 Father, thank you Lord, thank you Jesus for being with us in every time, in every situation, in every case. And Jesus, please be with us till the end of the class and help us to know more about you and your word through the pastor, Deepak Samigarh. And please give strength to be whole in faith with you till the end of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, brother. Yeah. We can... okay. Some indication on my screen that I do not understand. Okay, volume is low, is it? I'll see what I can do. Can most of you hear me loud and clear? Okay, that's good then. Yeah, if most of you can hear, then maybe there's nothing wrong with my laptop here, which is a good thing. Oh, perfect. Thank you so much. Yeah. Okay, so everyone is able to hear now. That's excellent. So yeah, I had gone away for four days on a mission trip. So yesterday I was not in a position to take a class, which is why we had to miss out on yesterday's class. But then last night I was able to get back. Today we are back on schedule. So we did the historical books, Kings and Chronicles, and we are continuing with the history. So today we have Ezra, then next week we would be doing Nehemiah. So this is a continuation of the history of Israel, all the things that they went through as a people. And now of course in Ezra and Nehemiah we see them coming back to the land and we see some of the events that take place, even as they return back here. So anyone has any questions, you know, they can, because we're doing this online, everyone is online today. We can either raise a hand and if I see that on my screen, you know, I can pause and you can ask your question. Or you can type in the chat because I can see that it's in front of my eyes. I will be able to see whatever you post there. Okay, so anytime during the class you are free to raise any questions. Oh yeah, yeah the trip was good. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to discuss, you know, details online because some of our Christian community live in difficult circumstances. So better not to discuss those things, you know, here. But yes, it's a wonderful thing to see the way God is working. You know, among people who don't have the freedom and the privileges we do, but it's so lovely to see the hand of God at work. Yes. Yeah. So moving on with our class. Yes. So Ezra and Nehemiah are covering events that take place after the Jews return back home. And in the Hebrew Old Testament, where you have a different ordering, you know, they ordered the order of the books in a slightly different manner. So they have Daniel and then that is followed by Ezra and Nehemiah and then at the end you have Chronicles. That's the order in which the Hebrew people, they placed their Old Testament books. So this is like almost at the end after the book of Daniel where, you know, Daniel is fasting and praying and saying, Lord, you promised we would go back. So now you begin to start doing the events Lord, which will help us to return back to our land. So immediately after that, you have this story of Ezra and Nehemiah being recorded in their Hebrew order of books where we see the prayer of Daniel being fulfilled and now the people are coming back. And then in the end you have Chronicles, which is like kind of, you know, wrapping up all of their history, giving the genealogies, talking about the kings who were faithful to the Lord and the ones who strayed away and all of that. So the Chronicles becomes like a summary of their entire history. And then you have that long period of silence, you know, which starts where the Lord is no longer speaking through any prophet because the people have hardened their hearts. But there is still hope because he knows that one day a voice in the wilderness will rise again and that voice will start preparing the way for the people to start coming back to God. So at the end of the silence, you again have an account which begins with a genealogy and you have the Messiah's genealogy being presented. So there's a kind of connection between Chronicles and the first book of the New Testament, Matthew. So this is the ordering in which they had placed their books. So they concluded with Chronicles and they had Ezra and Nehemiah coming just before Chronicles. Something that we would need to know regarding this whole Babylonian invasion. As we know, it was in 539 BC that Nebuchadnezzar comes and he takes away the first group of Jews and then there's a second, you know, second invasion. And then in the third invasion, even the few people who are left, most of them get taken away. So at that time, the Babylonian Empire considered themselves at the top of their power and they were very proud. They thought that they would never ever be, you know, vanquished. But then if you look at, you know, later on when we start looking at the prophetic books, something appeared on my screen and went as long as I'm audible. Yeah, so what was I saying? I just lost my train of thought. Yeah, the Babylonians, they felt that they had, you know, conquered everything, all the kingdoms that are there. But then when we go on to look at the prophetic books, which we will be seeing, there again and again got so clearly says, you're all instruments that I'm using to bring judgment to certain, you know, peoples whenever I want according to my timing. So even though you nations think that you're great, when your time comes, you also will face judgment. Right now I'm using you as an instrument to bring judgment, but later you yourself will be judged when the time comes. So we see that 66 years after the first group of Jews, Jews get taken away captive to Babylon. 