Day 261 (Ezra 4-6, Psalm 137) - Year 8

Tara-Leigh Cobble (0:01)

Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Yesterday, the exiles who returned from Babylon started rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. And today, that comes to a screeching halt.

It starts out subtle. First, a few of Israel's enemies try to throw a wrench into the plan to rebuild. The Israelites have been gone for decades, then all of a sudden they show back up to rebuild the ruins in the land these people have lived in for maybe all of their lives. This doesn't sit well with their enemies who live there, of course. So their enemies hatch a plan to put a stop to it. They're like, oh, you're rebuilding the temple to Yahweh? What a coincidence. It just so happens we've been worshipping him too, so you should totally let us help. But Zerubbabel and Jeshua send them packing. They say Cyrus has commanded that only the Israelites who returned from exile should rebuild it. When the enemy's plan A doesn't work, they go over the Israelites' heads. They start bribing officials and lying and scheming to put a stop to things. And it seems to work. The construction project is officially put on hold for something like 15 years. Maybe some of you feel this way about your road system. By the way, the extent of this delay kind of flies under the radar in the text because it's only evident if we pay attention to the different kings mentioned.

A lot of what happens in Chapter 4 isn't chronological. It's more of a parenthetical statement that just shows us this is not a one-time situation the Jews are dealing with. Their enemies have been persistent. For instance, here are a few of the other things Chapter 4 says their enemies do to deter them. When a new king, Ashwaris, begins his reign, the locals write him a letter to make sure he knows why they've asked for the construction project to be stopped. By the way, we'll read more about him in the days to come, so remember his name.

Then when his successor, Artas Xerxes, takes over the throne, the Israelites' enemies whip out their laptops again and continue their letter-writing campaign, making sure to highlight some of the negative aspects of the Jews while also flattering the king. Their letter basically says, those Jews who used to live there in Babylon that your people sent here, they're trying to take over. And maybe you don't remember this, but when they lived here before, they were a bunch of wicked rebels. So we think you should shut their construction project down, because if they finish it, they will definitely not honor you. And look, we don't want to be gossips. I mean, we didn't even really want to say anything, and we would just hate to see you disrespected like that. That's our primary concern. But you don't even have to take our word for it. If you do a Google search for Israelites, rebels is what will come up at the top. We promise. Okay, thanks, bye.

Right away, King Artaxerxes hops on the Googler, and sure enough, the Jews are rebels. Oops. So he decides he needs to shut things down, just like the letter suggested. When their enemies get the king's mandate in response, they rush right over to Jerusalem. And as 423 says, by force and power made them cease. Ugh, I feel so defeated. But chapter 5 has better news for us. First, some prophets show up among the Jews and speak words of encouragement to them when their enemies start discouraging them. The prophets' names are Haggai and Zechariah. We'll read some of their words over the next few days when we drop in on their books. As a result, Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the current leaders of the returned exiles, rally the troops to start rebuilding. Meanwhile, the governor and his crew swing by Jerusalem one day, and they're like, hey, do you guys have a permit for this? And who are you anyway? Not a single one of you is wearing a hard hat. We don't get any information about what the Jews said in response until the next chapter. Verse five just says, but the eye of their god was on the elders of the Jews.

So the governor and his crew let them keep working for the time being. They decide to send it to the higher ups for follow up, namely Persia's new king Darius. The governor drafts his letter to the king, and it goes something like this.

We were just in Jerusalem, and we noticed the Jews have a big construction project going. It's pretty impressive, honestly. We asked if they had a permit, and we asked who they were, and they just said, we are servants of the god of heaven and earth, and that they're rebuilding the temple. Apparently their ancestors built it a long time ago, but then they angered god, so he drove them into exile. Now they're saying Cyrus sent them back home and told them they could rebuild their temple, and that he actually gave them a bunch of vessels for it. Does any of that ring a bell? Could you double check the records to see if that's true, because we're not really sure how to proceed here.