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EZRA
Lesson 12, Chapters 6 and 7 It is a fascinating and unique style of the Holy Bible to thoroughly, carefully, and some times to expansively document God’s instructions to a Prophet or a King or to His people in general (as with the Law of Moses), but then instead of elaborating on His worshippers doing what God ordained it is merely stated that they did. And so we find that to be the case with the rebuilding of the Temple. After much dramatic build up in the first few chapters of Ezra as to the need for a new Temple, the unsettling political circumstances surrounding the delay in building it, and God’s great displeasure with the Jews’ procrastination and hand wringing, which He viewed as a lack of sincerity and repentance, suddenly in chapter 6 we hear that in keeping with the command of God the Judahites got back to work and finished it. No fanfare, no details, no glorification of those who participated; only a matter of fact record that it was built and what immediately followed its reconstruction. Let’s continue in Ezra chapter 6 by re-reading part of it, starting at verse 13.
RE-READ EZRA CHAPTER 6:13 – end
After Tatnai the vice-regent of the Beyond the River Province where Judah was located had accomplished a thorough investigation to see if the Jews had the proper government authorization for the Temple rebuilding project, he sent a letter to Persian King Darius outlining what he had observed. He asked that the King would have the records libraries of the Persians gleaned to see if perhaps a written record from King Cyrus could corroborate (or invalidate) Zerubbabel’s claims that King Cyrus had ordered that the Jews return to Jerusalem and rebuilt their Temple. Indeed in the records city of Ecbatana an official memorandum under King Cyrus’s name was found that fully agreed with what Zerubbabel had told Tatnai . And so to add his own authority and personal stamp to the matter (as kings often do), King Darius informed Tatnai that not only were the Jews to be allowed to complete work on their Temple without interference or supervision by Persian governmental bureaucrats, but that the Beyond the River Provincial district was to supply the Jews with the needed funds, in addition to whatever was needed for ongoing daily operations. I’m sure Zerubbabel and his companions could have been knocked over with a feather at this news. After all, to this point they had been bullied, threatened, and completely frustrated for so many years in their efforts to build a new House of God. But this latest Persian King was even more enthusiastic and supportive of the Jews’ rebuilding project than Cyrus. Not only was there complete absence of bigotry against them, it seems the king actually had some kind of mysterious unexplained admiration for the Jews. What else could this mean than it was the favor of the God of Israel to supernaturally cause the gentile king of the most expansive empire that the world had ever known to show such kindness and concern for these worshippers of Yehoveh? Here I’d like to remind us all that in Haggai chapter 2, God’s favor was promised if only the Jews would take courage, obey God and build His Temple: Haggai 2:15-19 CJB 15 Now, please, from this day on, keep this in mind: before you began laying stones on each other to rebuild the temple of ADONAI,
16 throughout that whole time, when someone approached a twenty-measure pile [of grain], he found only ten; and when he came to the winepress to draw out fifty measures, there were only twenty.
17 I struck you with blasting winds, mildew and hail on everything your hands produced; but you still wouldn’t return to me,’ says ADONAI.
18 ‘So please keep this in mind, from this day on, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of ADONAI’s temple was laid, consider this:
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