Read Ezra Ch. 1 and Ch. 3-7. What difficulties do the Jews face as they try to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple? What helps them overcome these difficulties? Note especially the role of leaders like Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra himself. Also note the contrasting attitudes of Persian leaders, e.g., Cyrus and Artaxerxes.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Ezra (extra credit)
Read Ezra Ch. 1 and Ch. 3-7. What difficulties do the Jews face as they try to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple? What helps them overcome these difficulties? Note especially the role of leaders like Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra himself. Also note the contrasting attitudes of Persian leaders, e.g., Cyrus and Artaxerxes.
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The Jews faced foreigners wanting to help build their temple, they faced people bribing officials to slow work down on it. They also faced a new king in charge who tells them to stop the build .Zerubbabel order the build to start after prophets Haggai and Zechariah told him to restart the build. King Darrius order to look for king Cyrus order to build the temple and it was found so the build continual. Ezra came to Jerusalem from Babylonia with the knowledge of the laws Moses was given and knowing how everything should be in the temple.
ReplyDeleteThe problem i see is that the Jews are dealing with other people trying to build their temple. People who do not understand their ways of doing things. It makes things hard when you have to explain things over and over to get people to understand. The Jews more or less have to integrate the people, just so they can build the temple in the proper way. God has it written in the Bible how they are supposed to do it and dealing with other people trying to help is not fun. They would have overcame this by having the knowledge that when things are finished their lives can begin again. They have their temple back and they can worship like the days of old.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem the Jews are facing is outsiders wanting to help them build the temple for worship. This makes them extreamly leary of the help because the outsiders do not understand the way that the Jewish people do things and they do not understand the Jewish way of worship. Thus they feel that it is a hinderance. Ezra 7:21 says that Ezra is the scribe of the law, thus he knows what the Lord wants and how it will be pleasing to the Lord, which is what they strive for in the long run.
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish people face the fear of those who did not want the temple to be rebuilt. The people west of the Euphrates sent a message to Emperor Artaxerxes. The letter was stating that he needs to look into this because these people are rebellious. They will not obey you. Look into the records and you will see that they do not take well to authority. For these reasons the temple was destroyed in the first place. So they strongly suggested that it not be built again.
ReplyDeleteAnother letter telling Emperor Darius to look for the records that gave the Jewish people permission to start building the temple from Emperor Cryus' with this being discovered Darius agreed to allow the temple to go ahead. He even pledged to help in any way possible.
The leaders which you mention are all is some way responsible for helping the temple get rebuilt. Some encouraged the Jewish people to start building again. They were the spirit and the driving force to keep the project going. They lead the Israelites through the whole process.
Something amazing happens here. especially in Ezra 5:11, "...We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was build many years ago, one that a great king of Israel built and finished.." They declare to the king to obey God and to obey the decree made by the former king to build the temple. This shows that the people had committed themselves to work for God's honor. Even though foreigners tried to halt the building of the temple, their trust in God helped them to complete the task. They were even putting their trust in the prophets Haggai and Zechariah for leadership and guidance. This is quite the contrast from what their ancestors had done and goes to show how God had worked on them while they were in captivity. They are almost like a completely new people altogether!
ReplyDeleteWell, the first of the problems was the non-jews wanting to get in on the building. This seemed harmless, but what they probably wanted was to make it a temple to all gods. Something that a non-Jew would see no problem with, but something worshipers of God can't allow. Another problem was some dificulty with the following king after cyrus. The non-jews had convinced him that building up Jerusalem would only lead to rebellion. The progress was halted. What helps them overcome this, is most likely the jewish tradition in education. They had established a school in the persian capital and it was with this school that we were able to see intelligent and devoted people like Ezra and Jeshua. Who impressed the Persian Emperor enough to allow the temple to be rebuilt.
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ReplyDeleteThe returning Jews faced a number of problems as they tried to rebuild the temple. When they got back to Jerusalem, the first thing they did was to rebuild the altar, even before the temple, in order to offer burnt offering on it. "They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord ... morning and evening." (Ezra 3:3) They were afraid of the people who had been living in Judea while they had been in captivity, people who were not Jews and did not know their God, and they build the altar right away to remind God that they had come back and to please keep His eye on them.
