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Ezra 6:1-13 - God Has the Right to Preserve His Word · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Well, Hello fay for listeners, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the Bible Explain podcast on this absolutely lovely Monday morning.
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Speaker 1: And Hi, my name is Jen I am the host
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Speaker 1: of the podcast, and I am so thankful that you
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Speaker 1: are starting out your week nice and strong with me
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Speaker 1: by reading the Bible with me as you share a
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Speaker 1: delicious cup of coffee. Okay, we're in the Book of
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Speaker 1: Ezra this morning, Ezra chapter six. And I have been
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Speaker 1: really enjoying the Book of Ezra just because of the
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Speaker 1: history surrounding it and the things that we can learn
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Speaker 1: from these Old Testament stories as well the warnings that
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Speaker 1: are given here. There's so much that we can talk
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Speaker 1: about today in Ezra chapter six. So go ahead and
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Speaker 1: grab your Bible and also your delicious cup of seven
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Speaker 1: Weeks Coffee, the coffee brand that supports life in the Womb,
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Speaker 1: or a delicious cup of tea this morning as you
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Speaker 1: listen to this quick word from a sponsor. Okay, we
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Speaker 1: are in Ezra's six one through thirteen today. I'll be
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Speaker 1: reading this as I usually do from the web. And
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Speaker 1: this is the response that Darius gives to the aforsak
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Speaker 1: Kites who sent him a letter in the previous chapter
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Speaker 1: that we talked about, and I think I finally got
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Speaker 1: that word down afrisak Kites, after saying it many many times,
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Speaker 1: I finally think I figured it out. So now Darius
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Speaker 1: is going to give a response. Let's read Ezra six
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Speaker 1: one through thirteen as we give reverence to God's word
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Speaker 1: and drink some coffee together. Then Darius the King made
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Speaker 1: a decree, and the house of the Archives, where the
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Speaker 1: treasures were laid up in Babylon, was searched. A scroll
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Speaker 1: was found at Acmetha, in the palace that was in
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Speaker 1: the province of Media, and in it this was written
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Speaker 1: for a record in the first year of Cyrus the king.
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Speaker 1: Cyrus the King made a decree concerning God's House at Jerusalem.
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Speaker 1: Let the house be built the place where they offer
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Speaker 1: the sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid, with
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Speaker 1: its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits, with
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Speaker 1: three courses of great stones and a course of new timber.
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Speaker 1: Let the expenses be given out of the King's house. Also,
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Speaker 1: let the gold and silver vessels of God's House which
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Speaker 1: Nebekinezer took out of the temple, which is at Jerusalem
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Speaker 1: and brought to Babylon, be restored, and brought again to
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Speaker 1: the Temple which is at Jerusalem. Everything to its place.
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Speaker 1: You shall put them in God's House. Now, therefore, Tetani
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Speaker 1: Governor beyond the river, shut their bazant eye, and your companions,
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Speaker 1: the Afrisachites, who are beyond the river, you must stay
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Speaker 1: far from there. Leave the work of this house of
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Speaker 1: God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the
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Speaker 1: elders of the Jews build this House of God in
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Speaker 1: its place. Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you
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Speaker 1: shall do for those elders of the Jews for the
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Speaker 1: building of this House of God, that the King's goods,
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Speaker 1: even of the tribute beyond the river expenses, must be
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Speaker 1: given with all diligence to these men, that they not
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Speaker 1: be hindered that which they have need of, including young bulls,
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Speaker 1: rams and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of Heaven,
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Speaker 1: also wheat, salt, to water and oil. According to the
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Speaker 1: word of the priests who are at Jerusalem. Let it
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Speaker 1: be given them day by day without fail, that they
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Speaker 1: may offer sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the God of
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Speaker 1: Heaven and pray for the life of the king and
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Speaker 1: of his sons. I have also made a decree that
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Speaker 1: whoever alters this message, let a beam be pulled from
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Speaker 1: his house, and let him be lifted up and fastened
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Speaker 1: on it, and let his house be made a dunghill.
