Bh – Ezra Returns from Babylon Ezra 7: 1-10

Ezra Returns from Babylon
Ezra 7: 1-10

Ezra returns from Babylon DIG: “Now after these things” means 60 years later from 516 to 458 BC (Ezra Chapters 6 and 7). What else do these verses mention as to the who, what, how, when, where and why about Ezra? Why was it important to link him to Hilkiah (see Second Kings 22:4)? To Zadok (see Second Samuel 8:17)? To Moshe?

REFLECT: Ezra was skilled in the Torah (7:6 and 10; also see Nehemiah Chapter 8). What subject matter are you skilled in? By comparison, how skilled are you in the Bible? Who instilled in you a love for the Word? What do you do to build upon that?

During the ministry of Ezra (to see link click BfThe Second Return).
Compiled by: The Chronicler from Ezra and Nehemiah memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah From a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Ezra was descended from a long line of priests that dated all the way back to Aaron himself, who was the first high priest of Isra’el (see the commentary on Exodus Fv The Selection of Aaron and His Sons as Priests). ADONAI had appointed Aaron, Moshe’s brother, to take on that sacred role, and He had stipulated that only men descended from Aaron should ever follow in his steps. In this alone, Ezra would have been a good choice to lead the Jews back to Jerusalem, as it would have indicated that the people were reestablishing the LORD’s ordered worship in the Temple.

However, that was not Ezra’s only qualification as a leader. He also had spent his life studying God’s Word and memorized it – and, more important, he had spent his life obeying it. He had become an expert in the Torah, a teacher of teachers, and a teacher by example as well as by the Word. Ha’Shem had appointed him to take the lead on this important mission because he was well qualified in knowledge and obedience.

Zerubbabel (along with Sheshbazzar) had been the first to lead the Righteous of the TaNaKh from Babylon to Jerusalem. Now, Ezra himself would gather together the next wave to return to the Land in 458 BC (see AfEzra-Nehemiah Chronology). As before, the trip would be long and filled with danger, but the king had issued a decree giving his blessing (see Bi King Artakh’shasta’s Letter to Ezra), and he had loaded the people with silver and gold to fund the work.126

Ezra’s Genealogy: The purpose here is to make clear that Ezra, though not himself a high priest, was a member of the priestly line that had provided Isra’el’s high priests in the past. Now after these things (see AgThe First Return), during the reign of Artakh’shasta king of Persia. Ezra’s genealogy traces his priestly descendants back through Zadok to Aaron. Ezra son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar (see the commentary on Numbers Eb God’s Eternal Covenant with Phinehas), son of Aaron the kohen gadol (Ezra 7:1-5). Ezra’s genealogy traces his descendants back through Zadok to Aaron.

Ezra was a Zadokite priest who was not only highly honored in his own day, but the Levitical priests, who are descendants of Ezra and Zadok, would be honored with a special ministry in the far eschatological future during the Messianic Kingdom (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gs God Shows a Vision of the Millennial Temple). They were the ones who guarded God’s Sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from Him. In First Samuel 2:31-36 we read how YHVH through Samuel prophesied that the house of Eli was to be deposed and replaced by a faithful priest. That was finally fulfilled in First Kings 2:26-27. Then in Second Samuel 8:17 we read that Zadok became the high priest under King David and remained loyal to David after Absalom revolted (Second Samuel 15:24-29). Furthermore, Zadok was also loyal to Solomon (First Kings 1:8, 32-39, 2:26-27, 35) and the descendents of Zadok remained faithful during the days of Isra’el’s apostasy. As a result of their past faithfulness they will be given a superior role in the ministry of the Temple during the Kingdom. The Zadokites are to come near to minister before Me; they are to stand before Me to offer sacrifices of fat and blood, declares Adonai ELOHIM (Ezeki’el 44:15-31).

This Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe (Hebrew: sophar) skilled in the Torah of Moses that ADONAI the God of Isra’el had given (Ezra 7:6a). Beginning with Ezra, there arose a class of specialists who were teachers of the Torah; scholars who studied, interpreted, and copied the Scriptures (see Bl Ezra’s Reforms). The sages teach that Ezra could write out the entire five books of Moses from memory.

It is important to recognize that in the First Return led by Zerubbabel, in the Second Return led by Ezra, and in the Third Return led by Nehemiah, it was always the gracious prompting of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh that led the remnant home to Jerusalem. The Second Return will begin with God’s prompting of the Persian king to act compassionately toward Isra’el by granting Ezra everything he requested because the hand of ADONAI his God was upon him (Ezra 7:6b). Similarly, in the Third Return, Nehemiah will again express the conviction that Ha’Shem was responsible for the gracious support of the Persian throne when he stated: The king granted me the request because the good hand of my God was upon me (Nehemiah 2:8b).

Some of the people of Yisrael and some of the cohanim, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the (Hebrew: nethinim) sanctuary servants (see An Priests, Levites and Temple Servants Who Returned with Zerubbabel) also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:7). The cohanim, or the priests, were descendants of Aaron, the first High Priest. His sons and their descendants were to serve as the future priests, and high priests of the nation of Isra’el (see the commentary on Exodus Gf Dedicate Aaron and His Sons So They May Serve Me As Priests). Only the high priest was permitted to enter the Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle and Temple, and that only once per year on the Day of Atonement (see the commentary on Leviticus Ef – Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement). When you think priests – think Exodus; the Levites were descendants of Levi, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. When you think of the Levites, think Genesis. They assisted the priests in different aspects of the Temple. All priests were to be Levites, according to the Torah, but not all Levites were priests.

What compelled them to leave for Jerusalem? The answer for at least one of them – Ezra – seems to have been that he had a burden in his heart and soul for his fellow Jews in Tziyon. Like Nehemiah some twenty years later, he probably heard tales from merchants who came to Persian-dominated Babylon with news that things were not going well in Yerushalayim (Nehemiah 1:1-3). Jewish law concerning marriage had seemingly been neglected. There may have been a Temple in the City of David, but the Jews were in danger of repeating the very sins that had sent them into exile to begin with. Speaking almost a century earlier, Jeremiah had warned them not to treat the Temple as a good-luck charm and change their ways (see the commentary on Jeremiah CcFalse Religion is Worthless).

It seems that the religious life in Jerusalem, from the time of the Temple’s dedication to the time of Ezra’s arrival had taken on an outward conformity to the Temple’s rituals and sacrifices. There was outward conformity and an external compliance. But it was only a public faith, and it did not relate to the people’s private lives. As we will see, one of the issues that Ezra would have to contend with was the flagrant abuse of Isra’el’s commandment regarding marriage (see Bs Those Guilty of Intermarriage). The people were conforming outwardly, but inwardly they were living to please themselves.127 Things were not much better in Ezra’s day. The Jews in the Holy City were neglecting the Scriptures. A new generation, whose grandparents and great-grandparents had built the Second Temple, now occupied the City. Those fifth-century Jews were in need of a preacher, someone who would proclaim the Word of God with personal application and integrity. They were in need of relearning the seriousness of sin, and this they could only do by falling in love with the Torah again. They did not need someone to salve their consciences with smooth words, and lull them to spiritual sleep with the assurance that all was well. They needed a teacher of the Torah, and for that urgent task, ADONAI raised up Ezra.128

Ezra the Scribe: Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of King Artakh’shasta’s reign. The second wave of exiles’ four-month journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, covering almost a-thousand miles, started in Nisan (March-April) and ended in Av (July-August). He began his aliyah (immigration to Isra’el) from Babylon on the first day of the first month and entered Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, because the good hand of his God was upon him (this same phrase is repeated in Ezra 7:28, 8:18, 22 and 31; and Nehemiah 2:8 and 18). Because Ezra had set his heart to seek the Torah of ADONAI, to observe and to teach its statues and ordinances in Isra’el (Ezra 7:8-10). Ezra, like David, had a heart after God. His love was for God’s Word and God’s ways, not his own. He did not leave Babylon to go to Jerusalem because he believed there would be a better life for him there. His ambition was not for personal gain or financial improvement; he wanted to see the LORD’s people return to a way of life that gave YHVH honor. His focus was the glory of God.

Before the exile (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gu Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule) the priests were the guardian of the Scriptures and the Levites also taught the Torah (Hosea 4:4-6). But after the exile the scribes became more important (Sir 38:34b-39:11). The rabbis teach that Ezra marked that transition and set the pattern for future scribal activity.129

The TaNaKh does not look upon the Torah as a heavy weight or something negative, but as a blueprint for living (see the commentary on Exodus DjThe Ten Commandments). It is truthfully the royal teaching of liberty, a divinely inspired ethical guide. Only a perversion of the Torah lead to the abuses that we find in the gospels. Most of the legal material in the five books of Moses show the application of these ethical principles to specific life situations. It is in the area of ethics where theology most affects everyday life.

Ezra set an example of the process by which a person grows to spiritual maturity and godliness. First, he set his heart, determined to understand the Word of God, probably spending much of his youth in the study and meditation of the Scriptures. The process naturally led to immediate application, as Ezra strove to do what ADONAI’s Word commanded, putting it into practice in his own life first. This, finally, led to a natural role as a teacher of others – for one cannot teach what one has not first practiced. Ezra’s life of obedience enabled YHVH to use him in a mighty way. The good hand of his God was upon him (Ezra 7:9), strengthening and equipping him for that role.130

ADONAI’s people always need Torah (Hebrew: teaching). A great percentage of the ministry of the Church is discipling, nurturing, and teaching. More than just imparting facts, this involves training in righteousness and motivating believers to love and obey God. It includes learning what a biblical view signifies for practical life today.131

2024-11-22T00:19:53+00:000 Comments

Bg – Ezra’s Return to Jerusalem Ezra 7:1 to 8:36

Ezra’s Return to Jerusalem
Ezra 7:1 to 8:36

The Chronicler had his own ideas about chronology. For him, the maximum, “first things first” meant organizing the book in order of importance. The building of the Temple must come first with Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return); then the purifying of the people by the reading of His Word by Ezra the priest came next (see BfThe Second Return); then, came the building of the outer walls of the City by Nehemiah would finish the narrative (see BtThe Third Return). Therefore, Nehemiah 7:73b-9:37, compiled by the Chronicler, but written in the memoirs of Nehemiah, is included here. I am convinced that the Ruach Ha’Kodesh wanted future readers to see the events of Nehemiah 9 as following upon the narrative of Nehemiah 8. The LXX (The Greek translation of the TaNaKh) underlines the continuity between Nehemiah 8 and 9 by adding the words: and Ezra said in Nehemiah 9:6. Therefore, after Ezra returned from Babylon and read the book of the Torah to the Israelites, the people confessed their sin of mixed marriage and took an oath to repent of it.125

2022-08-21T14:11:30+00:000 Comments

Bf – The Second Return Ezra 7:1-10:44 and Nehemiah 7:73b-11:36

The Second Return
Ezra 7:1-10:44 and Nehemiah 7:73b-11:36

458-457 BC

Fifty-seven years had elapsed between the completion of the Holy Temple in Chapter 6 and Ezra’s journey to Jerusalem at the beginning of Chapter 7. Like the First Return, it begins with preparation in Babylon and the introduction of characters. No more is heard about the previous leaders such as Zerubbabel, who is said, according to rabbinic tradition, to have returned to the Persian court.

Leader: Ezra

Decree of: Artach’shashta (458 BC)

Company: 1,754/2,000 men

Purpose: Reform the people

Problem: Mixed marriages with unbelievers

Compiled by: The Chronicler from Ezra and Nehemiah memoirs
(to see link click Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Ezra was a great student, he was a great statesman, he was a great reformer, and he was a great teacher. But where is he? We are more than half way through the book that bears his name, and there has been no mention of him. There are twenty-five references to him from this point onward, half of them in the book of Nehemiah. Chapter 6 ended with the celebration of the rebuilt Temple, which was completed under the reign of Darius in 515 BC. With the words, now after this, the Chronicler covers fifty-seven years of history and introduces Ezra. But the Chronicler’s purpose is not to give us historical information. He gives us no information about Ezra’s life in Babylon, and he offers no reason as to why Ezra did not come earlier. His focus is on Ezra, the teacher of the Torah.124

2021-02-08T13:41:56+00:000 Comments

Be – Queen Esther of Persia

Queen Esther of Persia

There was a 57 year gap between the First and Second Returns from Exile 537 to 480 BC

During this time Esther became Queen of Persia (see the commentary on Esther, to see link click Am Esther Elevated to Queen), giving the Jews prestige in the Persian court. Esther saved the Jews from Haman’s holocaust (see the commentary on Esther Au Haman’s Plan to Annihilate All the Jews), which is celebrated to this day (see the commentary on Esther Bn The Feast of Purim). Esther’s victory and Mordecai’s position as prime minister (see the commentary on Esther Bh The King Gave His Signet Ring to Mordecai) effected Ezra’s return and Nehemiah’s position (art by Sarah Beth Baca: see more information on Links and Resources).

 

 

2021-02-08T17:34:59+00:000 Comments

Bd – The Completion and Dedication of the Temple Ezra 6:13-22 and Zechariah 6:9-13

The Completion
and Dedication of the Temple
Ezra 6:13-22 and Zechariah 6:9-13

The completion and dedication of the Temple DIG: Who oversees the work on the Temple (6:13-18)? Who else is involved? How so? Whose authority seems to prevail? Who gets credit without being on the scene? How does this Temple dedication service compare with the previous one (6:16-18, also see Second Chronicles 7:1-10)? How do you account for this rather poor showing? Priest, Levites, the exiles, and converts all celebrate the Passover (6:19-22). What must each do participate (see Exodus 12:43-50; Numbers 9:1-14).

REFLECT: What half-done project does God want you to “carry out with all diligence?” Why not get on with it? How does an outsider get to celebrate the sacraments in your messianic synagogue or church? Are you more open, or less open than early Judaism?

April 515 BC During the ministry of Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Ezra 4:8 to 6:18 is written in Aramaic, the language the Persians used in official documents (much like the Roman Empire used Greek). With the celebration of the Passover, the language appropriately returns to Hebrew.

The completion and dedication of the Temple: Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with all diligence (Ezra 6:13). The expression with all diligence is a key word in these chapters, expressing the way the builders went about their work (Ezra 5:8), then the urgency of the king’s decree (Ezra 6:8 and 12), and finally the thorough cooperation of the civil government. Tattenai, as provincial governor, had acted responsibly throughout, in making the inquiry, waiting for confirmation (Ezra 5:5), and following through on the decree. He was no Sanballat (Nehemiah 3:33).117

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 Isra’el and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia (Ezra 6:14). The most powerful word on earth at that time was the decree of a Persian king, but silently and mysteriously these kings were being directed by an even more powerful divine word. Workers, prophets, kings and Ha’Shem were all involved. Artakh’shasta had nothing to do with building the Temple; apparently his name was added to round out the account, for he had decreed the building of Jerusalem’s walls (Nehemiah 2:1 and 8). He also helped provide for sacrifices at the Temple (Ezra 7:12-17).

The Temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar (the closing month of the Jewish calendar year, corresponding to February-March), in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius (Ezra 6:15). Since the work resumed in the sixth month of Darius’ second year (Haggai 1:15) it took nearly four and a half years. The foundations had been laid some twenty-one years earlier in 536 BC (to see link click ArThe Start of the Rebuilding the Temple). This was seventy years after the Temple had been destroyed in 586 BC.

Then the people of Isra’el – the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy (Ezra 6:16). Celebrations have always been vital for the people of God. They are occasions for fellowship, of worship, of glorifying ADONAI. They bind the community together and enable everyone to understand the purpose and history of the community. The term translated dedication is the Hebrew word hanukkah, the name of the Jewish holiday that celebrates a similar rededication of the Temple after its defilement by the Seleucid King Antiochus IV (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Hj Then Came Hanukkah at Jerusalem and It Was Winter).118

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 Isra’el, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Isra’el (Ezra 6:17). The offerings were costly enough, yet dwarfed by 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep of Solomon’s dedication day (First Kings 8:63). Twelve male goats had been similarly sacrificed as a sin-offering when the altar in the wilderness was dedicated (Numbers 7:87). This precedent of old was evidently followed on the present occasion. The sin offering made in the wilderness was full of deep religious sorrow. The remnant who had returned made a solemn confession of sin in the name of the whole scattered and despised race. They acknowledged the essential unity of Isra’el’s tribes in the consequences of sin, in the possibilities of restoration, and in the renewed dedication to the service of ADONAI.

And they installed the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their groups for the service of God at Jerusalem (see the commentary on the Life of David EvThe Divisions of Priests), according to what is written in the Book of Moses each officiating for a week in turn (Ezra 6:18). The exile had taught them that God’s people suffer when they do not live up to their covenantal obligations.

