June 8, 2024

Darius responded to the letter sent him by Tatnai by having the records searched to find the original decree by King Cyrus. It seems that he and his companions were hoping it wasn’t true that Cyrus had commanded them to rebuild the temple; they wanted to hinder the work of the children of God. However, Darius sent them a letter telling them that if they stopped them from working, they would be hung in the rafters of their house. It would be destroyed and become a dunghill. Darius believed that God would deliver the judgment and recompense. He coveted the prayers of God’s children for himself and his sons. Darius seemed to be a believer; I wonder if we will see him in Heaven. They finished the temple twenty years after the foundation was laid, then celebrated the first Passover feast by making sacrifices and worshipping God in peace. They had been keeping the feasts; however, they were in the open, and those around them would disturb their peaceful remembrance of God. They celebrated joyfully because, by this time, all the elderly who had cried previously remembering Solomon’s temple had most likely passed away. This celebration included every tribe of Israel, with Judah and Benjamin as the chiefs. 

This story shows that when God has a plan, he will use whatever means necessary and whoever he wants to carry out that plan, even unbelievers. If God will do this for Judah and the people of Israel, imagine what he will do on our behalf because of our love for Jesus. God sees the oppression of His people and has a plan to rescue us when the time is right. Wait for it; it will surely come. 

And 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. Ezra 6:14