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Speaker 1: For this may the God who has caused his name
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Speaker 1: to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who stretch
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Speaker 1: out their hand to alter this, to destroy this House
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Speaker 1: of God which is at Jerusalem. I, Darius have made
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Speaker 1: a decree. Let it be done with all diligence. Then
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Speaker 1: Tetani the governor beyond the river, and Chetharbazanai and their
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Speaker 1: companions did accordingly with all diligence, because Darius the King
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Speaker 1: had sent a decree. If you're curious about the contents
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Speaker 1: of the letter that Tetani the governor sent to King Darius,
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Speaker 1: you'll have to go back to last week's episode on
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Speaker 1: Wednesday and hear about that. But it was a but again,
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Speaker 1: it was another nasty letter that the people of the
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Speaker 1: region were writing to the kings against the Israelites because
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Speaker 1: they hated the fact that the Israelites were back in
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Speaker 1: the land rebuilding it up, and specifically rebuilding the Temple
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Speaker 1: to God. They didn't like any of this because they
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Speaker 1: wanted to consider that land theirs. They didn't like that
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Speaker 1: the Israelites had come back into the land. These people
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Speaker 1: were harassing the Jews, doing everything they could to stop
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Speaker 1: the rebuilding of the temple, including writing all sorts of
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Speaker 1: nasty letters to the kings. Anytime a new king of
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Speaker 1: Persia would pop up, these people would write a letter
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Speaker 1: to that king and be like, look how terrible these
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Speaker 1: Israelites are, look what they're doing. And unfortunately it did
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Speaker 1: work for quite a while. I believe it was twelve
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Speaker 1: years that the building of the Temple was put on
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Speaker 1: pause because these people actually wrote a letter against the
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Speaker 1: Israelites to Canvass. King Canbass, who was the son of
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Speaker 1: King Cyrus and Cambases, didn't like the Jews either, so
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Speaker 1: he forced them to stop building the temple for about
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Speaker 1: twelve years. But now Darius the First is the king,
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Speaker 1: and only a couple years after he became the king,
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Speaker 1: the Israelites started rebuilding the temple once again. Because Campuses
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Speaker 1: was dead, there was nobody stopping them at this moment
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Speaker 1: in time. And also Haggai and Zechariah, who are two
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Speaker 1: major prophets actually told them to start rebuilding the temple
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Speaker 1: once again, because it was from God that they should
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Speaker 1: start rebuilding the temple. So they did, and now the
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Speaker 1: surrounding regions hear that the temple is again in process
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Speaker 1: of being built, and they get very very angry. So
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Speaker 1: they come over to the Israelites, and that's all talked
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Speaker 1: about in the previous chapter Ezra five, and they try
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Speaker 1: to make trouble, but fortunately they did not force the
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Speaker 1: Israelites to stop until they heard word from King Darius
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Speaker 1: to see if all of this was okay. And of
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Speaker 1: course in Ezra chapter five, they wrote a very scathing
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Speaker 1: letter that was very manipulative, telling Darius that these Israelites
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Speaker 1: are so lazy that they've been building this temple for
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Speaker 1: so long and yet it's still not done. That they're
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Speaker 1: just trying to get back to their former glory, back
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Speaker 1: when you know, the kings in Israel were very powerful.
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Speaker 1: Just things like that. And so now Darius responds to
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Speaker 1: the letter, and that is what we read about in
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Speaker 1: Ezra chapter six. Starting in verse one, it says Darius
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Speaker 1: the king made a decree and the House of the Archives,
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Speaker 1: which were the treasures laid up in Babylon was searched,
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Speaker 1: So this would have been like a record keeping house
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Speaker 1: that was in Babylon, which, by the way, Persia was
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Speaker 1: in control of like everything at this point in time.
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Speaker 1: And Darius was obviously a Persian king, so he searched
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Speaker 1: the house where all the records were found. And there
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Speaker 1: was in fact a scroll found at Ecmetha in the
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Speaker 1: palace that is in the province of Media, and in
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Speaker 1: it was written for a record. Now, before I read
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Speaker 1: what this record was, let's talk talk about King Darius
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Speaker 1: for a second. So he was the third king of
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Speaker 1: the Persian Empire. The first king was obviously Cyrus the Great.