The Passover: On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover for the first time in seventy years (Ezra 6:19). Rather appropriately, the language of the story now reverts to Hebrew, only the returning to Aramaic for the letter of Artakh’shasta (see Bi King Artakh’shasta’s Letter to Ezra). The Temple had been completed on the twelfth month of Adar, and fittingly, Pesach was re-inaugurated the very next month. Whenever the celebration of Pesach is recorded in the TaNaKh, it is in connection with an important landmark in national life (Numbers 9:5; Joshua 5:10; Second Kings 23:21; Second Chronicles 30:1 and 35:1).

The priests and Levites had purified themselves by a mikveh, a ritual washing with water (Exodus 29:4; Numbers 8:7), and were all ceremonially clean. The author of Chronicles emphasized the need for this purification. In fact, Hezekiah’s great Passover celebration was delayed a month because there were not enough ceremonially pure priests (Second Chronicles 30:2-3). The Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their relatives the priests and for themselves. 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 Isra’el (Ezra 6:20-21). The Jews of the exile were not bitterly exclusive. This second group was probably the Jews who had remained in the Land after the exile and had defiled themselves with Gentile practices, and then repenting, thereby separating themselves. The convert found an open door, as Rahab and Ruth had found out.

This decision involved two basic decisions, one negative and one positive – similar to what believers must make today. First, they separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors. In order to follow Messiah, we must reject the immoral life-style of the world. Biblical faith is an ethical faith. Ha’Shem is holy, and He demands that His children be holy. The second decision is positive: to seek the Lord, the God of Isra’el. This means turning to Him, seeking communion with Him, and seeking to do His will. Time after time the prophets condemned the people and announced God’s judgment because they did not seek His face (Isaiah 9:13, 31:1; Hosea 7:10; Zephaniah 1:6; Jeremiah 10:21).119

After Pesach, they celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, because the Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria (the Persian Empire included what was once Assyria) so that he assisted them in the work with materials and money on the house of God, the God of Isra’el (Ezra 6:22). Once this eight-day celebration was over, nine-hundred years after the Egyptian Passover (see the commentary on Exodus BvThe Egyptian Passover), it signaled the end of the exile for the Righteous of the TaNaKh and the nation was once again back in true fellowship with YHVH. Since the Levitical system of worship had been restored, it was important for the people atone for their sins on the bronze altar (see the commentary on Exodus FaBuild an Altar of Acacia Wood Overlaid with Bronze). The people had seen firsthand how Ha’Shem worked through history, for He had caused pagan kings to issue decrees that let them return to the Promised Land (much as He had caused Egypt’s Pharaoh to release Isra’el). The original readers of Ezra-Nehemiah would rejoice in that fact and would be encouraged to participate fully in Temple worship, which had been reestablished at such great cost.120

In Zechariah 6:9-11, following the record of the eight night visions, the prophet depicts the coming of men from Babylon, Jews who had not returned with the others in 538 BC. They bring with them with silver and gold, which is fashioned into a crown fit for a king to wear. Instead of Zerubbabel (the heir apparent), Jeshua (the high priest) receives the crown. Crowning a political figure, such a Zerubbabel, would be viewed as an act of rebellion; crowning a high priest would have appeared odd, to say the least. Not only that, but the crown was placed in the completed Temple as though waiting for the true King-Priest to appear. Even more significant are the words that accompany this account; ADONAI-Tzva’ot says to Jeshua, “Behold, a man whose Name is the Branch will branch out from His place and build the Temple of ADONAI. He will bear splendor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a cohen on His throne. So a counsel of shalom will be between [the offices of King and Priest]” (Zechariah 6:12-13).121

ADONAI told Jeshua that he would represent or typify the Branch who will rebuild the Millennial Temple (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gs God Shows a Vision of the Millennial Temple). The crowning had a far eschatological significance pointing to Messiah as the King-Priest, like Melchizedek centuries earlier (see the commentary on Hebrews Be Melchizedek Was a Type of Christ). The title Branch is a messianic title (Zechariah 3:8).

Since the promise to rebuild the Temple in Zechariah’s day was given to Zerubbabel, any role Jeshua would have had was apparently minor. So the Second Temple stood as a sign of the coming Branch-Messiah, who would build the true temple of God.122

So The temple was completed (Ezra 6:15), but in another sense, the work had barely begun. A new day was coming, a day of the Lord’s power and might. A day when the shadow would give way to the reality because the real Temple is where Jesus is for He is the Temple, the place where YHVH and mankind meet, the place of reconciliation and of the Kingly rule. Yeshua is in heaven, but He makes Himself present among us by His Ruach Ha’Kodesh. Where the Spirit is, there the gospel is being preached and the people of God, both Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14), are brought into fellowship with ADONAI at the true Temple. The Spirit is not confined to one physical or geographical location, which is why modern pilgrimages to “the Holy Land” are a misnomer. The only biblical pilgrimage to the Holy Land is to go to Jesus Christ by faith, for He represents for us the real Mount Zion. The nations are coming to the Temple wherever the gospel is preached and applied to human hearts by the Spirit of Yeshua.123

2021-10-09T19:08:13+00:000 Comments

Bc – King Darius Endorses the Rebuilding of the Temple Ezra 6: 1-12

King Darius
Endorses the Rebuilding of the Temple
Ezra 6: 1-12

King Darius endorses the rebuilding of the Temple DIG: Compare this Aramaic memo of Cyrus’ decree with the Hebrew version in 1:2-4. What additional details do you see here? Why would they have been added? How does Darius’ decree (6:6-12) expand on his earlier memo? What is his “punch line.” Why might this rub Tattenai the wrong way?

REFLECT: When have you invoked God’s authority as your own? Where do you draw the line and dare someone to cross over or defy your authority? What defiance (by your kids, partners, or subordinates) would “trip your trigger” and bring them into conflict with you? What “sacrifices” and prayers are you offering on behalf of those in authority over you (Ezra 6:10, also see First Timothy 2:1ff)? Persian kings made a policy of restoring the religious institutions of native people (6:1-12). What does this show about God’s role in secular or pagan governments? How does that give you hope as you consider current events?

520 BC During the ministry of Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Ezra 4:8 to 6:18 is written in Aramaic, the language the Persians used in official documents (much like the Roman Empire used Greek).

Darius the Mede was none other than the Persian king, Cyrys (to see link click Ai Cyrus Decrees: Rebuild the Temple). It was common for ancient rulers to use different name in various parts of their realms. As a result, Darius may have been a localized name for Cyrus. In the book of Dani’el we read: In the reign of Darius, even in the reign of Cyrus the Persian (Dani’el 6:28). In support of this view, Darius was made king (Dani’el 9:1-2), called king (Dani’el 6:8), and exercised the authority of a king (Dani’el 6:9). He is called king twenty-eight times in Dani’el Chapter 6. Therefore, Cyrus [Darius] was of Median descent and ruled Persia.109

Almost incidentally, the sequel to Tattenai’s request for an authoritative word concerning the Jerusalem Temple permits us a glimpse of the flurry of activity in the Empire’s corridors of power. Then King Darius took notice of Tattenai’s letter and issued an order and a search was made in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon (6:1). No doubt the rebellious, especially in the west, during his first years made Darius sensitive to these details. Also, like Cyrus, Darius was concerned that his subject peoples be content.110

A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana where Cyrus made his summer home in the province of Media (Ezra 6:2). It was written in Aramaic to the royal treasurer regarding covering the expenses for finishing the Temple in Jerusalem. The use of a scroll for the recording of the edict is no surprise once it is recognized that it was written in Aramaic rather than the Old Persian for which tablets of clay would have been used.111 The discovery of this scroll had just as much effect on the future of the Jews as would the record of the reign of King Ahasuerus found late one night about forty-five years later (see the commentary on Esther Be That Night the King Could Not Sleep).

The private memorandum read: In the first year of Cyrus the king, King Cyrus issued a decree concerning the House of God at Jerusalem (see Ah – Cyrus Decrees: Rebuild the Temple).

Let the House be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be laid. Its height is to be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits with three layers of large stones and one layer of timber following the model of Solomon’s Temple (First Kings 6:36). Let the expenses be paid from the king’s house (Ezra 6:3-4). This Temple, sometimes called the Second Temple, was built on the site of the first. The layers of large stones refer to three stories of chambers, and on these was placed an additional story of wood. During the reign of Herod the Great (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Av The Visit of the Magi), the Second Temple was completely refurbished, and the original structure was totally overhauled into the large and glorious edifices and facades that were more recognizable during the time of Yeshua.112

Also, let the gold and silver vessels of the House of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought to the Temple in Jerusalem; you shall deposit them in the House of God (Ezra 6:5). The release of the Temple vessels was recorded in 1:7-11. Jeremiah had prophesied that these vessels would be taken to Babylon and later returned to Jerusalem (see the commentary on Jeremiah Eq Judah to Serve Nebuchadnezzar: Jeremiah’s Sixth Symbolic Action).

Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, his scribe Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues, officials of Trans-Euphrates, all of you stay away from there. This sounds rather harsh, but is actually the translation of a legal term that means the accusation was rejected. Leave the work of this House of God alone! Let Zerubbabel, the governor of the Jews, and the elders of the Jews rebuild this House of God in its original place (Ezra 6:6-7). One significant difference, however, between Solomon’s Temple and the Second Temple was that there would be no Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place symbolizing the presence of YHVH. It would be waiting, in a sense, for the Lord of the Temple, the messianic messenger of the covenant (Malachi 3:1), to rule and reign for a thousand years (see the commentary on Isaiah DbThe Nine Missing Articles from Messiah’s Coming Temple).

Moreover, I hereby issue a decree as to what you are to do for these elders of the Jews to rebuild this House of God. The complete costs are to be paid to these men from the royal treasury, from the tribute from Trans-Euphrates so that they are not hindered (Ezra 6:8).

Darius was concerned that the Levitical worship be practiced correctly, so he provided the sacrificial animals. From this accurate list of items we can only conclude that Jewish advice was sought in drafting the decree. Whatever is needed – young bulls, rams or lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven or wheat, fine flower used in the grain-offerings (Leviticus 2:1, 13) and drink-offerings (Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 23:13), salt, wine and oil, as requested by the kohanim in Jerusalem – must be given to them daily without neglect, so that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven. Salt was added, especially to the grain offerings. The salt of the covenant is a phrase that appears several times (Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:19; Second Chronicles 13:5; Mark 9:49), salt being the symbol of covenant relationship. Wine was used in the drink offerings (Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 23:13), which accompanied other offerings. Oil was used in the continual burnt offering, in the grain offering (Leviticus 2:4 and 15), and in anointing the priest (Exodus 29:21).113 Darius took religious matter seriously. He wanted all his subjects to pray to their gods on behalf of him and his sons (Ezra 6:9-10).

Furthermore, I decree that if anyone changes this edict, a beam is to be pulled out from his house, destroying it, and let him be lifted up and impaled on it (see the commentary on Esther Bf So They Impaled Haman on the Pole He Had Set Up for Mordecai), and because of this, his house be made a pile of refuse. There was poetic justice intended in making a man’s house his instrument of execution for tampering with God’s House.114 May God, who makes His name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts his hand to cause such change to destroy this House of God in Jerusalem. I Darius have issued a decree; let it be carried out with diligence (Ezra 6:11-12). Darius’ curse on anyone who would destroy the Temple was fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated it in 167 BC and died insane three years later; Herod the Great, who added extensively to the Temple to glorify himself, and who had murdered his wives and sons to stay in power, died of gangrene; and the Romans, who destroyed the Temple in 70 AD, lost their Empire to the Barbarians.115

The king’s reply then put Zerubbabel and the rest of the exiles in a far stronger position than before. It gave him all the benefits of state money and protection without any interference.

From the time of Cyrus’ decree in 538 BC, to that of Artakh’shasta, whose reign began in 465 BC, there was official Persian support for the construction projects in Jerusalem – something that will become apparent in the next chapter (see BiKing Artakh’shasta’s Letter to Ezra). Ezra is writing to an audience in the days of Artakh’shasta, saying that this kind of support had been seen for more than seventy years.

In one sense, this is so typical of ADONAI! In the days of Egyptian bondage, Isra’el knew another similar divine intervention that shook up everything. Following Pharaoh’s decree to kill all the newborn Hebrew boys (see the commentary on Exodus Ak A Man of the House of Levi Married a Levite Woman), Moshe’s mother, Jochebed, not only received her son back from the Nile River but also managed to do so with an allowance from the Egyptian government to help her raise him! God is able to do far beyond all we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). It is a truth that we tend to forget, especially when it comes to governing authorities. The truth is there is no authority except from God (Romans 13:1)! YHVH may bring good from the most surprising places.116

2021-02-17T17:18:50+00:000 Comments

Bb – The Prophets Restart Building the Temple Ezra 5:3-17 and Haggai 1:1, 14-15

The Prophets Restart the Building of the Temple
Ezra 5:3-17 and Haggai 1:1, 14-15

The prophets restart the building of the Temple DIG: In what way do the events of 5:1-2 represent a new start (see Ezra 4:24; Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1)? Why does the Chronicler retrace the building effort to Shealtiel (see 5:2; First Chronicles 3:17-19)? “At that time” (5:2 can be dated to the period from August 29 to December 18 520 BC. How does that help the account for what’s going on in 5:3-5? What about this episode is seen as a blessing from God? Why? How is God’s hand of blessing evident in Tattenai’s letter to Darius (5:6-17)? What human instruments has God evidently been using to bless and discipline his people? What is the status of this rebuilding project to date? Who is being credited (or blamed) for the “rapid progress” (5:8)? For the “unfinished task” (5:16)?

REFLECT: In 536 BC Sheshbazzar presided over laying the Temple foundation (5:14-16), and in 520 BC Zerubbabel presided over laying a second foundation (Haggai 1:14-15). How do you account for those 16-years (Zechariah 4:6-10). In your life, what has taken sixteen plus years to get right? How do you account for the delay? In the work God has given you to do, when is his hand of blessing obvious to you? When something is not progressing according to plan are you likely to conclude that it must not be God’s will? Explain.

520 BC During the ministry of Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Ezra 4:8 to 6:18 is written in Aramaic, the language the Persians used in official documents (much like the Roman Empire used Greek).

Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Isra’el, who was over them (Ezra 5:1). In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of ADONAI came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah (Haggai 1:1). Since this was the first day of the month, the day of a new moon, it was probably a holy festival day in Jerusalem. This provided Haggai and Zechariah a ready-made audience to listen to the word of God.

Then ADONAI stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Jeshua son of Jozadak, cohen gadol, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and resumed the work on the House of ADONAI-Tzva’ot their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius (Haggai 1:14-15). It had been sixteen years since opposition had stopped the work on the Temple (see AtOpposition During the Reign of Cyrus). Then Zerubbabel and Jeshua arose and began to rebuild the House of God in Jerusalem in spite of the Persian king’s decree (see Aw The Resumption of Work Under King Darius). And the prophets of God were with [the people] supporting them (Ezra 5:2).

Representatives of the Persian government became aware of the Temple-building project and decided to investigate. Coincidentally, at that time, Darius was still attempting to establish himself as ruler after putting down rebellions in the Persian Empire. His officials would have been very concerned about any unusual activity among a subject people. That would be especially true if they heard rumors that the rebuilt Temple was considered to be the center of a nationalistic movement – a movement that would shake all the nations (Haggai 2:7). At that time Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates came to them and asked them, “Who gave you the authority to build this House and to complete this structure?” They also asked them, “What are the names of the men who are constructing this building” (Ezra 5:3-4)? The legal and political importance of the list of names compiled when the Jews first arrived in Jerusalem now becomes clear (see AkNumbering the Exiles Who Returned Under Zerubbabel).100

But the watchful eye of their God, and the hand of God’s protection, was upon the elders of the Jews. They would not stop building until a report could go to Darius and a written reply about it be returned (Ezra 5:5).

Tattenai reported to King Darius that the Jews were violating Cyrus’ official decree that was in place. This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, his scribe Shetar-bozenai, and his colleagues, officials of Trans-Euphrates, sent to King Darius (Ezra 5:6). It would have been Tattenai’s responsibility, on hearing of this building, to investigate it. He was just doing his job as a loyal subject of the king. There is nothing in the text to demand that Tattenai’s inquiry be understood as hostile,101 and thanks to the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, the exiles didn’t view Tattenai as an adversary.

In order to fulfill His purpose, ADONAI used and coordinated the preaching of the prophets, the work of the leaders, the determination of the whole community, and the decisions of pagan government officials. The Jews continued their work even though there was a possibility the king would stop the project and thus nullify all their efforts. This persistence and perseverance indicates the people’s faith that God would continue to keep the door open for the continuing work. It also shows the influence of Haggai and Zechariah.102

The report they sent to him was written in Aramaic as follows:

To King Darius. All Shalom!

