Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday, the Exiles who returned from Babylon started rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem,

and today that comes to a screeching halt. It starts out subtle. First, a few of Israel's enemies try to throw a wrench into the plan to rebuild.

The Israelites have been gone for decades.

Then all of a sudden they show back up to rebuild the ruins in the land these people have lived in for maybe all of their lives.

This doesn't sit well with their enemies who live there, of course, so their enemies hatch

a plan to put a stop to it. They're like, oh, you're rebuilding the temple to

Yawe? What a coincidence. It just so happens we've been

worshiping him too, so you should totally let us help. But Zerubibil

and Joshua send them packing. They say Cyrus has commanded that only the Israelites who return from exile should rebuild it.

When the enemy's plan A doesn't work, they go over the Israelites heads. They start bribing officials and lying and scheming to put a stop to things and it seems to work the construction project is officially put on hold for something like 15 years maybe some of you feel this way about your road system. By the way, the extent of this

delay kind of flies under the radar and the text because it's only evident if we pay attention

to the different kings mentioned.

A lot of what happens in Chapter 4 isn't chronological.

It's more of a parenthetical statement that just shows us this is not a one-time situation

the Jews are dealing with.

Their enemies have been persistent. For instance, here are a few of the other things

chapter 4 says their enemies do to deter them. When a new king Ahaschweris begins his reign,

the locals write him a letter to make sure he knows why they've asked for the construction

project to be stopped.

By the way, we'll read more about him in the days to come, so remember his name.

Then when his successor Arteserxes takes over the throne, the Israelites enemies whip out their

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