4:3 - Why do they reject the help of these men who claim to be followers of God? They say it is because King Cyrus only told them to do it, but I believe that they do not trust the other men who have offered to help. I believe they think the men will actually try to hamper the rebuilding of Jerusalem. (Side note: These men are actually from Samaria, which gives you even more background information on the hatred that existed between the two groups)
4:4-16 - We see the true colors of the men who had offered to help. When they didn't get the response they wanted, they immediately set out to make the work for the builders as hard as possible. The quandary is - would they have hampered the work if the Jews had allowed them to help? The bible doesn't tell us.
4:24 - This has got to be frustrating. The exiles have returned to their destroyed city to rebuild the temple of God. They are doing God's will - they are sacrificing and serving - yet they continue to face opposition and hardship. How many times do Christians go through similar experiences? There is spiritual war taking place in this world and the tides of battle go back and forth, but what we can see clearly through the biblical text is the faithfulness of God to pull His people through (Though not always on their timetable).
5:1 - Haggai and Zechariah prophesy reminding the people that they have lost sight of God's plan to rebuild the temple. The people have given up because of the decree of an earthly King and the prophets are calling them to action.
5:2 - The leaders of the Jews hear the voice of God through the prophets and decide to trust that the will of God is actually found int he original decree of Cyrus - so they start building again.
5:11-13 - I love that the Jewish people working on the temple just lay it all out there for the people that are questioning them. They boldly proclaim that they are servants of the God of heaven and earth (A huge claim in a world where most people thought gods were attached to certain earthly territories) - they say they rebelled against God and had everything taken from them and now they are trying to rebuild the temple to bring honor to His name. They offer no lies, no deception, just matter-of-fact truth. It seems like there are a lot of times in our lives where we try to downplay our faith and what it means to follow God, so we don't get embarrassed or look foolish in the eyes of others. But I want to be more like these Jews - I love the straight forward nature of their explanation of why they are there. Why am I here? What am I doing? Messing around with money and experiences and work - or am I living for a greater purpose?
6:8 - Wow! Talk about God at work! Darius not only approves of what the Jews are doing, but he also offers to pay for part of the rebuilding costs. It seems that his form of governing to keep the vast Persians Empire together was to allow people to hold on to some of their hereditary customs, which woks out well for the Israelites.
6:10 - We also see another angle on Darius' motivation for giving the Jews the help they need to rebuild the temple. He wants to be sure he has all his bases covered when it comes to receiving blessings from God. This isn't really faith...more like fire insurance.
6:22 - The picture we get from these chapters is that no matter what sort of obstacles and issues come up in the human realm, God just continues to roll His plan out.
1 comment:
4:6- is this the same 8-foot-tall Xerxes with a voice deeper than mine from 300?
5:11- I like this verse as well.
6:11- that's a very creative punishment. I kind of laughed because of how blunt he said it.
6:17- Its cool that they keep referring back to their original customs. The Jews are so good at preserving culture and everything else for that matter. In our culture, stories get twisted just between a few conversations.
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