Be it known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the House of the great God (Ezra 5:8a). That the Persian officials should say the great God may seem strange. But they liked to use the religious language of their subject peoples.103 In addition, this did not mean that Tattenai believed that the God of Isra’el was the supreme God. In the Near East there was a highly developed belief in local deities. Most likely he meant that the God to whom the Jews were building the Temple for was the major God of the area.104 The Temple is being built with large stones and timber is being set in the walls. Now this work is being done diligently and is succeeding in their hands (Ezra 5:8b). An idea of the size of the stones may be obtained from the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Some of them are twenty-six feet long, six feet high and seven feet wide. It is not clear what stage the building had reached; but since Tattenai took the time to write Darius and wait for the reply without stopping the work, it probably was still in its early stages. The whole transaction of sending this report to Darius, searching for the records, and sending back a reply would have taken four or five months.

Then we questioned those elders, asking them, “Who gave you the authority to build this House and to complete this structure?” We also asked them their names in order to inform you, so that we might write the names of the men who were in charge of them (Ezra 5:9-10). The questions were legitimate. Apparently the Jews were courteous and answered correctly. No doubt their integrity had something to do with Tattenai’s positive attitude.105

Tattenai’s report then included the Jews’ answers to his questions. It was a model of religious and political diplomacy. The Jews had caught the vision of their great task. They saw themselves continuing a work that had begun centuries ago: We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the House that was built many years ago. Solomon, the great king of Isra’el built and finished it (Ezra 5:11). The Jews gave a good testimony. One the one hand, they did not hide their allegiance to ADONAI. Normally, in the ancient Near East, the god of the subjected nation was considered to be inferior to the god or gods of the conquering nation. So their words bristled with defiance. YHVH was not just a local deity, He governs the whole earth. More than that, He is the God of heaven and earth. The God of tiny little Isra’el, the forty-three thousand or so who had returned – a small fraction of the world’s population at the time – was the only God there is!106

But because our fathers angered the God of heaven, He gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldean. He destroyed this House and carried the people away to Babylon (Ezra 5:12). But on the other hand, there were no excuses here. The exile had happened as a result of generations of disobedience to YHVH. Yet they were not blaming their forefathers in order to exonerate themselves. Rather, the tone of their words shows that they had taken to heart the rebuke of Haggai and Zechariah, and included themselves in the punishment. The recognition of their guilt was the first step in their rediscovery of their true identity as the people of God.107

Zerubbabel and Jeshua stated that in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this House of God (see AhCyrus Decrees: Rebuild the Temple)That was important because they had legal backing, and Cyrus was still honored as the great founder of the Persian Empire. In fact, Darius consciously tried to follow the policies Cyrus had started. The decree certainly existed, but might be hard to find after so many years. Even the gold and silver vessels of the House of God that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem and had carried away to the temple of Nabu and Marduk in Babylon were to be returned (Ezra 5:13-14a). However, the fact that they were taken in the first place was regarded as a major catastrophe by the Jews, and the fact that the vessels were placed in the temple of another god was regarded as shameful. The decree of Cyrus that commanded that those vessels be returned to the Jews had been received with much thanksgiving and joy.

Then King Cyrus took those gold and silver vessels from the temple in Babylon and gave them to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had appointed governor (Ezra 5:14b). So here the rebuilding had been reported to the authorities as the work of Sheshbazzar, whose official responsibility it was, and whose name could be verified from the royal archives. This verse tells us that King Cyrus had appointed Sheshbazzar as governor sixteen years previously (see Aj The Return to Isra’el Under Sheshbazzar), a position currently held by Zerubbabel. Then he said to him, “Take these vessels and go and deposit them in the Temple in Jerusalem and let the House of God be built in its place” (Ezra 5:15)! So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the House of God in Jerusalem. However, for sixteen years (from that time until now) it has been under sporadic construction, yet it is not yet finished (Ezra 5:16).

Now, if it pleases the king, let a search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see if in fact King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this House of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision about this matter (Ezra 5:17). The archives of the Babylonian Empire would have been stored in Babylon, but one would expect those of Cyrus the Persian to be in Susa, his capital. In the next chapter we see they were actually found in the citadel of Ecbatana (Ezra 6:2), Cyrus’ summer capital.

Haggai ends his brief ministry with a final message addressed to Zerubbabel governor of Judah. As the people had needed encouragement to rebuild, perhaps Zerubbabel also needed encouragement to lead the seemingly insignificant group of Jews who resided in a corner of the vast Persian Empire. Then the word of ADONAI came to Haggai. Say to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, “I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, and I will overturn the throne of kingdoms and destroy the strength of the kingdoms and nations. I will overturn the chariot and its rider, so horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother” (Haggai 2:20-22). This is reminiscent of the destruction of the Gentile world powers represented by the great statue in Dani’el 2. There, the worldwide Messianic Kingdom will replace the Gentile Kingdoms (see the commentary on Revelation AxThe Messianic Kingdom: A Rock Not Cut by Human Hands).

“On that day of future Gentile judgment” – it is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva’ot – “I will take you Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, My servant” – it is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva’ot – “and I will set you like a signet ring. For I have chosen you” (Haggai 2:23a). The fact that Zerubbabel is in the line of messianic descent (Matthew 1:12) confirms that he is a representative of the Messiah Himself. The title My servant frequently pointed to the Davidic king (Isaiah 42:1-9, 49:1-13, 50:4-11, 52:13 to 53:12; and also Second Samuel 3:18; First Kings 11:34; and Ezeki’el 34:23-24, 37:24-25). Haggai’s contemporary, Zechariah, used the messianic title Branch to refer to Zerubbabel (Zechariah 3:8, 6:12; also see Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5-6 and 33:14-16).

The significance of comparing Zerubbabel to a signet ring (a seal of royal authority) is clarified by the imagery of Jeremiah (see the commentary on Jeremiah Dv – The Curse of Jeconiah, Also Known as Jehoiachin or Coniah). ADONAI said that if Jehoiachin (Zerubbabel’s grandfather) were His signet ring, He would pull him off and hand him over to Nebuchadnezzar. Therefore, Haggai was saying that in Zerubbabel, God was reversing the curse pronounced on Jehoiachin.

It is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva’ot (Haggai 2:23b). Fittingly, the last words in Haggai’s scroll are ADONAI-Tzva’ot, the LORD God of heaven’s angelic armies. The sovereign covenant-God is able to bring about all He promised through Haggai. There will be a Messianic Temple where Yeshua Messiah will reign for a thousand years; the final Son of David will rule the earth in peace and righteousness. Therefore, the righteous of the TaNaKh were to be faithful during the days of Zerubbabel to the task to which He had called them.

It is stimulating to know that we are about the Lord’s business. No matter what the threats may amount to, fulfillment and peace can ultimately be found only in knowing that we are engaged in Kingdom work. Those returnees had a moment of spiritual clarity after the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, and for the time being, what mattered most was the worship of God. Worship is the ultimate thing. Yeshua told the Samaritan woman: But an hour is coming – it is here now – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people as His worshipers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). The question that we must ask ourselves is this: Are we driven by a concern to worship ADONAI with a singular, determined resolve, no matter what the cost? When the Spirit of God comes, as He did in 520 BC to Yerushalayim, this is His purpose: to equip us with a similar determination and resolve that gripped the righteous of the TaNaKh in Tziyon when confronted by a vastly superior power – a resolve to put God first, second, and last.108

2024-05-10T18:04:25+00:000 Comments

Ab – Timeline for Ezra-Nehemiah

Timeline for Ezra-Nehemiah

Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective (Ac)

Glossary (Ad)

The Identification of Ezra’s Book of the Torah (Ae)

Ezra-Nehemiah Chronology (Af)

I. First Return in 538-515 BC – Ezra 1:1 to 6:22 (Ag)

A. Cyrus Decrees: Rebuild the Temple – Ezra 1:1-11 (Ah)

1.  The Decree of Cyrus – Ezra 1:1-4 (Ai)

2. The Return to Isra’el Under Sheshbazzar – Ezra 1:5-11 (Aj)

B. Numbering the Exiles Who Returned Under Zerubbabel – Ezra 2:1-70 (Ak)

1.  The Clans Who Returned from Captivity in Babylon – Ezra 2:1-19 (Al)

2.  The Geographical Place-Names who Returned – Ezra 2:20-35 (Am)

3.  Priests, Levites and Temple servants – Ezra 2:36-60 (An)

4.  The Generosity of the People of God – Ezra 2:61-70 (Ao)

C. The Revival of Temple Worship – Ezra 3:1-13 (Ap)

1.  Rebuilding the Bronze Altar and the Festival of Sukkot – Ezra 3:1-6 (Aq)

2.  The Start of Rebuilding the Temple – Ezra 3:7-13 (Ar)

D. Opposition to Rebuilding the Temple – Ezra 4:1-24 (As)

1.  Opposition during the Reign of Cyrus – Ezra 4:1-5 (At)

2.  Opposition during the Reigns of Ahasuerus and Artakh’shasta – Ezra 4:6-24 (Au)

a.  Letters to Ahasuerus and Artakh’shasta – Ezra 4:6-16 (Av)

b.  The Resumption of Work Under King Darius – Ezra 4:17-24 (Aw)

3.  Preaching that Produces Repentance – Ez 5:1-2; Hag 1:1-2:9; Zech 7:1-8:23 (Ax)

a.  Haggai: The Strait Talker – Ezra 5:1-2 and Haggai 1:1 to 2:9 (Ay)

b.  Zechariah: the Visionary – Ezra 5:1-2 and Zechariah 7:1 to 8:23 (Az)

E. The Completion of the Temple – Ezra 5:1 to 6:22 (Ba)

1.  The Prophets Restart the Building of the Temple – Ezra 5:1-17 (Bb)

2.  King Darius Endorses Rebuilding the Temple – Ezra 6:1-12 (Bc)

3.  The Completion and Dedication of the Temple – Ezra 6:13-22 (Bd)

57 year gap between Zerubbabel and Ezra

Esther Queen of Persia (Be)

II. The Second Return in 458-457 BC – Ezra 7:1-10:44 and Neh 7:73b-11:36 (Bf)

A. Ezra’s Return to Jerusalem – Ezra 7:1 to 8:36 (Bg)

1.  Ezra Returns from Babylon – Ezra 7:1-10 (Bh)

2.  King Artakh’shasta’s Letter to Ezra – Ezra 7:11-7:28a (Bi)

3.  The List of Exiles who Returned with Ezra – Ezra 7:28b-8:14 (Bj)

4.  Ezra’s Arrival in Jerusalem – Ezra 8:15-36 (Bk)

B. Ezra’s Reforms – 9:1 to 10:44; Nehemiah 7:73b-9:37 (Bl)

1.  Ezra Reads the Torah Scroll of Moses – Nehemiah 7:73b-8:1-12 (Bm)

2.  The Feast of Sukkot Celebrated – Nehemiah 8:13-18 (Bn)

3.  Ezra’s Prayer about Intermarriage – Ezra 9:1-15 (Bo)

4.  The Israelites Confess Their Sins – Ezra 10:1-6 and Nehemiah 9:1-37 (Bp)

5.  A Binding Agreement – Nehemiah 9:38 to 10:39 (Bq)

6.  The Calling of a Public Assembly – Ezra 10:7-15 (Br)

7.  Those Guilty of Intermarriage – Ezra 10:16-44 (Bs)

12 year gap between Ezra and Nehemiah

III. The Third Return 445-432 BC – Nehemiah 1:1 to 7:73a and 12:1 to 13:31 (Bt)

A. Nehemiah Intercedes for Jerusalem – Nehemiah 1:1-11 (Bu)

B. Favor with King Artakhshasta – Nehemiah 2:1-20 (Bv)

1. The Response of King Artakhshasta – Nehemiah 2:1-10 (Bw)

2. Nehemiah Inspects Jerusalem’s Walls – Nehemiah 2:11-20 (Bx)

C. The List of the Builders of the Wall – Nehemiah 3:1-32 (By)

1. Repairing the Northern and Western Walls – Nehemiah 3:1-15 (Bz)

2. The Construction of the Eastern Wall – Nehemiah 3:16-32 (Ca)

D. Renewed Opposition to the Rebuilding of the Walls – Nehemiah 4:1-23 (Cb)

1. Samaritan Opposition to the Building of the Walls – Nehemiah 4:1-15 (Cc)

2. The Rebuilding the Walls of Jerusalem – Nehemiah 4:16-23 (Cd)

E. Nehemiah Helps the Poor Israelites– Nehemiah 5:1-19 (Ce)

1. The Complaints of the Poor Israelites – Nehemiah 5:1-13 (Cf)

2. Nehemiah’s Unselfish Leadership – Nehemiah 5:14-19 (Cg)

F. The Completion of the Walls Despite Opposition – Nehemiah 6:1-19 (Ch)

1. Attempts to Snare Nehemiah – Nehemiah 6:1-9 (Ci)

2. The Hiring of False Prophets – Nehemiah 6:10-14 (Cj)

3. The Completion of the Walls – Nehemiah 6:15-19 (Ck)

G. The Dedication of the Walls of Jerusalem – Nehemiah 12:27-47 (Cl)

H. The Inspired List of Ezra 2 and the Human Register of Nehemiah 7 (Cm)

I. Hanani, Hananiah and the Returning Exiles – Nehemiah 7:1-73a (Cn)

J. The New Residents of Jerusalem – Nehemiah 11:1-36 (Co)

K. Identifying the Priests and Levites – Nehemiah 12:1-26 (Cp)

L. Malachi: The Pollution of the Priesthood – Malachi 1:1 to 2:17 (Cq)

M. Nehemiah’s Final Reforms – 13:1-31 (Cr)

400 Years of Silence (The Intertestamental Period)

End Notes (Cs)

Bibliography (Ct)

2022-08-21T14:10:38+00:000 Comments

Az – Zechariah: the Visionary Ezra 5:1-2 and Zechariah 7:1 to 8:23

Zechariah: the Visionary
Ezra 5:1-2 and Zechariah 7:1 to 8:23

DIG: What are some holidays or other observances that today have lost connection to what they were originally intended to celebrate? Why does this happen over time? Why had the Jews observed this cycle of fasting for so many years? What did it represent in their view? What did it represent in God’s view? The Jews asked a fairly straightforward question, but ADONAI’s answer was lengthy and complex. What deeper truth was He trying to find out?

REFLECT: What is the difference between repentance of sin and sorrow over the consequences? How do you distinguish between them? What is the outward result of each? In what sense are religious observances a waste of time? When are they valuable? How do you distinguish between these two situations? What things does God hate? Why does He hate them? How does your own list of “hates” compare with God’s list? What did God mean when He said, “Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “I am exceedingly zealous for Zion, I am burning with jealousy for her” (Zechariah 8:2)? How does God’s zeal for your fellowship compare with yours for His? What are some signs that Yeshua’s return is imminent? How does this affect your daily life? How might your priorities change in the coming week if you took this to heart? Does your daily life reflect true obedience to God’s Word, or do you tend to “go through the motions” of religious observances? What area of obedience might the Lord be calling you to this week?

November-December 518 BC about two years before the Temple was completed.

The name Zechariah means ADONAI remembers. He was the great prophet of the days of the restoration from the Babylonian Captivity (see the commentary on Jeremiah). Zechariah was born in Babylon of a priestly family and, much like the prophet Haggai, traveled back to Judah with the first wave of exiles under the leadership of Zerubbabel (see AgThe First Return). The rabbis teach that he was also a member of the Great Sanhedrin, a council of 120 men originated by Nehemiah and presided over by Ezra. This council later developed into the ruling elders of the nation (see the commentary on The Life of Christ LgThe Great Sanhedrin). Zechariah is occasionally referred to as the son of his grandfather, with whom he traveled to Judah, so many assume that his father died when he was very young.93

Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai, and like Haggai, his ministry was to encourage the returned exiles to rebuild the Temple and continue the feasts. He began his ministry two months after Haggai gave his first sermons, but his ministry extended far beyond the life of Haggai. ADONAI used Haggai to begin a revival, and He subsequently used Zechariah to keep it going strong. Following the time of Zechariah, ADONAI would raise up one final prophet named Malachi (see Cq Malachi: The Pollution of the Priesthood) to rebuke and condemn the exiles for the abuses they committed during the period of Nehemiah’s absence from 445 to 433 BC (see AfEzra-Nehemiah Chronolgy). After Malachi, prophecy from YHVH would fall silent for four hundred years, until a man named John arrived on the Judean scene (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Be John the Baptist Prepares the Way).94

Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Isra’el. Here, the prophets functioned as catalysts to finish the rebuilding with their encouraging message (Ezra 6:14). Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the House of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them supporting them (Ezra 5:1-2). Those workers were not on their own, God was over them.