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Speaker 1: The second king was Canvass, his son, the guy that
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Speaker 1: stopped the rebuilding the temple for twelve years. Right after
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Speaker 1: him was a guy named Smurtis who ruled for like
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Speaker 1: five seconds before King Darius came in. Who right here,
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Speaker 1: this is King Darius in as read chapter six. Now
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Speaker 1: I should note something. You might have heard the name
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Speaker 1: King Darius before, because if you've ever read through the
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Speaker 1: Book of Daniel, there is a king named Darius in
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Speaker 1: that book also. But this Darius and the Darius mentioned
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Speaker 1: in Daniel are not the same king. In fact, the
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Speaker 1: Darius mentioned in the Book of Daniel, who consequently threw
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Speaker 1: Daniel into the lions dead, is probably actually Cyrus the Great.
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Speaker 1: Because the name Darius was both a name and also
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Speaker 1: a title. It meant lord with a little L, and
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Speaker 1: since Daniel worked very closely with King Cyrus, he probably
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Speaker 1: called him King Darius, in other words, king lord with
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Speaker 1: a little L. Now another option, though, is that this
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Speaker 1: Darius mentioned in the Book of Daniel was not King Cyrus,
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Speaker 1: but he was a governor of the Babylonian region where
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Speaker 1: Daniel lived. And that was a very common thing for
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Speaker 1: kings to do because it couldn't be in every place
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Speaker 1: all the time, especially if they ran a huge superpower
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Speaker 1: like Persia, they had control of all sorts of different regions.
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Speaker 1: So what they would do is they would send governors out,
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Speaker 1: these very powerful governors that would control the entire region.
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Speaker 1: So it could be that the Darius mentioned in the
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Speaker 1: Book of Daniel was actually a governor of Babylon. But
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Speaker 1: either way, that Darius mentioned in Daniel is not the
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Speaker 1: same Darius as in Ezra chapter six, just to clear
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Speaker 1: that up there. So anyway, this King Darius, it says
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Speaker 1: searches the house to see what Cyrus, the first king
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Speaker 1: of Persia said about the Jews. And so here's what
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Speaker 1: he finds verse three, Ezra six. In the first year
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Speaker 1: of Cyrus the King, Cyrus the King made a decree
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Speaker 1: concerning God's House at Jerusalem. Let the house be built
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Speaker 1: the place where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations
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Speaker 1: be strongly laid, with its height sixty cubits and it's
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Speaker 1: width sixty cubits. Now, obviously we know that Cyrus the
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Speaker 1: Great was the guy who sent all the Israelites back
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Speaker 1: to their homeland after the Babylonian exile that lasted for
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Speaker 1: seventy years. And the reason Cyrus did this was very
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Speaker 1: likely because he had Daniel as his advisor, and also
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Speaker 1: because Cyrus was mentioned in the prophets as well. I
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Speaker 1: believe he was mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah many many
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Speaker 1: decades before Cyrus even became a king or anybody knew
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Speaker 1: who Cyrus was. Interestingly enough, so Cyrus was prophesied about
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Speaker 1: by Jeremiah. And it could be that Daniel, who was
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Speaker 1: a wise man and very knowledgeable of the scriptures, especially
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Speaker 1: of Jewish scriptures, could have told Cyrus like, Hey, you've
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Speaker 1: been prophesied about, You've been prophesied about that you're going
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Speaker 1: to let the Israelites go home and rebuild this temple.
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Speaker 1: And so Cyrus did in fact do that. Now we
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Speaker 1: don't know if it was because of those prophecies written
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Speaker 1: about him, or if God just placed that in his
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Speaker 1: heart has something important to do. We don't know. But
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Speaker 1: Cyrus ended up sending all the Israelites back home, and
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Speaker 1: he also told them to rebuild the temple, being sixty
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Speaker 1: cubits high and sixty cubits in width. So these dimensions
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Speaker 1: are a little bit different than the temple that Solomon
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Speaker 1: originally built back in first and second Chronicles. I believe
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Speaker 1: the temple that Solomon built would have been a little
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Speaker 1: bit smaller than that. So it wasn't necessarily that the
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Speaker 1: building itself was going to be that wide, but that
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Speaker 1: they had that much land that they could work on
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Speaker 1: that the Persians would pay for. Essentially, But going back
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Speaker 1: to this scroll that was found in verse four, with
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Speaker 1: three courses of great stones and a course of new timber,
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Speaker 1: let the expenses be given out of the King's house,
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Speaker 1: and also let the gold and silver vessels of God's
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Speaker 1: house which Nebucenizer took out of the temple which is
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Speaker 1: at Jerusalem, and brought to Babylon, be restored, and brought
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Speaker 1: again to the temple which is at Jerusalem. Everything to
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Speaker 1: its place, you shall put them in God's house. So essentially,
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Speaker 1: Darius does a search and he finds this scroll that
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Speaker 1: was authorized by King Cyrus, and he reads it and
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Speaker 1: he's like, oh, Cyrus did in fact want the Israelites
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Speaker 1: to rebuild this temple. So why aren't we doing this?
