2008 North American Bible Conference     December 30, 2008 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.  (1 Peter 2:9) The Work of the Rebuilding of the Temple as Recorded in the Old TestamentWhen I read the Old Testament, I am often reminded of the prophecies recorded by the prophets Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi at the end of the Old Testament. The actual historical events within the history of the Israelites as recorded in the Old Testament, however, end with what is recorded in the book of Nehemiah. Originally, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were one book, divided into two parts: First Ezra and Second Ezra. In later translations, however, the text appeared divided into two books with the names of Ezra and Nehemiah. The content of the book of Ezra is divided into two major sections. From chapter 1 to chapter 6, it talks about the rebuilding of the temple that had been destroyed around 586 BC. We are presented with a concise record of events which took place over a very long period of time. At that time, the Israelites had been destroyed by the Babylonian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had taken captive the king of the Israelites, taken the people captive, taken the vessels from the temple and destroyed the temple. Also, a king by the name of Belshazzar appears in the book of Daniel. He was the last king of Babylon. When the Babylonian Empire was weakening, the kingdoms of the Medes (Media) and the Persians (Persia) began to rise up. Darius, king of the Medes, occupied Babylon and he is also mentioned in the book of Daniel. This is not the same King Darius that appears in the book of Ezra. We should not think that every mention of the name of Darius refers to the same person. We need to be able to distinguish between people when we read the Bible. Then there was another great power that took control in the region of the Middle East and that was Persia. King Cyrus, the first king of Persia, conquered the Babylonian Empire, and the land of Canaan where the Israelites lived came under his dominion. It is a great help if when reading the books of the prophets in the latter part of the Old Testament we put them in their historical context. The content of these books is closely related to historical events and is very important.Then, about one or two generations later, King Darius, who appears in the book of Ezra, became the king of Persia. Originally, his name was Darius Hystaspes, but he is usually referred to as Darius I. His son was King Ahasuerus, who took the Judean woman Esther as his queen and spared Mordecai’s life. Ahasuerus’ son was Artaxerxes. He was Artaxerxes I, his son was Darius II, and his son was Artaxerxes II.In the book of Ezra, however, it says that during the years from the time of the Persian king Cyrus to king Darius, many events disrupted the rebuilding of the temple. During the reign of King Ahasuerus, there were also people who interfered with the rebuilding of the temple by bringing a charge against the Jews. And at the time of King Artaxerxes, there were again people who interfered with the building of the temple and walls of the city of Jerusalem. Then in Ezra chapter 5, the prophets Haggai and Zachariah appear. The events are recorded out of chronological order. So, at the end of Second Chronicles we read of how Nebuchadnezzar brought the king of Israel to Babylon, and in Ezra chapters 1 to 6 it talks about the Jews returning to Jerusalem from captivity and building the temple. In the midst of these events, the writer of the book of Ezra used the words of other prophets, saying “That the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled” (Ezra 1:1) and, “Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them” (Ezra 5:1). Then we find the book of Haggai begins with the words, “In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel …” and God asks, “When are you going to build the temple?”From Ezra chapter 7, we read how Ezra led the Israelites from Babylon back to the land of Jerusalem after the temple had been rebuilt. Ezra was descended from the priestly line of Aaron, so he recited the law to all the people, and told them about all the decrees, customs and duties they were required to observe. Around the same time, a man by the name of Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and repaired the city wall. He proceeded with the work of making new gates and crossbeams in order to fortify the city of Jerusalem. We feel something when we read the book of Ezra and when we read the book of Nehemiah, but we tend not to read these books as much as we read books like the four Gospels, Acts, and Romans. The reason I have been talking about the book of Esther, and then Ezra and Nehemiah is that we need a deeper understanding of the duty entrusted to the Israelites to carry out sacrifices, a duty that was given to them along with the law and lies at the center of their history. It is important to understand this so that we can understand the New Testament. Particularly when it comes to understanding the Church that appears in the New Testament, we cannot disregard the role of the Levites in the Old Testament, their priestly authority and the role of the temple where the sacrificial offerings were carried out. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah talk about how the temple that King Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed was then rebuilt and the city repaired, thus presenting a page from the last days of the history of the Israelites in the Old Testament. This is very important. Also, Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, gives the feeling that it is directly connected to the last chapter of the book of Nehemiah. As a result, many biblical scholars speculate that, historically speaking, the writer of Malachi was heavily influenced by Nehemiah. The book of Malachi is about the Levites and the priests, and it is also very important.Through these two books, Ezra and Nehemiah, we can see that the Jewish people rebuilt the temple with great pride and that it was not simply a matter of constructing a building; a tremendous struggle was involved in building the temple. Even Korea, for example, has that kind of history. It was King Sejong who devised the Korean alphabet system called Hangeul, and the very first part of it states “The language of our nation is different from that of the Chinese.” Since it is now easy for us to read Korean and all Koreans use this alphabet, our thinking tends to go no further than appreciation for the fact that this alphabet was invented. If we consider the situation at the time when it was invented, however, we find that creating this alphabet and presenting it to the people was definitely not a straightforward incident. This was because at that time China held a tight grip on our nation’s culture because we were using Chinese characters in our written language and China took pride in this, but in adopting our own new alphabet, we were saying that our language was different from that of the Chinese. The Rebuilding of the Temple and the Birth of the ChurchIn the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we find that the Jews had a certain tenacity in regard to their being God’s chosen people. This has an absolute connection with the lives of Christians in our present time. Let’s take a look at Ezra chapter 4, from verse 1. “Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the LORD God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, ‘Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.’ But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, ‘You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God; but we alone will build to the LORD God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.’ Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. In the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.”  Ezra 4:1-6 It is common for us to meet together in fellowship and talk about the work that has to be done. Yet since we have been doing this for a long time and it is obvious to us that this is the way to go about things, there are times when things get missed. But when we read passages like this, we should take a moment to think about our own sense of pride. The Jews were scattered across a kingdom that covered a large territory, from India to Ethiopia, but from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we can see that they were returning little by little to their homeland. At that time, there were not very many people living in the land of Canaan. As the Jews were rebuilding the temple, some people from these Gentile nations came and said they wanted to join in the work since they too worshiped God. We need to keep in mind the words spoken by Zerubbabel and the other leaders at that time. Let’s return to verse 3. “You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God.”  From a human perspective, these words seem cold and extremely arrogant, but actually they stem from the pride of God’s chosen people and their sense of loyalty in serving the one and only God. But what about us? We live with the gospel and we do a tremendous amount of work for the sake of spreading the gospel. When we consider carefully the words of the leaders of the Jews here, however, we can clearly see what kind of attitude and what kind of steadfastness we need to have as we live our lives in this world, and with what sense of pride we should be spreading the gospel. The building of the temple was no ordinary event. The temple was where God’s word was placed; the hearts of the entire nation were directed towards the temple daily; and the temple was the place where they gathered without fail to observe the feast of the Passover. We, too, engage in fellowship as we spread the gospel, but there are times when we get a bit lazy, times when things become difficult, and times when we are able to do the work but pass it off to others instead. In the process, there are even times when brothers and sisters are able to do the work, but instead it is passed off to people who do not know the gospel. When it comes to the work of spreading the gospel, however, nothing extra can be added. Spreading the gospel is just like building the temple. In the Bible clearly says, “In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). By whose hands are we being built together? It is, of course, those of Jesus Christ. Yet, as His will is being accomplished, is it acceptable for the work to be carried out by the borrowed hands of Gentiles and not the hands of the born-again brothers and sisters? This is the question. It is the same when it comes to the methods we use to carry out this work. We should not say, “The people of the world spread the gospel in this way, so we shoul

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