Ezra 4:1
Outline: (Nelson’s Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts)
I. \\#Ezra 1:1-2:70\\ The First Return to Israel
A. \\#Ezra 1:1-4\\ The Command to Return
B. \\#Ezra 1:5-11\\ Preparations for the Journey
C. \\#Ezra 2:1-65\\ The People Who Returned
D. \\#Ezra 2:66-67\\ The Animals That Returned
E. \\#Ezra 2:68-69\\ The People’s Reaction
F. \\#Ezra 2:70\\ Life Begins
II. \\#Ezra 3:1-6:22\\ Construction of the Temple
A. \\#Ezra 3:1-7\\ In the First Year
B. \\#Ezra 3:8-13\\ In the Second Year
C. \\#Ezra 4:1-24\\ The Temple Work Is Stopped
III. \\#Ezra 7:1-8:36\\ The Second Return to Israel
IV. \\#Ezra 9:1-10:44\\ Restoration of the People
I. \\#Ezra 4:1-24\\ The Temple Work Is Stopped
A. \\#1-3\\ The Compromise
1. \\#1\\ "Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin"
a. Notice that Ezra kept his attention on those TWO
tribes.
b. "the adversaries" are not named but are all from the
area of the Samarians \\#10\\. That would be the
land of mixed ancestry, those brought in by the
Assyrians who married with the Jews that were left.
2. \\#2\\ "Let us build with you"
a. These people, having some Jewish blood and background,
wanted to join with the Jews in building and
worshipping THEIR version of Jehovah.
b. In fact, they had already been worshipping Jehovah in
that matter since the Assyrian king, Esarhaddon who
reigned from 681 to 669 BC. That would be for 140
plus years by that time.
c. But like the Samaritans of Jesus’ day, their worship
was not as God had commanded.
(1) To join together to worship Jehovah would
ultimately be doing the same thing that the
northern kingdom had done, to devise their own
religion and worship but to call it the worship
of God.
(2) It would be a compromise of God had commanded.
3. \\#3\\ "Ye have nothing to do with us" - Zerubbabel and
Jeshua told them that their god and worship was nothing
like the Jews and they could not help.
B. \\#4-5\\ The Sabotage
1. \\#4\\ "the people… weakened the hands of…Judah" -
Being refused and insulted, the Samarians did what they
could to stop the Jews.
2. \\#5\\ They "hired counsellors… to frustrate their
purpose" through Cyrus and Darius’ reigns.
a. "frustrate" means to cut off, to make void, to stop.
The Bible is unclear on what tatics were used but it
appears the work on the temple was effectively
stopped due to these saboteurs.
b. Darius
(1) Darius was not the king Cyrus’ uncle whom Cyrus
left to rule that part of the kingdom while he
returned to Persia or other parts.
(2) The only thing we need to know is that we
consider the dates for Darius’ rule to be the
same as that of Cyrus (539-529).
c. So the Samarians are able to hinder the building of
the temple for six years, when the next king,
Artaxerxes, will command it be stopped all together.
(1) The edict was given in the first year of Cyrus’
reign but it was in the year 538.
(2) Most sources say it was 536 by the time the Jews
prepared and made it back to the land.
(3) \\#Ezra 3:8\\ said it was the "second year of
their coming" so it would be 535 before they
started to work on the temple.
(4) That would leave 5 to 6 years of frustration.
C. \\#6-24\\ The New King
1. This king has several names.
a. History most often refers to him as Cambyses
(529-522).
b. \\#Ezra 4:6\\ called him Ahasuerus.
c. \\#Ezra 4:11-24\\ called him Artaxerxes.
2. \\#6\\ With the new king came a new attempt to stop the
Jews.
a. Sadly, the Samarians will do so by using the truth—
but on the parts of the truth that benefit them.
b. The Samarians will write a letter to the new king
accusing the Jews.
3. \\#7\\ "Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel" are the Samaritan
leaders who wrote the letter. They wrote it in Syrian
and we have the translated copy.
4. \\#8\\ "Rehum… Shimshai" - Two more are added to the
authoring list.
a. It then appears that nine people groups of that area
are mentioned.
b. Apparently, the Samarians though a mixed people had
forged a solid relationship—at least against the
Jew.
5. \\#9-16\\ The letter basically asserts that the Jews are
a rebellious people with a history of rebelling against
kings.
a. That was true.
(1) Babylon defeated Assyria around 609 BC, making
Babylon the world power.
(2) By 605, Babylon had conquered Israel, taking
Daniel and his companions to Babylon.
(3) Nebuchadnezzar set up several kings over Israel
who pledged loyalty to him, but then rebelled.
