4:1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin learned that the former exiles were building a temple for the Lord God of Israel, 4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders and said to them, “Let us help you build, for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him from the time of King Esarhaddon of Assyria, who brought us here.” 4:3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.” 4:4 Then the local people began to discourage the people of Judah and to dishearten them from building. 4:5 They were hiring advisers to oppose them, so as to frustrate their plans, throughout the time of King Cyrus of Persia until the reign of King Darius of Persia.
Satan did not want this temple rebuilt in Jerusalem. The sacrifices at this temple all pointed to the coming atonement of the Messiah. In verses 1-5, Ezra recorded the current problems that Jerusalem was having while building the temple. King Cyrus was the king of Persia at this time. He would be followed by Darius the Great, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes. Listed below is a chronology of the history of the rebuilding of the Jewish temple.
1. In 722 B.C., King Sennacherib of Assyria conquered the evil nation of Israel.
2. King Sennacherib of Assyria transported the Israelites out of the land of Israel and transported other foreigners into the land of Israel.
3. King Sennacherib of Assyria conquered 35 cities of Judah.
4. King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked Jerusalem, but an angel killed 185,000 of his soldiers.
5. King Sennacherib of Assyria returned to his capital city of Assyria, but his two sons assassinated him. One of his sons was named Esarhaddon.
6. Esarhaddon made himself King of Assyria.
6. King Esarhaddon of Assyria allowed some Jews to return to the land of Israel.
7. The Jews intermarried with the Gentiles. This mixed-race became the Samaritans.
8. Babylon conquered Assyria and took control of all of their land.
9. In 586 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated Judah three different times. After each victory, he transported three different groups of Jews to Babylon. First, Daniel and the royal house were taken captive. Second, Ezekiel and the skilled workers were taken captive. Third, Jeremiah and the poor were taken captive. Jeremiah was taken to Egypt.
10. Seventy years later, Babylon was defeated by the Medes and Persians.
11. King Cyrus was the King of Persia. He allowed the Jews to return and rebuild the temple.
12. Zerubbabel (from the line of David) was the political leader of Israel. Ezra was the religious leader. Nehemiah was the wall builder.
13. King Darius the Great became the next Persian ruler.
14. The Samaritans asked the Jews if they could help rebuild the temple.
15. The Jews denied their request.
16. The Samaritans sent a letter to King Darius, asking him to stop the construction project. King Darius delayed the rebuilding of the temple.
Listed below is a more detailed commentary on the historical events from above:
About 150 years before Ezra and the exiles returned to Jerusalem. King Esarhaddon of Assyria was one of the sons of King Sennacherib. Sennacherib attacked Jerusalem, mocked Jehovah, but an angel killed 185,000 of his soldiers. Sennacherib went back to his capital city of Nineveh, where he was assassinated by his two sons. King Esarhaddon was one of these sons who assassinated his own father.
King Esarhaddon allowed some of the Jews and some other Gentiles to return to Israel. The Jews and Gentiles began to intermarry with each other. This Jewish-pagan mixture of people were called Samaritans.
The Samaritans asked the Jewish leadership if they could help rebuild the temple. The elders of Israel answered with a definite no. The elders were not very nice at all. They absolutely rejected this offer, because they did not want to become allies with the enemy. They were not interested in an ecumenical movement at all. They felt that the Lord’s work should be done by the Lord’s people in the Lord’s way. No compromise with the satanic world system was tolerated.
As soon as the Samaritan locals were turned down, they began to actively oppose the Israelites. These Samaritan locals claimed to worship the true God of creation as Israel did, but they actually were syncretists. They mixed the worship of Jehovah with the worship of other demonic gods.
The Samaritans were very angry that they were unable to infiltrate this construction project and hinder the building of the temple. Therefore, they tried two new strategies, First, they tried to discourage the Jewish people who were involved in the construction project. Second, they hired propaganda agents to frustrate the Jews’ plans.
These Samaritan locals paid their own money to oppose these messianic believers. They did not want this temple built. They did not want the children of Israel to experience the graphic object lesson of the atonement of a future Messiah.
The propaganda agents were able to delay the temple construction for sixteen years. With Daniel dead, there were no powerful Jews left to counter the propaganda tactics of the Samaritans. The Israelites grew bored and frustrated with the temple construction plan. Eventually, they placed more interest in their personal affairs. God raised up Haggai the prophet to bring Israel out of this stupor.