66 years after that, the Babylonian Empire itself crashes because that is when you have the Persian king coming and conquering them. So he takes over that entire empire. Babylonians are left with nothing and it's the Persians who take over all of the regions which were earlier under the control of the Babylonians. And as we all know, Cyrus, God moves the heart of Cyrus, it says in Second Chronicles, so that he comes up with a new international policy that had never been practiced before. And he decides, I'm going to allow all these captives to return back to their lands. And God moves his heart to such an extent that not only does he give permission to this Jewish people to return, he even returns back all the gold that had been stolen from the temple. So he says, even as you're going back and you're going to be rebuilding your city and rebuilding your temple, here are the resources which were taken away by the Babylonian king. Now you can take them back and you can use them for the construction of your temple. So he, because God moves the heart of this emperor, the Jewish people find great favor in the eyes of the king. Coming just quickly to some technical details, the genre of the book of Ezra, of course it's narrative history. But then again here you have some genealogies which are mentioned. Author, almost everyone agrees that it is Ezra who would have written it. And he kind of is compiling events which took place. In Ezra and Nehemiah you have events covering a time period of almost 100 years, around 90 to 95 years. Events which took place over that long time period are covered in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. Language, if you remember in our first introductory class we talked about how there are some Old Testament books where you have Aramaic being mentioned. Along with Hebrew. So Ezra is one of those places where you have a lot of Aramaic mentioned. Simply because wherever they talk about all these letters which were exchanged between the emperor and the local people. So they would send a letter to the king and it would be written in Aramaic. And then the king would reply back to the people who are living over here in this region and that also would be written in Aramaic. So they basically left those original letters in the original language. They didn't translate them into Hebrew when they were recording them in their scrolls. Which is why we seem to have a lot of Aramaic happening. Especially Ezra chapter 4 verse 18. From there onwards up to chapter 6 verse 18. All the letters and the decrees of the king regarding the temple and all of that. Those things are written in the Aramaic language rather than Hebrew. And these two are very like sister languages very similar to each other. Even the script also is identical. Not identical but extremely similar. Key personalities that we find in the book of Ezra. You have Cyrus, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah and a few other people. We will look at the structure of the book. The first three chapters. Ezra chapter 1 to 3 is where you have the people returning back. In your textbook you have a couple of tables which are talking about these things. So I am just kind of summing up and showing how the book of Ezra is structured. And exactly what event took place at what time. So that would kind of give you a clear timeline. So it's not mentioned exactly in that manner in your textbook. But you do have all the necessary details over there. So Ezra chapter 1 to chapter 3. Talks about the return. And so over here in these three chapters basically what is happening is you have 50,000 Jews only returning back. They are coming back in 538 PC and they are being led by a newly appointed governor. So when Cyrus is sending them back he says, see I have appointed one of you as your new governor. So when you go back to your land he will be the one governing your entire region. So he will be under my authority. So you know this governor Zeruba Bell. He will still have to answer to Persia because after all they are still under Persian control. But he will be the chief administrative officer when they come back. So the 50,000 Jews who are now returning back. They are being led by Zeruba Bell. A Jewish person, a godly person and he is going to be their governor. And the high priest who is coming back with them that is Joshua. And there are a couple of prophets also coming back with this first batch. One of them is Haggai. So we will be looking at a little bit of what Haggai says when we come to his prophetic book. And then there is Zechariah. So Zechariah served both as a priest and a prophet. He was in that kind of a role. So these are your main personalities. Ezra in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. These are going to be your main characters. They are the leaders who are leading these groups. So you have Zeruba Bell the governor, Joshua the high priest, Haggai the prophet. And Zechariah who functions both as a priest and a prophet. They come back with great passion for God. They don't delay immediately after coming back. They start making preparations for the temple construction. They don't want any delay. They want to re-establish the temple and claim that this land now once again belongs to Yahweh. And he will be honored and worshipped in this place. So with these noble intentions, they immediately start off the preparations. And then in Ezra chapter 4, it talks about events where the work of the temple comes to a standstill. So there's a lot of opposition. We look at details regarding this a little later. But right now I just want to kind of give you the overall structure. So Ezra 4, you have the temple construction work being stopped. In Ezra, you have the temple construction work. Ezra chapter 4, you have the temple construction being stopped. And this is discussed in greater detail in... Okay, we'll talk