at Jerusalem and for whom the passover was killed. The question might naturally be asked, "Why did they not return with their brethren to the land of Jehovah and His center, as their brethren had done?" No one can answer this question, but one thing is certain:they did not cease to be the children of Israel, the people of God, through lack of faith and faithfulness. But certain it is they were the losers, and their names go unrecorded in God's memory book!

Read the book of Esther. It has been pointed out that while the providential care of God appears on every page, the name of God is not once mentioned. God is, so to speak, hidden; and the people of God have lost their true name. They are throughout the book called "Jews." No words of encouragement are here. No "I am with you." No promise "I will bless you." They are scattered, dispersed (chap. 3:8) through the provinces of the King's dominions, and all doomed to death (chap. 3:13). Had they gained anything by refusing to accompany their brethren to the land? It must be readily conceded that this doom came upon them through the faithful stand of Mordecai, and that they, themselves, are spoken of as having diverse laws from all people (these were God's laws) which made them unacceptable and unwanted by the Gentiles around them (answering to the position of the believer now, John 15:19). But they had fallen woefully short of their calling and their true place.

In the fourth chapter of Esther there is great mourning, fasting and weeping, but how different to that of the fathers in Ezra 3. In that book we find the decree to go up to Jerusalem and build the house of the Lord, whosoever were willing-hearted. Those who refused this privilege, unwilling perhaps to bear the exercise it entailed, find themselves under another king's proclamation, sentenced to death. Those who went to Jerusalem wept at the condition of the nation and dishonor done to God. Those in Shushan wept at their own dishonor and condition. Still they are the people of God, and in their anguish they turn to Him with fasting, and Mordecai is to them what Haggai was to the remnant. He encouraged them with words of confidence and faith. We need not pursue the story further, save to notice the active intervention of God, through Esther who found favor with the king. We read, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as rivers of water; He turneth it whithersoever He will" (Prov. 21:1). A new decree is made, which for the Jews meant life out of death. Mordecai is rewarded with the king's favor and is clad in royal apparel, and "the Jews had light and gladness, and joy, and honor… a least and a good day" (Esther 8:16,17). Later, when deliverance was finally accomplished, there was another season of feasting and rejoicing, which has been perpetuated to this day and called "The Feast of Purim." Is there not something analogous to this in our day? Like Israel, the Church has woefully come short, miserably failed; the fine gold has become dim, and the glory has departed. For many centuries of Church history, during the dark ages, almost every vital truth of Christianity was obscured or lost. But has not God graciously recovered to His people much precious truth, and has there not been a remnant return to God's center-not an earthly city where God has recorded His name, but to a heavenly Christ as the true Center of gathering, where the Holy Spirit unfettered can lead out the hearts of those gathered to the Lord's name, in worship and praise?

But multitudes of the people of God know nothing of this, and are still in captivity to the forms and ceremonies of men, many, like those in Esther's day, taken up with their experiences, needs and deliverances-in short, God's providential ways (good in their measure)- but falling short of "fulness of joy."

Through God's mercy, there is often a "feast and a good day" when "personal experience" is told, and such may be instruments of blessing to others as in Esther's day ("Many of the people of the land became Jews"), but there is a lack, the soul has stopped short of true and fullest blessing; the "I am with you" of Haggai can only be known as there is entire and joyful obedience to the revealed Word and the Lord Jesus becomes the supreme Object of the heart, and the sweetness of Matt. 18:20 is enjoyed.

May we not therefore rightly enquire which feast are we keeping? Grace has written every believer's name in the Book of Life. But are we exercised about our names being written in what we may say answers to Ezra 2 and Neh. 7? There is no one company today able to claim it is Philadelphia (Rev. 3), but Philadelphian faithfulness to His Word and Name we should surely covet. To such He has promised an open door which no man was shut, and comforts with the words,"! come quickly." May we hold fast that which we have in these days of departure from the truth and of Laodicean lukewarmness, that no man take our crown! J. W. H. Nichols