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Speaker 1: Why are we stopping these Israelites from rebuilding the temple.
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Speaker 1: So Darius sends a letter back to Tetani, who was
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Speaker 1: the governor of the region beyond the river. So the
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Speaker 1: the what the eastern side of the Jordan River. That
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Speaker 1: was the guy that wrote the scathing letter in the
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Speaker 1: previous chapter. And here is what Darius says. You must
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Speaker 1: stay far away from the building of the temple. He says,
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Speaker 1: leave the work of this house of God alone. Let
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Speaker 1: the governor of the Jews and the elders of the
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Speaker 1: Jews build this house of God in its place. Now,
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Speaker 1: I'm sure that this was incredibly embarrassing for this Tetani guy.
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Speaker 1: I am sure he was as read as you can
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Speaker 1: possibly be, because he probably thought that his letter was
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Speaker 1: going to work. It was filled with manipulation and flattery
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Speaker 1: to this king, and Darius just fully calls him out
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Speaker 1: in the most embarrassing way possible. He says, leave these
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Speaker 1: people alone. He says, moreover, I make a decree regarding
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Speaker 1: what you shall do for the elders of the Jews
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Speaker 1: for the building of the House of God, that of
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Speaker 1: the King's goods, even the tribute beyond the river expenses,
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Speaker 1: must be given with all diligence to these men, that
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Speaker 1: they not be hindered. So basically, Darius is like, hey,
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Speaker 1: tet and I you know that tribute that you're supposed
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Speaker 1: to give to me every single year, Well, instead give
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Speaker 1: it to the Jews so that they can be helped
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Speaker 1: in the building of this temple. So it's even adding
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Speaker 1: more embarrassment to it, you know, because in the previous
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Speaker 1: chapter ten and I was going over to the Jews
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Speaker 1: acting all high and mighty, being like I'm the governor,
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Speaker 1: and you know, I'm gonna write this letter and I'm
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Speaker 1: gonna report you to the king. And now he's got
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Speaker 1: to send all this tribute over to the Jews. Oh,
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Speaker 1: it's so funny, and you can imagine just the justice
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Speaker 1: that the Jewish people felt during all of this, right,
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Speaker 1: you know, because for twelve whole years they are actually
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Speaker 1: forced to to stop rebuilding the Temple, when initially they
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Speaker 1: were given money to do it, they were commanded to
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Speaker 1: do it. You can imagine the injustice they felt. And
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Speaker 1: they were forced by violence as well. It was not
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Speaker 1: just like you can't do that, and we'll just give
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Speaker 1: you a slap on the wrist. It was like, no,
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Speaker 1: we'll kill you you keep on rebuilding the temple. That
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Speaker 1: was pretty clear, because they actually forced them with men
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Speaker 1: in arms. Is what it says to stop rebuilding the temple.
