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Keystone Chapter No. 146 Royal Arch Masons Mehlville (St. Louis), Missouri Meetings On 2nd & 4th Wednesdays
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| The Second Temple |
The Second Temple
Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel. Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who made all things, who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth Who was with me? who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns wise men back, and makes their knowledge foolish; who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the
counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, 'She shall be inhabited,' and of the cities of Judah, 'They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins'; who says to the deep, 'Be dry, I will dry up your rivers'; who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfil all my purpose'; saying of Jerusalem, 'She shall be built,' and of the Temple, 'Your foundation shall be laid."'
Thus, says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and ungird the loins of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: "I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I gird you, though you do not
know me, that men may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. If form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe, I am the LORD, who do all these things. "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may sprout forth, and let it cause righteousness to spring up also; I the LORD have created it.
"Woe to him who strives with his Maker, an earthen vessel with the potter! Does the clay say to him who fashions it 'What are you making'? or 'Your work has no handles'? Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'With what are you in travail?"' Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker "Will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands? I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. I have aroused him (Cyrus) in
righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward," says the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 44:23-45:13).
Cyrus the Great, Cyrus the Persian, father of Cambyses of Media, would later conquer the mighty city of Babylon (at age 62) on the
night of Belshazzar's feast (Daniel 5) in 539 B.C.E., by diverting the Euphrates River and sending troops through the river channels under the walls. When Isaiah wrote of him, Cyrus had not been born by a good twenty years! Yet Isaiah named him by name and commissioned him to play a major role in the restoration of the Jews to their homeland. (Isaiah 48:14ff also talks
about Cyrus as foreordained of God to conquer Babylon).
When the prophecy of Isaiah was given the First Temple, that of Solomon, was still standing, the city of Jerusalem had not been
destroyed and would not be for at least another hundred years, and the people were not in exile. Yet all these multiple predictions were to be literally fulfilled as Isaiah prophesied.
. . . by reading the book which left behind of his prophecies; for this prophet said that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision "My will is, that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land, and build my temple." Accordingly, when Cyrus read this, and admired the divine power, an earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to fulfil what was so written. (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities, xi, Chapt. 1-2)
Almost all that is known about the history of the Jews between 538 B.C.E., when Cyrus conquered Babylon and 457 B.C.E. when
Ezra came to Jerusalem, is known from the book of Ezra the scribe. Ezra records Cyrus' decree of 538 which allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple:
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel he is the God who is in Jerusalem; and let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the House of God which is in Jerusalem." (Ezra 1:14)
Added details of the decree of Cyrus, evidently not part of his public proclamation but added to the official record are given in Ezra 6:3-5.
In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the Second Temple at Jerusalem, "let the
house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought; its height shall be sixty cubits
and its breadth sixty cubits, with three courses of great stones and one course of timber, let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the Temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the Temple which is in Jerusalem, each to its place; you shall put them in the house of God."
The majority of Jews living in Babylon were prosperous and assimilated and unwilling to undertake the hardship and danger of moving back to their ruined homeland. Ezra tells us that 42,360 Jews chose to return plus 7,3000 servants, and 200 singers; 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys. (2:64-66). With them went some of the sacred Temple vessels, 1000 basins of gold, 1000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 2,410 bowls of silver, and a thousand other (major) vessels - totaling 5,469 in all (Ezra 1:9-11).
According to their ability the Jews contributed to the treasury 277,550 ounces of silver and 6,250 pounds of silver (2:69) for the treasury. This would be about $80 million at today's prices.
The journey is 530 direct miles, but about 900 miles by road and took about 4 months, (Ezra 7:8-9). After the Jews arrived in Jerusalem they "gathered as one man" And, Then arose Jeshua (the high priest) the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. They set the altar in its place, for fear was upon them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings upon it to the LORD, burnt offerings morning and evening. And they kept the feast of booths (the 15th to the 22nd day of the seventh month), as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number
according to the ordinance, as each day required, and after that the continual burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the LORD, and the offerings of every one who made a freewill offering to the LORD. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD.