ReplyDeleteWhen the adversaries of the Jews heard that they had started rebuilding the temple, they wanted to join with them, thinking that they would be able to worship their pagan gods there while the Jews were worshipping their God. When Zerubbabel and the other leaders told them their help wasn't wanted, the people of the land "discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose." (4:4-5)
When Artaxerxes became king, the people of the land wrote to him, telling him of the Jewish efforts, telling him that if "this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and the royal revenue will be impaired." (4:13)
This got Artaxerxes' attention. In contrast to King Cyrus' encouragement and financial help in sending the Jews back to rebuild the temple, Artaxerses made a decree that "these men be made to cease, and that this city not be rebuilt ... Why should damage grow to to the hurt of the king? (4:21-22) Consequently the work stopped for a while.
Two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, prophesied to the Jews in the name of the Lord, motivating them to again start the rebuilding. Then Tattenai, the governor of the province, along with his cronies, wrote to King Darius, again complaining and asking him to check and see if there was actually a record of the decree allowing the Jews to rebuild. Darius found Cyrus' original decree and wrote back saying, "Keep away. Let the work of this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for ... the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. And whatever is needed - bull, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require - let that be given to them day by day without fail ... if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill." (6:6-11) I bet Tattenai and company wish they had just left it alone!!! God really does have a sense of humor!
In the beginning of chapter 3, it plainly says that the Jews are afraid of what the other people might do, of being abused by non-Jewish authorities or foreigners. While building a temple and following the proper traditions and ceremonies was always important, it seems to me that the Jews felt it was especially important to do things EXACTLY right in order to please God and not bring down any more punishment. The Jews wanted to be protected if ("when" may be more appropriate) the numerous peoples around them ever turned against them, and having others be involved with temple building was just asking for God's wrath.
ReplyDeleteWhat helped them get past the problems of rebuilding Jerusalem, in my opinion, was the deep desire to appease and honor God the right way, political and social problems be damned.
The key problem they faced was the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin wanting to help build the temple. They then made the people of Judah afraid to rebuild and bribed officials to make it even more difficult to build. They (Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and others) wrote a letter to Artaxerxes stating that if he allowed the city and temple to be rebuilt a rebellion would possibly occur and the king would have "no possession in the province Beyond the River." Those mentioned were key to helping the temple restoration being resumed. Darius was able to find Cyrus' old decree allowing the restoration, so he again allowed it. I believe their perseverance and faith allowed them to fight through all the setbacks to rebuild it again.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest difficulty is the fact that there are other people, who are foreigners, that are standing in there way. Since they all worship other gods, they do not believe that a temple should be only built for the God of Jacob. Some leaders made it a point to help the Jews with rebuilding the temple, such as Ezra. He was given a message directly from God to help with rebuilding, and he set out to help them. Once the foreigners began to revolt, however, he was forced to slow the rebuilding to avoid war.
ReplyDeleteCyrus was a man who had seen God’s work through Daniel, as we’ve seen over and over again in ancient Israel, people forget pretty quickly. Cyrus may have given the OK, but it’s now the reign of Darius. They receive a lot of local opposition from the people who have settled the lands during the Jews absence. Letters are sent back and forth, work stops, but historical records prevail. The temple gets finished in Ezra chapter 5, they celebrate Passover, and give a detailed list of all the animals they sacrificed.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest challenge the Jews face is not wanting the help of other peoples. They want the temple to be to worship their God and their God alone. The help of people who do not know the Jewish ways would make this mission unobtainable.
ReplyDeleteCyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem as a political move because he wanted them on his side because of Israels important geographical location for an empire. Zerubbabel and Jeshua built the altar first because they wanted to show respect to God, by the time they were rebuilding the temple they faced opposition by Xerxes and Artaxerxes because the people around them saw the Jewish people becoming strong again. God sent Haggai and Zachariah to incourage the rebuilding of the temple. Ezra and Nehemiah were rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem while they faced opposition, but God blessed the rebuilding and they were able to rebuild it in 52 days.
ReplyDeleteCyrus let the Jews go back to the promise land, but with that came the rain of Darius. He was ruthless leaders and made life hard for the few Jews that did return. They tried to rebuild the temple for over twenty years, because the Jews cannot catch a break. They are surrounded by people who only wish to gain their land. The Temple does get built, but it takes longer then necessary.
ReplyDeleteLiz