Protesters and Prophets

MEMORY VERSE: “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?” —Haggai 1:4

HAGGAI 1:1-9; EZRA 5:1-2

HAGGAI was the first of the prophets to serve God following the Babylonian captivity. His chief concern was that the work of rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem be completed. While this work was begun with great enthusiasm, various circumstances interfered and the work was stopped.

One of these circumstances was the antagonism of the people who lived in the area at the time. These were the descendants of non-Jews sent into the cities of Samaria, largely from Assyria. The people of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel were called Samaritans, but these either went into captivity in Assyria when this kingdom was destroyed, or else allied themselves with the two-tribe kingdom of Judah. Those brought into the land during the Babylonian captivity are referred to in Smith’s Bible Dictionary as “the new Samaritans”

These “people of the land” at first offered to assist with the rebuilding of the temple. They said to Zerubbabel, the Jewish governor of Judah, “Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.”

But this offer was declined. “Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.”—Ezra 4:2,3

Then “the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.” (Ezra 4:4,5) They wrote letters to two successive kings of Persia—Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes—to have the Jews stop work on the temple, and Artaxerxes acceded to their demands.

While King Cyrus had issued the decree that permitted the Jews to return to Palestine, they remained subjects of the Persian Empire; nor did they ever gain national freedom until our day, when in 1948 the new State of Israel was formed. So, being subject to the Persian king, the Jews felt it unwise to continue the work of temple reconstruction.

Their enemies requested the Persian kings to search their records to see if any authority had been given for rebuilding Jerusalem. Up to that time no such authority had been given. “Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.”—Ezra 4:24

EZRA 5:1-2

In God’s due time he raised up Haggai, the prophet, and Zechariah, to encourage the Jews to resume work on the temple, which they did. Zerubbabel, the Jewish governor of the returning exiles, was stirred by the messages of these prophets of the Lord, and encouraged the people to go forward with the reconstruction work.

Probably by now they had discovered that their enemies, knowingly or unknowingly, had requested the Persian kings to search for the wrong document; that is, a decree to rebuild the city. These devout Jews knew that a decree had been issued to rebuild the temple, and when their enemies again endeavored to stop their work they called their attention to this fact.

Again a message was sent to the Persian king, this time by the Jews, requesting that a search be made for this decree, and it was found. (Ezra 5:13,17) The decrees and laws of the Medes and the Persians could not be changed, so now “the elders of Judah” were free to resume their temple reconstruction work. Thus does the Lord work in mysterious ways “his wonders to perform.”

In this segment of the history of God’s chosen people there is a timely lesson for us today. We too have enemies—particularly the world, the flesh, and the Devil—who endeavor to hinder us from doing what we know to be the Lord’s will. But if we believe that God is truly for us we will go forward faithfully in his service.

QUESTIONS

What part did Haggai and Zechariah have in rebuilding the temple?

Who were the people who opposed the Israelites in their rebuilding work?

What authority did the Jews have for rebuilding the temple?

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