Ezra 6

The Explanation

It begins with a search in a dusty archive. King Darius orders his servants to dig through the royal records in Babylon, looking for one particular document. They do not find it there. They find it far away, in a palace in the province of Media, in a city called Achmetha. One scroll, still lying where someone filed it years before: the decree of King Cyrus, saying that the temple in Jerusalem may be rebuilt. Even the measurements are written down, and the promise that the king's own treasury will pay for it, and that the gold and silver bowls Nebuchadnezzar once stole must be returned, "everything to its place."

Remember why this search happened. Officials named Tattenai and Shetharbozenai had questioned the Jews: who gave you permission to build? The Jews said, Cyrus did. So Darius checks. And the scroll proves them right.

What Darius writes back is remarkable. He does not merely say "carry on." He tells Tattenai to keep his distance and leave the work alone. Then he goes further: pay for it. Out of the taxes collected in your own region, give these builders whatever they need. Bulls, rams, lambs for the offerings, plus wheat, salt, wine and oil, delivered "day by day without fail." And anyone who tampers with this order will have a beam torn out of his own house and be fastened to it, and his house turned into a rubbish heap. Darius does not do things by halves.

So the work goes on. Ezra tells us two things happened at once: the elders built, and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah preached. Building and preaching, hammers and words from God, side by side. The temple is finished on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of Darius.

Then comes the celebration. They dedicate the house of God with joy. A hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve goats as a sin offering, one for each tribe of Israel, even though most of those tribes had long since scattered. Twelve. God has not forgotten a single one. Priests and Levites are put back into their proper groups, "as it is written in the book of Moses," because they want to do it the way God actually said.

And then, in the first month of the new year, they keep the Passover, the meal that remembers how God brought their ancestors out of Egypt. People join in who had walked away from the way the surrounding nations lived, in order "to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel." Seven days of feasting. And Ezra explains why the joy is there: "because Yahweh had made them joyful."

What Does This Mean?

Notice who is doing the real work in this chapter. It looks like Darius. He signs the decree, he pays the bills, he threatens the opposition. But verse 22 says it was Yahweh who "turned the heart of the king." A Persian emperor who does not worship Israel's God ends up funding Israel's temple and asking for prayer. God can work through people who do not even know they are being used.

And notice the delay. That scroll from Cyrus existed the whole time. It sat in a filing room in Achmetha for years while the building work was stopped and the people grew discouraged. God's promise was not lost. It was just not yet found.

The Common Thread

This temple was the place where sacrifices were offered, animals dying so that sin could be covered. It never lasted. Every year the Passover lambs had to be killed again.

Jesus once stood in a temple like this one and said that if you destroyed it, he would raise it in three days. He was speaking about himself. He is the meeting place between God and people now, and he is the Passover Lamb who did not have to be offered a second time. The twelve goats for twelve tribes say: God wants all his people back. Jesus is how he gets them.

For You

Something you prayed for may be stuck right now, the way the temple was stuck. That does not mean God forgot. Somewhere there is a scroll with his promise on it, and he knows exactly where.

And when you are working on something good and it feels slow, remember the two prophets. The builders needed words from God as much as they needed stone.

Talk About It

Why do you think God let the temple work stay stopped for years, when he could have solved it at once?

Where have you seen God use someone who was not even trying to help him?

Praying Together

Lord, you turned a king's heart without him noticing. Turn ours too. When we wait, keep us from giving up, and give us joy that comes from you and not just from things going well. Amen.