Now that the Temple was being rebuilt, some Jews traveled to Yerushalayim to seek the will of ADONAI about whether they should continue their annual feasts. In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Adonai came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, in Kislev. Now Bethel sent Sarezer and Regem-melech together with his men to seek the favor of Adonai, and to speak to the cohanim of the House of ADONAI-Tzva’ot and to the prophets saying: Should I mourn and consecrate myself in the fifth month as I have done for so many years (Zechariah 7:1-3)! These men came from Bethel, rather than to Bethel, a town twelve miles north of Tziyon. Since the return from Babylon, the Jews had rebuilt and repopulated that city. Bethel had been the center of apostate worship for the Northern ten tribes of Isra’el (First Kings 12:28-29, 13:1; Amos 7:13). They journeyed to Jerusalem to ask the priests whether they needed to continue to celebrate the yearly schedule of feasts. Their question, however, implied a desire to discontinue the religious observance of fasting.95 God gave four responses.

God’s first response: ADONAI asked the people to examine their hearts. What was the real reason for fasting? What was their true motive for fasting and eating for the feasts? Then the word of ADONAI-Tzva’ot came to me saying: Speak to all the people of the land and to the cohanim saying: When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh months for the past seventy years, did you really fast for Me? The fast of the fifth month (July-August, the month of Av), commemorated the destruction of the City and the Temple (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gb The Destruction of Solomon’s Temple on Tisha B’Av in 586 BC). The fast of the seventh month was not the divinely instituted fast on the annual day of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:29-31, 23:26-32), which was also on the seventh month, but a fast commemorating the murder of Gedaliah, governor of Judah, during the time of civil unrest after the fall of Yerushalayim (see the commentary on Jeremiah GgGedaliah Assassinated). Were they merely going through the motions of these yearly fasts, or was their heart really in it? Were they really mourning over the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the assassination of Gedaliah, or were they only putting on a show? When they ate and drank during the other cycle of feasts, who were they thinking of? When you eat and drink, are you not eating and drinking for yourself? If their eating at the yearly cycle of feasts was for their own pleasure, the fasts were also likely to be driven by selfish ambitions. And if that were the case, it had all been a big waste of time.

Are not these the words that ADONAI proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem with its surrounding cities were inhabited and prosperous, when the Negev and the lowland were inhabited (Zechariah 7:4-7)? If the Israelites had just obeyed His word in the first place, there would never have been any call for the fasts. The important matter was not ritual, but obedience. In the past it had been obedience to God’s Word that brought great joy, peace, and prosperity to Isra’el during the time of David and Solomon. If that present generation in Zechariah’s time were to substitute ritual for obedience, they would have the joy, peace, and prosperity that they were enjoying. YHVH wanted them to show their repentance through obedience, not through outward pious religious ritual.

God’s second response: Then the LORD offered some practical examples of the type of obedience He desired. Again, the word of ADONAI came to Zechariah saying: Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot: “Administer true judgment and practice mercy and compassion each to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the outsider or the poor. Furthermore, do not let any of you devise evil against one another in your heart” (Zechariah 7:8-10). Those who looked for every opportunity to advance themselves would only end up planning evil against others, pushing others down, using every underhanded scheme imaginable to get ahead. For them the ends justify the means. ADONAI said to repent of such things, and they would have no need of fasting.96

Next, Ha’Shem pointed out that the previous generation had been told the exact same thing. But they refused to pay attention. They stubbornly turned their backs and stopped their ears from hearing. Indeed, they made their hearts as hard as flint preventing them from hearing the Torah or the words that ADONAI-Tzva’ot sent by His Ruach through the former prophets. The implication of this was a warning to the present generation not to make the same mistake. Consequently, great wrath came from ADONAI-Tzva’ot. It came about that just as He called and they did not listen, so when they would call for deliverance, I would not listen, says ADONAI-Tzva’ot. “I scattered them to exile in Babylon with a whirlwind among all the nations they have not known. Thus, the Land was left so desolate behind them that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate” (Zechariah 7:11-14).

God’s third response: Then ADONAI turned His eyes toward the far eschatological future, and contrast Isra’el’s past judgment with her promised future restoration. The word of ADONAI-Tzva’ot came saying: “Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “I am exceedingly zealous for Zion, I am burning with jealousy for her” (Zechariah 8:1-2). Exodus 20:5a says: Do not bow down to [other gods] . . . for I am a jealous God. The reason that idols are not to be worshiped is that ADONAI is a jealous or zealous God, and idolatry is looked upon as spiritual adultery. The Hebrew term qanna’ combines the two concepts of jealousy and zeal (not envy or suspicion). So zeal, or zealousness, meaning a passionate devotion to, would be a better term to use than jealous, which has negative, even petty connotations. So idolatry would cause God’s zeal to burn like a husband’s zealousness would burn against an unfaithful wife (Hosea 2:2-5). Because God and Isra’el are viewed as married, Zion is viewed as the wife of ADONAI (Deuteronomy 5:1-3, 6:10-15, 7:6-11; Isaiah 54:1-8, 62:4-5; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezeki’el 16:8; Hosea 2:14-23). For that very reason, God has a right to be zealous over what is rightfully His.

Thus says ADONAI, “I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth and the mountain of ADONAI-Tzva’ot will be called the Holy Mountain.” Zion was the mountain on which ancient Jerusalem was built, which became the name of the City. But in the far eschatological future, the Lord Himself will rule the whole earth from the Temple in Jerusalem for a thousand years (see the commentary on Isaiah DbThe Nine Missing Articles in the Messiah’s Coming Temple). Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “Once again old men and old women will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with his staff in his hand because of his age. The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets” (Zechariah 8:4-5). Zion will be secure and safe for the young and the old alike.

Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “It may seem difficult in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, but will it also be difficult in My eyes?” – it is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva’ot (Zechariah 8:6). The Jews of Zechariah’s day might have thought these promises sounded hard to believe, but there is nothing too hard for the Lord, He always keeps His promises no matter how hard they are to believe. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son (Matthew 1:22-23a).

Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “Behold, I will save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west. I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Jp The Earth Will Mourn When They See the Son of Man Coming on the Clouds). They will be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness” (Zechariah 8:7-8).

God’s fourth response: ADONAI continued to expound on the countess blessings He intends for His people. In the end, the answer to His question in Zechariah 7:3 is simple: obey Me! Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “Let your hands be strong – you who hear these words spoken by the prophets [Haggai and Zechariah] who were there the day the foundation of the House of ADONAI-Tzva’ot was laid – so that the Temple may be rebuilt. Before those days, when the people’s opposition by the Samaritans and their love of ease and comfort created an indifference in them finishing building the Temple, there were no wages for man or animal, nor was there any shalom from adversity for those who came or went because I set every one against his neighbor. But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days” – it is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva’ot (Zechariah 8:9-11).

For there will be a sowing of shalom: the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its increase, and the heavens will give their dew. I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. It will happen that just as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Isra’el, so will I save you and you will be a blessing (Zechariah 8:12-13a). These promises of blessings applied in some measure to the Jews of Zechariah’s day, but they also pointed to the far eschatological future and the Messianic Kingdom, when ADONAI will restore Isra’el to full fellowship and restoration.

Fear not! Fear is the enemy of faith and causes a person to doubt that Ha’Shem is in control in the face of overwhelming circumstances. The same truth is critical for all believers in all ages. We are commanded to resist fear through faith in His sovereignty. Let your hands be strong to complete the rebuilding of the Temple (Zechariah 8:13b)!97

For thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “Just as I determined to harm you when your fathers provoked Me to anger,” says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, ‘and I did not relent, so I have again determined in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear not! These are the things that you are to do: speak the truth one to another; administer the judgment of truth and shalom in your gates; do not let any of you devise evil in your hearts against your neighbor; and do not love false oaths, for I hate all these things,” – it is a declaration of ADONAI (Zechariah 8:14-17). As always blessings are connected with obedience to YHVH’s righteous standards. As God’s people learn to share His promises, they will grow to hate lies and evil as much as He does.

Again the word of ADONAI-Tzva’ot came saying: Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth month will become joy, gladness and cheerful moadim. Therefore, love truth and shalom” (Zechariah 8:18-19)! But here Zechariah mentions four extra-biblical fasts instituted and observed during the Captivity. On the tenth month of Tevet (December/January) 588 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched against Jerusalem and laid siege to the City (see the commentary on Jeremiah GaThe Fall of Jerusalem). On the ninth day of the fourth month, the walls of Jerusalem were broken through by the Babylonian army. The fast of the fifth month (July-August, the month of Av), commemorated the destruction of the City and the Temple (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gb The Destruction of Solomon’s Temple on Tisha B’Av in 586 BC). And the fast of the seventh month commemorated the murder of Gedaliah, governor of Judah (see the commentary on Jeremiah GgGedaliah Assassinated). Zechariah encourages the exiles to be faithful to finish building the Temple as they look forward to the Messianic Kingdom when all their fasts will become times joy and gladness.

Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “Peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will again come. The inhabitants of one city will go to another saying ‘Let us go to entreat the favor of ADONAI and to seek ADONAI-Tzva’ot. I also am going.’ Indeed, many peoples and powerful nations will come to seek ADONAI-Tzva’ot in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of ADONAI” (Zechariah 8:20-22). Isra’el’s restoration in the Messianic Kingdom will be the means of blessing for the entire world. Gentiles from all around the world will travel to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, fulfilling the words of Psalm 122.

Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “In those days it will come to pass that ten men from every language of the nations will grasp the corner of the garment of a Jew saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’ (Zechariah 8:23).” The Jews will truly be God’s messengers as originally intended (Genesis 12:3), and will bring untold multitudes to Messiah during His thousand year reign (see the commentary on Isaiah Kq The Wolf and the Lamb Will Feed Together, and the Lion Will Eat Straw Like the Ox).

2021-02-08T12:53:21+00:000 Comments

Ay – Haggai: The Strait Talker Ezra 5:1-2 and Haggai 1:1 to 2:9

Haggai: The Strait Talker
Ezra 5:1-2 and Haggai 1:1 to 2:9

Haggai the strait talker DIG: Why did the Jews stop building the Temple in the first place? How did that gradually grow into complacency over time? God does not dwell in any physical structure, so why was He angry the people had not rebuilt His house? What were the larger issues involved? How did ADONAI get His message across to His people? What circumstances did He use? What people did He use? How does He do similar things today? What does it mean to be strong? What does it mean to not fear? How are these things done voluntarily? Why were the Jews distressed when they saw their new Temple?

REFLECT: What are some comparisons people make when it comes to a home, a car, or success? What traps do people fall into when they compare their situation to the situation of others? What exactly is complacency? What causes it and what are its results? How can you guard against it? What does it mean to set your heart on your ways? How is this done, in practical terms? Why is it so important for you to do? Why do people lose sight of the Lord’s priorities in the midst of their busy lives? How do the demands of daily life crowd out concern about the things of God? How can you guard against this? What priorities and perspectives do you share with Ha’Shem? Which priorities or perspectives are more like those of the world? What will you do this week to renew your mind?

All we know about Haggai, the man, is recorded for us in the prophecy that bears his name. This little book of a minor prophet covers the span of four months, from August 29 to December 18, 520 BC. He most likely had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon with Zerubbabel eighteen years earlier in 538 BC. The name Haggai means festival. At first glance, this name may seem very ironic, given the stark nature of his message from Ha’Shem. However, God had sent His people to Yerushalayim specifically to reinstate true worship and to rebuild His Temple, which should have been a festive occasion. If there was any loss of festive nature, it was because the people had lost His perspective.

Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Isra’el. Here, the prophets functioned as catalysts to finish the rebuilding with their encouraging message (Ezra 6:14). Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the House of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them supporting them (Ezra 5:1-2). Those workers were not on their own, God was over them.

A Call to Build the House of ADONAI

In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of ADONAI came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak (Ezra 3:2), kohen gadol: “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: ‘This people say the time has not come – the time for the House of ADONAI to be rebuilt.’ (Haggai 1:1-2).” The people of God had been procrastinating, saying that the time for building the Temple was not right for them. They were unwilling to build; they were waiting for the right moment when such work could be done. They had been excusing their inactivity. For sixteen years they had convinced themselves of this.

Then the word of ADONAI came through Haggai the prophet. He was not a man to mince his words. His message was to stop making excuses, to make God’s priorities their priorities, and resume the work of rebuilding the Temple. “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this House lies in ruins? Walls and ceilings overlaid with cedar were common in wealthy homes. The Jews had made their own comfort a high priority, while ignoring the LORD’s house. They were building luxury homes, while the Temple was in ruins.85

But now,” thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot (Haggai 1:3-4):

“Set your heart on your ways!
You sowed much but bring in little.
You eat but are never satisfied.
You drink but not enough to get filled.
You put on clothes but no one is warm.
And whoever earns wages works for a bag full of holes.” Haggai
rebuked the people for their selfish indifference and negligence. Thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot: “Set your heart on your ways (Haggai 1:5-7)! This was the central message of Haggai’s prophecy. He called on God’s people to examine their lives, make sure they were living in obedience to God’s word, and make sure our priorities are His priorities.

Paul warned his readers that this process is we are to understand ADONAI’s will for our lives.

I urge you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice – holy, acceptable to God – which is your spiritual service. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2). As believers in Yeshua, we cannot hope to understand Ha’Shem’s perfect will unless we are constantly renewing our minds by the Word of God. If we forget to set our heart on our ways, we will end up conformed to the world.86

Go up to the hills, bring wood and build the House. Three relatively simple steps outline what YHVH required of His people. They were to go to the forest (which had regrown during the exile), bring lumber and start building. By putting the LORD first, they would honor Him in their worship, and they would be blessed in all the other areas of their lives. There was mystery surrounding His will, and the people didn’t lack understanding of what He wanted . . . what they lacked was simple obedience. Then I will delight in it and I will be glorified,” says ADONAI (Haggai 1:8). His delight would not come from the building itself. In fact, the Temple was to be a pitiful structure compared to the magnificent Temple that Solomon built (Second Chronicles Chapters 2-5). Rather, ADONAI would take pleasure in seeing His chosen people worshiping Him in the way He had prescribed, and as a result, His name would be glorified when He would see them doing so.87

But instead, the Jews were busy running “here and there,” looking after their own interests, while the House of the LORD lay in ruins. “You have looked for much, but indeed, there is little. What you have brought home, I have blown away. Why is this?” – it is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva’ot – because My House lies in ruins, while you are running, each to his own house (Haggai 1:9). ADONAI snorted with contempt when He saw His people’s priorities as they strove after things of this world that would not last. Yeshua faced the same problem when He said: Therefore, do now worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For the pagans eagerly pursue all these. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:31-33).

The price of the people’s disobedience came in the form of an economic catastrophe. Therefore, because of you, the sky has withheld dew and the earth has withheld its yield. For I have called for a drought on the land, the hills and the grain, on the new wine, the oil – the primary crops of the Landon what the ground brings forth, on mankind and beast, as well as all labor of hands because of their disobedience (Haggai 1:10-11). The people had stopped working on the Temple to save riches for themselves, yet ADONAI was disciplining them by sending drought and famine.

The effect of his sermon was dramatic. The people immediately obeyed, turning away from the past and focusing with renewed zeal and dedication to the work at hand. Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, Kohen Gadol, and all the remnant of the people heeded the voice of Adonai their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, since ADONAI their God had sent him. So the people revered ADONAI, knowing that God was present (1:12). They renewed their commitment to Him and to seeking His presence. The people’s repentance came less than two weeks after Haggai began preaching.88

Then, as soon as the people repented and embraced God’s priorities, ADONAI relented His hand of discipline and began pouring out His blessings once again. Haggai, the messenger of Adonai, spoke to the people with the message of ADONAI, “I am with you!” – it is a declaration of ADONAI (1:13).

God was with them in a new way, and there seemed to be a unity among them that hadn’t been seen since the days they had first arrived back in Yerushalayim.89 Then Adonai energized the leaders and the people through His word to carry on the work of rebuilding the Temple. He stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Jeshua son of Jehozadak, Cohen Gadol, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and did work on the House of ADONAI-Tzva’ot their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius (Haggai 1:14-15).

The Promised Glory of this Latter House

The people had once again experienced some opposition and discouragement, and ADONAI sent another prophecy through Haggai, this time concerning events in the far eschatological future, when YHVH would build His most glorious Temple.

On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of Adonai came through Haggai the prophet (Haggai 2:1). According to Leviticus 23:39-44, this would be the final day of the feast of Shukkot, in which the people celebrated God’s provision for the Israelites during their forty years of wilderness wanderings and gave thanks for a bountiful harvest. On this occasion, God gave Haggai another message to give to the people.