But the foundation of the Temple of the LORD was not yet laid. So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant which they had from Cyrus king of Persia. (Ezra 3:2-7)
The altar was erected on the first day of the seventh month which is the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets (Numbers 29:1-6), an
interesting foreshadowing of Israel's final regathering.
The Temple foundation was laid some months later:
Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their brethren, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work of the house of the LORD. And Jeshua with his sons and his kinsmen, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together took the oversight of the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and kinsmen.
And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David, King of Israel; and they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever toward Israel." And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being
laid, though many shouted aloud for joy; so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard afar. (Ezra 3:8-13)
Ezra recorded four different attempts originating in the counsels of Satan to stop the work. First, Samaritan enemies of Benjamin and Judah tried to join the work force and to undermine the efforts. When this attempt failed, these enemies mounted a campaign of discouragement. Next the enemies of Israel wrote letters to Xerxes I (Ahasuerus) and his successor Artaxerxes I Longimanus (who later followed Cyrus, Cambyses and Darius I Hystaspes as successors to the throne of Persia). Finally, force was even used. Work on the temple was stopped for 16 years (until 520 B.C.E.).
Stirred up and encouraged by the prophet Haggai, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, the elders of the Jews were able to obtain a written reversal of the order to stop work, and in fact a new decree from Darius allowing the work to proceed and in fact providing the Jews with tax revenues for their work:
. . . Moreover I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of
God; the cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from
Beyond the River. And whatever is needed young bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require -- let that be given to them day by day without fail, that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and his sons. Also I make a decree that if any one alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled upon it, and his house shall be made a dunghill. May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people that shall put forth a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God which is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence." (Ezra 6:8-12)
Haggai's exhortations delivered between August and December, 520 B.C.E. challenged the people to put the building of the Temple
above their own home building:
Thus, says the LORD of hosts: "This people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD." Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes." Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may appear in my glory, says the LORD. You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away.
"Why?" says the LORD of hosts. "Because of my house that lies in ruins, while you busy yourselves each with his own house. Therefore, the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought upon the land and the hills, upon the grain, the new wine, the oil, upon what the ground brings forth, upon men and cattle, and upon all their labors."
Then, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him; and the people feared before the LORD. Then, Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD's message, "I am with you, says the LORD." And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the
remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month. (Haggai 1:2-15).
"Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 'Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?' Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit abides among you; fear not.
For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in (or, "the one desired by all the nations," ), and I will fill this house with splendor, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts."' (Haggai 2:2-9).
The Temple was completed four years later, in 516. God was pleased with the newly built Second Temple in spite of its modest size and beauty. Once again He again took up His abode with His people. However, this Temple was without the Ark of the Covenant. A seven branched Menorah stood in the Holy place instead of the ten lamp stands in Solomon's Temple.
The apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees provides some details of its furnishing:
They renewed the sacred vessels and the lamp-stand, and brought the altar of incense, and the table to the Temple. They burnt incense on the altar and lit the lamps on the lamp-stand to shine within the temple. When they put the Bread of the Presence on the table and hung the curtain their work was completed. (1 Maccabees 4:49,50).
But, in general, of the Temple built by Zerubbabel little is known. Archaeologist Benjamin Mazar writes:
It is most difficult to determine, even in general outlines, the stages in the historical development of the Temple Mount
and its fortifications during the long era of the Second Temple, from Zerubbabel at the end of the sixth century B.C.E. up to the commencement of Herod's building project at the end of the first century B.C.E. The literary sources are insufficiently clear, and archaeological data are very few and problematic.
Haggai's fourth message to the people, brought to them in October of 520 B.C.E., was brief,
"Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms -- I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders -- and the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his fellow. On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the LORD, and make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you, says the LORD of hosts." (Haggai 2:23)
Another View Of The
Second Temple Of Israel
© Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999. Keystone Chapter No. 146, Royal Arch Masons. All rights reserved.