ZERUBABBEL:

     Rebuilder of God’s Temple

 

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ISRAEL:

HISTORY REVIEW

-Israel made a nation by God at Mt. Sinai with Moses as the leader.               1445 BC

n    David become great king.                                                                            9200 BC

n    Kingdom divides into North(Israel) & South(Judah)                                  1100 BC

n    North become very wicked under kings like Ahab.  Elijah, Amos,

     and other prophets fail to turn it around.  Destroyed by Assyria.                 722 BC

     Judah avoids complete destruction by Assyria because God hears

     King Hezekiah’s prayers.  Isaiah prophecies.

n    Judah still spiritually weakens and only the boy-king Josiah’s          

     reforms saves her from immediate destruction.  Jeremiah preaches. 

       After Josiah, God uses Babylon to punish Judah, with King                (1) 606 BC

       Nebuchadnezzar attacking Jerusalem three times, destroying her         (2) 597 BC

       completely the last time.  Takes Jews captive, deports them.               (3) 586 BC

  -  The Jews spend 70 years  in captivity in Babylon, just as                   606 - 536 BC         

Jeremiah predicted. (Jer. 25:11)

n    Medes & Persians conquer Babylon, just as Jeremiah (25:12-14),

     Daniel (Ch.5) predicted.                                                                            538  BC

n    King Cyrus issues decree for the Jews to return to their homeland,

just as Isaiah prophesied in Is. 44:26-28; 45:1,13, 175 yrs. beforehand.

n    At this point, Zerubabbel is chosen as leader to lead the 49,897               536  BC 

        who chose to accompany him from Persia and help him rebuild.

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FACTS ABOUT ZERUBABBEL AND HIS WORK

n    Name means:  “Born in Babylon”.  Was born during the 70 years captivity.

n    Had never seen the temple before it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

n    Out of a total Jewish pop. of 2 - 3 million, only 42,897 left Babylon.

n    Many of the Jews stayed in IRAQ until the 1950’s - over 2500 years!

n    The journey from Babylon to Jerusalem was nearly 1000 miles long.

n    Zerubabbel was the legitimate heir of the throne of David, so he would have  been king if there was still a kingdom. ( He was the grandson of Jehoichin. (I Cor. 3:17-19)             

 

Work started on the temple after the altar and religious feasts were restored.  Sacrifices were then offered to God once more after 70 years without such.

IMPORTANCE OF THE TEMPLE

Without a temple, the Jews couldn’t worship their God in His approved manner, according to the Old Covenant.  There was only one temple in the whole world where God could be worshipped. 

-First built by Solomon in 960 BC., 500 years before Zerubabbel’s time.  It was the most expensive building of its day. ($14 BILLION est. today)

n   153,600 foreign laborers and 30,000 Jewish laborers worked 7 years to build it.

n   Lasted 400 years, from 970-586 BC.

n   Symbol of national identity and unity.  Glory place of God.  Shekinah of God filled when dedicated. ( II Chron.5:13,14; I Kings 8:10-11)

Zerubabbel started rebuilding it in 536, but because of opposition from the local jealous people to whom the Jews’ land had been given, the worked was stopped by their plots, for 15 years.

Darius was friendly to the Jews, and allowed work to resume. 

Haggai and Zechariah powerfully encouraged the people to work hard with their preaching.  It then only took Zerubabbel 4 years, 520-516, to complete this great project.  This temple lasted until nearly Jesus time, when King Herod began a mighty reconstruction project to enlarge and beautify the temple.  It was finally completely destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, and has never been rebuilt since then. 

(NOTE:  You can read about Zerubabbel and his work in Ezra.)

QUESTIONS:

1. Who were the enemies of Zerubabbel?  ( Ezra 4)

2.  What deeper significance was their to his work then the mere physical rebulding of the temple.

3.  “BY MY SPIRIT”  What Spirit?

4.   Did the Spirit magically help with supernatural power?  How did He help?

5. Is a revolution destructive, or constructive, or both?

6. Should we expect opposition to our work, as Zerubbabel faced? WHY?

7. Why would we use the word “RESTORATION” to describe the work that Zerubabbel and the Jews were doing?

8.  Did Zerubabbel have a memory or visual picture of the work he was leading?

9. Why did only a few return to restore the temple and settle the land?

10.  Read: Jer. 9:23-24 & Acts 4:13.  Also Eccl. 9:11.  Apply to this lesson.

11. In what ways are people tempted in this day and age to do God’s work in man’s way?