Ha’Shem said: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, kohen gadol, and to the remnant of the people and ask them three questions that would expose their unfavorable comparison of Solomon’s Temple to the one they had refused to finish. “Who remains among you who saw this House in its former glory? So how do you see it now? Does it not seem as nothing in comparison in your eyes (Haggai 2:2-3)? The older Jews would have remembered the magnificence and splendor of Solomon’s Temple, but the rebuilt one must have seemed like a shack compared to the original one. Yet ADONAI was not discouraged and He didn’t want His people to be discouraged. He had a far more glorious Temple in mind. The future Millennial Temple will be filled with His Sh’khinah glory because He will rule and reign from the Most Holy Place (see the commentary on Isaiah Db The Nine Missing Articles in the Messiah’s Coming Temple).

But now, Zerubbabel, chazak!” – it is a declaration of ADONAI – “and be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, Cohen Gadol, and all the people of the land, chazak!”- it is a declaration of Adonai – “and work! For I am with you!” – it is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva’ot (Haggai 2:4). The LORD encouraged the leaders and the people to take strong action since the Ruach was with them. Strength is normally something that you cannot choose – a person is either physically strong or not, according to heredity. However, strength in ADONAI is a matter of choice: the choice to set one’s heart on steadfast obedience regardless of the cost.90

“According to the word I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. My Ruach is standing in your midst. Do not fear” (Haggai 2:5)! Closely related to the previous declaration is the command not to fear. The point of the motivation was to call the LORD’s people to work with the motivation of what lay ahead – the unseen rather than what could be seen – much as Paul seemed to be doing when he said: We look not at what can be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal (Second Corinthians 4:18).

For thus says ADONAI-Tzva’ot: “In just a little while I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all the nations. The treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this House with His Sh’khinah glory,” says ADONAI-Tzva’ot. “The silver is mine and the gold is mine!” God’s inexhaustible natural resources will be available for constructing a future Millennial Temple – it is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva’ot (Haggai 2:6-8). The shaking of the cosmic bodies that Haggai referred to here looks to the upheaval in the universe described in Revelation Chapters 6-19, the subjugation of the nations by the Messiah, and the setting up of His Kingdom that will never be destroyed (see the commentary on Hebrews DcThe Earthly Sinai and the Heavenly Tziyon).

“The glory of this latter House will be greater than the former,” says ADONAI-Tzva’ot. Messianic Temple, the latter House, will vastly surpass anything Zerubbabel and the returnees could build. Then the blessings of the Messianic Kingdom are summed up in one word – shalom. “In this place, [Yerushalayim], I will grant shalom” – it is a declaration of ADONAI-Tzva’ot (Haggai 2:9). The thousand years of shalom will result only from the presence of the Prince of Peace (see the commentary on Isaiah Ck He Will Be Called the Prince of Peace).91

We find ourselves in a similar place as the Jews in Haggai’s day. The gospel has been proclaimed, and there are believers around the world. Nevertheless, the world is dominated by wars and rumors of wars. Injustice is the norm, and hunger and poverty are rampant. Yet we, too, can be encouraged by the promise of God that Messiah is going to return to earth and fulfill every one of His promises. We know that He will establish His glorious Kingdom on earth and from that Temple, ADONAI will return shalom and order to the world.92

2021-02-08T11:58:52+00:000 Comments

Ax – Producing Repentance Ezra 5:1-2, Haggai 1:1 to 2:9 and Zechariah 7:1 to 8:23

The Preaching that Produces Repentance
Ezra 5:1-2, Haggai 1:1 to 2:9
and Zechariah 7:1 to 8:23

Ezra 5:1-2 begins with a summary statement of the contribution of Haggai and Zechariah to the construction of the Temple. It is an example of how preaching the word of God produces acts of repentance among the people of ADONAI. The work of rebuilding would last another four years; no sooner will the zeal to rebuild be seen than the Persians will have nervousness of their own, which the rest of Ezra 5 will recount and resolve. For now, the motivation to restart the work that is the focus, to which Haggai and Zechariah contributed substantially. It would be difficult to imagine two more contrasting prophets than Haggai and Zechariah; the one a straight-talker, and the other a visionary. It will be helpful for us to now take some time to reflect on the ministries of these two prophets in the year 520 BC.84

2024-05-10T18:03:50+00:000 Comments

Aw – The Resumption of Work Under King Darius Ezra 4: 17-24

The Resumption of Work
Under King Darius
Ezra 4: 17-24

The resumption of work under King Darius DIG: What is the three-pronged appeal of Rehum’s letter? What is this plaintiff more concerned about: City building code violations? Political issues? Advancing his own cause? Revenging himself and his people of Isra’el? Something else? What effect did this letter have on Artaxerxes? On the Jews? What does the chronicler conclude? What happens in the second year of King Darius’ rule (Ezra 4:24; Haggai 1:1-5; Zechariah 1:1-17)?

REFLECT: On the one hand, when one party says they alone are the true worshipers of God, and all others are a mixed breed (or mongrels), then what might one expect in return? How else do you account for the opposition mounted against ancient Isra’el, and Isra’el today? On the other hand, why was Isra’el right to insist on religious exclusivity and spiritual purity? Today, why and when is it valid to make the case that faith in Yeshua Messiah is the only way to the Father and true salvation?

445 BC During the ministry of Nehemiah (to see link click BtThe Third Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra and Nehemiah memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Nehemiah Memoirs).

Ezra 4:8 to 6:18 is written in Aramaic, the language that the Persians used in official documents (much like the Roman Empire used Greek).

In describing the events in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Chronicler, with the advantage of hindsight, looks back on the historical landscape and refers to the opposition placed in the way of the Jews. When discussing the problems of building the Temple in Ezra 4:1-5, it reminded him of similar problems with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem about ninety years later, and so Ezra 4:6-23 has been inserted, almost parenthetically, before the narrative of the building of the Temple can once again be taken up in Ezra 4:24 (see below). So, here we temporarily flash-forward to 445 BC and the Third Return of Nehemiah.

The king Artakh’shasta replied to the letter sent by Rehum the commander and Shimshai the priest (see AvLetters to Ahasuerus and Artakh’shasta), and the king appears to have taken the bait entirely. He was evidently more troubled by the thought of lost revenue (Ezra 4:21-22), and has perhaps been even more impressed by the potential of Judah’s rebellion than either Rehum and Shimshai could have hoped for or historically was even possible.

The heading of king Artakh’shasta’s letter read: To Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates who dwell in Samaria and the others in Trans-Euphrates. The Trans-Euphrates included Egypt – a constant thorn in the side of Eastern empires for centuries – the form of the Jerusalem threat may well be couched in terms of a suggested political marriage of convenience between Egypt and Jerusalem. The king was urged to research Jerusalem’s history to find similar acts of rebellion in the past. In actuality, Judah was militarily weak and could no more organize a military coup than fly to the moon! It was the suggestion alleging a wider alliance including Egypt that disturbed the Persian king’s equanimity. The paid officials of Persia, Rehum and Shimshai, were ordered to immediately spread word that the rebuilding must stop immediately.79

The author no doubt had a copy of the letters before him, for the form and expression follow exactly what we know of official royal letters of this time. The reply also shows the surprising efficiency of administration communication in the Persian Empire. Letters could travel between Samaria and the Persian court in about a week.

The actual text of the king’s letter started with: Shalom!

The letter that you sent to us has been translated and read in my presence. Because the king did not understand Aramaic, the letter was translated for him. At my order a search was made and it was found that this city has from earliest times revolted against kings and that rebellion and sedition continually occur in it (see the commentary on Isaiah Go Hezekiah and the Assyrians). Mighty kings, like those of Assyria, Babylon and Persia, have ruled over Jerusalem governing all the Trans-Euphrates, and tribute, taxes, and duty were paid to them (Ezra 4:17-20).

So now, issue a decree to stop these men – this city is not to be rebuilt until I issue a decree. He was cautious. He left himself the option to make another decision in the light of new circumstances. Nevertheless, he warned Rehum and Shimshai to be careful not to be negligent in this matter. Because of the long distance the king made sure that his order was carried out. Why should damage increase to the detriment of the kings (Ezra 4:21-22)? This was the same king who later (in 445 BC) changed this decree and allowed Nehemiah to return and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. However, the immediate result was a forced cessation of the building activity because the enemies used force to back up a legal document from the Persian king.80

The enemies lost no time in complying with the decree of Artakh’shasta. Then, as soon as the copy of the letter from the king was read in the presence of Rehum, Shimshai the scribe and their associates, they hurried off to the Jews in Jerusalem and by force and power compelled them to stop (Ezra 4:23). If some work had been done on the reconstruction of the walls, they may have destroyed it at that time. This could have been the situation reported to Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1:3, “The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire.”

It is one of the ironies of Jewish history that the fears aroused in Artakh’shasta by Rehum’s letter were instrumental in his decision to send Nehemiah to Jerusalem (see BwThe Response of King Artakh’shasta). More specifically, the adversaries condemned themselves out of their own mouths. In making their extreme accusations against the Jews (see Av Letters to Ahasuerus and Artakh’shasta), those enemies of God proved that they had no true heritage in Isra’el. Nehemiah, however, was known for his loyalty to Persia; therefore, the effects of his commission ended up being exactly opposite of those who shared the concerns of Rehum and Shimshai, who seem to have forgotten the proverb: The heart of man plans his course, but ADONAI directs his steps (Proverbs 16:9). Little did Artakh’shasta realize his own role in the re-establishment of the people from whom, in time, a true King would appear.81

As the lines of Ezra 4 draw to a close in verse 23, we now flash-back to the First Return and the narrative of rebuilding the Temple is once again taken up.

536 BC during the ministry of Zerubbabel (see AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah From a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Then the work on the House of God in Jerusalem ceased. It remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia (see Bc King Darius Endorses the Rebuilding of the Temple). Here the Chronicler picks up the thread of Ezra 4:5 which was dropped for the long parenthesis of 4:6-23. The time was again that of Zerubbabel, finishing with the same phrase as in Ezra 4:5, the reign of Darius king of Persia (Ezra 4:24); but now we are told what the earlier statement stopped short of saying: first, that the work of building the Temple was not only hindered but halted, and secondly, in what year of Darius king of Persia the deadlock was broken (see Ba The Completion of the Temple).82

It was as if the Chronicler, looking back on Jewish history, was saying to his first audience, “You see the trouble you are facing right now? Well, it has been like this for the past hundred years. Time and time again, your forefathers experienced trial after trail. It has never been easy for the people of God.” There are four lessons, then, that we can learn from over a century of Jewish opposition.

First, you can almost hear Paul, reporting back to the church in Antioch after his first missionary journey, saying: It is through many persecutions that we must enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22b). The health and wealth doctrine so popular today is a far cry from the teaching of our Lord when He said: Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). We can’t compare our lives to the supposed blessings that other believers have known. Most of us experience trials and suffering. Knowing this should prevent us from distorting our expectations or getting frustrated when they are not fulfilled.

Second, like the first readers of Ezra-Nehemiah, we need to learn that relatively long periods of time may pass without the benefit of divine intervention in either good leadership or spiritual renewal. Chapter 4 covers a period from the time of Zerubbabel and Jeshua, leaders in the rebuilding of the Temple (537-515 BC), to the rise of Ezra the reformer some sixty years later (458 BC), to the emergence of Nehemiah over a decade later (445 BC). Intervals of time (in some cases generations) pass by in which relatively happens that we might call spectacular; no great leadership or no outpourings of spiritual revival. Just as is true of God’s work in the lives of individuals, so it is in the work of the body of Christ – growth is hardly ever uniform and uninterrupted. Instead we see periods of spiritual dryness and lethargy. Such times it is easy to exaggerate the blessings of the past and grow cynical toward the present. We may not be living in times when extraordinary things are happening, days when the likes of Martin Luther, John Calvin, George Whitfield, or Jonathan Edwards were ministering, but we are not to despise the time in which the Lord has placed us.

Third, a period of trials can make us lose sight of Ha’Shem. By the time of Nehemiah’s arrival in 445 BC the people had long abandoned the project of rebuilding the City and, in the process, lost sight of the reason God had allowed them to return to the Promised Land in the first place. Trails had discouraged them about the promises of ADONAI and their own resources looked woefully small to undertake such a task. Sixty years had passed since the first Passover and Feast of Sukkot were celebrated, yet things had not significantly changed. The returnees were spiritually bankrupt, having the form but not the power of faith. They had lost sight of YHVH, as the absence of any reference to prayer makes all too clear. This is a lesson we can learn from today.

Fourth, and this is a very difficult lesson, trials can sometimes be the result of sin. It is important to note that upon hearing the state of Jerusalem, Nehemiah made a confession of not only his own sins but also those of his fellow Jews (Nehemiah 1:6-7). This is a delicate matter, for not every trial is the result of sin, as the story of Job teaches us. Yet the Bible does teach that sometimes suffering is divine chastisement for wrongdoing on our part (see the commentary on Hebrews Cz – God Disciplines His Children). The problem with discipline is that it can lead to weariness and bitterness: See to it that no bitter root springs up and causes trouble, and by it many are defiled (Hebrews 12:15). It can also cause hands to droop and the knees to grow weak and feeble. This, or so it seems, is what occurred following Ezra’s visit to Jerusalem. Often times, spiritual depression is the likely response to painful and difficult trials. Yes, trails can be depressing, but without faith in Messiah they cannot help us see what the author of Hebrews is keen to emphasize – that trials can be evidence of our adoption (Ephesians 1:4-5; John 1:12; Galatians 3:26-29). Without this perspective, trials merely condemn. They lack that quality that drives us to see our need to cry to God for help. They discourage us without showing the way out of despair. This is why the author of Hebrews encourages weary believers bowed down under the weight of trials to run with endurance the race set before us, focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1b-2a). Trials, then, are God’s school in which we are trained in the ways of righteousness.

The point that Ezra-Nehemiah stresses is this: Learn from your trials! Learn to see them as the instruments that call you back to ADONAI. Learn to see them as God’s burs placed in your bed to keep you watchful and awake. Learn to view them as part of the promise of your gracious Lord in this world, making you long for the world to come (see the commentary on Revelation Fu The New Jerusalem had a Great, High Wall with Twelve Gates).83

2021-02-08T11:46:39+00:000 Comments

Av – Letters to Ahasuerus and Artakh’shasta Ezra 4: 6-16

Letters to Ahasuerus and Artakh’shasta
Ezra 4: 6-16

Letters to Ahasuerus and Artakh’shasta DIG: Artakh’shasta reigned from 486 to 465 BC. How does the opposition under their reigns compare to the opposition under King Cyrus (4:1-6). How do you account for the perseverance and intensification of this conflict over such a span of years? Ashurbanipal squelched a major revolt in Babylonia (652-648? BC), destroyed the town of Susa in the process, and deported the rebels (4:10). What irony do you see in what Rehum (and the other descendants of those rebels) are doing two centuries later? What was their letter designed to do (4:11-16). How is that related to what transpired one century earlier (under the reign of King Cyrus)?

REFLECT: Rehum’s complaints against Isra’el remind us that our past sometimes lives on to haunt us. Where do you see that today in national or international affairs? In churches? In messianic synagogues? In denominations? In your personal and family life?

445 BC During the ministry of Nehemiah (see BtThe Third Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra and Nehemiah memoirs.
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Nehemiah Memoirs).

In describing the events in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Chronicler, with the advantage of hindsight, looks back on the historical landscape and refers to the opposition placed in the way of the Jews. When discussing the problems of building the Temple in Ezra 4:1-5, it reminded him of similar problems with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem about ninety years later, and so Ezra 4:6-23 has been inserted, almost parenthetically, before the narrative of the building of the Temple can once again be taken up in Ezra 4:24. So, here we temporarily flash-forward to 445 BC and the Third Return of Nehemiah.

Opposition during the reign of Ahasuerus: During the reign of Ahasuerus at the beginning of his reign (see the commentary on Esther Ac The Book of Esther From a Jewish Perspective: King Ahasuerus), they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem (Ezra 4:6). The beginning of his reign is an Aramaic technical term translated into Hebrew. It refers to the time of the actual assumption of power and not the year in which the king ascended to the throne. The latter year is usually counted as the last year of the previous king. The beginning of the reign of Ahasuerus, therefore, refers to 485 BC. It seems that the complaint had not been heeded because Ahasuerus had put down a revolt in Egypt.70 Troubling a new ruler eager to assume a formidable reputation was, of course, a good strategy on the part of Jerusalem’s enemies. The attempt seems to have come to nothing, however, and the story moves on.

Opposition during the reign of Artakh’shasta: More than twenty years later, following the assassination of Ahasuerus by Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard, his brother Artakh’shasta ascended to the throne in 465 BC. A letter to the new Persian king accused the Jews of tax avoidance (among other things). The letter itself comes across as a mixture of flattery, innuendo, and political ingenuity.

