5:1-2
The Work Resumes
Chapter 4, verses 6 through 23, are a digression, telling us about the opposition of the locals to the exiles over many decades.
Chapter 4, verse 24, actually picks up the narrative that ended in 4:5, which told us the locals interfered with the building of the temple throughout the reign of Cyrus into the second year of the reign of Darius. That year, according to chapter 5, verse 1, and Haggai 1:1, the Lord sent two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to speak to the Jews.
Haggai 1 tells us about this in more detail. The word of the Lord was that it was not right for the Jews to build nice houses for themselves while the house of the Lord lay in ruins. Because they had not built the temple, the Lord had withheld blessing from them. They were not prospering. And the Lord intended to impose a drought on them. Drought is devastating to an agricultural economy. No crops can be grown without water.
Specifically, Haggai addressed Zerubbabel the governor and Jeshua the high priest. He told them to go get wood in the hills and bring it down to build the temple. The Lord said he would take pleasure in it and he would be glorified. (Haggai 1: 7)
Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the exiles obeyed God and resumed the work on the 24th day of the sixth month (September) of the second year of Darius’ reign, which was 520 B.C. (Haggai 1:15) This was 16 years after the foundations were laid as recorded in Ezra 3:10.
Ezra 5:2 tells us the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, were with them and supported them. We see from the book of Haggai that the record of his ministry covers only four months, August 29 through December 18 of 520 B.C. He preached four sermons urging the people to rebuild the temple and to obey God.
Zechariah was more of a seer, a visionary. He related visions given by the Lord what showed a greater purpose for the temple, that it was a sign pointing to a greater purpose, the coming of Jesus. He said there would be a fountain opened that bring cleansing of sin. (Zechariah 13:1)
Many centuries later, in the mid-1700s, William Cowper wrote a hymn based on this thought, originally entitled “Peace for the Fountain Opened”, but later called “There Is A Fountain”. The first stanza says:
There is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel’s veins
and sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.
The preaching of these to prophets, in the power of the Lord, galvanized the Jews to renew their efforts to rebuild the temple and resist the temptation to quit working for the Lord.
5:3-5
Opposition Arises
As soon as the Lord’s work was taken up, opposition appeared again. The Persian governor of the province and his associates came and challenged the exiles. These appear to be different people than the first adversaries of the Jews. They asked them who gave them permission to finish the building of the temple. They knew the king had ordered it stopped until he said it could continue.
The governor also used a common tactic of oppression: he asked for the names of those working on the walls. That has an intimidating effect. It says “we know who you are and we know where to find you”. This time, however, the opposition did not stop them from working while they sent a letter to the king. The letter will also tell us more of the response of the Jews to the challenge.
5:6-17
The Letter to the King
As before, the governor wrote a letter to the king, Darius this time, telling him what was going on, that the Jews has resumed building the temple. They recounted their challenge to the the authority of the Jews to rebuild.
They also recounted the response of the elder of the Jews. They told Tattenai, the governor, their history concerning the temple, how it was build by a great king, but destroyed when God was angry with them and allowed them to be taken into captivity.
They also told that Cyrus the king made a decree that the house should be rebuild and that the sacred objects would be returned to the Jews. It appears that Tattenai was unaware of these facts and asked the king to have a search made in the royal archives for the decrees of Cyrus and for instructions of what to do.
There is one thing, though that really stands out in the response of the Jews to Tattenai. The first thing they said was “we are the servants of the God of heaven and earth”. (5:11) They had caught a vision from the prophets of the great God they served, one who was not a local deity, but who ruled all of the earth, including Persia. So, they were not doing a small task, they were the instruments used by the God of the universe to accomplish this part of his will and purpose.
We all need to refocus at times. When we work or serve and it seems mundane, we need a reminder that we serve the God of the universe and he has chosen us to further his purpose for the world and the establishment of his kingdom.
6:1-5
Finding the Decree
Darius read the letter and decreed that a search be made for the decree. The researchers found a scroll in a citadel that recorded the decree. The decree did in fact state the the temple should be rebuilt, gave measurements and listed materials to be used, with the cost paid from the royal treasury, along with return of the sacred vessels.
God provided lavishly for his people from the treasury of Persia. He did this in the first exodus, causing the Egyptians to give the Israelites whatever they wanted, resulting in their plundering or despoiling the Egyptians.
6:6-12
The Decree of Darius
Having found the decree of Cyrus, Darius proceeded to issue a decree reinforcing it. He ordered Tatteni and his associates to stay away from the temple site and to refrain from impeding the work on the temple. He further ordered the cost to be paid from the royal revenue, meaning the taxes and tribute collected in the province and normally sent to the king.
Darius went even further, ordering that the governor give the Jews anything the priests required to make sacrifices to God. Darius, as Cyrus had done, also solicited the prayers of the priests for himself and his sons.
Darius also added a curse for disobedience. Anyone who opposed the work would be impaled and his house turned into a dunghill, and any king or people who opposed the Jews be overthrown.
Lastly, Darius ordered that it be done with diligence. There was to be no delay in obedience to his decree.
6:13-18
The Work Is Finished, the Temple Dedicated
The Governor, having received the decree of King Darius, obeyed and did all the king ordered. With this help, the elders prospered in their work and finished the temple in the sixth year of Darius, on the third day of the month of Adar (515 B.C.).
It, therefore, took four and a half years to finish the temple after building resumed, 20 years from when the building first started, and about 70 years from the destruction of Solomon’s temple.
The Jews celebrated the completion of the temple with extravagant worship. They sacrificed over 700 animals for the sin offering of all Israel. They set up divisions of the priests and Levites to serve in the temple as the Law had provided (the Book of Moses).
6:19-22
Observing Passover
A month later, in the first month of the Jewish calendar year, the exiles observed Passover for the first time in 70 years. Passover refers to an event and the memorial of it.
The first Passover, the event, occurred before the final plague the Lord imposed on Egypt, the killing of the first born. You can read about it in Exodus 12. The Jews were told to slaughter a lamb without blemish at twilight, then take the blood and put it on the frame of the door of their houses, the two doorposts and the lintel. The angel of death would see the blood and passover the house without killing the firstborn.
The lamb was to be roasted on a fire and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This was about haste. They were to be dressed and ready to leave Egypt when the Lord told them to.
The Lord required the Jews to observe the day as a memorial and keep it as a feast. It went on for seven days with holy assemblies at the beginning and end. They could not eat bread with leaven.
For this first Passover in 70 years, the priests and levites purified themselves, then slaughtered the Passover Lamb. It would be eaten by the exiles and those who had remained in Judah, but not joined into the pagan worship of the Gentiles who were resettled into the area. They went on to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.
This celebration of Passover was especially meaningful because they not only remembered the First Exodus, out of Egypt, but their recent Second Exodus out of Babylon\Persia.
These things were all done with joy because of what the Lord had done to bring them home and to restore the temple, the sign that the Lord was with them.
Any time of building or rebuilding in the work of the Lord will be resisted by the devil. Our church is in a time of rebuilding. We are not rebuilding structures that were destroyed, but rebuilding in the sense of revitalizing the congregation and growing by reaching others for Christ.
We have experienced a form of opposition in the pandemic. But, we have forged ahead where we could and continue to move forward. I pray that you will work with your church to keep building and rebuilding for the kingdom of God. And I pray that you will not let this time drag you into apathy, but, rather, that you will seek spiritual growth and renewal.
I hope you will attend your church if you are well. And I hope you will pray for the Church to move forward for the glory of God.
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