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 Yahweh? What a coincidence. It just so happens we've been worshipping him too, so you should

totally let us help. But Zarubabel and Jesua send them packing. They say Cyrus has commanded

that only the Israelites who

returned 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 in 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.

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