1 Esdras 4

In the First Book of Ezra, it is stated regarding Zerubbabel: “And when this young man went out, he lifted up his face to heaven straight to Jerusalem, and blessed the King of Heaven, saying, ‘From Thee is the victory, and from Thee is wisdom, and Thy glory, and I am Thy servant. Blessed are You’” (2 Ezra 4:58-60). The phrase ‘He lifted up His face to heaven straight to Jerusalem’ carries significant meaning. The name ‘Zerubbabel’ can be articulated in various ways in the Hebrew language, depending on aspiration and grammatical structure. With aspiration, it signifies ‘the seed of confusion sown;’ without aspiration, ‘the rising of confusion;’ when fused, it means ‘the rising in confusion;' and when separated, it implies ‘the rising of dispersion.’ In a grammatically structured sense, it translates to ‘sam-rest.’

Zerubbabel embodies a state of profound wisdom. Firstly, he sows the seeds of righteousness by repenting for his entanglement with and subjugation to worldly passions. Secondly, he manifests the shame associated with those passions, acting as their ‘ascendant.’ Thirdly, he guides the soul by illuminating the actions driven by these pleasures, ensuring they do not operate independently of reason. He is also the ‘ascendant of dispersion,’ as he facilitates the emergence of righteous deeds among the soul’s faculties that have become scattered amid passions. By this ascent and through the integration of spiritual work with reasoned contemplation, he elevates the fragmented faculties of the soul towards the divine.

Ultimately, this mind achieves ‘self-rest,’ as it creates the universe and links human action with the inherent Good and the contemplative essence of Truth. The culmination of all spiritual endeavors is to emerge from the Good, leading to knowledge that comes solely through Truth. When these endeavors reach fulfillment, nothing will assail the active aspect of the soul nor hinder its contemplative nature with foreign speculations. Consequently, the soul, having transcended the limitations of existence and thought, will arrive at God Himself—the One who is Good and True, transcending all essence and understanding.

A mind that excels in various virtues, after prevailing, departs from King David, symbolizing the natural law, demonstrating love and truth by juxtaposing virtues with passions. By rightfully receiving the universal acclaim that validates his role while nullifying that of others, he recognizes the source of his victory as divine grace. Thus, he ‘lifts up his face to heaven straight to Jerusalem,’ declaring, ‘Blessed art Thou, who hast given me wisdom, and to Thee we confess, O Lord of the fathers.’ As a wise servant, he attributes all to God, thanking Him for the gifts received. He acknowledges God as ‘blessed,’ possessing infinite Wisdom and recognizing that the grace bestowed upon him warrants praise. Referring to God as ‘Lord of the fathers,’ he emphasizes that all spiritual accomplishments of the saints are divine gifts. No one possesses anything apart from the blessings conferred by the Sovereign God, reflective of His goodness and righteous judgment.

Zerubbabel regards all saints throughout history as ‘fathers,’ whose faith he embraced and whose lives he emulated. He sought spiritual rebirth from them through desire, choosing to become a son of chosen parents, valuing this divine lineage over natural relationships, akin to the distinction between soul and body in essence. This Zerubbabel, presented as one of the young men before King Darius—representing natural law—articulated the power of divine gifts within humanity and countered the errant speeches of the other young men. In doing so, he foreshadowed the liberation of the soul’s faculties, historically bound to shifting passions.

The other two youths, defending the physical form, represent two evil spirits indicative of passion and perishability. The solitary mind, advocating for the soul, encapsulates the undivided essence of God, untouched by death, as it cannot be divided or dismembered. One youth, advocating for physical indulgence, claims, ‘Stronger is wine’ (2 Ezra 3:10), equating ‘wine’ to all forms of folly and intoxication from sensual pleasures, which leads thoughts into chaos and distorts natural reasoning. Scripture articulates, ‘The fury of the serpents is their wine, and the fury of the aspiras is unhealed’ (Deuteronomy 32:33), using ‘wine’ metaphorically for the overwhelming nature of fleshly desires.

Another youth declares, ‘The stronger is the king’ (2 Ezra 3:11), referring to the vanity of wealth, power, and earthly accolades that lead to ignorance, scattering human essence. All who fail to recognize God’s glory and scorn His might become disconnected, striving for self-aggrandizement through worldly means. The young men’s discourse, critiquing unnatural passions, hopes to persuade King David—symbolizing nature’s law—as a judgment on their claims.

