Continuing in his letter to Darius in Ezra 5:11-17, Tattenai wrote how the Jews responded to him when he interrogated them. They boldly claimed to be servants of the God of Heaven and earth. In other words, they were saying that they were serving the great God, the one who rules heaven and earth. Without naming King Solomon, they said that the temple they were engaged in rebuilding was the grand temple built and completed by him many years ago. The Jews then went on to reveal why that temple was destroyed. In verse 13 they said, “…because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.”
In
verse 13, the Jews then pointed to the favor shown to them by King Cyrus. In the
very first year of his reign, he decreed for the temple in Jerusalem to be
rebuilt. Not only did he allow them to return to rebuild the temple, but he
also returned all the gold and silver utensils that Nebuchadnezzar took from
the temple in Jerusalem and placed them in his temple in Babylon. Cyrus gave
them all to the then-governor Sheshbazzar and told him to take them and put in
in the temple in Jerusalem at its completion. Obeying Cyrus,
Sheshbazzar had laid the foundation of the temple in Jerusalem and
since then the uncompleted temple was being built.
Knowing the Persian protocol of not allowing a king’s edict to be
changed, Tattenai humbly requested a search in the royal archive in Babylon. He
requested Darius to ascertain that Cyrus did indeed decree the rebuilding of
the temple in Jerusalem. His intention was to carry out Darius’ instruction accordingly. In what he did, he had unwittingly made time
for the Jews to continue in rebuilding the temple. We can say that this too was
divine providence.
In
pleading their case, notice that the Jews did not use the covenant name of
their God. Tactfully they presented the true God as the God of heaven and
earth. They did not want to be offensive to the Persian
authority. Wisely, they were acknowledging their faith in God. From
their response, we can see that they realized that their national sin was the
reason for their plight. They were where they were because of God’s discipline.
In the discipline, their spiritual eyes were opened. It shows that they had
indeed received the benefit of their chastisement.
The importance of having clear spiritual sight can never be over-emphasized. It is true that sin always blinds us and disables our spiritual sight. But know that the hard times God allows are illuminating. The tears God allows us to experience can wash away the blockages brought about by sin. Hard times will certainly be humbling, but they can enable us to have a clearer perception of our failures. If we have no awareness of our failures, we can never change. Hence, troubles that will awaken us are preferred to blindly walking on precariously in our imagined success. God will allow our eyes to be washed with tears so that we can see His plan for us.
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