The Great Story – Week 19: The Return

After 70 years of captivity, the punishment of the Israelites had come to an end. As Isaiah had prophesied, King Cyrus was the instrument of God and commanded that the Jews return to their homeland. The Jews were to return back to Judah, back to Jerusalem, and rebuild the Temple of God.

Even with this decree, not all of the Jews left Israel. After 70 years, it had become the home to the few survivors who remembered Judah and it had always been home to a majority of the Jewish population. When Zerubbabel returned to Judah in 536 BC, only 42,360 Jews came with him.

When the construction the Temple began, the Samaritans from the north offered to help with the rebuilding process. Because these Samaritans worshiped other gods and kept idols, the Jews refused their help. As a result, the reconstruction of the Temple was delayed 16 years due to the constant interference of the rejected Samaritans.

In the second year of the rule of King Darius of Persia, due to the Word of God from the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the construction was restarted. The king gave a decree that all the workers should be paid in full and that they would be provided with everything that they required for the Temple for free. In the sixth year of the rule of King Darius, the Second Temple was completed.

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