Relationship Between Dates In Haggai and Zechariah and the relationship with Ezra

Ezra 4:24 / 5:1 marks the beginning of the ministries of Haggai and Zechariah

Haggai 1:1 2nd year Darius 1st day 6th month
Haggai 2:1 2nd year Darius 21st day 6th month
2nd year Darius 8th month Zechariah 1:1
Haggai 2:10 2nd year Darius 24th day 9th month
Haggai 2:20 2nd year Darius 24th day 9th month
2nd year Darius 24th day 11th month Zechariah 1:7
4th year Darius 4th day 9th month Zechariah 7:1
again the word of God came Zechariah 8:1
and the word of the LORD came Zechariah 8:18
Temple Finished
6th year Darius 3rd day 12th month Ezra 6:15

ch. 6 The foundation was laid on the 24th day of the 9th month of the second year of Darius Haggai 2:18 and was completed on 3rd day of the 12th month of the 6th year of Darius Ezra 6:15 so it took about 4 and a quarter years to complete the work.

5:10 That Tatnai asked the names of those who were working in the temple was designed to cause consternation in the hearts of those Jews. They were going to be reported by name to Darius - and this, so it was thought - would cause them to refrain from the work. Such intimidation of the servants of God is common throughout history. We should learnt the lesson from these faithful men and women. Our God is bigger than all of the world's leaders.

6:7-9 So the letter from Tatnai backfired upon him. Not only did Darius allow the work to continue. He provided out of the king's wealth material for the work!

5:2 We are now at the 9th month of the second year of the year of Darius (see Haggai 2:18 ) so we have moved on quite some time (about 17 years) from the initial return under Cyrus.

6:21 That some had to separate themselves from the filthiness of the heathen demonstrates that even though the return from Babylon was a fairly recent event some in the nation slipped back into the ways of the nations which was the very reason why Israel were taken captivity to Babylon. Herein is a powerful lesson for us. It is so easy to slip back into the ways of the world even if we can still remember our deliverance from 'Egypt'

5:5 In saying God's "eye" was upon the work the people were alluding to Deut 11:12 where we learn that God's eyes are always on the land of Israel.

6:1  Searching the "house of the rolls" was not a trivial event. Darius was not even searching for things that he had decreed. He found the decree of Cyrus - who he had overthrown. However, maybe surprisingly, Darius wishes to ensure that Cyrus' decree is upheld.

5:4  Tatnai, in requesting the names of those who were building forced Joshua and the others to advertise their commitment to the work. They were not able to work for God secretly.

6:15  The work on the house started on the 24^{th day of the 6th month of the second year of darius –} Hag 1:14  ^{- and was finished on the 3rd day of the 12th month of the 6th year which means that the house was being built for over three years. We should not think that anything of value will be completed quickly in our own ecclesial life.}

5:2 When we read of ‘the prophets of God helping …’ in the building we may think of them ‘getting their hands dirty’ with physical work. Doubtless they did. However the prophet would have more effect with words of encouragement from God coupled with the physical work of building. We should be the same. Not just saying things need doing but also doing them also. Unlike the Pharisees who aid and did not – Matt 23:3

5:2 When they began to build they had the encouragement of a prophet of God – Hag 2:18

6:4 Even down to the description of the stones and timber the decree matched the things which Solomon did. See 1Kin 6:36

Ezra 5:2 - "Zerubbabel" [(2217) means "sown in babylon" and emphasizes Christ's origin was as a human with all the human inclinations to frailty (Heb 4:15)] and "Shealtiel" [(7598) means "I have asked of God" emphasizes how God's Son frequently prayed to his Father (1Thess 5:17)] were in the (Matt 1:12) genealogy.