It is estimated that the Persians collected between $145 and $255 million worth of taxes, of which around $5 million came from Judah. The Persians took gold and silver coins, melted them down, and stored them as bullion. Very little of these taxes returned to the provinces, either by way of expenditure of infrastructure or in social benefit. Though the total amount of income from the Jewish province amounted to less than 5 percent of the total revenue, the Persians would not have tolerated any signs of rebellion on the part of Judah. The threat of the loss of revenue (Ezra 4:13), and, more importantly, political control – you will no longer have any possession in Trans-Euphrates (Ezra 4:16) – no doubt was designed to strike a chord deep within the distant king’s heart.73

Also during the days of Artakh’shasta king of Persia, a letter was written by Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his associates to the king of Persia. The letter was written in Aramaic and translated (Ezra 4:7). Aramaic was the official language of diplomacy between the local provinces and the Persian court. The true colors of the adversaries of the Jews appear in this letter. Here their tactics had changed. Now the adversaries (although a new generation of them) were addressing the seat of the empire rather than to the exiles themselves. Their concern, from stressing their similarities, was to show how different they were. They did this by presenting themselves as good and loyal imperial subjects.74

Ezra 4:8 to 6:18 is written in Aramaic, the language the Persians used in official documents (much like the Roman Empire used Greek). This shift gives us the feel that the actual sources are being quoted.

Verses 8 to 11 serve as the introduction to the letter quoted in verses 12 to 16. Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter concerning Jerusalem to King Artakh’shasta as follows (Ezra 4:8). Here the author explained that this was a letter of accusation from the officials in Samaria against the Jews who were attempting to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

The letter was from Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates – the judges and the officials, the magistrates, and governors over the Erechtites, the Babylonians, the people of Susa (that is, the Elamites) and the rest of the peoples whom the great and noble Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the city of Samaria and the rest of Trans-Euphrates (Ezra 4:9-10). Rehum and Shimshai were probably Persian officials who were bribed to write the letter for the Jews in Palestine. In their introduction they tried to point out to Artakh’shasta that the people who opposed the building of the walls of Yerushalayim were from various parts of the Persian Empire. (Now this is a copy of the letter they sent to him). To Artakh’shasta the king, from your servants, the men of Trans-Euphrates (Ezra 4:11).

Sometime before Nehemiah had succeeded with his request (see Bw The Response of King Artakh’shasta), the Jews started building the wall and the ruins of Jerusalem. Rehum and his associates thwarted that effort. Now let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding the rebellious and wicked city. They are completing the walls and repairing the foundations (Ezra 4:12). This refers to the Jews who migrated to Palestine before Nehemiah (see BtThe Third Return). They arrived in the City without walls and consequently they were easy prey for robbers. It was understandable that they decided to rebuild the wall to protect themselves and their property. But they had not received permission from the Persian government.75

Furthermore, let it be known to the king, that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, no more tribute, taxes or duty will be paid and the royal revenue will suffer (Ezra 4:13). After the costly campaign against the Greeks, the Persian Empire could not afford to lose any revenue and the conspirators played upon the fears of the king. The early years of Artakh’shasta’s reign had been difficult, and there were a number of rebellions in the west; so even though those supposed dangers were exaggerated in this letter, they would arouse concern in the king, causing him to take notice and act.

Now since we eat the salt of the palace, and it is not proper for us to see the king dishonored, we are sending this message to inform the king so that a search may be made in the book of records of your fathers and you will discover in the records and know that this city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and provinces, inciting internal revolts from ancient times (Ezra 4:14-15a). Salt was often used to seal covenants; thus it implies loyalty (Leviticus 18:19; Second Chronicles 13:5). So eating the salt of became an idiomatic expression for being “in the service of.” A pretense of loyalty and concern for the king’s honor on the part of Rehum and Shimshai is used with no mention of his true motive of personal gain.

That is why this city was destroyed (Ezra 4:15b). The Persian kings considered themselves the successors of the Babylonian kings, who are referred to here as your fathers. The officials knew that records were kept from former administrations. In fact, kings in the ancient world kept records known as the royal chronicles (see the commentary on Esther BeThat Night the King Could Not Sleep). There is some irony in the statement: That is why this city was destroyed. While that was the Babylonian motivation, the real reason was the judgment of God (Second Chronicles 36:15-19). The Chronicler was certainly aware that the plans of ADONAI supersede human intentions (Ezra 1:1 and 5:12).76

The made-up nature of the accusations in the letter are revealed not only by the use of such incendiary terms as rebellious (verses 12 and 15), wicked (verse 12), harmful (verse 15), and revolts (verse 15, or by pandering to the fiscal concerns of the crown (verse 13), but also to the exaggerated and impossible claim of the effects such a rebellion by Jerusalem would have: We are informing the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls completed, you will no longer have any possession in Trans-Euphrates (Ezra 4:16).77 Their opposition was obviously not against rebuilding the Temple, for it had been completed in 515 BC (see AfEzra-Nehemiah Chronology). The opposition was against an attempt to begin rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. The letter added that if Tziyon was fortified then the Jews would be able to take back all the territory they had previously occupied, then Artakh’shasta would have no more territory (and taxes) left there.

Although the Jews had often been rebellious under the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, certainly this little band of Jews could not pose a serious threat to Artakh’shasta. However, because of prior troubles in the west (Syria-Palestine-Egypt), Artakh’shasta would have been sensitive to any signs of unrest. But, in reality, this was an exaggerated and impossible claim. Nevertheless, as we shall see next, the king’s prompt, thorough, and positive response attested to the effectiveness of Rehum’s letter.

The work of ADONAI in all ages has known the pressures and persecutions of those who would seek to frustrate its advance. The gross distortions of the charges brought against the Jews in this passage and the apparent unnecessary display of force at its conclusion are no more stranger to the Church than to Isra’el. Indeed, the misinterpretation of a spiritual stance as being political was never more clearly seen than in the trial of Yeshua Himself. He, therefore, must provide the pattern for our response as believers; a relentless hatred for sin and a willingness to fight it where it shows itself, coupled at the same time with an unqualified love for the sinners who may be in the grip of forces quite beyond their understanding. These two can only be held together when we recognize that the weapons of our warfare are spiritual (Ephesians 6:10-17), and that the victory of the cross was won by love and sacrifice rather than by confrontation. Thus, when we face opposition, we dare not ignore these verses to the threat that so persistently confronts us.78

2021-02-08T02:28:26+00:000 Comments

Au – Opposition during the Reigns of Ahasuerus and Artakh’shasta Ezra 4: 6-24

Opposition during the Reigns
of Ahasuerus and Artakh’shasta
Ezra 4: 6-24

445 BC During the ministry of Nehemiah (see BtThe Third Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra and Nehemiah memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Nehemiah Memoirs).

Reduced to its simplest form, these verses consist of a series of letters between the Jewish opposition and the Persian throne. The first letter to Ahasuerus is mentioned in passing with no response from the king recorded. But the second letter to Artakh’shasta is more detailed, specific names are given; Aramaic, the official language of the Persian Empire is used, and the king responds back with a letter of his own (see Aw The Resumption of Work Under King Darius).71

From the initial opposition of trying to rebuild the Temple within six months of the Jew’s return (Ezra 4:4), to the opposition mentioned a decade-and-a-half later when Darius assumed the throne (see AfEzra-Nehemiah Chronology), to the opposition over trying to build the walls around Jerusalem over a hundred years later in the days of Artakh’shasta, trouble stalked the Jews at every step.

In describing the events in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Chronicler, with the advantage of hindsight, looks back on the historical landscape and refers to the opposition placed in the way of the Jews. Thus, he rearranged the historical records at his disposal to support his main purpose, which was to show that Jewish opposition lasted a very long time. When discussing the problems of building the Temple in Ezra 4:1-5, it reminded him of similar problems with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem about ninety years later, and so Ezra 4:6-23 has been inserted, almost parenthetically, before the narrative of the building of the Temple can once again be taken up in Ezra 4:24. So, here we temporarily flash-forward to 445 BC and the Third Return of Nehemiah.

2021-02-08T02:07:29+00:000 Comments

At – Opposition during the Reign of Cyrus Ezra 4: 1-5

Opposition during the Reign of Cyrus
Ezra 4: 1-5

Opposition during the Reign of Cyrus DIG: What psychological ploy is used here against Isra’el? Why did Zerubbabel and the others respond as they did (4:3 and 3:2)? Cyrus reigned 29 years (559-530). What was the impact of such protracted opposition?

REFLECT: What clues tell you who has a part in God’s work, and who is opposed to Him? Are such clues “presumption,” the spiritual gift of discernment, or faith? When has someone tried to wear you out or scare you away from completing a certain task? From completing a ministry task? Did you continue or quit? Why?

536 BC during the ministry of Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Work on the Temple had begun, but then stopped because of this opposition.

Within weeks of returning, the former exiles gathered in the Temple area to rebuild the bronze altar and celebrate the Feast of Sukkot (see AqRebuilding the Bronze Altar and the Festival of Sukkot). In the spring of the second year, about six months after their return to Jerusalem, they gathered again in the City to celebrate laying the foundation for the Temple (see Ar The Start of Rebuilding the Temple). Now it was time to begin in earnest the work of rebuilding the House of God itself.

News of the rebuilding project reached those from afar, and as the work began, a delegation arrived, identified by the Chronicler as the enemies of Judah and Benjamin (Ezra 4:1) and the people of the land (Ezra 4:4a, also seen in 9:1-2 and 11, 10:2 and 11; Nehemiah 9:24 and 30, 10:31-32).

Opposition during the reign of Cyrus: When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a Temple for ADONAI, the God of Isra’el (Ezra 4:1). Many of these enemies of Judah and Benjamin were from Samaria, but also included people from Ashdod, Ammon, Mo’ab, and Edom. They were the descendants of those who were relocated into the cities of the Northern Kingdom after the fall of Samaria to the Assyrians and Sargon II in 722 BC. The Bible gives no record of Esarhaddon having done the same thing, but we do know from the cylinder of Esarhaddon that he conquered Sidon during one of his campaigns, and it is most likely the Northern Kingdom (Samaria) was also involved in the rebellion against the Assyrians.

The origins of the Samaritans began in Second Kings 17:24-33. The northern Kingdom of Isra’el had been conquered by the Assyrians. They treated their conquered territories differently than the Babylonians. The Babylonians brought only the best and the brightest back to Babylon (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gt In the Thirty-Seventh Year of the Exile Jehoiachin was Released from Prison). The Assyrians, however, took a different approach. The king of Assyria (primarily Sargon II, though later Assyrian rulers, including Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, settled additional non-Israelites in Samaria) brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns (Second Kings 17:24). The problem was that these people brought their gods with them and began worshiping their gods in Samaria. But lions kept eating the new settlers.
So one day they asked a Levite why they kept being eaten by lions and he suggested that they were worshiping the gods of the lands where they came from, but not the God of Samaria. Therefore, they began worshiping YHVH, but in addition to their other gods. The problem of the Samaritans was not that they were half-breeds racially, but half-breeds spiritually. They had a hybrid religion because they combined the true faith of worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with pagan idolatry.

This delegation was, therefore, a people of mixed racial and religious backgrounds, who had no claim to being a part of the people of God. Not only did they combine the worship of their gods with the worship of YHVH, they were even led by an apostate priest from the north, provided by the Assyrians, rather than a true priest from Jerusalem.66 So they continued to worship ADONAI, but they also [worshiped] their own gods, after the custom of the nations from which they had been deported (Second Kings 17:25-33).

They approached Zerubbabel and the leading patriarchs and said to them, “Let us build with you, for like you we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here” (Ezra 4:2). On the surface, this offer sounded reasonable and timely. The sooner the Temple was built, the sooner the Israelites could worship ADONAI in the manner for which they had longed for, for seventy long years. And building hardly a religious matter! Bricks are bricks. What wrong could there be in accepting a few laborers to sweat alongside the faithful in hauling heavy stones? It could hardly have threatened Isra’el’s faith. Right?

But Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the prominent patriarchs of Isra’el said to them, “It is not for you and us to build a House for our God – but we alone will build it for ADONAI the God of Israel, just as Cyrus – king of Persia – has commanded us” (Ezra 4:3). In Zerubbabel’s eyes, however, for the exiles to have assimilated, even in this apparently harmless way, would have seriously compromised their future. Those enemies did not have the same convictions; they did not submit to the authority of God’s word; and they were not dedicated to the One true God. The danger of syncretism was ever present.67

God’s word was clear. The hard-won insight of the exile, which had transformed disaster into deliverance and horror into hope, was the recognition that Ha’Shem demanded exclusive worship (see the commentary on Exodus DkYou Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me). He demanded it to the extent that the Babylonian exile was the inevitable outcome of Isra’el’s past disobedience in that regard. For the returnees to tempt fate at that crucial juncture was unthinkable. Not only that, but Cyrus’ word was also clear. The official permission to rebuild had been given to the Jews alone, and nothing that might jeopardize that political lifeline could be tolerated. That Zerubbabel’s suspicions were justified is made perfectly clear in the following chapters.68

Pluralism is nothing new. These Samaritans and their friends claimed to worship the same God as the Jews, so they insisted on joint participation in the rebuilding of the Temple in Yerushalayim. Today it is quite common to hear calls for the abandonment of the uniqueness of our faith because of the belief in religious pluralism. This has been the frequent contention, for example, of the World Council of Churches. Had this been the necessary consequence of encountering the multitude of other religions, Moshe, Isaiah, Yeshua and Paul would have given up biblical faith long before it became fashionable in our time.

Nothing in modern culture so diminishes our understanding of the greatness of God’s glory as revealed in the Scriptures as syncretism – the view that there are many ways to God and that all of them are equally valid. This is a lie from the pit of hell. Once one adopts the view that there is more than one way to God, pluralism negates the supremacy of the God of the Bible. Believers are immediately labeled as using “hate speech,” and are “intolerant.” In this age of political correctness, relativism, and pluralism, arguments for the uniqueness of our faith appear to be hostile and militant. Traveling through the narrow gate isn’t very popular these days (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Dw The Narrow and Wide Gates).

The Chronicler seems eager for us to learn that danger lurked in the offer to Zerubbabel in the guise of a genuine offer for help. These were wolves in sheep’s clothing, plotting mischief and mayhem unless forthrightly opposed. Behind this, for sure, lay the ruler of demons himself – Satan (Matthew 12:24)! His hatred toward God, and all things that pertain to God’s Kingdom, is, and was evident. These delegates were enemies of the cross of Messiah (Philippians 3:18), to be resisted with unrelenting zeal.69

Having had their offer of help refused, the people of the land turned to a strategy of systematic discouragement. In C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape, the demonic undersecretary of the Department of Temptation, suggests a plan of attack to a novice in the art of temptation. After mentioning a few strategies, he then makes the recommendations to “work hard . . . on discouragement which the patient (the believer) clearly deserves.” It is a strategy, Screwtape suggests, that hardly ever fails.

This strategy was employed in Jerusalem with devastating success. Having begun the work of rebuilding the Temple, the Jews turned away from the task altogether – until, that is, Ezra appeared on the scene. It would take twenty-one years before the task would be completed. Then the people of the land, or the Samaritans, began discouraging the people of Judah and making them afraid to build (Ezra 4:4). Through a campaign of physical and psychological intimidation and threats, the reconstruction work came to a standstill. Those Jews were not soldiers in any conventional sense. They had spent their lives in submission to Babylon and were not equipped to deal with the kind of guerrilla warfare that they were subjected to. Perhaps the campaign of intimidation was largely verbal, pointing out the difficulty of the task and the futility of building something that, according to some of them, would never be as glorious as Solomon’s Temple (Ezra 3:12).

If the first part of the strategy occurred in Jerusalem, the second seemed to have taken place by hired men in the halls of power in Persia. A campaign was started to dislodge the Jews’ favorable status with their Persian overlords. They bribed advisors in order to thwart their plans all the days of King Cyrus of Persia, otherwise known as King Darius (see Bc King Darius Endorses the Rebuilding of the Temple). Personal discouragement drained away the spirit of the work at hand, diminished the effort of building, which led to apathy and inactivity (Ezra 4:5). It was a strategy that evidently worked: Thus the work on the House of God in Jerusalem ceased. It remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia (Ezra 4:24). What a breathtaking statement. The work of God was halted.

Discouragement is like a deadly virus. It saps energy, cripples motivation, and turns people inward. Are you discouraged by the slow progress of Kingdom work? Does it appear to you as though for every step forward you make in your walk with Christ, you find yourself taking two steps back? If so, here is a three pronged strategy for dealing with discouragement – strategies that we will see Ezra and Nehemiah employ later in our studies.

First, we must realize that our walk with Messiah, and the ministry that goes along with it, consists of trials and difficulties of all kinds and that no gains are to be made without them. This sounds depressing, but it is the constant theme of Scripture. Knowing that we have an enemy in the Adversary, who will stop at nothing to destroy us, should be the motivation we need to ensure that we are equipped with the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17), and ready when the battle begins.

