If the names of the kings got you a little confused, then you aren’t alone. This passage has a couple of paragraphs that are out of order.
From what little research I have done one distinguished gentleman says that it’s a case of “prolepsis”, which is another term for giving you a peek at a later part of the story early in the recounting. For instance, let’s say that I am talking about how stubborn one of my children were when they were young….say about 5 years old. Then I say “and when they got married they even refused to follow tradition” ….and then I go right back to talking about when they were 6 or 7. As I understand it, that would be “prolepsis”. Ezra Chapter 4:6 to 23 actually refer to resistance in rebuilding the city and it’s walls, not the temple. The reason work was stopped on the temple wasn’t because of Xerxes, it was because the local residents opposed it, and bribed people to work against it. That local interference effectively stopped work on the temple until Darius took the throne after Cyrus the Persian. With the new king, came a renewed call to build from Haggai and Zechariah. Of course, the locals opposed them again, but this time king Darius did some research and demanded that they help the Jews! I’ll bet that news wasn’t well received. I would like to have been present when they opened that letter and discovered that not only weren’t the Jews going to stop building, but now they had to help pay for it. Ha!
After the temple goes up, some time goes by. Nehemiah begins to feel sad about the condition of Jerusalem, and is sent by the king to help rebuild the city and it’s walls. Ezra is still there and helps out.
As I continued to research, I found that there are those who say the Nehemiah actually came first, and rebuilt the walls. They give many compelling reasons and literary observations for their conclusions, (most of which almost put me to sleep). Either way, both of these two men were instrumental in rebuilding the city and the temple. And, if you can’t remember which one came first, don’t worry…it seems that we can’t prove either opinion wrong. You’re right no matter which you believe.
The key here though is not the historical accuracy, but the “bigger picture”. The big picture is that God’s people returned home over around 20 years in several large groups, beginning about 70 years after they were taken into captivity. They rebuilt the city, the walls and the temple in spite of sharp opposition all around them. There is no limit to what God can do when His people will simply obey Him. Who could have imagined that two different kings would dictate that the temple should be rebuilt, and would even pay for it? Who could have imagined that the Jews returning from exile would have money, servants and donkeys….they must have done fairly well in exile. Some didn’t even want to return.
I think that we could probably draw a parallel between the Jews returning to their homeland and us returning to God from sin.
Sometimes we have it so good, or we are so comfortable, that we don’t care to go.
Sometimes we get bogged down in our spiritual growth because of resistance all around us
If we stick with it, and remain faithful, God will do a work in us, and through us that will would otherwise seem impossible.
Hang in there, God is rebuilding you, too!
Faithfully,
PR