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Speaker 1: So the justice I'm sure that the Jews are feeling
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Speaker 1: when now tet and I has to deliver a bunch
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Speaker 1: of tribute to the Israelites every single day, actually is
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Speaker 1: what it says in verse nine, that which they have
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Speaker 1: need of, including young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt
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Speaker 1: offerings to the God of Heaven, also wheat, salt, wine,
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Speaker 1: and oil. According to the word of the priests who
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Speaker 1: at Jerusalem, let it be given to them day by
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Speaker 1: day without fail, that they may offer sacrifices of pleasant
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Speaker 1: aroma to the God of Heaven and pray for the
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Speaker 1: life of the king and of his Yeah, so Darius
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Speaker 1: is like, okay, every single day, actually you have to
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Speaker 1: go over to Israel and give them what they need. Yep,
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Speaker 1: every single day. Oh, this is just so funny. This
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Speaker 1: is so funny. And right here it actually says that
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Speaker 1: they may offer sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the God
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Speaker 1: of Heaven. Now what's interesting about that statement was the
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Speaker 1: people of ancient days who worshiped little g gods always
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Speaker 1: did offer food sacrifices. But these food sacrifices they believed
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Speaker 1: were to actually feed the God. They believed it was
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Speaker 1: like their their daily meal portion. Now I have no
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Speaker 1: clue why they thought that, considering the fact that they'd
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Speaker 1: have to replace the old food with new food every
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Speaker 1: single day. So I don't know how they thought that
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Speaker 1: the little g God was like eating this food, but
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Speaker 1: that is what the people believed. But you can see
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Speaker 1: right here that Yahweh got food sacrifices, but it was
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Speaker 1: for a completely different reason, not because Yahweh needs to eat,
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Speaker 1: but because it was a pleasant aroma, it says, to
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Speaker 1: the God of Heaven, and there was food sacrifices given
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Speaker 1: to God, not just animal sacrifices. There was bread and
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Speaker 1: salt and oil and wine that you could give to God,
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Speaker 1: among all sorts of other things like honey and leavin
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Speaker 1: and fruits, and I can't remember everything else, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: I mean there were food sacrifices given to God. But
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Speaker 1: it wasn't because God needed to eat. It was because
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Speaker 1: the priests needed to eat. Because God would obviously give
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Speaker 1: these food sacrifices to the priests, but it was also
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Speaker 1: for a pleasant aroma to him. So when these things
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Speaker 1: were burned on the altar, it was supposed to be
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Speaker 1: a very pleasing, fragrant smelling aroma of like delicious cooked
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Speaker 1: food that God would smell essentially, And it's interesting that
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Speaker 1: Darius understood enough about out Jewish faith to know that
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Speaker 1: the Jewish people weren't just offering food sacrifices like every
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Speaker 1: other region in the area to feed their God, but
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Speaker 1: they are offering food sacrifices as a pleasant aroma to
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Speaker 1: God because God does not need to eat. Does this
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Speaker 1: mean that Darius was a Yahweh follower? Probably in part,
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Speaker 1: I would guess Persian kings were very notorious for this.
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Speaker 1: I guess they had a deep fascination with religion in general,
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Speaker 1: and they would often take of their own treasuries to
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Speaker 1: build temples for the regions they were in control of.
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Speaker 1: So the kings of Persia probably thought, Hey, if I
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Speaker 1: you sponsor all of these different temples, then I've got
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Speaker 1: my bases covered because now all these people are going
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Speaker 1: to be praying to their god, and I don't know
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Speaker 1: which one is the real one, but you know, if
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Speaker 1: I please all the gods of the region, then certainly
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Speaker 1: one of them will bless me and I will be okay.
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Speaker 1: So that's probably honestly where Darius was coming from. But
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Speaker 1: it's very likely that Darius was not a monotheistic king
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Speaker 1: who only worshiped Yahweh. It's probably far more likely that
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Speaker 1: he worshiped many, many gods. Yahweh just thrown in the
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Speaker 1: mix there. And I believe he did mention another god
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Speaker 1: in this huge relief that was found in western Iran.
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Speaker 1: This relief was three hundred and thirty feet long and
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Speaker 1: had the entire story of the victory of the Persian
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Speaker 1: king Darius written on it, and I believe there's a
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Speaker 1: depiction of him looking upward. I guess at the image
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Speaker 1: of this thing called farah Vahar, I think a Persian
18:41
Speaker 1: symbol of divinity, which represents the supreme god Ahura Mazda. Okay,
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Speaker 1: I don't know what that god is. But apparently, according
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Speaker 1: to that relief that was found, Darius did in fact
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Speaker 1: worship other deities, not just Yahweh. But he at least
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Speaker 1: had a modica of respect for Yahweh. And he says
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Speaker 1: in verse eleven of Ezra six, I have also made
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Speaker 1: a decree that whoever alters this message, let a beam
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Speaker 1: be pulled out from his house, and let him be
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Speaker 1: lifted up on it and fastened on it, and let
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Speaker 1: his house be made into a dunghill. For this. Oh man, wow,
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Speaker 1: Darius was like not holding back any punches here. He's
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Speaker 1: telling these people. He's like, stay away from the Jews
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Speaker 1: unless you're going to deliver my tribute to them every
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Speaker 1: single day. Otherwise leave them alone. And if you think
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Speaker 1: that you're going to alter my message in any way,
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Speaker 1: then I am going to take a beam from your
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Speaker 1: house and make your house collapse, and then you will
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Speaker 1: hang on that beam, and then I will kill you
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Speaker 1: and make your home into a dunghill. He says, may
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Speaker 1: the God that has caused his name to dwell there
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Speaker 1: overthrow all kings and peoples who stretch out their hand
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Speaker 1: to alter this, to destroy this House of God which
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Speaker 1: is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree. Let
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Speaker 1: it be done with all diligence. Then Tet and I
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Speaker 1: the governor beyond the river shut the Bazan eye, and
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Speaker 1: their companions did accordingly with all diligence, because Darius the
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Speaker 1: king has sent a decree. So yeah, they listened to
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Speaker 1: it because they didn't want their homes destroyed, and they
20:16
Speaker 1: also didn't want to be killed, so they listened to
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Speaker 1: everything that Darius told them to do. Big shaker there.
