Page 108 - Satan in the Sanctuary

110 Satan in the Sanctuary

ligious persuasions of his adversaries. He allowed the Jews
free emigration to their holy city and had no objections
to their rebuilding the Temple. Gabriella Rosenthal re-
counts in her book Jerusalem:

Forty years later, [after the war] the Persian King Cy-
rus who had conquered Babylon, allowed the Jews to re-
turn. Only the bravest, the idealists—and certainly not
the richest, although these generously supported the proj-
ect—dared to embark on this undertaking. To rebuild a
ruined city and resettle a wasteland is an arduous task.
It was made even harder by the Samaritan inhabitants,
and time and again hampered by political intrigue. When
the main altar had been rebuilt, the construction of a new
1
temple commenced.
It appears that it was no easier to rebuild the temple in
that century than it is now. The foreign feet that always
tread God's city invariably are an obstacle. The Jews held
a brick in one hand and a sword in the other.
The reconstruction, according to Ezra, was under the
direction of Zerubbabel, heir to the Jewish throne, and
Joshua, the high priest. The former was a descendant of the
house of David and is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus
(Mt 1:12).
The two had their work cut out for them. These were not
the happy times of Solomon. Jerusalem was as desolate as
the earlier prophets had warned, and the returned populace,
reared in Babylon, was not very pioneer-minded. The two
leaders did, however, succeed in rebuilding a smaller Tem-
ple, but the people had mixed reactions.
Ezra reports:

And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they
praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of