Second, we must learn from the mistake that the righteous of the TaNaKh made. They allowed themselves to become victims of discouragement. They lost sight of the goal, and more importantly, lost sight of Ha’Shem. Whenever you take your eye off the Lord, discouragement is sure to follow. The answer to their struggles did not lie in themselves. They needed to believe that ADONAI had brought them back from Babylon and resettled them in the Land. What is not seen in this chapter is any indication of prayer to the God of heaven to intervene. And without prayer we can expect nothing from His hand. The eventual slide into indifference and apathy that resulted in the next twenty-one years was the inevitable consequence. The LORD gave them what they asked for . . . to be left alone!

Third, the exiles failed to exercise faith. Faith will keep us going when everyone around us is shouting, “Stop!” Faith will keep us hanging onto God despite discouragements that we feel, real and imaginary. Faith takes hold of the reality of the opposition and brings it before ADONAI, only to see the reality that He is stronger than the might of the fiercest enemy. That is the faith we need to keep hanging on when times are tough and enemies abound.70

2021-02-17T17:13:02+00:000 Comments

As – Opposition to Rebuilding the Temple Ezra 4: 1-24

Opposition to Rebuilding the Temple
Ezra 4: 1-24

During the ministry of Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from both the Ezra memoirs and the Nehemiah Memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs
and the Nehemiah Memoirs).

And they built the Temple and lived happily ever after! Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? Shouldn’t that have been the outcome, especially since the exiles had seventy years to learn the lesson of their previous errors and make speedy progress since they had tasted the sweet mercies of ADONAI? But that is to take too optimistic a view of human nature. The story that now unfolds is one of retreat rather than progress. In this chapter we are given the reason why the work of rebuilding the Temple ground to a halt – opposition. It does not excuse the lack of progress; it merely explains the reason for it. The returning Israelites were responsible for their loss of enthusiasm. The completion of the rebuilding of the Temple would take another twenty-one years, not because of the difficulty of the task, but because the people lost sight of their goal. But for now at least, we need to take a look at the opposition and discouragement that came their way.

In describing the events in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Chronicler, with the advantage of hindsight, looks back on the historical landscape and refers to the opposition placed in the way of the Jews in chronological order. When discussing the problems of building the Temple in Ezra 4:1-5, it reminded him of similar problems with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem about ninety years later, and so Ezra 4:6-23 has been inserted, almost parenthetically, before the argument of the building of the Temple can once again
be taken up in Ezra 4:24.

The point is that opposition is a constant theme from this time onward, running through the First Return headed by Zerubbabel, the Second Return headed by Ezra, to the Third Return headed by Nehemiah. It is an indication that the Kingdom of God is built within enemy-occupied territory (Matthew 16:18). The Adversary lurks behind the scenes, as is his frequent strategy, content to lie hidden, hoping the Lord’s children will forget all about him and take their frustrations out on ADONAI instead.

In Ezra 4, the ruler of demons used the Samaritans as his instruments of opposition. They are his people, to do his bidding, however unwittingly. As a fallen angel, the tempter is a defeated foe (see the commentary on Isaiah Dp How You Have Fallen From Heaven, O Morning Star); his claims to sovereignty belong to fantasy literature and Hollywood pictures. But some people have always been enamored with the wicked one’s grand delusion; a make-believe world of pretension in which he sets himself up as king is all too believable. The world is so easily duped into believing that his claims are true. Poor Samaritans! They were Satan’s unwitting instruments. Pawns in a chess game with painful, and sometimes deadly, consequences. Yeshua warned that unbelievers are the devil’s children (John 8:44), and his skill in manipulating individuals is legendary. We see the results in his encounter with Eve (see the commentary on Genesis Ba The Woman Saw the Fruit of the Tree and Ate It), Judas (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Kc Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus), and Elymas (see the commentary on Acts Bn Barnabas and Sha’ul Sent Out from Syrian Antioch). We ignore this fact at our peril.

It is to the credit of Zerubbabel and Jeshua that they viewed the situation from the beginning as the work of enemies (Ezra 4:1), and were alert to the possible consequences if they were tempted to cooperate. We would do well to model their thinking. Danger lurked there, and the two leaders were aware of it – not only for their own personal well-being, but also for the well-being of the righteous of the TaNaKh. We should be grateful for such discerning leadership when compromise with the world rears its ugly head. As Paul reminds us: These things happened as examples for us (First Corinthians 10:6a).65

2021-02-07T12:49:33+00:000 Comments

Ar – The Start of Rebuilding the Temple Ezra 3: 6b-13

The Start of Rebuilding the Temple
Ezra 3: 6b-13

The start of rebuilding the Temple DIG: What did it take to lay the foundation for this new Temple? Read First Kings 5:1 to 6:1 to see what went into building Solomon’s Temple the first time. What parallels do you find? Why does Ezra pointedly accent such parallels (3:2)? What does this say about the God of second chances? Why would some who knew the “former” Temple cry, while others shouted for joy?

REFLECT: Ezra had the Temple rebuilt on Solomon’s original foundation. What is the lesson for you in this? What “cornerstone ceremony” has helped you celebrate new beginnings (in your marriage; in your work; your retirement; your walk with the Lord)? Ezra waited for the second year post-exile before doing what he wanted. How patient are you (with self, with God, with others) when waiting for a new beginning?

May-June 536 BC during the ministry of Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Jeshua and his fellow priests, together with Zerubbabel and other returnees, had rebuilt the bronze altar that stood next to where the Temple had been. They did this in time to celebrate Sukkot, the last of several important festivals that fell in the seventh month (see AqRebuilding the Bronze Altar and the Festival of Sukkot). Hundreds of animals were slain on the bronze altar to make atonement for sin, something that had not taken place in Yerushalayim for over half a century.60 The bronze altar, however, was only the beginning. Although the foundation for the Temple had already been laid under the direction of Sheshbatzar (see Aj The Return to Isra’el Under Sheshbatzar), construction of the Temple itself had not begun (3:6b).

Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters (Ezra 3:7a). The particular kind of money that the workmen were given is not mentioned here. It may have been gold or silver, but perhaps it was clay. For it is a fact worth mentioning that in Babylonia and in Persia at that very time there were in use certain clay tablets that were used for the same purpose that we now use as checks! They were issued by the government for the convenience of circulation, representing a certain value, which was always expressed in measures of weight, of gold or silver, and redeemable on presentation to the royal treasury. They were two to five inches long, and one to three inches wide. They had on them the name of the king and a date. Among them was the name of Cyrus, the king who directed the work for which the money was given.61

When Solomon built the First Temple, he hired Phoenicians from Tyre with wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine (First Kings 5:6-12; Second Chronicles 2:10 and 15) to send cedar, juniper and algum logs from Lebanon to Joppa (Second Corinthians 2:8). Even the way of describing Solomon’s building of the First Temple reminds us of Zerubbabel’s similar efforts (Second Chronicles 2:8-15 and First Kings 5:11 and 18). And food, drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, to bring cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, according to the permission they had from Cyrus king of Persia (Ezra 3:7b). This was a tiny foretaste of the wealth of the nations and the glory of Lebanon that was promised would one day adorn the place of God’s Sanctuary (see the commentary on Isaiah Jw Foreigners Will Rebuild Your Walls, and Their Kings Will Serve You).

Now the building began in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem in the second month (six months after they arrived and exactly 70 years after the first deportation, see the commentary on Jeremiah Gt In the Thirty-Seventh Year of the Exile Jehoiachin was Released from Prison). Solomon also began his project in the second month (First Kings 6:1). This is the month after Passover (April-May) and the beginning of the dry season – an ideal time to start building. Centuries earlier the Levites were involved in the construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 38:21). All this goes to show the many similarities between the building of the First and Second Temples.

The Levites were the supervisors and were directed by the leading families. Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work and appointed the Levites from twenty years and older to oversee the work of the house of the Lord. According to the Mosiac tradition, the Levites entered upon their ministry at the age of twenty-five (Numbers 8:24); but an ordinance of David (First Chronicles 23:24, 27) reduced the age to twenty, perhaps because the number of Levites had decreased. These verses stress the unity, cooperation, and enthusiasm for the project. Then Jeshua with his sons and brothers stood to sing united with Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah (the sons of Hodaviah in Ezra 2:40) and the sons of Henadad with their sons and brothers the Levites, to oversee the workmen in the temple of God (Ezra 3:8-9).

The workmen stood before a flat, empty foundation. Nevertheless, there was a celebration in anticipation of the House of the LORD being back in Jerusalem once again. When they started working, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord according to the directions of King David of Isra’el when he brought the ark to Jerusalem (First Chronicles 16:5-6). They sang, praising and giving thanks to ADONAI, saying: For He is good, for His lovingkindness (see the commentary on Ruth Af The Concept of Chesed) is upon Isra’el forever. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid and work on the Temple itself had begun (Ezra 3:10-11). The worship of Isra’el was (and is) not a dull affair. The great shout indicates that the people expressed their emotions in their praise to ADONAI, for they praised Him with their whole hearts.62

Even though the work had just begun, it signaled that the LORD had not forgotten His promises. They sang: For He is good, for His faithfulness is upon Isra’el forever (Psalm 136:1). In the long, dark night of the exile they despaired, hanging their harps on willow branches (Psalm 137), unable to find within themselves a song to sing to praise God. They must have wondered whether they would ever see the chesed of ADONAI again. However, all the doom and gloom evaporated in the blazing sunlight of the building of the Second Temple. God had remembered His promises. He always does. This story – the story of the exiles return to Yerushalayim – is part of our story, too; without it there would have been no Savior and no way of forgiveness for our sins. Those foundation stones cry out and remind us that God has kept His promise to send a Savior, “When the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman and born under the Torah, to free those under the yoke of the Torah so that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters (Galatians 4:4-5). The words of the Psalmist ought to be in our mouths: For ADONAI is good. His lovingkindness endures forever, and His faithfulness to [our] generation (Psalm 100:5).63

At this time Zechariah delivered a prophecy to Jeshua, the High Priest, and to Zerubabel, the Jewish governor. Jeshua seems to be on trial in a heavenly courtroom with Satan accusing him. In defense of Jeshua, ADONAI says: Listen, cohen gadol Jeshua, both you and your collogues seated here before you, because these men are a sign that I am going to bring My Servant Tzemach, or Shoot (see the commentary on Isaiah Dc A Shoot Will Come Up from the Stump of Jesse). In Zechariah 6:12 the prophet says: There is coming a man whose name is Tzemach. He will sprout up from His place and rebuild the Temple of ADONAI. Yes, He will rebuild the Temple of ADONAI; and He will take up royal splendor sitting and ruling from his throne (see the commentary on Revelation Fi – The Government of the Messianic Kingdom). Zechariah saw the high priest Jeshua as a type of that promise, but only a pledge of God’s future fulfillment in Yeshua, the coming Messiah (Isaiah 4:2; Jeremiah 33:15).

Present on the occasion were people of all ages – children, youth, adults, and the elderly. Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first Temple, wept in disappointment with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this House that was laid before their eyes. They wept when they contrasted the simplicity of the current project with the grandeur of Solomon’s Temple, which is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world along with the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the Roman Colosseum, the Great Wall of China and Petra. Perhaps they also wept remembering the tragic events which they had experienced since those days in Babylon, and the reflection that they would not live to see the national revival foretold by the prophets. While many others shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout. Thus, joy was mixed with sadness. The two sounds mingled together and were so loud that they were heard far away (Ezra 3:12-13). The celebration had an impact on the whole community.64

2021-05-28T14:00:05+00:000 Comments

Aq – Rebuilding the Bronze Altar and the Festival of Sukkot Ezra 3: 1-6

Rebuilding the Bronze Altar
and the Festival of Sukkot
Ezra 3: 1-6

Rebuilding the bronze altar and the festival of Sukkot DIG: Why were they assembling “as one man” (Leviticus 23:23-36)? What is first on Jeshua’s “to-do” list? What is the value (symbolic and actual) of building the altar on “its foundation” and “in accordance with the Torah of Moshe?” Why did the people sacrifice before laying down the Temple foundations?

REFLECT: How does your zeal compare to the Israelites in this scene? Does worship come first for you? Or when it’s most convenient? Why? On what basis are you building your altar to the Lord? What do you sacrifice there? What happens when someone doesn’t accept the sacrifice of Yeshua Messiah?

536 BC During the ministry of Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Ezra 2 ended with the priests and the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers and the Temple servants lived in their cities, and all Isra’el in their cities that they occupied before the exile (Ezra 2:70). Now as the threads of normal life are picked up once again on the hills of Judea, we are reminded that the people could not dissolve into isolated groups, no matter the remoteness of the homes, or the difficulty of the terrain separating them, even though the demands of settling into a new life might tempt them to do just that.51

Now when the seventh month of Tishri came (September-October), and the sons of Isra’el were in the cities, the people gathered together as one (Hebrew: echad) man to Jerusalem (Ezra 3:1), obeying the commandment of God laid down in Exodus 23:16. The returning exiles barely had time to settle into their new homes when they gathered as one in Yerushalayim. It was literally only weeks after their return. It appears too coincidental that they would just happen to be back in Tziyon in time for the most important month of the Hebrew religious calendar. It has all the signs of a plan, and they had timed it perfectly. On the first day of the month they would have celebrated Rosh ha-Shanah (Leviticus 23:15-21), normally followed by the festival of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:1-34 and 23:26-32) on the tenth day, (but not mentioned here since there was no Temple), and then by a weeklong celebration of Sukkot (Leviticus 23:33-36 and 39-44) starting on the fifteenth day of the seventh month.

But why did they want to gather in a place that looked so pitifully run down? A visit to the Temple Mount would only serve to remind them of how sadly small and insignificant they had become. All that was left of Solomon’s Temple were piles of stone and rubble, blackened by the fires that had burned in the Babylonian invasion so long ago (see the commentary on Jeremiah GbThe Destruction of Solomon’s Temple on Tisha B’Av in 586 BC). Standing there gazing at those stones, overgrown with weeds, they would be reminded of the past – a past that the oldest among them wanted to forget. So why gather there? The answer, of course, was worship.52 This is how the Chronicler described it:

Then Jeshua [the high priest] the son of Jozadak (a descendant of Aaron) and his brothers the priests (other descendants of Aaron), and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel (a descendant of David) and his brothers (other descendants of David) arose and built the altar of the God of Isra’el to offer burnt offerings on it (Ezra 3:2a). The burnt (or whole) offering is the chief sacrifice in the Torah of Moses. The animal was completely burnt. Neither the priest nor worshiper ate it. The whole offering went up to God. The ritual enacted for this kind of sacrifice provided that the one who offered it should place their hands on the head of the animal (Leviticus 1:4). In doing so, the worshipers identified with the animal, that is, they were offering themselves to ADONAI. As a result, the burnt offering was a symbolic action. In burning the whole animal – which goes up wholly to Godthe worshipers declared their wholehearted devotion to the LORD. In presenting burnt offerings to YHVH on the bronze altar, even before the Temple was built, the returnees displayed their earnestness to be a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1).53

As it is written in the Torah of Moshe, the man of God (Ezra 3:2b). It was crucial for the returnees to come back to the Torah of Moses. Because their forefathers had left the covenant, and as a result, the nation had been driven into Captivity (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gu Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). Therefore, when the exiles returned, they did not want to make the same mistake.

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the congregations of God. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is the ultimate, not missions, because ADONAI is ultimate, not mankind. During the Eternal State (see the commentary on Revelation FqThe Eternal State), when countless multitudes of the redeemed will fall on their collective faces before the throne of the Lamb to worship Him, missions will be no more. Missions is a temporary necessity. But worship will be forever.54

So, led by Sheshbatzar (Ezra 5:16), they set up the altar on its foundation (Ezra 3:a). The altar spoken of here is the bronze altar (see the commentary on Exodus Fa Build an Altar of Acacia Wood Overlaid with Bronze). It stood outdoors, in the Court of the Priests, between the Temple and the Court of the Women. It was on this altar that animals would be offered as a sacrifice. The bronze altar in Solomon’s Temple had been an enormous structure – some thirty feet square and fifteen feet high with a ramp that led up to it (Second Chronicles 4:1ff).