20:23
Speaker 1: But the very last thing I'd like to focus on
20:25
Speaker 1: in this portion before we end today is the fact
20:28
Speaker 1: that Darius didn't want people to alter his decree. And
20:34
Speaker 1: look at how strict he was about this. He says,
20:37
Speaker 1: if you change any bit of this decree, I will
20:42
Speaker 1: make your home into a dunghill, and I will kill you.
20:46
Speaker 1: And not only that, I am asking the God of
20:49
Speaker 1: heaven Yahweh to also curse you on top of me,
20:54
Speaker 1: completely destroying you if you alter any part of my
20:58
Speaker 1: decree and for me when I think about that, I
21:00
Speaker 1: have a tendency actually to agree with Darius. You know,
21:03
Speaker 1: he was the king and his decree was set in stone.
21:06
Speaker 1: So obviously people can't just do whatever they want to
21:09
Speaker 1: do and go against the king because otherwise there'd be repercussions.
21:15
Speaker 1: And guess what. The people listened to Darius because they
21:18
Speaker 1: feared him, They were scared of what he would do.
21:23
Speaker 1: But man, don't people alter God's word all the time
21:27
Speaker 1: without any fear of God whatsoever, Literally zero fear of God,
21:34
Speaker 1: and they will alter his words all the time. And
21:37
Speaker 1: I see it on social media constantly. I mean, you
21:40
Speaker 1: can find anybody taking God's words out of context. You
21:45
Speaker 1: can find anybody saying anything claiming that the Bible approves
21:51
Speaker 1: of their message. But here's what Revelation twenty two, eighteen
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Speaker 1: and nineteen says about altering God's word. This is from
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Speaker 1: the NIVY. I warn everyone who hears the words of
22:04
Speaker 1: the prophecy of this scroll, if anyone adds anything to them,
22:08
Speaker 1: God will add to that person the plagues described in
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Speaker 1: this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from the
22:14
Speaker 1: scroll of this prophecy, God will take away from that
22:17
Speaker 1: person any share in the Tree of Life and in
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Speaker 1: the Holy City, which are described in this scroll. That
22:25
Speaker 1: sounds pretty bad. We are not supposed to take away
22:29
Speaker 1: or add to any of the words of God and
22:33
Speaker 1: say that, you know, the Bible is following our agenda.
22:37
Speaker 1: If a king in the Book of Ezra can rightly
22:40
Speaker 1: become angry if somebody misuses his words or changes his words,
22:45
Speaker 1: and we don't think anything of that. In fact, we
22:47
Speaker 1: agree that that's pretty scary, and you shouldn't alter the
22:51
Speaker 1: words of the king. Why can't we agree that God
22:55
Speaker 1: has the right to preserve his word and that God
22:59
Speaker 1: has the right to become angry at somebody who misuses
23:03
Speaker 1: or adds or takes away from his word. In fact,
23:06
Speaker 1: misusing God's word is one of the ten commandments that
23:08
Speaker 1: we shouldn't do. Thou shalt not misuse the name of
23:13
Speaker 1: the Lord your God from the NIV version. So, in
23:16
Speaker 1: other words, pretending to be a Christian, pretending you understand
23:19
Speaker 1: the Bible, pretending to read the Bible, pretending that you're
23:23
Speaker 1: a very knowledge about what the scriptures say, and then
23:26
Speaker 1: fully twisting them to make them something that they are not.