The third youth, the mind advocating virtue and knowledge, proclaims: ‘Stronger than wives are the wives, but the truth overcomes all’ (2 Ezra 3:12). Here, ‘wives’ symbolize the adornments of virtue leading to divine love that connects humanity to God. It elevates the soul beyond generational and corrupted origins, merging with God in a profound union. The ‘truth’ signifies the ultimate Cause of all things—the Beginning, Sovereign, Power, and Glory, from which all existence emanates; through Her they persist and for Her sake, God’s lovers endure. In essence, the term ‘wives’ points to love as the pinnacle of virtues, culminating in complete communion with the Good, the intrinsic nature of those who partake in Him.

This understanding leads the wise mind to engage meaningfully with natural law, overcoming the falsehoods imposed by evil spirits. It advocates for the release and illumination of those enslaved by passions, encouraging them to embrace virtue and thus construct within Jerusalem—the embodiment of knowledge—the temple of the Lord.

Consequently, Zerubbabel exemplifies wisdom, as he received divine insight to counter arguments against humanity by malevolent forces. He dismantles and negates adversaries’ reasoning, liberating the soul from the shackles of sin. While demons employ ‘wine’ to validate carnal excess and ‘king’ to endorse worldly glory, the wise mind directs attention to ‘wives’ as symbols of spiritual fulfillment and ‘truth’ as the unyielding power that encourages a focus on eternal rather than transient goods.

This interpretation serves as a proper reflection on the inquiry at hand, worthy of spiritual edification. Should anyone, through divinely appointed reasoning, grasp a deeper significance in these writings, our hearts bear no envy; the grace of the Spirit does not burden those who share in it, regardless of the varying degrees of their endowment. Each person receives the Spirit’s work in proportion to their faith; hence, each is a steward of grace, ideally devoid of jealousy towards others adorned with divine gifts, possessing an intrinsic disposition to accept divine favor.

We now turn to another profound consideration within this passage of Scripture that unveils the fundamental truth of its message. In this light, Zerubbabel embodies the true, renewed, and transformative revelation of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. He entered our nature, conceived within it, and was born a complete man, destined to redeem this nature, previously marred by sin. While He was not a captive among us, nor did He succumb to the passions—‘He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth’ (1 Pet. 2:22; Is. 53:9)—He became one of us and was reckoned among ‘evildoers’ (Lk. 22:37; Is. 53:12), assuming humanity’s struggle in ‘the likeness of sinful flesh’ for our sake (Rom. 8:3).

Though flawless by nature, He altered His nature willingly, entering into our condition. He suffered for our transgressions, bearing wounds for our iniquities so that through them, we might attain healing (Isaiah 53:2-5). Scripture attests: ‘The Spirit of our face, the anointed of the Lord, was revealed in their defilements, and of Him we say, “In His shadow we shall dwell in the Gentiles”’ (Lamentations 4:20). He represents our righteous ‘rising’ from the sin of ‘scattering,’ and of the Holy Spirit through the prophet, proclaiming that He will raise for us ‘the east of righteousness’ (Jer. 23:5) as it states, ‘Behold, man, the east is His name, and under Him shall shine’ (Zech. 6:12), signifying His ultimate glory.

Moreover, ‘He shall shine... The sun of righteousness, and healing in His wings’ (Mal. 4:2) conveys the profound incarnation mystery through which salvation is wrought. The ‘wings’ symbolize the two Covenants, with the Word restoring the wounds inflicted by sin, simultaneously bolstering adherence to virtue through both the Old Covenant, which confronts vice, and the New Covenant establishing righteousness.

Furthermore, the ‘wings’ signify God’s Providence and Judgment, as the Logos descends upon creation, healing those who seek it, while addressing the indifferent towards virtue through stringent instruction, cleansing sinful impurities and healing soul’s afflictions. This divine Word liberated true Israel from bondage—not from a physical Babylon to Judah, as the historic Zerubbabel, but from the earthly towards the heavenly, from vice into virtue, from ignorance to divine truth, from corruption into incorruption, and from death to eternal life.

In simpler terms, the Word transitions true Israel from the world of tangible sensuality into the realm of the eternal spirit, converting fleeting life into everlasting existence. He stands as the true Architect of the spiritual temple, susceptible to transgression's floods and misguided worldly passions. This aspect of the Word engaged with King Darius through divine wisdom—not to be interpreted as the devil, as Darius willingly supported grace in freeing Israel, recognizing faith and a clear conscience as paramount for human salvation.

