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Today’s lesson kinda jumped pretty far ahead in time. You may want to summarize a few events in the gap. Here is a short summary that I used.
Last week, we talked about King Josiah. Josiah led the Israelites in righteousness, and they enjoyed the blessings of the temple and held great passover feasts to remember how the Lord saved their ancestors in Egypt.
One day, Josiah saw Necho, king of Egypt, leading an army and went to try and battle him. King Necho sent a messenger and said that he was not going to attack them, so to let him go. He said that the Lord had sent him on an errand and not to get in the way, or the Lord would stop Josiah. Josiah didn’t listen and put on a disguise so that he could still attack Necho’s army. During the battle, Josiah was hit with arrows and died.
Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, became the next king. He was only king for three months, before Necho came back and overthrew him. Then, Necho gave the kingdom to his brother. Necho’s brother, Jehoaikim, was a wicked king. Then, Babylon’s King, Nebuchadnezzer, came and took Jehoakim as a prisoner. So, his son Jehoaichin became the king, after his father was taken. Nebuchadnezzar only allowed Jehoiachin to lead for 3 months, before he came in and made his brother, Zedekiah, the king. Zedikiah did not listen to Jerimiah, the prophet. He turned against all words of God.
Because the people followed the evil ways of their king, they did evil things in the temple. The king of Chaldees came into the land and began to destroy everything and everyone. The Chaldees entered the temple and took a lot of the gold, silver, and other valuable things and took them back to Babylon. They also burned down the temple. Many of the Israelites were taken, as prisoners and servants, back to Babylon.
Then, King Cyrus of Persia was told by God to build a new temple in Jerusalem. He tried to gather righteous people to help him. He went to Babylon and gathered the stuff that Nebuchadnezzer had stolen from the temple. He also allowed the Jews to go back to Jerusalem.
After 7 months, the Jews were able to build up the altar and begin to offer sacrifices to Heavenly Father again. They also began to lay the foundation for a new temple. The Samaritans offered to help the Jews, but then they wrote a letter to the King of Persia, now King Darrius. They told him that the Jews were beginning to build big walls and they were going to become strong again. This scared Darrius and he forced the Jews to stop building.
The prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, then prophesied that they should start building again and God would protect them. So the Jews resumed building. When the governor saw the building, he asked why they started building without permission. After their discussion, the governor sent a letter to King Darrius and asked him to let them start building the temple again, because that is what God wanted. Darrius made a decree that they could finish the temple.
They were finally able to finish the temple, and this is what was written:
Ezra 6:21-22
21 And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel, did eat,
22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
Discuss
In our time, we have not had our temples destroyed, but in recent years, we have had a pandemic. During the pandemic, we were not able to have access to the temples. All temples were temporarily closed and all temple work ceased to take place. As temples slowly began to open again, and people were allowed to enter the temples, we felt similar joy to the Jews. Talk about how the temple can bring us joy.
Click the picture below to see how we did this lesson and to hear the story of how my brother and his wife found joy in being married and sealed in the temple, after the temples reopened in 2020.
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