2 Chronicles 36
After Josiah's death, the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem. Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem because the king of Egypt removed him; and put Eliakim, Jehoahaz brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt. Why he did this, we do not know.Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God. The Lord did not waste time with him and sent Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who bound him in fetters, to carried him to Babylon enslaved.
Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD. It looks like Judah is going down the path Samaria went and it is because of evil kings. At the end of the year, king Nebuchadnezzar brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, also doing evil in God's sight, he would not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who came to him to warn him many times that the Lord is getting ready to bring destruction.
Not only that, he rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; to an agreement but he turned from the LORD God of Israel. The chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD.
The LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers and prophet many times warning them; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
When we get to Jeremiah's book you will read the stories of how Jeremiah was pleading with the last three kings for over 20 years for them to stop their wickedness. They would not listen and more than that, they would assault him and throw him in jail. So finally if there is no remedy is speaking to a person logically, then you must move to the next method.
So God brought up the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. He destroyed the land, burned down the temple, and took the people captive to Babylon.
20And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
21To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
Now the land was emptied for 70 plus years. During these 70 years is when Daniel was in captivity in Babylon and wrote his books. This chapter clean sweeps pass all of that and goes right into Cyrus's kingdom of Persia.
22Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
23Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.
Cyrus had the Jews within his kingdom go back and build a temple and restore the land. In reality this was not suppose to happen at this time according to Moses; but because the Messiah need a place to come, teach, die for the sins of the people, and return to His throne, God had to send back the Judahites (Jews) to occupy the land until all of this was accomplished. Once it was done; then the Jews would be sent right back into slavery and captivity as written in the books of Moses.
Ezra 1
The Jews and the Benjamin tribe gather up to return to the land, Cyrus also gives the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar took out of the house of God to restore it. Cyrus the Persian king would be equivalent to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran today (except the Persians had world dominance then and they do not now). The Iranians are the Persians.
Ezra 2
This chapter list out the children of Judah who went back to the land. Remember, this was not a mandatory thing; it was optional so those who wanted to return, went.2Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. Here I just underlined a few that are notable names within the bible. You had to be able to produce documentation that you were a Levite and proof that you were an Israelite as well.
64The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore,
65Beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women.
Besides servants and maids, and the choir, there were 42,360 people who went back to the land.
Ezra 3
1And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.4They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;
They kept these feast to the Lord in their correct times. In the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; began to appoint the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD. They are beginning to get the rebuilding stages together.
10And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.
If they had a party full of rejoicing and giving thanks to God just for the foundation of the temple; I cannot imagine what it was like to finish it; and what it will be like to have the new temple built in Jerusalem that the Lord will sit on.
However, some of the old men who were there when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon's temple when they saw the foundation they wept because they had seen the first one in all it's glory. 13So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.
Ezra 4
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; they came to pretend to want to help, but would really delay the building. I say that because the bible called them adversaries. These were the people that occupied the land of Samaria that Esarhaddon king of Assur, put in the land when when the 10 tribes were removed.Zerubbabel refused their help, this is something the Jews had to do or Cyrus would have sent his men to do it for the Jews.
4Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,
5And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
6And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
I can't imagine how troubling this was; like today do you know how hard it is going to be for the Jewish people who want to build the third temple, to build it? You have opposition, legally and local thugs and terrorist who are going to attempt to stop that by all means. There will have to be a set in stone mandate from the governments for this to happen. So the same thing is taking place in Zerubbabel's days.
They were threatened, the enemies of Judah threatened the Persian of sanctions if they allowed the temple to be built and the land restored to the Jews. Paperwork was going back and forth to continue permission; but the people had faith in God, however one letter got the king of Persia's attention and he made a mandate to cease work on the temple.
24Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Ezra 5
1Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. The prophets received word from the Lord to continue to build so they built; and with them were the prophets of God helping them.When the locals demanded they stop; the elders kept going until the matter reached Darius again. The elders sent a letter to Darius stating the historical events that decrees them the right to rebuild the city and the Temple.
Ezra 6
1Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.2And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written:
3In 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;
So Darius made a decree to find the documents that Cyrus made in the return of the Jews (not the 10 tribes), and the rebuilding of the Temple. It was found and read and Darius restored the building of the house of the Lord.
14And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
We will read some of their books as we read the bible in the coming days; they did not only prophesy the building of this temple, they did a lot of prophesying even until the return of the Lord.
15And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
16And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy.
Things were looking good and they kept the Passover and the feast of Unleavened bread 7 days and they were full of joy from the Lord; and even God sent the king of Assyria to help them in the process.
Ezra 7
Now Ezra is making his way back to the land. He was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.
Now I do not know how he wrote the first six chapters of this book after not being there the first six years; but how the bible was written and what is left out today is not nearly as important as what is within the bible today.
10For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
King Artaxerxes gave a letter for Ezra to go with letting it be known that the people had to do the work of the Lord speedily. The Jews of this time had to really have convinced the Gentiles that God had sent them into slavery for being disobedient because the people truly listened and helped the Jews on their matters concerning the God of Israel.
Ezra chapter 8
This chapter is the account of Ezra getting ready to go to JERUSALEM from Babylon and he was going with a lot of substance so he declared a fast to have the Lord be with them. He did not want to have the king send him with their security; that is just weird. You serve this great God; but you need our help to secure you? But we shall not overlook sometimes God sends people to be your protection; so don't turn it down; just let things be.
Ezra 9
When Ezra arrives; he hears that the people are slowly doing the things that got them in captivity in the first place. So Ezra prayed then gather men who did not only fear the Lord; but trembled at Him; and the fasted and prayed; and were astonished at what they saw going on.
All Ezra could do was pray for the people and pray to God to have mercy on them because they were doing the same things that got them into captivity in the first place. There is foolishness in robbing a bank; going to jail, getting out and thinking robbing a local bank will not land you in jail again.
Ezra Chapter 10
The people try to make amends for their sin. They called all the men who returned up to Jerusalem to settle the matter of taking on wives from other nations. 9Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.
11Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.
12Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.
I heard this before when they got out of Egypt and were in the mountain getting the commandments from Moses. So here they are promising to rid their strange wives. I am not sure how well this is before God because a marriage covenant is a covenant. The Lord said Israel couldn't marry strangers is that if they were not rooted in the Lord; the stranger would turn them away from Him.
You know how it could be; you see your wife everyday; you don't see God; so unless you really believe; you can slowly be turned from your God. The best way to avoid this is to avoid marrying someone who does not know your God and serve Him diligently.
This will conclude our reading today; we are doing good and moving well through the Word of God and His historical accounts. See you tomorrow and enjoy the Sabbath day.
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Peace & Grace
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