Back to Business

Wesley Wright

Lighthouse Bible Church

Sunday, October 26, 2025

 

Title: Back to business

 

EZR 5:1-17

 

Chapter 5 starts out mentioning the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah. Their prophecy spurred the Jews back on toward their work.

 

HAG 1:12-15

 

Perhaps Tattenai thought Zerubbabel was the Branch that Zechariah prophesied about.

 

ISA 11:1-6

 

JER 23:5-8

 

ZEC 3:8; ZEC 6:9-15

 

There’s a great deal of Persian turmoil at this point in time, which might explain why Tattenai asks about their work (Ezra 5:3). The Persian army placed its support behind Darius.

 

Darius I:

King of Persia (EZR 4:5) from 521 to 486

Succeeds Cambyses II, who had a frightful eight year reign

Succeeded by Ahasuerus/Xerxes

 

The search for the Israelites’ permit (Ezra 5:5) matters — one king could not change the decree of a previous king.

 

DAN 6:6-15

 

There’s another example of a decree in Esther, then a new one later. Remember Ahasuerus from Ezra 4:6?

 

EST 3:8-11, then EST 8:8-13

 

 

Darius (Darius I) gets a letter about the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 5:6). The work has restarted under his reign, but it began under another man.

 

Remember that Tattenai and the other people were beyond the River, as in the Euphrates River (Ezra 5:6).

 

It’s an important region: EZR 4:8-16

 

Notice they — Israelites — reference the rebuilding of a temple of old (Ezra 5:11) and the great king that built that temple.

 

That great king, as a reminder, was Solomon. The first temple came up during his reign.

 

1KI 6:1-7

 

Why does Ezra 5:16 say Sheshbazzar laid the foundations of the temple?

 

We read about this man some weeks back: EZR 1:7-11

 

He’s the governor at the time.

 

Zerubbabel, a popular leader at the time, also gets credit for laid the temple’s foundation: EZR 3:8-11

 

Notice how much more reasonable Tattenai is than the first wave of folks who opposed the temple rebuilding. God is in control, as always.

 

God used the pause to put people in place who would be amenable to the building of the second temple. He will do so with His plans more generally in our lives, too.

 

Chapter 6 details how Darius finds the decree Cyrus gave that the Jews could rebuild their temple + the city’s ruins.

 

The eye of our God is on us in the same way that it was on the Jewish elders as God allowed them to continue building while they waited for an answer. We’ll read about the answer next week.