about that later. Then we come to Ezra chapter 5. Where you have a governor... He sends a complaint, one of the rival governors who's in that region. He sends a letter to Darius, who is now on the throne of Persia. And he says to him, these people are trying to create problems here. And so then the work is stopped for a while. Then in Ezra 6, the work is restarted. So you have a lot of opposition happening in Ezra 4, 5, 6. Finally, that gets resolved. At the end of chapter 6, you have the construction of the temple being finished. And there's a long gap actually. For 20 years, the temple construction work is abandoned because of the severe opposition in that region. We'll talk about why that happens and all of that. Then after Ezra 6, you have a gap of some 58 to 60 years. And then finally you come to Ezra chapter 7 to 10. Now you have Ezra coming over here. Because up to now Ezra had not been present. It was only Zerubbabel and Joshua and all of those people who were there. But now in Ezra chapter 7 to 10, you have Ezra physically coming back over here, which is in 457 BC. And he comes back with just 2,000 Jews. So in one of your tables in your textbook, it talks about how in between the time period of Ezra 1 to 3 and Ezra chapter 4, 1 to 3 is one section, Ezra 4 is another section. And in the time period between these two writings, that is when the book of Haggai would fit in. And then in your table it explains over there, during the time of Ezra chapter 4, that is probably when this book of Zechariah would have been written. Because it covers events of that particular time period. And then you have Ezra chapter 5 and 6 as one section. During that time finally the construction work gets completed. And then you have a long gap during which time the events of Ezra would have taken place. Ezra chapter 1 to 10. And after that gets over, that is when Ezra physically comes back over here to the land of Israel. And that is when you have chapters Ezra 7 to 10. And also the book of Nehemiah which comes a little later. So you would see the king who was there at that particular time and the events which took place in one of your tables. So you see that a lot of many kings come and go on the throne of Persia during this time period. So it is Cyrus who gives the proclamation saying they can go back. And then after that you have somebody named Cambysus and he is not at all mentioned in our Old Testament records. But during the time of Cambysus is when Haggai writes and in fact he talks about how you need to restart building the temple and all of that he says. And then during the time of this Persian king Smurdus is when there is no construction work at all because there is a lot of opposition happening at that time. There is a 20 year gap which is there. And then Darius comes to the throne. At that time Darius kind of looks into the whole situation and then he realizes that the Jewish people have a legal right to rebuild because they were given permission to do so. So at that time finally the work restarts and then once the temple construction is completed you have 60 years where you have Esther story taking place in Persia. And then after that you have Zaris son Atta Zaris who is coming to the throne and he allows Ezra to return back in 457. Later on he allows Nehemiah to come back in 455. So kind of looking at the chart will help you to understand the long periods of time which pass. If you look at the book of Ezra it's like a short little book but actually there is a lot of time period that gets covered during that so the table will help you to see what are some of the historical things that happened which King came to the throne which King was not there at that particular point of time that makes it very clear it helps. Now Zerubabbel who comes back with the first group as the governor he was part of the messianic lineage so that's one interesting thing that we can keep in mind he was the grandson of Jekunaya so he was actually a direct descendant of David and so it is not just coincidence that he was appointed as the governor who was returning back God arranged circumstances in such a way that Cyrus chooses to appoint somebody from the lineage of David as the one who is going to come back as governor to lead the people. So it's Ezra with the people and he serves as their official governor with the approval of the Persians and how do we know that he is the governor it's not mentioned over here in the book of Ezra it's actually Haggai who mentions it in his book over there in the book of Haggai Haggai mentions that Zerubabbel had been officially appointed as the governor that's basically how we get to know and Zerubabbel is listed in your Matthew genealogy as well as an ancestor of Jesus Christ and so there's some little confusion about Zerubabbel when you look in Matthew chapter 1 verses 12 to 13 it talks about someone as being Zerubabbel's father but then when you look at 1st Chronicles chapter 3 verse 19 somebody else is mentioned as Zerubabbel's father and there's a little bit of confusion regarding who actually was the father of Zerubabbel but there's actually a very simple explanation for that so just to give a little background on that because people pick up on these small things and they criticize and say look these people, these writers of the Bible they couldn't even get their genealogy straight so it's all made up story but no, these are all historical facts and there's a reason why Zerubabbel is recorded in 1st Chronicles chapter 3 verse 19 as having Pedaya as his father but in all the other places where he talks about him it is mentioned that his father is Sheyal T.L so there's a reason why that is there and we'll just look into that very briefly so from what we can gather it looks like