A Letter to the Home Office

Sometimes you find the coolest things in the weirdest places. Who would ever expect to see God inspire His Word to be written in a letter from a couple of local pagan political appointees to a Persian dictator? Well that’s exactly what went down in Ezra 5:6-17. In this section of Scripture, the author cuts and pastes a note from some dudes named Tattenai and Shethar-bozenai back to King Darius. They’re concerned about the huge construction project back on the pile rubble that used to known as Jerusalem. Nobody back at the home office notified them about this. They check in just to make sure the Jews have all the proper permits and paperwork. But a funny thing happened after these local officials licked the envelope and dropped this in the mail. God decides to supernaturally include this letter in the Bible. Yeah, sometimes you find the coolest things in the weirdest places.

First of all, the folks who originally wrote this note are “Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bezenai and his associates, the governors who were in the province Beyond the River” (v6). Beyond the River is actually the official name of an area under Persian rule just west of the Euphrates River. The authors of this letter are people appointed by the king to keep an eye on things. They’re not so much power players but political appointees who got their jobs because they support the king. There are actually ancient documents listing Tattanai as the governor of the region under Darius. The city of Jerusalem and the land of Judah would have fallen under the jurisdiction of Beyond the River. It’s only natural that these local officials want to know what in the world is going on right under their noses.

This letter from Persian bureaucrats actually includes some very cool details about the reconstruction of the temple. It gives us an interesting view of the scope and history of the project from a non-Jewish third party. First of all, they describe it as “the house of the great God” (v8). The city is in rubble. The temple is destroyed. But the reputation of the LORD still resonates throughout the land. There is a level of respect and honor for Yahweh in the words of these administrators. 

Tattenai and the boys also tell us about the kinds of building materials used by the Jews as well as their construction methods. “It is being built with huge stones, and timber is laid in the walls” (v8). The phrase “huge stones” describe stones so incredibly large that they can’t be carried. This is literally “stones of rolling.” Wait a minute! Were Mick Jagger  and the Rolling Stones providing musical entertainment in Jerusalem? Well, the Stones have been around a long time and Keith Richards may look like he’s a couple of thousand years old, but they did NOT play a temple gig back in 522 BC. At least I don’t think they did. The Israelites are building not just with these massive stone blocks but beams of timber running inside the walls. This is not only typical construction techniques of the day for large buildings, but the same method used by Solomon’s crew the first time around (1Ki 6:36; 7:12).

The letter also lets us in on the incredible work ethic of the Israelite craftsmen. “This work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands” (v8). They’re making up for lost time. Remember, a gang of Samaritans sabotage the project for 16 years (Ez 4:4, 24). God uses the prophetic pair of Haggai and Zechariah to light a fire under His people to get things going again (Ez 5:1-2). Once they’re back on the job site, they make HUGE progress. They are committed. They are tenacious. And the officials of Beyond the River make note of the fact that what’s going on at the temple project “prospers at their hands” (v8). They aren’t just throwing this new temple together willy nilly. This is quality craftsmanship.

This note to the home office quotes Hebrew officials as to the nature of what they’re up to. “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth” (v11). They let these local Persian officials just who’s REALLY behind this effort. It’s the “God of heaven and earth” (v11). They’re not just serving some regional franchise deity. This isn’t your garden variety god. He’s in charge of of it all. Heaven. Earth. If you’re scoring at home, that’s pretty much everything. Take a look around. Whatever you’re looking at, He’s the God of it. That’s the God they served. That’s the God we serve.

Zerubbabel and his leadership team make it clear that this isn’t new construction. “We are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished” (v11). Just for review, that “great king of Israel” is the one and only Solomon. You can read all about the original project in 1 Kings 5-7. Solomon built the glorious first temple in 966-960 BC, 450 years before this reconstruction effort.

These local bureaucrats even find out why the Israelites have to rebuild the temple. It seems that their ancestors had a bit of an issue with Almighty God. “Because our fathers angered the God of heaven” (v12). If their predecessors listed their relationship status with God on Facebook, it would probably be “it’s complicated.” The dust of the original temple hadn’t even settled when our boy Solomon started jacking around with other idols. It seems Sol was more concerned about his harem than his God (1Ki 11). That started a long, slow slide of idolatry and evil among God’s people and their kings.

When it comes to the kings of Israel, Manasseh was the poster boy of evil (2Ki 21:1-17). “He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel” (2Ki 21:2). He brought back old school idolatry that folks did back in the day. Manasseh put altars to false gods everywhere, including IN THE TEMPLE! He made witchcraft, the paranormal, psychics, fortunetellers, and mediums all part of the worship in Jerusalem. This crappy king even went so far as to offer his own son as a burnt offering! He wasn’t alone in his idolatry and led the people of God away from God. 

Yahweh might be slow to anger but He will get there eventually. “His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh provoked Him” (2Ki 23:26). To say that “our fathers angered the God of heaven” is a bit of an understatement. Over and over and over, Yahweh tried to get His people back into obedience for their own good. He tried everything. But they kept turning to other gods to make their offerings (2Chr 34:25). And laughed at His handpicked prophets until He really had no other choice. “But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against His people, until there was no remedy” (2Chr 36:16).

The Israelites tell Tattenai and his buddies how God eventually called on a pagan dictator to do His work. “He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia” (v12). Everybody knew all about Nebuchadnezzar. For 40 years, he was the baddest man on the planet. Yet he was just a puppet in the hand of Almighty God. Yahweh used Nebuchadnezzar like an errand boy to get the attention of His people when they turned their backs on Him. “Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of the sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand” (2Chr 36:17). The Babylonians burned the city to the ground, including the temple, and bulldozed the massive city walls. It was an absolute bloodbath. Nebuchadnezzar’s army hauled the best and brightest of the survivors. They left behind the poorest of the poor and hauled most of the survivors back to Babylon (2Ki 24:3-17; Jer 52:12-16).

Seventy years later, the Persians are the new bullies on the block after knocking off Nebuchadnezzar. God taps King Cyrus on the shoulder and supernaturally suggests that he let His chosen people make the Exodus 2.0 (Ez 1:1-4). The Jewish leadership give these local officials know that they have the royal stamp of approval for their project (v13-16). If they will just check with the home office, they’ll see that everything is on the up and up (v17). Instead of shutting down the project until they get an answer from King Darius, we read earlier how God kept things rolling until they got a response from the capital (Ez 5:5).

It’s tempting to overlook what seems like a boring document from a bureaucrat to pagan dictator as unimportant. But God made sure that Ezra stapled it in the book he wrote about the Jewish return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple. In this note, we read about the massive construction effort, the quality of the work, the diligence of the labor, but most of all, we read of the God who was behind it all. Yeah, sometimes you find the coolest things in the weirdest places.