Ezra 6:6 - as previously mentioned, "Tatnai" [(8674) means "gift" and Jesus was a gift from God, a temple of sorts (John 2:19,21), Christ's sacrifice offers his followers freedom from sin and death] and "Shetharboznai" [(8370) means "star of splendor" (Num 24:17;Matt 2:2,7,9,10)]; Jesus was surrounded by "companions" who employed treachery, false accusations, and "Apharsachites" [(671) means "I will divide the deceivers" - and at the trial of Jesus his false accusers were divided along with Judas being literally divided (Mark 14:55-56;Acts 1:18;John 6:70)].

Ezra 6:14 - son of "Iddo" [(5714) means "His witness" - perhaps this reminds us of God witnessing the sacrifice of His only Son and the rebuilding of the temple of his body in three days that would give people hope].

Ezra 6:20 - words such as "purified, pure, killed, the passover, for all the children of the captivity" perhaps reminds us that through the sacrifice/killing of the perfect lamb, the sins of believers are forgiven and upon Christ's return his "children" will be freed from captivity to sin and death.

Ezra 6:21 - "...children separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen..." and this perhaps reminds us that Christ's true children have to separate themselves from the uncleaness of this world (Gal 1:4;2Cor 6:17;James 1:27).

Ezra 6:22 - Christ is the unleavened uncorrupted true bread of eternal life (Matt 16:6,11,12;John 6:47-51;Acts 2:27,31).

7:8 mixed himself among the people Psalm 106:35
7:11 do not return to the Lord Isaiah 9:13
7:12 as the congregation hath heard Deuteronomy 28:15
7:14 and they have not cried unto me 1 Kings 8:35

7:11 & 8:9 'They are gone to Assyria' Isaiah [chapter 8] - a contemporary prophet with Hosea - condemns Israel [the Northern kingdom] for their attempts to appease the Assyrians. As Isaiah says - 8:6 - 7 - the going to seek help and not turning to Him demonstrates their unfaithfulness.

Hos 7:1. God is a healer. Israel refused help. First stage of healing is the recognizing of sin. We must always be fully aware of the need we all have of requiring the healing hand of God.

Hos 7:9-10. Because of their blindness they could not see their sin. To make matters worse, they are also getting older and still could not see or were prepared to accept the fact that they desperately need help. They are too proud to return to LORD God. We all must see that we do not fall in the same state of affairs.

Hos 7:16. We have in this verse a very important lesson for all of us. We all know from history that Israel did indeed return to worship, but it was not a sincere return. All we have to is to read from Malachi’s prophesy the series of questions that were asked.(Mal 1:2, 1:6, 1:7, 2:14, 2:17, 3:7, 3:8, 3:13.) We must at all times take preventative action to make sure we do not fall in their ways.

There are some lovely figures of speech in today’s chapter. For example, Hos 7:6 speaks of a baker’s oven, with the fire hot and the stones ready for baking, but the baker falls asleep. He sleeps all night , and then when he wakes in the morning the bread is burnt and the whole oven is alight. What a waste of good bread! What a waste, too, of God’s Law and Love to Israel!

7:3  Doesn’t is seem strange to say that the king was delighted with the wickedness of the people? Rom 1:23  presents a similar picture. We might call it the pleasures of sin (Heb 11:25)

7:8 In saying Ephraim was ‘mixed himself among the people’ the prophet quotes Psa 106:35 where David speaks of the disaster of Israel’s behaviour after coming out of Egypt.

7:10 The rather unusual phrase ‘testifieth to his face’ is speaking about fellowship. God spoke ‘face to face’ with Moses – Exo 33:11 - but He could not ‘face’ Ephraim because of their sins.

7:14 We might have thought that one cried to God with ones mouth but the prophet uses the word ‘heart’ making the point that the words might have been there but the way that they thought was astray from Him. Prov 23:7

ch.25 - The discussion between Festus and Agrippa, and in particular the way that the issue was not raised for 'many days' Acts 25:13-14 and the way that Agrippa Acts 25:22 wanted to hear Paul indicates that neither of these men viewed the imprisonment of Paul as a major issue that had to be resolved. Such is the perverseness of man.

ch.26 -Festus was not very tolerant of Paul's preaching Acts 26:24 though maybe it was not designed for him. Paul directed a specific question at Agrippa. he asked him whether he believed the prophets and then continued by telling Agrippa that he knew of his faith in them Acts 26:27 . Doubtless this provides a practical explanation, at least, as to why he wanted to hear Paul.