Sheyal T.L would have married but maybe he died at a young age and so he probably died without having any children Sheyal T.L who is the oldest son of King Jehoyakin the oldest son of King Jehoyakin Sheyal T.L he dies without having any children according to the Levitical laws which they had which he willing to marry the widow and the child which is born will not be known by the name of the brother who is marrying but that child who is born will carry on the name of the of the older son so which is why we see that wherever in many of the records where Zerubabbel is mentioned he is identified as being the son of Sheyal T.L even though his biological father would have been the brother who married the widow so that is why in the Matthew genealogy where the ancestry of Jesus Christ is being traced it is mentioned that the father is Sheyal T.L because according to Levitical law technically Sheyal T.L is the father but biologically the person who gave birth to him would have been the next brother who is Pedaya so Zerubabbel comes back with the people and when he comes back to this land the locals who have been ruling in that entire region up to now are very unhappy because this is new competition they have made their own agreements with one another in all these governors who are in that area they have their own understandings and they all have their own territories of power and things are going really well for them now here is an entire bunch of people coming entering into their land and now they have been given legal authority to take back their territory and they are going to have their own governor and they are going to have their own set of rules and that is why there is an upset of balance of power in the region which is why there is a strong opposition when Zerubabbel comes back with his flock initially they try to make a partnership with this new batch of people who have come back because they can again have their set of partnerships and understandings and move on so that is the first attempt which they make we see that happening in Ezra chapter 4 versus 1 to 3 and it is actually quite interesting because you will get an idea of what exactly was going on why was there a position what are the things which were involved so even as we are all online there is a question here I will answer that in the meantime if we can have just one person read aloud, unmute yourself and read aloud Ezra chapter 4 versus 1 to 3 if someone could read out please now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that a descendant of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel they came to Zerubabbel and the heads of the father's houses and said to them, let us build with you for we seek your God as we you do and we have sacrificed to him since the days of Esrahadan king of Assyria who brought us here verse 3 but Zerubabbel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the father's 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 asking Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us so the question here in the chat was that the temple of Solomon had been destroyed and yes it was very much destroyed because when the third time when Nebuchadnezzar comes he's like really angry, he appointed a local person as not to look after that area but then you know he rebels he wants to make a partnership with Egypt so when Nebuchadnezzar gets to know that he gets really angry against the advice of Jeremiah the prophet these people the leaders they make a partnership with Egypt even though Jeremiah says do not do such a thing God wants you to be punished so be humble accept the punishment which is being given to you by the Babylonians but these people say no no no we can regain our power if we have an alliance with Egypt and so they rebel and when Nebuchadnezzar gets to know that he comes down and he literally destroys Jerusalem he wipes out the temple so now it's like all gone and so now the Lord is saying a new temple would be rebuilt and this would in fact be a better temple in the sense it is this temple which will one day be the temple where Jesus will come so in that way it's a temple of greater glory so yes so the first temple of course was destroyed and now they are making now they have to make plans for the second temple coming back to this story that we were looking at so Zerubabel comes back over here and the locals think no problem a new set of people have come let's make a partnership with them and see how we can adjust and so they approach him and verse 25 it okay fine okay sorry sorry is it our chapter 4 verses 1 to 3 is what we are looking at right they say in verse 2 let us build with you we will partner with you in rebuilding this temple friends over here in this region so we are willing to work along with you and they say let us build with you for we seek your God as you do and we have sacrificed to him since the days of Ezhar Haddon king of Assyria if you remember the international policy of the Assyrians was that they would pluck out the people from their region and they would put them somewhere else to make the people of another region bring them here and put them over here the idea was that they wanted everyone to forget their national identities completely and start looking at themselves as people under Babylonian rule that way so they wanted the people to forget their national identities so Ezhar Haddon king of Assyria has taken these people from some region somewhere and brought them over here into the land of Israel and planted them over here in this place and so these people are saying from the time we came over here you know our ancestors came and landed up in this place we have been seeking your God as you do and we have sacrificed to him since that time so you