Zerubbabel, the prince of Judah, and Yeshua, the priest, had returned with approximately 50,000 Israelites from captivity in Babylon to the city of Jerusalem. They had returned there with the express purpose of rebuilding the temple. Now, of course, any enterprise like that will attract hostility from the enemies of God. sometimes that hostility is direct and that was the case as the people began the building of the temple as they sought to lay the foundation of the structure and before they began to build the walls of that edifice the people of the land who had been resettled there by Nebuchadnezzar from other parts of the Babylonian Empire as the men of Judah had been taken into captivity, these new people of the land sought to hinder the work. They raised threats against the builders and so domineering were they and so vehement were their threats The work on the temple ground to a halt. For a decade and a half, no progress was made. Then the Lord sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. they motivated the returned exiles to resume the work. And as they began to build the walls of the temple upon the foundation that had been laid all those years earlier, another attack came against them. This time it wasn't so direct. In fact we could even say that those people who seemed to be attacking them, seeking to stop the work, the governor of the province beyond the river and his associates, they themselves weren't actually necessarily against the building. As we saw last time, time has passed, Cyrus has died, Cambyses has taken his place, reigned for 10 years, he also has died, and Darius is now the king of Persia, and he's had to settle his nation and his empire. and he's encountered revolts all over the provinces of the empire that he has had to quell. So these aren't stable times in the Persian Empire and it's understandable then that the governors in the various provinces who are for the King of Persia would be concerned about any substantial building projects that may be undertaken. And so this is the case with Tatenai, the governor of the province beyond the river in which Judah falls. And so it's not so much his attack against the leaders of Judah and the rebuilding of the temple, so much as an attack of the powers of darkness, the schemes of Satan to thwart the purposes of God. These are indirect attacks. Well, Tatenai and the others who were with him sent a letter to Darius the king informing him of what was taking place and seeking his instructions. What should they do? The claim had been made by the Jews that they were acting under the instruction, the decree of Cyrus. was this actually the case or was it a smokescreen to hide their real purpose to set up their own kingdom that would rebel against Persia and King Darius. So the letter is sent off to Darius and being so far away and given that there weren't airplanes in those days to carry the mail, it would take some time for the letter to make its way to Darius and then for its contents to be processed and a reply to be received. Well that's where we are now at the beginning of chapter 6. The letter has been sent, Darius has received it. And this chapter can be divided really into three clear divisions and I guess they're given to us in the ESV translation at least with these three headings that we have. Well I have slightly different headings but they follow these three sections of the chapter. Firstly the decree is confirmed. This claim that Zerubbabel and Yeshua make that they have been commissioned by Cyrus, king of Persia, to rebuild the temple, the decree is confirmed. As Satan seeks to thwart God's purposes, what we actually see in this section is that God overrules Satan in his purpose and he bolsters the work. The work is actually in a sense furthered and strengthened as a result of Satan's schemes. So Darius makes inquiry. and they searched the archives. Well, nothing was found in Babylon itself. But either Darius or someone within his government was sufficiently aware of the practice of the former kings of Persia that he would have realized that this decree may have been made at the summer residence of the kings. So not in Babylon at all, not in Susa, but somewhere else. And so search was made. in a place that was really of no particular account, a place called Ek-Batana, a citadel that the Persian kings used as a summer residence, and indeed record was found there of this decree of Cyrus the king of Persia. And so the decree is discovered, it is considered and the claims of the Jews are found to be true. Cyrus did decree that the house of God in Jerusalem should be rebuilt and that prayers and sacrifices should be offered there on behalf of the king of Persia. Indeed in this description we find that some detail was given for the construction of the temple and the thing that had caused the governor to be so concerned that this temple was being constructed of huge stones, stones that couldn't be carried, stones that needed to be rolled, that's the language, of the text here, stones that needed to be rolled, such stones would be used for a fortress, but they were being used for a temple, but this was the decree of Cyrus, such great stones were to be used in the construction of this temple. Furthermore, the gold and the silver that Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple was to be sent back to the temple and so all of this was discovered in the records of the kings of Persia and in response to that then Darius sends a letter back to Tatenai, the governor of the province beyond the river and his associates and he calls on them not to hinder the work that had been decreed by his predecessor. They were to keep away, they were not to hinder it, they were to leave the work to progress. But more than that, he reiterated what Cyrus had decreed, that the funding for the building should come from the government, from the royal revenue. And Darius gives further instruction and says how it is to be funded. That the tribute of the province beyond the river that would normally be sent back to him would be used to fund the building of this temple. So the decree is confirmed. The decree is endorsed further by Darius. The decree is financed. with clear instructions. And even more than that, the decree is to be enforced with all of the authority that a king of Persia could muster. That anyone who sought to undermine the decree or inhibit the work of the building would themselves have their home destroyed and their life taken. So rather than hindering the work of building the temple, this request for clarification furthers the work of building the temple. And in the midst of all of this, of course, there isn't only the scheme of Satan seeking to undermine and thwart the work of the Lord, but you know Darius and Cyrus before him, they weren't particularly interested in promoting the name of the Lord and the God of