Ezra 5 & 6 - Sovereignty in the details

Icebreaker:-

In the time of Ezra, the King was absolute ruler and had the life and death of his subjects in his hands. Who is King/Queen today?  What is your attitude to the role of the monarchy in today’s society? Would you like to be a King or Queen?

(N.B. this is not meant to be an argument on the rights and wrongs of an inherited throne, but simply an understanding of the traditional role of monarchs and how they rule)

Chapters 5 and 6 of the book of Ezra tell of letters sent from and to Tattenai – a governor of Trans-Euphrates, under whose jurisdiction came the temple at Jerusalem and the King of Persia – King Darius.

Feel free to read these chapters in the best way for you and your group. It may be that you have asked people to come prepared having read them and then you only need to pick out the highlights. Or you may choose to read them now using the “Voices” system suggested in the last set of notes.

The previous chapter tells us:-

“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,”

Now we have a new era and Haggai and Zechariah the prophets led the people to again work on rebuilding the temple.

Question 1:  Why do you think they made this decision?  V 1,2

Question 2:  What was the consequence of them starting work? v 3, 4,

Question 3:  What does God do about it? V 5

Question 4: Whose authority seems to be supreme here?

Can you see some similarities between the letters being written now and the letters we discussed in the previous session?

Can you also see some differences?  How do these make the difference to the outcome?

One of the reasons that the rebuilding may have come to a halt could have been a lack of funds. When the original group came back from exile they were sent with gifts and funds and with the temple goods and plenty of support to do the work. Then, during the years these had been diminishing so that there would be the need for a fund raising plan – a building project – ring any bells?

Those who remembered what the temple had been like originally had made the new people feel they were not doing a good job. “It’s not like it was in the old days”! Sound familiar? They build the foundations and then interest began to fade the opposition seemed to have the upper hand and the work stopped.

Now the people of God have a new incentive – the prophets and leaders are with them encouraging them and defending them against opposition. The project is back on track.

Question 1:  What arguments are the prophets making to show that they have authority to continue the work?  5 : verses 11- 17

Question 2:  What is Darius’ response.  6 : 1

Question 3: The scroll was an important document what are the key elements?

Question 4:  What is Tattenai told to do?

Question 5:  Does he do it?   And Why?

Question 6: When was the work completed?

Question 7:  How had the mind of the King been changed?

Question 8: What special feast could now be celebrated?

How is this all relevant to us today? We have returned to our church buildings and are making sure they are in good order but what about the people? Are the people returning to worship and rebuilding their fellowship? Are we hesitant still about re-starting our old patterns of worship or building new ones? We long to celebrate together, what can we do as a church to include everyone?

Time for prayer:-  Music “For I’m building a people of Power and I’m building a people of praise.”