25:14 That Agrippa had been 'many days' with Festus before the issue of Paul was raise indicates that this meeting was more for personal interest than justice.

26:31-32 So the conclusion is that, like Jesus, the charges laid against him by the Jews are unfounded. It is important that we have the testimony of gentile rulers that this is so. No Jew can ever make the claim that the preaching of Jesus or Paul was illegal or against the state - which was the Jew's accusation. Actually it attacked their position - not what God had taught through Moses.

25:11 We saw in May that Paul was not interested in seeking his 'rights' so we must realise that the appeal to Caesar was not a matter of legal right to Paul. Rather it would afford him further preaching opportunities. If he had been released from Caeserea he would have been killed by the Jews upon his release and that would have been the end of his preaching.

26:8 The question 'why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead' continues the point made in earlier chapters that Paul was more concerned with preaching the gospel than defending himself in a court of law.

25:9 If Paul had gone to Jerusalem the Jews would have killed him on the way. Festus knew this. This is why Paul appealed to Caesar. Not because he wanted to rely on the law of the land but rather to enable him to remain alive to care for the brethren.

26:32 Is it truly the case that the only thing that stopped Paul being set free was his appeal to Caesar?  Surely having been acquitted there was no need for him to be taken before Caesar. Does anyone know the way that Roman law worked on this point?

25:13 King Agrippa was, in fact, Agrippa II, the great-grandson of Herod.  He was the last in the line of the Herods.  He and Bernice were both children of Agrippa I and were carrying on an incestuous relationship at this time.  Drusilla was the sister to these two (See note for yesterday's Acts reading). 

Bernice had been married a couple of times before (one marriage was to her uncle), and would be married again after her liaison with Agrippa.  Later (according to Tacitus, the Roman historian) Bernice would become Titus' mistress.                                  

26:28 Any contemplation of Agrippa's accepting Christ would have been quickly dissuaded by the self-indulgent floozy Bernice.

25:25 It seems to me that as thee was nothing ‘worthy of death’ found in Paul there was no need for him to go to Caesar. Sending him on to Augustus was just another way of off loading the problem of Paul onto to someone else.

26:17-18 In talking abut going to the gentiles and the forgiveness of sins Paul is making a direct appeal to a gentile – Agrippa.

25:27 Even though Festus appears to want to release Paul; there are three obstacles that he could not overcome.                                                                                                                                      1) After spending two years as a prisoner, Paul now sees the opportunity to go to Rome, this is something he has wanted to do for some time (Acts 19:21)                                                               2) Paul, being a Roman citizen had the right to appeal to Caeser. Once an appeal was made, it had to be completed                                                                                                                                  3) It was God's Will that Paul should go to the Gentiles (Acts 22:21). Nothing that Festus, or for that matter Agrippa could do would change the situation. Paul would go to Rome.

26:9 Having, in verse 5, highlighted his Jewish Pharisaic background Paul now emphasises that he used to oppose the gospel, just as his accusers were doing now.

25:17 The phrase ‘without any delay’ is hardly true because he had ‘tarried among them more than ten days’.

25:22 Agrippa’s desire to hear Paul himself was doubtless a desire to listen to this preacher rather than part of a desire to establish whether he was guilty of the crimes laid against him or not as it had already been establish to the satisfaction of the Romans that he was not guilty Acts 23:29

26:6 Paul both defuses the accusation and preaches to Agrippa by saying that he believes the things promised to the Jewish fathers. In doing such he highlighted to the Romans the ‘hope of Israel’ was actually the Christian hope.