Israel. They weren't interested in setting the Israelites free to rebuild their nation, independent of Persian authority and rule, they were interested in themselves. They were interested in promoting their own security and their own prosperity and their own glory in the world. The whole purpose of Cyrus in sending the Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple was that offerings and sacrifices might be made for him there. Darius reiterates that, that offerings and sacrifices should be made for the king and his sons. These kings in Persia they were polytheists, they believed in many gods and as Nebuchadnezzar and the kings before the Persians took over Babylonia had taken people, their practice was to take them from all of the regions, all of the provinces, resettle them in other places, distribute them throughout their realm, so that they wouldn't draw together and rebel against them. Relocated and redistributed, they were weaker in this way. But the Persians sought to win the trust and the approval of the people by resettling them in their own provinces, in their own places. funding the rebuilding of temples to many different gods, and asking them that prayers should be made for the kings of Persia. So all over their empire, in all kinds of temples, to all kinds of different gods, all these prayers were being made and sacrifices were being made for the kings of Persia. That's what it's all about. In their minds, they're seeking to secure their throne under the favour of a multitude of gods. And so the schemes of the nations are for themselves, for their own glory, for their own prosperity. And God uses all of those sorts of things and overrules them for His own purpose. It was His purpose that His people, now that they had been chastised for 70 years according to the words of the prophets before them, should now be restored to their land. and the temple should be rebuilt and their worship of him should once again take place, that he should be honoured in their hearts and in their lives. And God is working all of these things for good as he always does and as he continues to do today. God is working all things for good. That is the statement that Paul the Apostle makes to the Romans. All things work together for good. the things that confuse us, the things that cause us to scratch our heads and wonder what is going on here, the things that hurt us, the things that seem to be working against us. God will use all of these things to accomplish his purpose, which ultimately, Paul says to the Romans, is that you who belong to him should be conformed to the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That you should be sanctified, purified, made holy. and that means going through a refiner's fire, that means having our sins purged, that means coming under the discipline of a loving father who ultimately is seeking our peace and our joy in the truth. And so the decree is confirmed not only because it's Darius's decree, but it is God's decree as we read in the 14th verse. And so that 14th verse falls into the second part of this chapter. The temple is completed. Darius is on their side. He aided them in the work of the house of God. The chapter concludes. The decree of Cyrus had initiated this work. The decree of Darius promoted this work. But it is all under, ultimately, the decree of God. And as the leaders of the province beyond the river receive the letter from Darius, they are diligent to fulfill the words of Darius. They set their hands to doing all that he requires of them. They take of the royal revenue and they supply it to the leaders of the Jews in order to purchase the necessary things for the building of the temple. They bring animals that can be used in the offering of sacrifices. They do everything that they can, not to hinder the work, but to progress the work. And the people of Judah, they are diligent too. Here are Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, the son of Edo, and they're continuing to encourage the people and to tell them of the glories of God and his work that he is accomplishing through them as they rebuild this temple and what a great thing it will be once again to be able to bring their offerings and their sacrifices and to fulfill the law of Moses in the worship of God at the temple. And so the people of Judah are diligent to heed the word of God's prophet. And the temple at last is completed. It's taken maybe about 20 years from when they first came from Babylon and returned to Jerusalem. 20 years in which they've experienced trouble on every side and their own apparent indifference for some time until the prophets challenged them and encouraged them once again. We find this, don't we, in our lives, that there tends to be an ebbing and a flowing of our zeal for God and his service. things are said, a sermon particularly penetrates our hearts and our minds and stirs us up and for a little while there's zeal to accomplish the purposes of God and to follow his ways and then troubles come and we're overwhelmed by the difficulties and our zeal diminishes but ultimately, you see, God won't let us go He won't walk away from his people, he never has walked away from his people, it felt at times as though he had turned his back on them, but he had always promised, even in the dark days of their captivity in Babylon, he had promised it was only for a time that they would be restored. And so those who were counting the days, like Daniel, lifted their prayers to God that he would heed his own word, and act upon his own promises, and restore his people, and that's what we're seeing unfolding here in the lives of these people. And with the completion of the temple, then it's a time for celebration, to celebrate restoration after exile, that God has been so good that he has kept his word. all through those years, yes, some of their number have died in exile, but others have been restored, there are still those who remember, remember Solomon's temple, remember the glory of that temple, and there's mixture then in joy and in sorrow as this new temple is constructed, it's nothing like the old temple, In fact, the dedication of this temple is nothing like the dedication of the old temple. What do they bring? 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs. Well, that might seem quite a lot to us. We brought 100 bulls in here and began to slaughter them. It would seem an awful lot to us. But nothing like the 22,000 bulls that had been sacrificed at the dedication of Solomon's temple. 