Medes & Persian Empire

Medes & Persian Empire By: Evelyn C. Pointer

Medes & Persian Empire The Medes and Persians were the second great nation who God gave to rule the world.

In the book of Daniel, the Medes and Persians were the breast and arms of silver on the great image that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about.

A Unique Empire The Medes & Persian Empire was different from all of the other nations that ruled over Israel because of three important things: They were the the only nation that built the temple and Jerusalem Their first king, Cyrus, was a child of God King Cyrus is symbolic of Christ who will destroy this world, which is spiritual Babylon. Not only that, Christ will free his people and build his church

Babylon We know that Babylon, the head of Gold, was the first to destroy the temple and take the house of Judah captive, and we can read about the terrible siege in the book of Lamentations

by Jeremiah the prophet.

Babylon also took away the holy vessels. What they didn’t take is the Ark of the Covenant. Jeremiah took and hid it in the mountain somewhere. This is found in II Maccabees.

Greece The third nation was Greece, that was the belly and thigh of brass on the image. Greece desecrated the temple and set up the Abomination of Desolation.

They put the alter of Zeus upon the alter of God and made sacrifices of swine.

We can read about this horror in the books of the Maccabees. We can recall how he tortured and slaughtered the children of Israel.

Rome The last nation of course is Rome. In a sense, we remain in Rome. It was the Romans who Christ mourned about when he said of Jerusalem that she would be surrounded by armies and that not one stone of the temple would be left upon another. History tells us that the streets literally ran with blood.

History Reveals Whoever was not brutally killed was captured and sent back to Egypt in chains.

They were sold down the rivers of Africa and eventually came to this country as slaves.

A Benevolent Nation Compared to all the other nations, the Medes and Persians were benevolent and good to Israel but they remained as servants to them.

Israel was not free to do as they pleased.

The men in the bible that we read about were sent by order of the king to do his will to build the temple.

Israel as a nation remained subject to a foreign power.

Under the Medes & Persian Empire, they were surrounded at all sides by enemies that fought against Israel and hindered their effort to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 9: 8-9, Nehemiah 9: 36-38).

Cyrus Cyrus was a good and benevolent king. He did not adopt the policy of the other nations who when they conquered a people would remove them out of their land and force them to serve other gods. Cyrus felt that if he returned these people to their lands and allowed them to serve their gods then his kingdom would be prosperous. Cyrus was a child of God but he did not know God at first. He initially worshipped Baal, the sun god, (Isaiah 45: 1-4, Baal & the Dragon in the Apocrypha 1: 1-22).

Medes & Persian Empire Reign The Persian empire lasted 192 years.

It began when Cyrus defeated the rulers of Babylon in 539 BC until it failed to Alexander the Great in 331 BC. There were nine kings. Most of them named Darius or Artaxerxes.

Interesting to us, are the notable kings during the time that pertain to the building and restoration of Jerusalem and the holy temple.

Rebuilding the Temple Daniel lived during the time of Cyrus. Other notable men of Israel, servants of King Cyrus, were sent with the charge to build the temple.

These were Zerubbabel, Joshua the priest, and Mordecai.

The first thing they did was build the altar in order to begin the sacrifice and oblation.

The altar was complete on the Day of Trumpets, which is the first day of the seventh month during the first year after they had returned unto Jerusalem.

They kept all of the prescribed services of the Levitical Priesthood (Ezra 3: 3-6).

Rebuilding the Temple Now in the second year, after they had returned in the second month, they began to work on the temple and started laying the foundation.

They completed laying the foundation with great stones on the 24th day of the 9th month.

They celebrated the Dedication of the Foundation with great joy (Ezra 3: 10-11, Hag 2: 18-19).

Complications Afterwards, they were frustrated by their enemies and the work was delayed.

They even began to build fine houses for themselves.

Their enemies went to King Artaxerxes, who stopped the building until the second year of Darius’ reign.

The building ceased for 16 years.

The prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied to the people to exhort them to complete God’s work. (Haggai 1: 1-8 & 12-14).

They completed this work in 4 years, starting from the second year of Darius and finishing in the 6 year of Darius.

King Darius I Darius I was a great and benevolent king. He not only ensured that the work was done, he helped pay for it.

An interesting thing to know is that at some point, between Zerubbabel’s first trip to Jerusalem, he returned to the king’s service and was a part of the royal guard to Darius the first.

He requested that Darius fulfill the promise that Cyrus had made, that is, the temple at Jerusalem would be built.

King Ahasuerus Ahasuerus, was the son of Darius I and the one who historians felt was the husband of Esther.

Her cousin Mordecai adopted her and as a servant to the king, he had to return to do his duties, just as Zerubbabel had to return.

The people who had returned were surrounded by enemies.

Many of the people who had returned to Israel began to marry foreign wives, oppress the poor of the land and to buy and sell on the Sabbath.

Esther Meanwhile in the capital city of Persia, Susa, or Shushan the Palace, Esther’s story began and she became Queen. Haman hated Mordecai so much that he wanted to destroy every Jew in the Kingdom and this would have included the Jews in the land of Israel because Israel was a part of the Persian Empire.

Haman had lots cast before him to determine an advantageous time to destroy all the Jews.

The lot fell on the 13th day of Adar, which is the 12th month.

King Artaxerxes The last king to discuss is Artaxerxes, which was the son of Ahasuerus.

Artaxerxes sent Ezra to Jerusalem in the 7th year of his reign with the commandment to oversee how things were going in Israel.

He also said that any of the children of Israel who wanted to return could go with Ezra at that time.

He sent him with gold and silver and whatever he needed out of the king’s own treasure houses so that they could make offerings to God.

King Artaxerxes He also commanded Ezra to setup magistrates and judges in the land to judge the people according to the law of God. Ezra began to order the people and make reforms in the land.

Thirteen years after Ezra came to Jerusalem, in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah his cup bearer requested to be able to go and see about the people in Jerusalem. Why? Israel continued to be distressed by their enemies and the wall around Jerusalem was broken down.

Nehemiah & Ezra Nehemiah had to give the king a set time and tell him when he would return to do service to the king.

So Nehemiah went with letters from the king.

He was a very great man and leader, organizing the building of the walls of Jerusalem The wall was built in 52 days in 444 BC. He also made reforms, stopping the wealthy from abusing the poor.

At that time, Ezra taught the people the law and they made a covenant to obey God. They appointed the priests and Levites in their services. They had a great feast to celebrate the wall of Jerusalem.

Special Thanks This presentation was based on classes written by Evelyn C. Pointer including.... “The Medes & Persian�

Questions?

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