..Interesting that the enemies of Judah and Benjamin want to be involved in the building of the temple....they want to get in and see what is going on. The opposition to God's work begins. Remember that the enemy does not want us to get closer to God... A letter is sent to the king in a very "twisting" way...it tells the king that there is an issue of tax not being rendered to him. This certainly gets the king's attention and he has to look up the history....the Jews are forced to stop.
Haggai and Zechariah are two prophets that God sends to encourage his people. A letter is sent to Darius and Darius researches the situation and finds out that Darius decreed that the temple of God in Jerusalem was blessed by him and the expenses of the men are to be paid for out of the royal treasury! If anyone changes this edict he will be impaled. Go Cyrus, Go Cyrus!!
The temple is completed and the Passover is celebrated.
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
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My Bible says sthat sometimes God allows opposition to His will succeed for a time and we may not know why, and my become disheartened. Bu this adversity is simply a fetback from which we take our greatest leaps forward.
ReplyDeleteEven though they had opposition, they completed the temple. Then 6:21 "Then the children of Israel who had returned from the captivity are together with all who had separated themselves from the fifth of the nations of the land or order to seek the Lord God of Israel. " They had to separate themselves from evil practices to find the Lord.