200 rams, 400 lambs, wow. But nothing like the 120,000 lambs that were sacrificed at the dedication of Solomon's temple. All the glory days have departed, they thought. But in the words of Haggai and Zechariah, they're encouraged to see not the parting of glory days, but the coming of glory days. When God's word is fulfilled and when his promises are completed, this is just a journey on the road. This isn't the destination. This isn't where it ends. For God is working out his purposes to bring complete restoration for sinners, that they might be restored to fellowship with God. And as the sacrifices are made, here they are, they're sin offerings for all Israel. twelve male goats according to the number of the tribes of Israel. Well you may recall that really it's basically Judah that's come back, one tribe, yes there are a little mixture of other people from the various tribes that have remained faithful to the Lord and have been caught up in the tribe of Judah in their exile. But you see in this sacrifice that Judah and the remnant with them are acknowledging their sin, the sin of the nation of Israel that had been made up of 12 tribes. And they offer sacrifices for the nation of Israel, a sacrifice of repentance, a sacrifice that seeks the atoning grace of God upon them. And it's a celebration then of restoration, of God bringing them back to this temple that was the focal point of the worship of all Israel. And so the worship of God is reinstituted here, not according to new and novel ways of worship, but according to the law, as it was written in the book of Moses, following the instructions for the sacrifices and the celebrations that were to govern the worship of Israel, and then the divisions of the priests and the Levites that had been put in place by David, ready for that glorious temple that his son Solomon was to build. And so the temple is completed and the structure of worship is put in place and almost immediately there's the opportunity to fulfill the law and to act upon the decree of God. For in the third place we see the Passover celebrated. So the temple has been completed in the last month of the religious year of the Jews and then on the 14th day of the first month of the religious year The returned exiles kept the Passover according to the law. They had made sure everything was in place. They knew what they were to do. The priests and the Levites had purified themselves so that they were clean and that they were able to make the sacrifices and offer them to God. And so the people ate together and they worshipped the Lord. Here is a reminder of the great exodus as they celebrate this Passover feast. This is the great feast of God's salvation of his people when all the firstborn of Egypt died under his judgment. Here is the celebration of God's grace. Here is a celebration of God's mercy towards his people. But it's also the beginning of a new chapter in their history. Here is a new temple, freshly rebuilt, a people who are committing themselves once again to the worship of God. And among them, there are others. We're told that not only the Jews who had come back, but also everyone who had joined them and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord. This was a mixed multitude. Well, in fact, that language is the language of the Exodus. But it wasn't just Israelites who left Egypt. headed towards the promised land. It was described as a mixed multitude, there were others among them as well, others who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the Kingdom of God. and the worship of God has always been open to all people who will humble themselves before him and acknowledge their sins and seek mercy from him. And so they celebrate as they keep the Passover and then the following week the Feast of Unleavened Bread and they're filled with joy we're told. The Lord had made them joyful their joy was in the restoration of the people to the land, their joy was in the rebuilding of the temple and the reinstitution of the worship of God, their joy was in the reality that the Lord had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work, this is God acting upon his word, this is God acting according to his promises, which he had made through his prophets saying that the kings of the world would bring tribute to their God that the nations would aid in the celebration of his name and here is just a small token of that final reality in this world where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that God is Lord and that Jesus Christ, his son, is the only saviour. And so the people, the people are full of joy, we're told more than once in this chapter, the people are full of joy for the house that has been rebuilt, for the worship that has been reinstituted. You know, the Lord intends his people to be joyful. We sometimes forget that, I think we often forget that, that God is committed to his people's joy. God wants us to be happy. He does. Now our problem is that we seek happiness in this world. We look for the joy that this world offers and we fail to recognise that true joy is found in knowing God, in walking with him day by day, in discovering the greatness of his goodness and love. Taste and see that the Lord is good. That's the invitation. Taste and see that the Lord is good. But we feast upon the things of this world. And we think that the things of this world will satisfy. We think the things of this world will give us pleasure. That they will fill us with joy. But its joy is fleeting. It leaves a greater emptiness than we had before. For only God can give us true joy. And others here, you see, are drawn into the joy that the Jews had in rebuilding the temple and reinstituting the worship of God. And they began to see, well, here is a great God who has given good laws to his people and how happy they are in serving him. and they are drawn to him as their hearts have been opened to the love of God and their eyes have been opened to the pollution of sin. And if only we could see that, if only we could see more clearly the vanity of this world. If only we could see more clearly the futility of so much that we pursue in our lives in this world. If only we could see more clearly the glory of God and the complete satisfaction that we can know in our hearts and in our lives in knowing Him, then we would desire to worship Him. and in worshipping him and serving him with our lives, we would discover a fullness of joy that will never leave us dissatisfied. May God enable us to taste and see that he is good. Let's pray. Our Father, we do come to you and we ask that that you would open our eyes that we may see that so much of what we chase after in this world is empty and vain. It will not last, but more than that, it will not satisfy us. We'll always be grasping for something more, something new, something we think is better. and it will be a never-ending chasing after the wind. Oh may we know that you are a good God and your law is good and that in following it and walking with you day by day we will know such peace in our hearts, such satisfaction in our souls. Or may it be so that we would taste and see that you are good and never be satisfied in anything else. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.