(4) This forced Nebuchadnezzar to come a 2nd and 3rd
time to retake Jerusalem, the last being in
586 BC and he decided to destroy the nation.
(5) So for 19 years, Israel proved it could not live
under a king’s authority or God’s either, for
God told the kings to submit to Babylon.
b. \\#13\\ The Samarians predicted that if allowed to
build their city and temple, the Jews would rebel
again.
c. \\#15\\ They further asserted that the king could read
through the old chronicles of Babylon and see that
he was being told the truth, which he was.
d. \\#16\\ And they closed by reasserting the certainty
of the Jews rebelling against Artaxerxes.
6. \\#17-23\\ The King’s Reply
a. \\#17-18\\ The king read the letter.
b. \\#19\\ The king verified what the letter said and
found it to be true, i.e. the Jews were a rebellious
people.
c. \\#20\\ He also found out that Israel’s kings had been
very mighty in the past. That is probably a
reference to David and Solomon.
d. \\#21\\ So the king orders that the Jews stop building
"this city," all building including the temple, and
that the Samarians be sure that it was stopped.
e. \\#22\\ The king commands the Samarians to make sure
the Jews stop for His and the kingdom’s sake.
f. \\#23\\ "made them to cease by force and power" - The
king backed up this command with his authority. The
Samarians were only too glad to obey the king’s
order in this matter.
7. \\#24\\ The Work STOPPED!
a. So the building of the temple and Jerusalem was
stopped until the second year of Darius, King of
Persian.
(1) This is NOT the same Darius as was mentioned in
\\#Ezra 4:5\\.
(2) History notes this Darius as Darius I (521-486).
(3) He will be mentioned in \\#Ezra 6:1\\.
(4) This Darius doesn’t start ruling until 521, the
year King Artaxerxes died and 8 years after
Cyrus had died—meaning he could not have been
a contempory of Cyrus.
(5) That would be 18 years after Cyrus gave the
command for the Jews to return and rebuild and
14 years after The Jews had started building.
b. It strikes me as strange that the work was so easily
stopped by the Samarians.
(1) It appears that all they did in their first 14 to
15 years (535-521) was lay the foundation, which
they did in their second year in the land.
(2) Even though they were stopped by Artaxerxes
(529), they had from 535 to 529 to do have built
some kind of structure.
(3) If one has the king’s command, what political
power could have stopped them?
c. Granted, they had to plan and collect materials while
still building for themselves, but notice the things
God did for them.
(1) \\#Ezra 6:3-4\\ In an appeal to Darius, the
original degree of Cyrus was found and it
contained details about the temple not yet
disclosed to us.
Ezra 6:3 In the first year of Cyrus the king the
same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the
house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be
builded, the place where they offered sacrifices,
and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid;
the height thereof threescore cubits, and the
breadth thereof threescore cubits;
4 With three rows of great stones, and a row of
new timber: and let the expenses be given out of
the king’s house:
(a) The size was to be 60 cubics by 60 cubics.
That is not very big, just 90 feet by 90
feet. It should not take terribly long to
build a structure that size. Granted there
was a lot of other things to be done (i.e.
everyone had to build their own homes,
plant crops, rebuild roads, and so forth;
but the Jews hired workers, ordered the
lumber \\#Ezra 3:7\\ and got the foundation
laid in their second year in the land
\\#Ezra 3:8\\. If they had just gotten a
structure up, they could have started
worshipping God and continued to beautify
the temple as they had time and resources.
Jewish sources do not believe the people
ever got anything more than the foundation
laid until Darius became king.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14309-temple-the-second
(b) This account reveals that Cyrus was also
providing the building materials! That
would mean that the people had written
commands from the king for the materials
needed. This would have greatly speed up
the building process. In fact, it
indicates that the Jews were under the
king’s command to build the temple as
quickly as possible.
(c) \\#Daniel 6:8, 15, 17\\ all tell us that
once a Persian law was written, it could
not be changed. (That is the story of
Darius’ command requiring that Daniel be
cast into the lion’s den.) If that is the
case, why did the Jews not appeal to Cyrus
and Darius during the five years of
"frustrations" by the Samarians? Even
after Artaxerxes stopped the building,
could they not have appealed to the king
for the law to be left intact since it was
a Persian law?
(2) All of this makes me think that perhaps the Jews
were not very anxious to build their temple or
Jerusalem. Perhaps they got too busy trying to
rebuild their homes and fields to care about
obeying God or even Cyrus’ command to rebuild the
temple.
Hag 1:4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in
your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
(3) Granted, that is partly conjecture on my part;
but it seems that the people could have
accomplished more from 535-529 if they had truly
been of the mind to do so.
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