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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Hey, it's Shelby and CJ. We're gonna jump right into the word. Today we're in the book of Ezra today. We're in chapters four through six. We're smack dab in the middle of this book. What's going on in these chapters, cj?
- [00:18]
B
Yeah, so again, we're in the section where Ezra's concerned with rebuilding the temple. Back in Ezra 3, we just learned about the community rebuilding the altar, and now the focus shifts to the. The temple itself. And Ezra 4 through 6 sort of combines a bunch of different little stories and little obstacles from different eras during Ezra Nehemiah to show different people groups opposing their rebuilding efforts of the temple. One in particular, we have Zerubbabel and Jeshua in chapter five, and they try to frighten off these Jews and try to say, you can't rebuild the temple here. And the opposition sort of continues through. Through these chapters. But eventually we have some encouragement from Haggai and Zechariah, who are two prophets, which we'll hear about later on in the canon. And they encourage people to continue on, to continue going and continue building the temple. But more opposition is around, and the building has to stop, actually, until the governor of the region can get confirmation from Darius, who's a king that follows Cyrus. So we see sort of the long plan or how long it's taken to rebuild this temple. And eventually Darius finds that original decree from Cyrus where Cyrus initially let the Jews return and rebuild their temple. And Darius finds that decree, and he says, okay, you guys can continue your rebuilding efforts. And actually, here's some more money to continue doing so. So again, we see sort of God's control over a really long period of history in this case?
- [01:51]
A
Yeah, absolutely. So again, we see God's control, but are there other ways that we see God, God in these passages? And what do we take away from it?
- [02:00]
B
Yeah, I think we see that despite continual opposition, the Lord is still faithful to his plan. And that there's not really a contradiction between suffering and also leaning into what God has called you to do, which is sort of a unique thing to consider, even though God has said, I've stirred the spirit of Cyrus up to go and to let you guys rebuild the temple. And then immediately they're met with all this opposition. But then God's prophets come in, you know, mouthpieces of God, and they say, even though you're suffering from this opposition, you need to continue pressing forward and leaning into the mission that God has for you. So I think that that's something we see here.
- [02:38]
A
Yeah, absolutely. I was going to point out that same thing in my takeaway. The process of rebuilding the temple seems really slow. It seems really troublesome. I try to picture myself and I think I'd be getting really frustrated with the amount of opposition that they've experienced. But then in Ezra 5, and we see this all throughout, but it was stated so plainly here, it said, but God was watching over the Jewish elders. And so even though this process isn't smooth, God is watching over it. And I need that reminder in my own life for sure. So okay, great. We're gonna wrap up the book of Ezra tomorrow. Short book just three days and so we'll be back to that tomorrow.
- [03:19]
B
Awesome
- [03:21]
C
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