PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 King Darius then issued an order, and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon. 2 A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media, and this was written on it:
Memorandum:
3 In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree
concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem:
Let the temple be rebuilt as a
place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be sixty
cubits high and sixty cubits wide, 4 with
three courses of large stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid by
the royal treasury. 5 Also, the
gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from
the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their
places in the temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of
God.
6 Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and
Shethar-Bozenai and you other officials of that province, stay away from there.
7 Do not interfere with the
work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders
rebuild this house of God on its site.
8 Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these
elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God:
Their expenses are to be fully paid
out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the
work will not stop. 9 Whatever
is needed—young bulls, rams, male lambs for burnt offerings to the God of
heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and olive oil, as requested by the priests in
Jerusalem—must be given them daily without fail, 10 so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of
heaven and pray for the well-being of the king and his sons.
11 Furthermore, I decree that if anyone defies this edict, a
beam is to be pulled from their house and they are to be impaled on it. And for
this crime their house is to be made a pile of rubble. 12 May God, who has caused his Name to dwell there, overthrow
any king or people who lifts a hand to change this decree or to destroy this
temple in Jerusalem.
I Darius have decreed it. Let it be
carried out with diligence.
13 Then,
because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of
Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with
diligence. 14 So the elders of
the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet
and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple
according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius
and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. 15 The
temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of
the reign of King Darius.
16 Then the
people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated
the dedication of the house of God with joy. 17 For the dedication of this house of God they offered a
hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering
for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel. 18 And they installed the priests
in their divisions and the Levites in their groups for the service of God at
Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.
19 On the
fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover. 20 The priests and Levites had
purified themselves and were all ceremonially clean. The Levites slaughtered
the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their relatives the priests and for
themselves. 21 So the
Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had
separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors in
order to seek the Lord, the God of Israel. 22 For
seven days they celebrated with joy the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because
the Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of
Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of
Israel. (Ezra 6, NIV)
REFLECTIONS:
Several years ago I became fascinated with the books of the
Bible that cover the return of Israel from Babylonian exile and the building of
the 2nd temple. I’m not sure why. I studied Nehemiah, Ezra, Zechariah, and
Haggai. There are many wonderful passages in these books. This period of the
history for Israel is melancholy, not all sad, not all joy, a sense of loss and
a sense of hope for the future and a desire to get it right this time.
Here’s my timeline of relevant Israel history to get to Ezra
6:
- Solomon builds 1st Temple
- Destruction of 1st Temple and Babylonian exile
- Fall of Babylon to Cyrus king of Persia
- King Cyrus decree to free Israelites and rebuild Temple
- 2nd temple construction begins
- “All the people boomed out hurrahs, praising God as the foundation of The Temple of God was laid. As many were noisily shouting with joy, many of the older priests, Levites, and family heads who had seen the first Temple, when they saw the foundations of this Temple laid, wept loudly for joy. People couldn’t distinguish the shouting from the weeping. The sound of their voices reverberated for miles around.” (Ezra 4:11-13)
- Trouble in Judah… Locals give the returning Israelites a hard time
- King Darius’ decree, here are the high points:
- Follow King Cyrus’ original decree
- Pay their expenses out of your local government revenues (not the Israelites’)
- Anyone who defies this decree will be impaled with the beams of their house… Yowza!
- Then Darius invites God to overthrow any king or people who might change this decree or seek to destroy the temple
- Completion of 2nd temple
- Passover at completed 2nd temple
This is tough stuff. Darius wasn’t someone to mess around
with. He may have been the most powerful man in the world. He certainly was the
most powerful man in that part of the world.
So what’s the point of this scripture? I think we see the
Israelites’ zeal for worship, sacrifice, the temple, scripture, lifestyle,
culture, and what once was. We also see God working through powerful empires
and powerful men to bring a blessing to His children. God was working to
fulfill what He had promised so often through past prophets. Our God seeks to
bless.
So everything’s going to be great now, right. King Darius is
on their side. The new 2nd temple is in place. What could go wrong?
Unfortunately, the Bible is filled with these types of ebb
and flow. There’s a calling, there’s a response, God provisions, great things
are accomplished for God, then the focus shifts, and eventually things go
sideways. Check out Nehemiah 10:29: “All these now join their fellow Israelites
the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of
God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the
commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord.” Sounds wonderful,
right? But this was the beginning of the Pharisee point of view and lifestyle.
Jesus would later respond to this burden filled lifestyle in Mathew 11:28-30 “Come
to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I don’t think the zeal for worship, sacrifice, temple,
scripture, lifestyle and culture were bad. But eventually, they were just out
of balance. The focus was lost. God must always be the center of focus not
objects, rituals or traditions.
But we would never
lose our focus, right? We have history and Jesus to help us. Unfortunately, we
know better. We complain about hymns versus praise and worship songs and vice a
versa. We want organ and piano versus guitar and drum and vice a versa. This
shows a lack of focus, which should remain on God and the praising of Him. We
should always in worship focus up to God and leave open choices of style and
traditions of worship.
PRAYER:
God forgive us for allowing things to get in the way of worshiping
You. Holy Spirit enter our minds and reveal the patterns of our lives that keep
us from drawing close to you during worship. Help us to be generous to others
in their traditions and styles of worship. Refresh our desires to know you.
Reveal Yourself to us.
WHO AM I?
I’m David Norris and I have been told that I have the
spiritual gift of “helps.” I think that means I like to help others. Put that together
with my personal bent to be a nerd and all sorts of issues pop up. Bummer for
you.
So, for this installment, I’ll give you a web resource for
your Bible history questions: www.biblediagrams.com.This is a link
to a series of historical timelines focused on the Bible’s history and the
world around Israel.
Enjoy.
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