God’s nation, comprised of Jews, was intended to be his glory and his government in the earth. When Israel finally entered the promised land, they began well enough. But they soon tired in their zeal to possess their inheritance, and they sinned persistently against God. They were finally judged and sent into captivity. Even in their judgment, God promised them that it would only be for a limited period of 70 years; Afterwards he would restore them and rebuild the temple and the city (Jeremiah 25: 12; Isaiah 44: 24-45: 13).
These scriptures were fulfilled through the prayers of Daniel, but also through the edicts of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes. Through Daniel, these three Pagan kings came to fear the true God, but probably never came to really know him. Within God’s nation, the leadership of Zerubbabel, who built the temple, was an allegorical picture of the church building apostle. Joshua, the high priest, and Ezra, the teacher, also played a vital role.
A large section of the Old Testament covers this period of history. Once again, these scriptures are not included in our bibles just to teach us some interesting Jewish history. There are powerful allegories of Jesus and his Kingdom; They are written for our instruction and especially for those on whom the end of the age has come. The main purpose of these biblical books of restoration is to teach principles by which God will bring about a glorious restoration of his church at the end of the age.
All the prophetic scriptures from Isaiah to Malachi focus on this short period of history of about 150 years. At the same time, they are speaking of and looking forward to the great events of restoration, which are promised at the end of the age, to prepare the way for the return of the Lord.
Six books of the Old Testament are devoted entirely to the actual years of restoration and teach us many important principles concerning restoration in the church. These books are Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
During their captivity, the people of God continue to meet together in small synagogues. These buildings normally held 100 to 200 people and were scattered around the various countries of the Mediterranean. Here are the Jews of the dispersion met to read the scriptures, sing the songs, and lament their condition as captives of Babylon (Psalm 137).
This is such a picture of the recent history of the church and of Judaism. Because of sin and disobedience, both have become captives of the babylonian world system. Christians and Jews largely meet in small buildings the same way as the Jews did during their babylonian captivity. Instead of being God’s government on earth, the church constantly has to seek permission from her babylonian captors- the world’s political, legal, and civil authorities and economic systems for everything she does.
In the days of Cyrus, when the call came to return and revealed the ruined temple in the city of Jerusalem, only a minority of Jews responded. The majority were too comfortable in Babylon. However, some did set out in difficult circumstances, leaving their homes and synagogues behind, to rebuild the temple in the city. The story is recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah.
They were appalled and discouraged at the devastation they found and worked slowly and painfully to recover usable stones from the rubble that remained. With this makeshift building material, they started to rebuild the temple. They only got as far as the foundation level after four years. The builders were tempted and opposed on all sides as summarized below;
They were tempted to compromise and made unholy alliances with false friends who claim they wanted to help. Some of these friends claimed to be close relatives serving the same God, but they were of a totally different heart and spirit. Warned by God’s prophetic word, the two the restoration people rightly refuse to compromise with these false friends Ezra 4: one-four.
2 As time went on, they became exhausted and discouraged saying, I never realized it was going to be this hard. We just don’t seem to be getting anywhere, and the obstacles are too great. It’s futile, let’s just give up.
3 They opted for postponement due to the difficulties, saying: it’s the wrong time to build the House of Lord. Let’s wait for things to change and get easier.
4 They became distracted and turned to building more comfortable homes for themselves instead of trying to continue with building the temple of the Lord.
Four years after their return from Babylon, everything concerning the temple ceased and nothing more was done from their 14 years (Ezra 4: 24). Then two young Jewish prophets name Haggai and Zechariah came on the scene praying and prophesying. Haggai particularly brought some very specific words from God that spoke directly into that immediate situation. He prophesied five times in a 3 1/2 month period. As a result, a new spirit from God came upon the leaders and the people, and they were stirred up to begin to work again on the temple. The circumstances hadn’t changed, but their spirits were radically changed, and now nothing would stop them. Like Peter in (Acts 4: 18-20), they decided to obey God rather than submit any longer to the severe opposition from the local political leaders or the political oppression and unjust laws from Sushan, the capital city of the Persian- median empire.
Suddenly, through their praying and prophesying, the whole political situation radically changed back to their favor. The wicked king, Cambyses 11, was assassinated. Another younger son of Cyrus called Darius 11 came to the throne in sushan. Darius had his father’s integrity and general character. He changed the law back to what it had been under his father, so as to allow the Jews to build the temple. He also gave generous political and financial support to the project. As a result, the temple was completed in 516 BC, after just 4 years work. 22 years had passed from when king Cyrus issued the first commandment to rebuild the temple 538 BC.
Now the Jews had a beautiful temple in which to worship. They reestablished all the pageantry, traditions, ceremony of their ancient religion and restored the function of the levitical priesthood. With the homes they had built for themselves and with their new temple they were now much more comfortable in their family life and church life.
For many years after the temple was completed, nothing was done to restore the rest of Jerusalem, which remain in ruins with no wall or gates. The inhabitants would leave their beautiful homes where God was honored and go to the beautiful temple where God was worshipped. In between lay the ruined city of Jerusalem; No one had any heart or faith to believe that the city also could be restored. It continued this way for 71 years from 516 BC to 445 BC.
But God was preparing a man who was going to change everything and bring about the next stage of restoration, which was the rebuilding of the city. This story is told in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The opposition to building the temple had been severe, but God’s builders learn not to compromise with the enemy or allow exhaustion or discouragement to rob them of their faith. They learned to avoid distractions and understood that, in God’s eyes, quitting is not acceptable. No matter how difficult the work seems, God will make a way where there seems to be no way.
Gods people were soon to discover that the resistance to building the city was going to be even greater than the opposition they experienced while building the temple.