know we are familiar with your God and your belief so let us join with you in building in rebuilding this temple and then in verse 3 Zerubabel and Joshua they very clearly say you may do nothing with us to build a house for our God but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel so it is Zerubabel and Joshua who reject the hand of friendship which is being given why did they do that? because that is when all the clashes begin all the opposition starts off yeah so for that we would have to look at a little bit of background it is very interesting background actually ok it is too many verses maybe we can look at some of the verses 2 Kings chapter 17 verses 24 to 41 is where you would get a little bit of very interesting background 2 Kings chapter 17 24 to 41 where it says that the king of Assyria he brings people from Babylon, Kutah Ava, Hamath and Sefer Vaim he brings people from those places and plants them over here in this Samaritan region the Israelite region Samaria if you remember was the capital of the northern kingdom so he brings those these outsiders and puts them over here and it says in verse 25 yeah if we can have one person read out 2 Kings chapter 17 verse 25 it goes so at the beginning of their dwelling there that they did not fear the Lord therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them ok so they come over here with their heathen practices and this used to once upon be a time where the Lord was worshiped where Yahweh was honored and so Yahweh releases punishment among them you know and you have lions coming in killing of people and the people panic and this is the complaint that they send verse 26 if someone can read out come on it's just a verse you can definitely read it someone please they spoke to the king of Assyria saying the nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the Lord of the land therefore he has sent lions among them and indeed they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the God of the land ok so so in verse 27 the king of Assyria he says ok we seem to have drawn the wrath of the gods of this land and lions are killing of people and the people are very upset the whole idea of relocating people and putting them in other places is that they will be submissive Assyrian rule and all of that but here there is confusion happening so the king says fine we will get hold of some priests who know about this whole Jewish thing and we will send them back to the land and they can train the people about how this god who was there in this land up to now how he should be worshipped and what are the rituals they should follow so that the lions will stop troubling and so it looks like as if the king actually sends back some of the Jewish priests to come back to the land and train these foreigners on how to worship Yahweh and we see that in verses 27 and 28 then it says in verse 28 then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the lord but the really sad thing is that it says in verse 29 in verse 33 in verse 34 in verse 41 they start worshipping Yahweh but it is a worship that is completely mixed up with their own religions it is like this kind of mix and match which happens in some of our religions even today they will take one portion from one faith and they will take another portion from another faith and they mix up these things and they say oh we are following this God but it is not really a true worship at all so this is what happens over here so when these people say from that time we have been worshipping your God and we have been making sacrifices to him so let us participate in the temple building what they are doing is what they are offering is something very dangerous if Zerubabel and Joshua in the hope of winning their friendship if they had agreed to make a partnership with them the entire faith of Israel would have just been wiped out and there would be no messiah to come down through the lineage so Zerubabel and Joshua even though they anticipate that the backlash will be severe they plainly say no you may have no part of this we will do this ourselves and they are attempting to maintain the sanctity of the faith which has been handed over to them through Moses and Joshua and all of that they are going to lose out on that and so they refuse to form a partnership with these people and now that these local leaders realize that they are not going to be able to make a partnership they think fine let us go for outright total violence and opposition and then let us see what this bunch of people will do because they are newcomers they have just come back they don't really have that much power or strength so it will be easy to crush them and force them to submit so which is why they change their strategy and they begin to strongly discourage the people in their temple building attempts temple rebuilding attempts so which is what we see in Ezra chapter 4 verses 4 to 5 if we can have one person read out Ezra 4 4 to 5 please sure that you are here by reading out yes thank you yes so Ezra chapter 4 verse 4 to 5 4 to 5 right then the people who had been living in the land try to discourage and frighten the Jews and keep them from being building from the building sorry they also bribed Persian government officials to work against them they kept on doing this throughout the region of Cyrus and into the region of the reign of Darius okay so um there's a lot of opposition they in fact hire counselors it says so you know they would have hired advisors people who are good in politics to figure out I know methods in how they can discourage the people from rebuilding how they can keep them from growing stronger so this actual planned opposition that's you know now being unleashed and so in the midst of all of that these