Who Commands You?

No. 16 of Returning Home (Reignited)

God stirred up the people to return to building the temple through three encouragements. The first two were the hard words of Haggai and Zechariah (see First Priority for more). The third encouragement was the support of a Persian emperor.

Darius I, known as Darius the Great, came to power after serving King Cambyses II the son of Cyrus the Great as his lance-bearer. He was skilled in military combat and strategy, and ruled the Persian Empire for 35 years amidst rebellions and uprisings.

According to Herodotus the historian¹, Darius I set up a tribute system for the twenty provinces of his empire. Each province, called a satrapy, was to give gifts of resources (tribute) to the king, unless otherwise instructed. The province Israel belonged to, known as “Beyond the (Euphrates) River” was governed by Tattenai.

At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus: “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?” ⁴ They also asked them this:^a] “What are the names of the men who are building this building?” – Ezra 5:3-4(ESV)

Early in Darius’ reign the provinces rebelled², and he put pressure on the governors to watch for further revolts. Scrutinizing his own province, Tattenai was primed to suppress any rebellion under his jurisdiction.  It was at this time the leaders of Judah were spurred on to continue the rebuilding of the temple. Tattenai and his overseers took the builders to task: Who had given them permission to work on the temple at Jerusalem? Who were the people in charge? It seemed a bad time to build a great religious structure in the former capitol city of Israel, but this time of tension in the empire was really an ideal opportunity.

⁵ But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it. – Ezra 5:5(ESV)

Tattenai didn’t understand that God had commanded the people of Judah to build the temple. He was in charge, and He was going to see to the powers in Persia.