seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Ezra 6:13 Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence.14 So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. 15 The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.
16 Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. 17 For the dedication of this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering(b) for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel. 18 And they installed the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their groups for the service of God at Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.
19 On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover.20 The priests and Levites had purified themselves and were all ceremonially clean. The Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their relatives the priests and for themselves. 21 So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the Lord, the God of Israel. 22 For seven days they celebrated with joy the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because the Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel
b. Ezra 6:17 Or purification offering
When they dedicated the original Temple.... they slaughtered thousands of animals. Now they only need a few hundred. How sad.
I just about glossed right over a verse that might mean a lot to some preachers and leaders. In verse 14 it says they "continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo". That looks like just another statement.... but it's a little more important than that. According to yesterday's commentary.... they stopped working on the Temple and started working on their own houses.... and according to the commentary... it was the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah that got them back to work!
This is from Enduringword.com.
They prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah: The words and personal ministry of these post-exilic prophets was an important component in the success of the work. The work and the workers were genuinely strengthened by the word of God through these prophets.
The initial ministry of these prophets is mentioned in Ezra 5:1-2. There, the prophets had to encourage the people of God to resume the work after a significant period of inactivity. Now they had to encourage them to keep working when God had opened the doors for the work to be done. Even with the open doors, the work was still difficult and needed prophetic encouragement. God’s blessing on the work did not make the work easy to do.
“Work on the temple made little progress because of opposition and the preoccupation of returnees with their own homes (Haggai 1:2-3). Because they had placed their own interests first, God sent them famine as a judgment (Haggai 1:5-6, 10-11). Spurred by the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, and under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua, a new effort was begun (Haggai 1:12-15).” (Yamauchi)
They had a big celebration when the foundation of the Temple was finished..... and then life started to get involved and the construction fizzled. Now... spearheaded, apparently, by the preaching of Haggai and Zehariah, they finally got the Temple finished. It was smaller and not as opulent.... but it was finished. Enduringword.com continues.
Celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy: There was a previous celebration, many years before at the founding of this second temple (Ezra 3). This was the celebration for the finishing of a functioning temple.
“The word for dedication (hanukka) was later to become the name of a festival in memory of the Temple’s re-consecration in 165 b.c. after its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes (cf. John 10:22).” (Kidner)
And they offered sacrifices: Compared to the dedication of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8:62-66), this was a meager dedication celebration. Solomon sacrificed some 142,000 animals at his dedication of the temple; here at the dedication of the second temple they only sacrificed a total of 712 animals.
However, given the relative wealth of Israel in the days of the first temple as compared to the second temple, the smaller gift recorded in Ezra may have been more beautiful to God.
As a sin offering for all Israel twelve male goats: “It was a confession of failure but also faith. There was still atonement and still the covenant with the whole people – for this was the implication of the twelve sacrifices.” (Kidner)
One thing I can always count on.... humans go back to being humans. The huge celebration at the finish of the floor of the Temple.... followed by "oh we'll get to it... but I need a house first.... " It was the inspired preaching, apparently, that got them out of the pews and back to work. I found this at history.com.
The events that inspired the Hanukkah holiday took place during a particularly turbulent phase of Jewish history. Around 200 B.C., Judea—also known as the Land of Israel—came under the control of Antiochus III, the Seleucid king of Syria, who allowed the Jews who lived there to continue practicing their religion. His son, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, proved less benevolent: Ancient sources recount that he outlawed the Jewish religion and ordered the Jews to worship Greek gods. In 168 B.C., his soldiers descended upon Jerusalem, massacring thousands of people and desecrating the city’s holy Second Temple by erecting an altar to Zeus and sacrificing pigs within its sacred walls.
Did you know? The story of Hanukkah does not appear in the Torah because the events that inspired the holiday occurred after it was written. It is, however, mentioned in the New Testament, in which Jesus attends a "Feast of Dedication."
Well.... it looks like I have a lot more reading to do.