POST EXILIC
Ezr 5:1 Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.
Ezr 5:2 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.
And you know my dear friend God saw to it that we remained unmolested while carrying out His will.
During this testing time, I realized one thing. If we had acted like this the first time when we have been molested and the work on the foundation was destroyed, God would have protected us. He can only act if we are obedient. I have learned this important lesson and I will be faithful to God till I die.
While the author of Ezra gave all glory to God for the outcome of Tatnai’s visit, one cannot help admiring the impartiality of this important official, who acted according to the highest traditions of the integrity of a Persian officer.
Let me read you the content of the letter that Tatnai sent to the king:
This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates, the officials of Trans-Euphrates, sent to King Darius.
To King Darius: Cordial greetings.
Ezr 5:8 The king should know that we went to the district of Judah, to the temple of the great God. The people are building it with large stones and placing the timbers in the walls. The work is being carried on with diligence and is making rapid progress under their direction.
I just want to comment on the way he referred to the temple we were building, calling it “the temple of the great God.”
This is a remarkable expression coming from the mouth of a heathen. We must remember that the Persians were Zoroastrians, and our monotheism no doubt appealed to them as a religion similar to their own. This may partially explain why Persian kings and officials were, for the most part, sympathetically disposed toward me and my people the Jews in general, and toward our desires and aspirations.
He also mentioned “timbers in the walls.” This is a reference to the ancient architectural method of laying a row of timber in the walls for each of the three rows of stones. The decree of Cyrus expressly made mention of this procedure (ch. 6:4), and we were meticulously following the order.
The method of building walls by alternating one row of timber and three rows of stone is first mentioned in connection with Solomon’s Temple.
1Ki 7:12 The great courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the LORD with its portico.
(Archaeology. During the excavation of Megiddo a public building of the time of Solomon was uncovered which showed this architectural feature, the timber used being cedar. Other places where this practice has been observed are Carchemish, a Hittite city, and ancient Alalakh in northern Syria.
The older Jews in our building team, who had seen Solomon’s Temple with the rows of timber in the walls, desired to see the new Temple built in the same fashion and made a request to Cyrus accordingly.
Let’s continue listening to Tatnai’s correspondence to King Darius:
Ezr 5:9 We questioned the elders and asked them, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and to finish it?”
Ezr 5:10 We also asked them their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.
I Zerubbabel, as governor of Judea, was the appointed representative of the Persian Government and received Tatnai and his staff in my own official mansion. I have not revealed to Tatnai my own involvement in the rebuilding of the Temple.
I referred Tatnai with all his questions to the “elders” of the people. That I Zerubbabel was not the spokesman of the elders in the investigation is evident from their references to me as governor (vs. 14–16) by the name under which I was known to the Persian administration in Cyrus’ time (see on ch. 1:8).
When Tatnai came, none of the Jews knew what his attitude might prove to be, and the elders may have felt it the part of wisdom that I, Zerubbabel should remain in the background if an investigation were to be conducted.
They may have reasoned that if Tatnai should stop the work, and perhaps send the responsible leaders to Persia to give an account of their doings, the state would thus not be deprived of me, Zerubbabel, whose leadership meant much to them at this time.
Tatnai continued his conversation:
“We also asked them their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.”
Tatnai deemed it important to send with his letter a list of the names of the leading men in charge of the new building program. Officials in the Persian capital could ascertain whether any of the men named had engaged in subversive activities and whether they were the recognized leaders of the Jews.
In his letter to Darius mentioned the following, quoting the answer my leaders gave him:
This is the answer they gave us: “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, one that a great king of Israel built and finished.”
In a very humble manner, my leaders claimed to be no more than servants of God and to be following His directions. They were bound to obey when God should speak.
This should also be our attitude claiming to be humble servants of God. I was so proud of my leaders. Listen to the confession my leaders made:
“But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, king of Babylon, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.” “However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God.
He even removed from the temple of Babylon the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple in Babylon. Then King Cyrus gave them to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had appointed governor, and he told him, ‘Take these articles and go and deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem. And rebuild the house of God on its site.’
The repetition of the name Cyrus in this verse is significant and was apparently used to emphasize the fact that the building activities did not represent a rebellious spirit, but were in accordance with a royal decree.
Listen to more of Tatnai’s documentation to Darius where he mentions one of names:
“So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem. From that day to the present it has been under construction but is not yet finished.”
Tatnai was possibly not aware that for several years before the second year of Darius, the work had been suspended. The work must have progressed rapidly, or Tatnai would not have concluded that the present state of progress might conceivably represent more than 15 years of work. It is also possible that a considerable time had elapsed since the renewal of building activity in the second year of Darius.
Listen to Tatnai’s decent, logically epilogue.
“Now if it pleases the king, let a search be made in the royal archives of Babylon to see if King Cyrus did, in fact, issue a decree to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision in this matter. “
Thinking that the decree had been issued at Babylon, Tatnai suggested an investigation of the files kept there. Neither my people who suggested the search, nor Tatnai himself knew that the decree had been made at Ecbatana, the former capital of Media.
It should be noted in this connection that Tatnai must have gained a favourable impression of the sincerity and good faith of my people the Jews. He did not stop the work but allowed us to continue to build until a thorough investigation would determine the validity of their claims and the present king had had an opportunity to render a decision.