people try to start the construction work so I'm just saying things were not comfortable for them they were working under hostile situations and these are people who had power in their hands money in their hands and they even had locals in their hands so they were actually trying to rebuild in the very tense kind of you know situation um in Cyrus tell the people of Israel that they could fix their temple most definitely he did why is it building and saying Ezra 4 why is it building and saying Ezra 4 3 I didn't what does Ezra 4 3 say yeah you shall have no part of this we talked about it just now you probably lost your connection and you could not you know um we talked about all of this just now as to why he says you will not be part of it and we looked at the background of that in 2 Kings chapter 17 so we have gone through that so later when we put up the video recording you can actually you know go through it you can catch up on those details we talked about why they did not form a partnership the the rest of you who had your connection in that you caught the details right if anyone could I hope all of you were able to follow I mean did I lose my connection no right my connection was intact okay good because then you know you can always go back to the recording in case you missed out any details you can no catch it um yeah we have Sean raising his hand but we know we just look at another through three details and then we can get back to it so um um in Ezra chapter 4 was maybe it's Ezra chapter um just a minute I'm trying to figure out the verse yes Ezra chapter 3 verse 3 you know if someone could 3 and 4 maybe Ezra chapter 3 verses 3 and 4 if someone could read out please even though the returning of exiles were afraid of the people who were living in the land they rebuilt the altar where it had stood before and they began once again to burn on it the regular morning and evening sacrifices they celebrated the festival of shelters according to the regulations each day they offered the sacrifices required for that day yeah so there's a lot of opposition you know later on we read somewhere another one of the verses can't remember where okay here only in this passage yeah yeah so you know so there's a lot of opposition going on and in spite of that it says so clearly though fear had come upon them because of the people of those countries so there was actually serious opposition going on they you know they someone could easily come in the night and attack them and they would be helpless because Zerubabel has come back as governor but he's not really come back with any armed forces and all of that you know so they are in a very vulnerable situation and now all surrounding regions have become hostile towards them so it says here even though they were afraid they decide we will at least build the altar first you know the entire temple will take time but at least let the altar be set in place so that they can start making offerings to the Lord right away so in in in the midst of the opposition they built the altar on its basis and every morning and evening just as Moses had commanded they restart the sacrifices because every day you have to go before God and you have to admit that you are sinful there's no way you can survive on your own it's only by his grace and mercy that you know he accepts the offering and chooses to forgive the people and consider them his people so they immediately restart this important practice and it also says in verse 4 that they restart the feast of tabernacles they honour God by observing that festival and it verse 5 it says they start observing all the other appointed feasts of the Lord as well and then in verse 7 it says that they even start placing orders for the wood and then the carpenters who need to be hired for the temple and then all the you know provisions for all the labourers the food and the drink and the oil ordering cedar logs all the way from Lebanon so all of these things preparations they begin even though there's a lot of opposition that is taking place yeah so we see all of that mentioned it says in verse 7 they also give money to the masons and the carpenters and food, drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre okay this is being given as payment they're paying in the form of food which would have been like tons of food I mean not just a little bit of food so they're paying in the form of oil and food products and so they get cedar logs from Lebanon to the sea to Joppa that's basically because when the original temple had been built Solomon's temple had been built you know this huge logs which needed to be brought here to build the temple at that time what they had done was that in 2nd Chronicles 216 where it talks about how they made this wooden rafts they would load the log on the rafts and they would set it afloat so it would come flowing all the way down to Joppa where it would become easier for them to transfer it from Joppa to the temple site so that's basically how they had done it in Solomon's time and now they follow the same procedure again and they start bringing the logs they floated down the waters and they bring it over here to Joppa so all these preparations are going on and it says in Ezra chapter 3 verse 8 that 14 months after returning back now finally the work of the actual construction the rebuilding it begins so that's in Ezra chapter 3 verse 8 we had a person who had raised their hand if you can you know go ahead please Mam I had a question over here in Ezra 4th chapter 3rd was the people worshipping their god the Israelites god in like Exodus and all when the Israelites came from Egypt they had some Egyptians along with them who had come with them from Egypt how were they allowed to like worship god then yeah so