23:31
Speaker 1: That is carrying God's name in vain and God has
23:36
Speaker 1: every right to be angry about something like that. This
23:40
Speaker 1: is why God warned over and over and over against
23:44
Speaker 1: false prophets, and man, it feels like false prophets are everywhere. Now.
23:48
Speaker 1: You can find a prophet, like at the local church
23:53
Speaker 1: that you attend these days, that has some sort of
23:56
Speaker 1: prophecy from God, and maybe they do, but in the
23:59
Speaker 1: vast majority of cases, probably like ninety eight percent of
24:02
Speaker 1: the cases, that prophecy is likely false. And even if
24:06
Speaker 1: it isn't false and it comes true, there's a verse
24:09
Speaker 1: that says that if a prophet encourages you to follow
24:14
Speaker 1: a God other than Yahweh, even if their prophecy comes true,
24:17
Speaker 1: you are to disregard that prophet entirely, disregard him, not
24:23
Speaker 1: listen to him, not fear him, not think anything of him,
24:26
Speaker 1: because that prophet is a false prophet, even if they
24:29
Speaker 1: had a true prophecy. And you might be like, well, Jen,
24:31
Speaker 1: how do you know if somebody is twisting the Bible
24:34
Speaker 1: to their own agenda or not? Well, you study the Bible.
24:39
Speaker 1: Scripture always interprets scripture. There are sixty six thousand cross
24:45
Speaker 1: references across the entire Bible. Chances are if there is
24:51
Speaker 1: a verse in scripture that you don't understand. The answer
24:54
Speaker 1: is somewhere else in scripture. It might be a while
24:57
Speaker 1: before you find it, but if you keep reading your Bible,
25:00
Speaker 1: you're going to have the answer given to you because
25:03
Speaker 1: scripture always interprets scripture. So this is why if somebody's
25:08
Speaker 1: saying something in your church and you're not sure if
25:10
Speaker 1: they are speaking the truth of scripture or if they
25:12
Speaker 1: are speaking from their own agenda, you got to go
25:15
Speaker 1: into the Bible yourself and study it and learn it
25:19
Speaker 1: and read it so that you know for sure what
25:21
Speaker 1: the truth of the Bible actually says, so that you
25:25
Speaker 1: don't listen to somebody that is twisting the Bible or
25:28
Speaker 1: taking something away or adding to it, and even more egregious,
25:33
Speaker 1: we got to make sure we're not doing that ourselves. Well,
25:37
Speaker 1: thank you so much for making it this far in
25:39
Speaker 1: the episode of Faithful Listeners. Here is one last word
25:42
Speaker 1: from a sponsor, and then I will close out the
25:44
Speaker 1: episode this morning. All right, Faithu listeners, Well, I hope
25:49
Speaker 1: you enjoyed Ezra Chapter six, verses one through thirteen. I
25:52
Speaker 1: had a blast talking about this because we kind of
25:55
Speaker 1: went into some topics that I didn't quite expect to
25:58
Speaker 1: go into today. When I initially read this to study
26:02
Speaker 1: it for you guys, I was like, Oh, just another
26:04
Speaker 1: history portion of the Old Testament. But no, it's amazing
26:07
Speaker 1: how there's always a lesson here. You know, there's always
26:10
Speaker 1: a lesson you can take away from even some of
26:13
Speaker 1: these more historical kind of chapters in the Old Testament. Yes,
26:19
Speaker 1: the Old Testament is history, but it's much more than that.
26:22
Speaker 1: It is talking about God's heart, It is talking about
26:25
Speaker 1: the depravity of man. It is talking about warnings for
26:30
Speaker 1: us and how we can get closer to God and
26:32
Speaker 1: some of the things that we should and should not
26:34
Speaker 1: do based upon what other people have done in the
26:37
Speaker 1: Old Testament. Well, faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed it today.
26:41
Speaker 1: I will see all of you guys hopefully tomorrow on
26:43
Speaker 1: the New Testament side of stuff, where we will be
26:45
Speaker 1: in the Book of Hebrews. Until then, happy listening and
26:49
Speaker 1: God bless. I just want to take a second to
26:57
Speaker 1: thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with
26:59
Speaker 1: me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you
27:02
Speaker 1: go to life audio dot com you will find dozens
27:04
Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
27:07
Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.