The rebuilding of the temple by the returnee Jews continued. However, there were oppositions after the non-Jewish neighbours of the returning Jews stopped the Jews from rebuilding the temple by writing negative reports about them to the Persian Kings. Only during the reign of King Darius did work begin again on the temple and was completed in the sixth year of his reign. (Ezra 6:15). The focus of today’s lesson is the discovery of Cyrus’ order to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and Darius command to continue with the rebuilding work.
The Jews who returned from exile in Babylon were eager to rebuild the temple. Their desire was to restore true worship. Hence, the people gave freewill offerings of gold, silver and other materials and the work commenced. (Ezra 2). However, at the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, the Jews were faced with oppositions from their enemies who lived in Judah and Jerusalem. (Ezra 4:6-13). Eventually, the Persian officials wrote a report to King Darius to conduct a search in the royal records in Babylon to confirm Cyrus order about the rebuilding of the temple. At the end, a scroll that contained Cyrus’ order to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem as a place of worship was found in the city of Ecbatana in the province of Media.
•King Darius listened to the request of the Jewish officials to conduct a search in order to confirm King Cyrus’ order. What lessons should leaders learn from this
•Why were the Jews committed to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem?