when all these plagues take place and Yahweh reveals his great power and you know the god tells the Israelites as you are leaving and you know ask the locals for all their gold and all their valuables they will give it away because they are so scared of you all now that they will be more than willing to get rid of you so they collect all the jewelry and with all the wealth and with that they start their Exodus they leave the land and they start going towards the promised land and many of the locals who see that they think this is wonderful this Yahweh is really powerful and so they also join with the crowd it says a mixed multitude you know if you look at the wording over there it says a mixed multitude started off from the land because these people also wanted to be part of of following Yahweh and the promise which Yahweh has given to these people they also wanted to be part of it and we see throughout the Old Testament God is very open to anyone who is willing to come to him and to worship him but his condition is very simple you cannot have mixed worship you make your total 100% commitment to Yahweh and you become a follower of Yahweh Yahweh is more than willing to accept you he accepted Ruth Ruth was a Moabitus there were laws against the Moabites that their descendants would not even step into the temple up to the 10th generation but the Lord he cancelled that rule for Ruth's descendants because she had made a true commitment no issues accepting any kind of Gentile as long as the Gentile makes a 100% commitment you know but what about these people in your chapter 4 verse 3 we looked at the background of how they were what kind of worship they were doing in the Kings where we looked at the account it says again and again in many many verses 2nd Kings chapter 17 they followed the Lord but they were also following their own rituals so that's the kind of worship that they were offering so no way would they be accepted so even in that time early times when they whenever syncretistic worship mixed kind of worship was cropping up God always came against it God always judged it so in the sea so even back then in the time of Joshua God was not in favor of people who were doing mixed worship which is why Joshua says are you willing to make a commitment as for me and my house we will follow the Lord what do you want you make your decision so even back then God did not support people who were involved in mixed worship in the same way even now here he does not want these people to partner with those who are you know indulging in mixed kind of worship so basically as our chapter 3 verse 8 we see that the construction work begins and the foundation is laid okay so the building has not yet come up but the foundation is finally laid that we see in chapter 3 verses 10 to 13 and then when they look at the dimensions of the temple foundation you know but once you have the foundation laid the building will come up on top of that right and you can see the size the proportions of what the building is going to look like based on the dimensions of the foundation and it says in verses verse 12 chapter 3 verse 12 if we can if someone can read out Ezra 3 verse 12 Many of the older priests, Levites and heads of clan have seen the first temple and as they watched the foundation of this temple being laid they cried and wailed but the others who were there shouted for joy Okay so some of the very old timers I mean I really wonder they probably would have crossed a hundred years you know to still remember the previous temple I mean they had seen it for their own eyes the previous temple so I'm assuming that the proportions of this temple foundation were smaller in size than the other one so when they look at this foundation which is laid they cry they think oh my how beautiful Solomon's temple was and look at this at that time you know there must have probably been little little kids and they still have memories of that temple and they think oh my that was so big and grand now look at the foundation which has been laid over here this is not so big this is not that grand and they cry but the others who are who have gone through all these hostilities and still been able to establish that foundation they are filled with joy and they say they praise the Lord so you have weeping and rejoicing taking place and so basically you have the foundation being laid in chapter 3 now there are many other details we could not really look into them we will in fact continue doing that because you know Ezra and Nehemiah were always considered as one single book because they're presenting one reconstruction story you know where Jerusalem is being rebuilt the temple is being rebuilt so we will whatever we could not deal with today we will look into those details next class as well okay so for now because we are we have crossed the time limit will close very quickly with the word of prayer please Lord we just thank you so much for some of the details that we could look at today a lot a lot of history takes place a long time period is covered I pray a lot that even as the students go through their textbook they would kind of get a clear perspective of the timeline so that we can understand these historical details accurately a lot because this is not myth these are not just stories these are historical events that took place a lot so help us to get a clearer idea of the timeline and the historically recorded rulers who ruled during this time so that tomorrow Lord if someone were to you know ask us to defend our faith we will be able to clearly talk about how these things are all based in history thank you Lord in Jesus name amen thank you for being such patient listeners and for participating actively so we'll meet again next week thank you