4:6 At the beginning of the reign of Ahasuerus they filed an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. 4:7 And during the reign of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues wrote to King Artaxerxes of Persia. This letter was first written in Aramaic but then translated. 4:8 Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter concerning Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows: 4:9 From Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues—the judges, the rulers, the officials, the secretaries, the Erechites, the Babylonians, the people of Susa (that is, the Elamites), 4:10 and the rest of nations whom the great and noble Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and other places in Trans-Euphrates. 4:11 (This is a copy of the letter they sent to him:) “To King Artaxerxes, from your servants in Trans-Euphrates: 4:12 Now let the king be aware that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and odious city. They are completing its walls and repairing its foundations. 4:13 Let the king also be aware that if this city is built and its walls are completed, no more tax, custom, or toll will be paid, and the royal treasury will suffer loss. 4:14 In light of the fact that we are loyal to the king, and since it does not seem appropriate to us that the king should sustain damage, we are sending the king this information 4:15 so that he may initiate a search of the records of his predecessors and discover in those records that this city is rebellious and injurious to both kings and provinces, producing internal revolts from long ago. It is for this very reason that this city was destroyed. 4:16 We therefore are informing the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, you will not retain control of this portion of Trans-Euphrates.”
4:17 The king sent the following response: “To Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and other parts of Trans-Euphrates: Greetings! 4:18 The letter you sent to us has been translated and read in my presence. 4:19 So I gave orders, and it was determined that this city from long ago has been engaging in insurrection against kings. It has continually engaged in rebellion and revolt. 4:20 Powerful kings have been over Jerusalem who ruled throughout the entire Trans-Euphrates and who were the beneficiaries of tribute, custom, and toll. 4:21 Now give orders that these men cease their work and that this city not be rebuilt until such time as I so instruct. 4:22 Exercise appropriate caution so that there is no negligence in this matter. Why should danger increase to the point that kings sustain damage?” 4:23 Then, as soon as the copy of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read in the presence of Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their colleagues, they proceeded promptly to the Jews in Jerusalem and stopped them with threat of armed force.
In verses 6-23, Ezra added a parenthetical writing to the Jerusalem temple predicament. A parenthetical writing was a large parenthesis which gave the complete history of the temple construction problem. This parenthesis explained all of the opposition that the Jews were receiving when they attempted to resettle and rebuild Judah.
In verse 5, Darius ruled Persian from 521-486 B.C. Nehemiah was building the wall of Jerusalem during this time. With Daniel dead, the Jews had no one left to counter the propaganda tactics of the Samaritans. Ezra will pick up the rest of this story in verse 24.
In verse 6, King Ahasuerus (or Xerxes) ruled from 486-464 B.C. This is probably the same Xerxes whose fleet was defeated by the Greeks in 480 B.C. If so, he probably also married Queen Esther. These Samaritans used their political clout in an attempt to persuade Xerxes to halt the temple construction.
In verse 7-23, King Artaxerxes ruled from 464-423 B.C. Artaxerxes may have been the step-son of Queen Esther. The Samaritans wrote another letter of accusation against the Jews for rebuilding the temple. They wrote this letter in Aramaic, which was the commercial language of that time. Some of the details of the letter were recorded in verses 8-16. The Samaritans complained in the letter that the Jews were rebellious, they would rebuild the temple, and then they would refuse to pay taxes. The king answered the letter in verses 17-22. His response was to stop the rebuilding of the temple. In verse 23, the Samaritans sent an army to Jerusalem to stop the building of the temple.
4:24 So the work on the temple of God in Jerusalem came to a halt. It remained halted until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.
Ezra finished his parenthetical writing and began to record the present situation. Darius the Great ruled after King Cyrus. He was known to history as Darius the Great. Archaeologists have exacted the famous Behistun Inscription. This inscription recorded Darius’s military conquests in three different languages (Persian, Elamite and Babylonian). These writings enabled Sir Henry Rawlinson to decipher the ancient Babylonian language.
The work on the Temple was halted until 520 B.C. In that same year, Haggai the prophet urged Zerubbabel to begin rebuilding the Temple. Ezra recorded the remainder of this historical event in chapter 5.
In conclusion, Satan was able to use politics and propaganda to slow down the rebuilding of the temple. Satan still uses this strategy today. There are liberals in the modern church who ask the conservatives to join with them in worship. They want the conservatives to come back on their terms. Their terms are the denial of the inspiration of the Scriptures, the denial of the deity of Jesus, the denial of the virgin birth, the denial of miracles, and the denial of the resurrection from the dead. They want the conservatives to honor a human Jesus instead of worshiping an incarnate Jesus. Liberalism basically divided the church, accused the fundamentalists of fighting, and then labeled them as troublemakers. Satan is working hard inside of liberalism today, just as he worked hard against the rebuilding of the temple.