Artaxerxes I

Why should I stop working to come and meet with you? Nehemiah 6.3 Nehemiah is a Bible book that can teach us much about true leadership.

Nehemiah was a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, and one day he heard about how things were not looking good back in Jerusalem, the home he and his people had been taken from.

The city walls had been torn down, the gates burned, and the people were in disgrace.

He sat down and wept and mourned for his people while fasting and praying to God for days.

God gave Nehemiah a burden and a purpose, to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls.

Amazingly, King Artaxerxes, by God's will, gave Nehemiah permission to return to Jerusalem to begin this project.

Yet, it wasn't without discouragement.

Neighbors tried to stop the rebuilding by laughing, mocking, intimidating, and even hiring a false prophet to try to discredit Nehemiah.

Now, of course, we know from history that there was more than one time a proclamation of the restoration of the people of Israel back to the land.

And that's why some scholars, some believers, differ on the beginning of the 490 years, but I would like to suggest this evening that most of the people whom I'm aware of, and I know, and I've learned from, and I'm reading their material, do believe that this is from the commandment that Artaxerxes gave to Nehemiah in 445, 444 B.C., That will be the starting point of the 490 years of God's chastening of the people of Israel.

And so I'd like you to go back for a minute to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 2.

Nehemiah, chapter 2.

Why most people believe that it's coming, the beginning, the starting point is the commandment of Artaxerxes to Nehemiah to go to restore and to rebuild the city is because the earlier Cyrus who have called them a call to go to the Jewish people, to go back to the land, to build, if you will, to go back to worship the Lord, has to do more with the worship and the building of the temple, while when it's come to Nehemiah, it has to do more with the city and the walls of the city.

Notice this, I'm going to read Nehemiah chapter 2 and the first few verses.

And it came to pass, this is verse 1 of chapter 2 of Nehemiah, And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, this is March or April, in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, the king, this is about 444, 445 BC, we have here about March 444, 445 BC, that the king, that wine was before him.

And I, this is Nehemiah speaking, took up the wine and I gave it unto the king.

289.

Of the empire of the Persians Artabanus reigned seven months, and upon suspicion of treason against Xerxes, was slain by Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of Xerxes.

290.

The wars of the Greeks and Persians the Greeks were becoming serious rivals to the Semites upon the sea, and their detached and vigorous intelligence made them useful and unprejudiced officials.

This is often fanciful and forced, abounds in contrasts rather than resemblances, and is seldom of any special historical value, although it often has great literary charm.

There are also four single lives in our collection, Artaxerxes, Eretus, Galba, and Otho, and we get traces of twelve more that are now lost.

One of the pairs is a double one, where, to match the two Gracchi, Plutarch selects the two reforming Spartan kings, Aegis and Cleomenes.

We have in all, therefore, fifty lives by Plutarch.

Very little has changed, however.

The king of kings, Darius or Xerxes or Artaxerxes, bring to bear a great reputation for resisting, no matter what the offense is, no matter who's charging.

The only person to conquer Persia in 2,500 years is Alexander the Great.

Then he died too young to make it a habit.

Very little has changed, however.

The king of kings, Darius or Xerxes or Artaxerxes, bring to bear a great reputation for resisting, no matter what the offense is, no matter who's charging.

The only person to conquer Persia in 2,500 years is Alexander the Great.

and he died too young to make it a habit.

Others see it as simply one of material wealth.

The silver is mine and the gold is mine, Haggai tells them, possibly suggesting the formerly confiscated Jewish treasures sent back to Jerusalem with the exiles by two of Persia's kings, Darius and Artaxerxes.

The answer is probably a bit of both.

Jerusalem is about to jangle with newly returned loot from its previous temple, while God readies himself to send Jesus several centuries later.