Zechariah 7:1-14 ~ by asking

The photo is King Darius with the Jewish captives being ruled to return to Israel and rebuild the temple.

Zechariah 7:1-14 ~ (New International Version © 2010)

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1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. 2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD 3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

4 Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”

8 And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.

13 “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. 14 ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.

This is the town of Bethany - 10 miles from Jerusalem asking the Lord if fasting and mourning is needed because the captivity is over!

During the captivity many Scripture lessons were received: Jeremiah was studied, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Zechariah, Daniel, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, 1 Esdras, Tobit and the Book of Judith (all of these books were declared part of the Scriptures by the first Christian council, the Ecumenical Church, by the 300 bishops around the world who had faced persecution by proclaiming Jesus as Lord. They further risked their lives to travel to the council in 325 A.D. (Thee - St. Nicholas, the Bishop of now Turkey, was released from his imprisonment by Emperor Diocletian when Constantine called him to attend the Council of Nicaea.)

These joyous slaves returned as free people to first throw out the Samaritans who had been keeping worship going on the Temple mountain. (DNA studies in the 1960s proved the Samaritans are the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Levi.) Also thrown out - the returning captives who do not have the proof of their lineage. They are no longer allowed access to the Temple for worship.

Judah or Israel is not a free nation. They are still a client state of the Persions. Most importantly, the Ark of the Covenant is still hidden where Jeremiah has placed it. 2 Maccabees 2:4-62 It is telling the Ark is not returned to the Second Temple. Zechariah begins to have visions of a coming second exile.

The work of Jonah taking the Word of the Lord to the Assyrian Nation is still God's work. God keeps telling Israel to ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

As always, the Words of the Lord are eternal, they are for us yesterday, today and tomorrow.



(The inscription below the carved relief is a Behistun Inscription, (also Bisitun or Bisutun, meaning "the god’s place or land") is a multi-lingual inscription located in the Kermanshah Province of Iran. Carved into a cliffside, gives the same text in three languages, telling the story of King Darius’ conquests, with the names of twenty-three provinces subject to him. It is illustrated by life-sized carved images of King Darius with other figures in attendance. The inscription is approximately 15 metres high by 25 metres wide, and 100 metres up a limestone cliff from an ancient road connecting the capitals of Babylonia and Media (Babylon and Ecbatana). It is extremely inaccessible as the mountainside was removed to make the inscription more visible after its completion. The inscription was illustrated by a life-sized bas-relief of Darius, holding a bow as a sign of kingship, with his left foot on the chest of a figure lying on his back before him. The inscription and the Book of Ezra 6:14 have this in common: According to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. Ezra names all three of the Kings of the Persian empire.

I am Dârayavauš the king, son of Vištâspa, of the Hakhâmanisiya-dynasty, king of kings. I am king in Pârsa. My father is Vištâspa. Vištâspa's father is Aršâma, Aršâma's father was Ariyâramna, Ariyâramna's father was Cišpiš, and Cišpiš' father was Hakhâmaniš.

King Darius says: (72) King Darius says: Those Elamites were faithless and Ahuramazda was not worshipped by them. I worshipped Ahuramazda; by the grace of Ahuramazda I did unto them according to my will. (75) King Darius says: Those Scythians were faithless and Ahuramazda was not worshipped by them. I worshipped Ahuramazda; by the grace of Ahuramazda I did unto them according to my will.(76) King Darius says: [Whoso shall worship] Ahuramazda, [divine blessing will be upon him, both while] living and [when dead.]

Ezra 6:1-221

King Darius then issued an order, and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon. 2 A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media, and this was written on it:Memorandum:3 In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem:Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be ninety feet (about 27 meters) high and ninety feet wide, 4 with three courses of large stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid by the royal treasury. 5 Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of God.

6 Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and you, their fellow officials of that province, stay away from there. 7 Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site.

8 Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God:The expenses of these men are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop. 9 Whatever is needed—)

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