This is the Bible Book Club podcast, the book of Ezra. Welcome to the club.

When last we left you in Ezra, chapters three and four, once safely settled in Jerusalem,

Joshua, the priest, and Zerubabel turned their attention

to rebuilding the temple. First on the list was the altar so that they could fulfill the law

written by Moses. They completed the altar in time to celebrate. Next up was the foundation for the

temple. It was two years before they began this labor-intensive build. And when they

completed the foundation, there was joy and weeping. With success comes opposition. And the neighbors

are not happy that the Israelites are having success. The opposition began in the form of

deceptive offers to help, fear tactics and threats, bribes to officials,

and complaints to the king.

Unfortunately, some of those tactics worked temporarily, and the progress stopped for 16 years.

Recall from the overview in episode one that there are four Persian kings pertinent to our story, Cyrus, Darius,

Xerxes, and Arctic Xerxes. Now, Cyrus is dead and Darius is king, but just so you know,

there was a king in between them that's not mentioned. And for the record, Darius is not related

to Cyrus. The crown passed to another Persian family. So Darius may not have been

very familiar with what Cyrus had decreed two kings before him. We ended the last episode with the

temple in a building delay. Ezra 4 verse 24. Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year

of the reign of Darius King of Persia. The fear tactics and bribes from the neighbors had halted

the progress on the temple for years. It was time for God to step in. This episode is about

providential opposition.

In the last episode, we read about provincial opposition,

the neighbors didn't like the new residents,

...