Faith embodies a nuanced essence of truth, and a clear conscience leads one into divine love, represented allegorically by ‘wives.’ Those enveloped in such love cannot transgress God’s commandment. This Word unites within Himself, through an ineffable unity, ‘the tabernacle of David fallen’ (Am. 9:11; Acts 15:16)—human nature, which succumbs to death under sin.

Zerubbabel is acknowledged as the one who restored God’s house magnificently, of whom the Holy Spirit proclaims: ‘For the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former’ (Agg. 2:9). The Word joined Himself to humanity more intimately than before, first granting the noblest part and, through His will, embracing the lower to rejuvenate His image—to make flesh immortal, restoring this nature to purity, devoid of decay, and through deification, enhancing it beyond its original state.

Through the Word’s incarnation, humanity is eternally refreshed, circumventing future falls, while fulfilling the divine will. Scripture elucidates, ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands shall also finish it’ (Zech. 4:9)—indicating both the original creation of man and his rebirth through the Word in a unity beyond comprehension. Thus, the authentic Zerubbabel—the Liberator of captives—possesses ‘a stone made of pure tin,’ adorned with the seven eyes of the Lord, which watches ‘upon all the earth’ (Zech. 4:10).

Understanding here relies not on a literal approach, since Zerubbabel, in this context, cannot physically bear a stone of pure tin containing seven divine eyes surveying the world. Emphasizing instead the spiritual significance of this symbolism, it reiterates that Zerubbabel represents our Lord Jesus Christ. His stone embodies faith in Him, with ‘in the hand’ signifying the visible manifestation of faith through obedience to His commandments. As articulated, ‘faith without works is dead’ (James 2:26), just as works devoid of faith lack substance.

The ‘hand’ symbolizes actions. Thus, the Lord, bearing the stone, instructs us to cultivate an active faith adorned with the seven energies of the Holy Spirit. For Scripture states, ‘And the Spirit of God shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, strength, and the fear of God’ (Isaiah 11:2). The spirit of the fear of God signifies abstention from evil actions; the spirit of fortitude embodies the proactive pursuit of spiritual endeavor, fulfilling divine commandments; the counsel's spirit allows discernment to guide our adherence to God’s precepts, differentiating the paramount from the inferior.

The spirit of knowledge grants insight into virtuous paths, ensuring our conduct aligns with divine truths, while the ability to comprehend the logos embedded within commandments fosters unity among the soul’s faculties and the laws of virtue. The wisdom spirit elevates one towards the divine Cause behind these spiritual logos, creating a bond with it. Consequently, we reflect the truth in manifold expressions, invoking that which connects us to divine nature and distilling knowledge through faith.

Through this progression, we ascend from temporal inactivity towards sincere virtue, discerning the divine supplications, culminating in the synthesis of spiritual knowledge reflecting in our actions. Ascending through these faith-driven virtues, we consolidate our alignment within the divine unity of wisdom, thereby encapsulating the manifestation of spiritual gifts as a progression towards the one divine Cause.

In light of divine assistance, it is vital we engage actively with faith, lest it transforms into a blind and unseeing state marred by inaction, consequently blinding the divine gaze upon us. Those who sever their ties with the fulfillment of commandments risk condemnation, having deprived themselves of divine sight.

Thus, faith is metaphorically called ‘a stone of pure tin,’ for it chastises those who neglect its virtues through a lack of obedience, while simultaneously granting salvation to those who uphold its brilliance through the Spirit’s energies. As the great Simeon foretold of the Lord’s impact: ‘He shall be for the fall and rising of many in Israel’ (Luke 2:34)—illustrating the dichotomy for unbelievers and the elevation for believers.

Some identify tin as a composite of silver and lead. Silver is emblematic of brilliance, radiance, and glorification, while lead signifies discipline, correction, and the severity of judgment. Consequently, faith, represented by tin, simultaneously educates and fortifies those who fulfill the commandments while illuminating and sanctifying those who embody its light.

Seen as reflecting our Lord Jesus Christ, who embodies both natures—divine and human—faith signifies both as lead, transforming and chastising the soul, and as silver, illuminating and glorifying it. Thus, the ‘fall’ and ‘rise’ from the Lord emerge clearly: He catalyzes the descent of carnal thoughts and sins while simultaneously elevating the mind towards spiritual truths and natural virtues, encapsulated in divine wisdom.

And in essence, the Word facilitates the renewal of those worthy, leading to the repudiation of the old self bound to the letter of the law, and the elevation of the new self aligned with Him and the law of the Spirit. Faith, as comparable to a stone of pure tin, serves as a testament that repentance and unwavering adherence to divine commandments can restore its inherent radiance.