The Chronicler introduces a note of anxiety here, caused by the tension between the
exiles
who had returned and the people of the lands around themthe people of Ashdod, Samaria, Ammon, Moab, and Edom – for they were terrified of them (Ezra 3:3b). The sudden presence of 42,360 people needing food and shelter created huge administrative problems. Not only that, but the returnees regarded themselves as the true worshipers of Ha’Shem, and the rightful administrators of the Temple and the Torah. Given the fact that offers of help in rebuilding the Temple were flatly refused, we have all the makings of a confrontation. Almost a century later, during Nehemiah’s time, these threats were real enough to warrant arming the men who built the walls around Tziyon (see CcSamaritan Opposition to the Building of the Walls). There was no need for such drastic measures at this stage, though the tension did make the exiles terrified of them. Courage is not lack of fear. It is the will to act in spite of fear. The Israelites recognized, if only partially, that their power consisted not in armies but in the knowledge and service of God.55

Finding themselves in that tense situation, they needed to turn to ADONAI and worship Him. It was their first order of business. Why should that be the case? The answer to this question lies in an understanding of what it is that is most needed – forgiveness and a sense of the LORD’s nearness that comes on the other side of reconciliation. Once the bronze altar was rebuilt, it would be possible for the returnees to offer sacrifices again.56

Therefore, the returnees turned their attention to the bronze altar. In the Dispensation of Torah, building an altar was a significant act. In the life of the patriarchs it marked a new dedication to God or a new experience of God’s presence and leading (Genesis 12:7, 13:4, 22:9, 26:25, 33:20, 35:1 and 7; Exodus 17:5). This was the place where ADONAI had promised to be with His people (Exodus 29:43). Consequently, they set up the bronze altar on its foundation – on the exact spot where it had stood in Solomon’s Temple. Once the bronze altar had been rebuilt, it would be possible for the exiles to offer sacrifices again. Since it was the seventh month, over two hundred sacrifices of bulls, rams, and male lambs were to be made, not to mention the daily morning and evening sacrifices (Numbers 29). The laying of the foundation was accompanied by a celebration, somewhat like a cornerstone celebration. And they sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening (Ezra 3:3c). Burnt offerings emphasized total commitment where the whole animal was burned a symbol of total dedication to ADONAI. These were the first sacrifices to be offered there in 50 years – since 586 BC.

The first thing they did after building the bronze altar was to celebrate the Feast of Sukkot, as it is written, emphasizing the authority of the Torah (Exodus 23:16, 34:22; Leviticus 23:33-36, 39-43; and Deuteronomy 16:13-16). We can hardly imagine what this meant for the returning exiles. They had barely unpacked their belongings before they found themselves camped underneath leafy shelters in the open air looking up at the stars for a week to celebrate Sukkot. Returning to Jerusalem after life in Babylon forced them to remember that their lives were fragile and brief; much like their ancestors. The only reason they were in the City of David was due to ADONAI’s intervention and deliverance. Forgoing the benefits of a comfortable bed and a roof over their heads, the returning exiles stopped everything in order to acknowledge the hand of God in their otherwise-fragile lives.57

And they offered the fixed number of burnt offerings daily, according to the ordinance, as each day required; and afterward there was a continual burnt offering, also for the new moons and for all the fixed festivals of ADONAI that were consecrated, as well as freewill offerings to the LORD. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to YHVH (Ezra 3:4-6a). Therefore, even though the sacrificial system had been reinstituted, there remained much to be done. For almost four hundred years, Isra’el had connected worship necessarily with the Temple. In fact, they had come to rely more on the Temple than on ADONAI (see the commentary on Jeremiah CcFalse Religion is Worthless). But since the Temple had been destroyed and they had discovered God’s presence even in exile, they could then worship Him even without the Temple.58

Where do you go when you are terrified? Where do you go when you fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)? Most of us think that the problem is outside us and that the resolution must come within ourselves. But the Bible turns this around and says that the problem is within us and that the solution must come from outside of us. The problem is sin . . . our sin. The solution comes apart from our own accomplishments and resolve, coming from the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9) that is seen on the other side of the cross. The averting of Ha’Shem’s wrath only comes by means of the substitutionary death of Yeshua Messiah. It is the work of Christ that satisfies every claim of the LORD’s holiness and justice so that YHVH is free to act on our behalf.

The substitutionary nature of animal sacrifice spoke of both the magnitude of Isra’el’s sin (the Babylonian Captivity was, after all, a judgment on Isra’el’s sin) and the need for justice to be met so that forgiveness could be given. In the end, however, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. Only the blood of the Lamb of God, spilled in substitution for sinners, could do that. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin (Hebrews 10:4).59 If you don’t accept His sacrifice, you become the sacrifice.

2021-02-08T11:30:17+00:000 Comments

Ap – The Revival of Temple Worship Ezra 3: 1-13

The Revival of Temple Worship
Ezra 3: 1-13

During the ministry of Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

Chapter 3 tells the story of the beginnings of the religious institutions at Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gu Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). It deals with the construction of the bronze altar, the worship services and offerings conducted upon that altar, laying the foundation for the Temple, the preparation for its construction, and the celebration of the people to the sight of it.

Prior to the exile, life in the southern kingdom of Judah centered in the Temple at Yerushalayim. This was a holy place of sacrifice, prayer, and singing. Although we lack detailed knowledge about the various rituals of Temple worship, we learn something of the character of this worship through the Psalms. The piety reflected in the ancient poetry, nourished in the context of animal sacrifices, offerings, and festive gatherings, has an enduring appeal to all believers. The God of the Psalms is the gracious One who accepts us as we are, who loves us and remains with us when those closest to us leave. The God of the Psalms is Immanuel – God with us (see the commentary on Isaiah Cb The LORD Himself Will Give You A Sign).

This loving, saving God, who causes the heart of the psalmist to rejoice, is present in the Temple. His Sh’khinah glory and His Name are there (First Kings 8:11 and 29). We yearn for the Temple because in this sacred place we meet YHVH in the most holy place (see the commentary on Exodus Fs The Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place: Christ at the Throne of Grace). How lovely are Your tabernacles, ADONAI-Tzva’ot! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of ADONAI. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. ADONAI, I love the House where You live, the place where Your Sh’khinah glory dwells (Psalm 84:1-3 and Psalm 26:8).

The older Jews in exile remembered the Temple and Jerusalem with pain and deep love (Psalm 137:1-6). So intimate was the relationship between Ha’Shem and the Temple that they could not imagine a restoration that did not include a new Temple. Isaiah was of similar mind. Isaiah speaks of the redemption of the exiles in terms of a Second Exodus (see the commentary on Isaiah Ib Cyrus is My Shepherd and Will Accomplish All that I Please). However, he did not believe that this deliverance would be complete until the Temple was rebuilt and the vessels of ADONAI returned to Tziyon (Isaiah 52:11). Moreover, the prophet’s language often reflects the priestly speech of the Temple, as in Isaiah 41:14 and 43:1. It is not too much to believe that Isaiah, like many others, yearned for the courts of ADONAI.

Therefore, when we read Chapter 3 of Ezra, we should think of the piety of the book of Psalms that includes expressions of love for the Temple itself. We should also think of the exiles who were driven from their homeland and separated from worship and the religious traditions that gave meaning to their lives. They remembered the Temple as the House of ADONAI. To be sure, they experienced God in other places and events, but in this special place were the memories, traditions, symbols, people, and rituals that nourished their lives.50

2021-02-07T11:40:28+00:000 Comments

Ao – The Generosity of the People of God

The Generosity of the People of God
Ezra 2: 61-70

The generosity of the people of God DIG: What happened to returnees who could not properly document their family ties (2:61-63)? What situation parallels this today? What does that tell you of keeping family records and legal documents? What is the Urim and Thummim? Why would they be necessary? What priorities are evident in the inventory of “Totals, Offerings and Settlements” (2:64-67)? In their designated gifts (2:68-69)? Why is it often easier to raise money for a building, as in 2:68, rather than a ministry program? In what towns do they all settle after 70 years of exile (2:70)? How do you explain that? Good collective memory? Fine-tuned homing instincts? Divine guidance?

REFLECT: Do you give according to your ability where you worship? This chapter underscores the importance of spiritual ancestors to Isra’el. Do you know who yours are? What has been passed on to you, good or bad, spiritually from your ancestors? What one quality are you now developing as a child of God that you would want to pass on to your children and grandchildren? How do you intend to do this?

During the ministry of Zerubbabel (to see link click AgThe First Return).
Compiled by the Chronicler from the Ezra memoirs
(see Ac Ezra-Nehemiah from a Jewish Perspective: The Ezra Memoirs).

We may infer from this periscope as it is clearly stated in First Chronicles 5:17 and Nehemiah 7:5 that Jewish families kept genealogical records to prove their Jewish descent (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ai The Genealogies of Joseph and Mary), and to ascertain that mixture with foreign nations was somehow avoided. A pure line had religious significance, because foreign elements could being apostasy in the Jewish community. The laymen who were unable to prove their Jewish lineage may have come from families who had lost their genealogical records as a result of the exile. This presented a real problem to the Jewish authorities. But an ever greater problem arose with the priests. They had to be culturally clean and of true Jewish descent. As long as they could not prove their Jewish descent they were regarded as unclean and outside the priesthood. The prohibition was made to prevent ritual sin that was widespread in the ancient Near East.42

Priests Removed: The fate that overtook Korah and his following when they tried to force their way into the priesthood (see the commentary on Jude Aj The LORD Delivered His People Out of Egypt, But Later Destroyed Those Who Did Not Believe) was a constant reminder to the people of Isra’el of the danger of such a course of action. So Eleazar the cohen collected the bronze censers . . . just as ADONAI had spoken to him by the hand of Moshe, so that it would be a reminder to the children of Isra’el that no one who was not a descendant of Aaron should burn incense before ADONAI, and so not one would become like Korah and his following (Numbers 16:39-40). The danger of ritual contamination of the community was compounded by the great fear of committing another grave cultic offense like the one mentioned above.

There were those whose standing in the covenant community was in doubt. Of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and he was called by their name (Ezra 2:61). Barzillai was a name that carried considerable weight. He had been a staunch supporter of David and helped him during his flight from Absalom (see the commentary on the Life of David Ed David Returns to Yerushalayim). His daughter married into a priestly family and her descendants found difficulty in establishing their claim to the priestly office. The bridegroom that took the name of his wife’s father reminds us of the Mesopotamian marriage arranged by a father who had no sons but only daughters (First Chronicles 2:34-36).

These searched among their ancestral registration, but they could not be located; therefore they were considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood (Ezra 2:62). The importance attached to the genealogical accuracy of the claims to the priesthood was not merely the attitude of the exiles returning from the Captivity. It goes back to the abolition of the high places, first by Hezekiah (see the commentary on Isaiah Gr – Please Speak to Your Servants in Aramaic), and afterwards by Josiah (see the commentary on Jeremiah Ai Josiah Ruled For 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC). There was a sharp distinction drawn between those who ministered at the high places of pagan worship and those who were engaged in Temple worship in Jerusalem.

Then [Zerubbabel] the governor said to them that they should not eat from the most holy things until a suitable time could be found for a priest to perform the ritual of the Urim and Thummim (see the commentary on Exodus GbThe Urim and Thummim) (Ezra 2:63). They were temporarily suspended from duty even though they were allowed to return and count themselves as members of the covenant community. Of course, the proof never came, and the suspension became permanent.

The Generosity of the People of God: The whole assembly together was numbered 42,360, besides their male and female servants who numbered 7,337; and they had 200 singing men and women, lay singers who performed at marriages, feasts, and other occasions. They were distinct from the Levitical musicians mentioned in Ezra 2:41. Their horses, ridden by royalty and the military were probably donated by Cyrus for the nobility, were 736; their mules, 245; their one-humped Arabian camels, so useful in crossing the desert, were 435; and their donkeys, ridden by the poorer classes, hence the much larger number, were 6,720 (Ezra 2:64-67).

From these numbers we can see the modern parallel of the return of the Jews to Palestine after World War II. From the moment that a return became possible, large numbers of Jews flocked back into what they regarded as their own homeland. They spurned the system of rationing that tried to stem the tide of their return, and when the rationing was finally lifted they poured back in like a flood. The former prime minister of Isra’el, David Ben-Gurion, described the modern emigration of Jews from Iraq to Isra’el, “Almost the whole community of Babylonian exiles who stayed when Babylon was destroyed came back to Isra’el – and their number was nearly three times the number of those who had returned to Jerusalem in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.”43

The exiles returned with gifts for the rebuilding work: Some of the heads of fathers’ households, when they arrived at the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem, offered willingly for the house of God to restore it on its foundation. According to their ability they gave to the treasury for the work 61,000 Persian gold drachmas (a thick piece of gold having on one side the figure of a king with a bow and javelin, and on the other side an irregular oblong depression) 44 and 5,000 silver minas equal to sixty shekels, and 100 priestly garments made of fine linen (Ezra 2:68-69). There is an echo of the First Exodus account here (as there was in Ezra 1:4 and 6), for the people of Moses’ generation were also asked to make large contributions to the building of the Tabernacle, and they responded willingly (see the commentary on Exodus EvThe Materials for the Tabernacle). Likewise, the building of the Second Temple, the outward symbol of the presence of ADONAI, was accompanied, at least from the beginning, with a spirit of willing self-sacrifice.45

There are several things worth noting here.

First, they gave according to their ability (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Do When You Give to the Needy, Do Not Do It to be Honored by Others: Seven Principles of Scriptural Giving). Paul seems to adopt a similar reasoning when he wrote to the Corinthians, suggesting that every believer should set something aside, saving up whatever is gained and present it as a gift each Lord’s Day (First Corinthians 16:2). Giving out to be proportional to wealth. Paul employed this principle when collecting for the famine-stricken Messianic community in Yerushalayim. He commended the principle to the Corinthians to give according to what a person has (Second Corinthians 8:12).

Secondly, if we were to calculate the ancient measures of drachmas and minas in a modern way, the returning Israelites gave about 565 pounds of gold and over three tons of silver towards the rebuilding of the Temple. Since the number of servants amounted to one-sixth of the total, this meant that some of the returnees were very wealthy, something that is also indicated by the number of horses and camels (compared to the less costly donkeys), and the inordinate number of servants mentioned. The spirit of generosity was obvious, something that casuistic concerns about the relevance of tithing in the Dispensation of Grace often deliberately ignored. In an attempt to avoid legalism, far too many ask themselves, “What is the least I can give and still feel good about it.” Instead, we should be asking ourselves, “How much more can I give than I currently do?46

Thirdly, only some of the heads of fathers’ households offered willingly. This foreshadowed the disappointing levels of commitment to come. For now, at least, the emphasis is on giving and not withholding. Haggai will point out with considerable force that whatever amounts the people gave to God’s work, they had more than enough left over to build for themselves. However, less than 20 years later a run of bad harvests and high prices (Haggai 1:6, 9ff, 2:17), to say nothing of the intervention by the opposition (see As Opposition to Rebuilding the Temple), would soon leave nothing but their expensive houses (Haggi 1:4) to remind them of their former well-being.47

Those were uncertain times. Returning to Jerusalem held no guarantee of prosperity for the returnees. Many had no homes to go to or jobs that provided financial security. Almost immediately there would be a need to rent or build something in which to live. As they settled in Jerusalem or in nearby cities, the temptation to withhold from giving must have been great. The fact that Ha’Shem had ordered them to give priority to reconstructing the Temple rather than personal gain highlighted the fundamental reason for their return: that way they should be found to worship God in accordance with the pattern He had established. Worship, then, comes before personal need.

Even among the most committed exiles, there remained a spirit of worldliness, a temptation difficult to repel and reject. Perhaps some felt that going back was enough of a commitment. It was, after all, more of a commitment than was shown by those who had remained in Babylon! Do we sometimes argue like this? After all, some of us do at least attend our messianic synagogue or church twice a week, which is more than a great many other believers do! How could anything more be expected? That is until we consider how our heavenly Father did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all (Romans 8:32a). Perhaps we have some more serious questions to ask ourselves questions such as these: To what extent am I devoted to the Kingdom of God? Am I ready to sacrifice treasure, or pleasure, for the sake of my Lord?48

Concluding note: Now the priests and the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers and the Temple servants lived in their cities, and all Isra’el in their cities that they occupied before the exile (Ezra 2:70). This entire chapter serves as a prelude to the great event of building the Temple and reestablishing Levitical worship as demanded in the Torah. There would soon be daily sacrifices to offer, many worshipers to attend to,
and much work to supervise (Ezra 3:4ff).

The number 42,360 hardly adds up to the number of stars in the night sky or the sand upon the seashore (Genesis 22:7). The number of the righteous of the TaNaKh was at this point in history no greater than the population of a small town. But “oaks grow from little acorns,” the proverb says, and ADONAI is not about the business of mocking smallness. The invisible Universal Church, comparatively speaking, has sometimes been pitifully small by the standards of the world. Before Shavu’ot the entire Messianic Community amounted to no more than 120 people (see the commentary on Acts Al The Ruach ha-Kodesh Comes at Shavu’ot) – though the Spirit of God added 3,000 that day! In such times, these numbers were symbolic of both a winnowing process, whereby God in judgment removed the chaff, and a preserving hand that ensured that even in their darkest hours, YHVH could identify a remnant according to the election of grace (Romans 9:27; Haggai 1:12-14). Ha’Shem is faithful, then as he is now. We are not to despise the small things (Zechariah 4:10).49

2021-02-07T11:23:42+00:000 Comments
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