The Second Letter of
JOHN

¹From the Elder--
To the dear Lady and to her children, whom I truly love. And I am not the only one, but all who know the truth love you, ²because the truth remains in us and will be with us forever.
³May God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, give us grace, mercy, and peace; may they be ours in truth and love.

Truth and Love

⁴How happy I was to find that some of your children live in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. ⁵And so I ask you, dear Lady: let us all love one another. This is no new command I am writing you; it is the command which we have had from the beginning. ⁶This love I speak of means that we must live in obedience to God's commands. The command, as you have all heard from the beginning, is that you must all live in love.
⁷Many deceivers have gone out over the world, people who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came as a human being. Such a person is a deceiver and the Enemy of Christ. ⁸Be on your guard, then, so that you will not lose what we have worked for, but will receive your reward in full.
⁹Anyone who does not stay with the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God. Whoever does stay with the teaching has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰So then, if some come to you who do not bring this teaching, do not welcome them in your homes; do not even say, "Peace be with you." ¹¹For anyone who wishes them peace becomes their partner in the evil things they do.

Final Words

¹²I have so much to tell you, but I would rather not do it with paper and ink; instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you personally, so that we shall be completely happy.
¹³The children of your dear Sister send you their greetings.

Ezra 5 ¹At that time two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo, began to speak in the name of the God of Israel to the Jews who lived in Judah and Jerusalem. ²When Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak heard their messages, they began to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, and the two prophets helped them.
³Almost at once Governor Tattenai of West-of-Euphrates, Shethar Bozenai, and their fellow officials came to Jerusalem and demanded: "Who gave you orders to build this Temple and equip it?" ⁴They also asked for the names of all the men who were helping build the Temple. ⁵But God was watching over the Jewish leaders, and the Persian officials decided to take no action until they could write to Emperor Darius and receive a reply. ⁶This is the report that they sent to the emperor:

⁷"To Emperor Darius, may you rule in peace.
⁸"Your Majesty should know that we went to the province of Judah and found that the Temple of the great God is being rebuilt with large stone blocks and with wooden beams set in the wall. The work is being done with great care and is moving ahead steadily.
⁹"We then asked the leaders of the people to tell us who had given them authority to rebuild the Temple and to equip it. ¹⁰We also asked them their names so that we could inform you who the leaders of this work are.
¹¹"They answered, 'We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the Temple which was originally built and equipped many years ago by a powerful king of Israel. ¹²But because our ancestors made the God of Heaven angry, he let them be conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, a king of the Chaldean dynasty. The Temple was destroyed, and the people were taken into exile in Babylonia. ¹³Then in the first year of the reign of King Cyrus as emperor of Babylonia, Cyrus issued orders for the Temple to be rebuilt. ¹⁴He restored the gold and silver Temple utensils which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem and had placed in the temple in Babylon. Emperor Cyrus turned these utensils over to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he appointed governor of Judah. ¹⁵The emperor told him to take them and return them to the Temple in Jerusalem, and to rebuild the Temple where it had stood before. ¹⁶So Sheshbazzar came and laid its foundation; construction has continued from then until the present, but it is still not finished.'
¹⁷"Now, if it please Your Majesty, have a search made in the royal records in Babylon to find whether or not Emperor Cyrus gave orders for this Temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt, and then inform us what your will is in this matter."

Emperor Cyrus' Order Is Rediscovered

Ezra 6 So Emperor Darius issued orders for a search to be made in the royal records that were kept in Babylon. ²But it was in the city of Ecbatana in the province of Media that a scroll was found, containing the following record:

³"In the first year of his reign Emperor Cyrus commanded that the Temple in Jerusalem be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are made and offerings are burned. The Temple is to be ninety feet high and ninety feet wide. ⁴The walls are to be built with one layer of wood on top of each three layers of stone. All expenses are to be paid by the royal treasury. ⁵Also the gold and silver utensils which King Nebuchadnezzar brought to Babylon from the Temple in Jerusalem are to be returned to their proper place in the Jerusalem Temple."

Emperor Darius Orders the Work to Continue

⁶Then Emperor Darius sent the following reply:

"To Tattenai, governor of West-of-Euphrates, Shethar Bozenai, and your fellow officials in West-of-Euphrates.
"Stay away from the Temple ⁷and do not interfere with its construction. Let the governor of Judah and the Jewish leaders rebuild the Temple of God where it stood before. ⁸I hereby command you to help them rebuild it. Their expenses are to be paid promptly out of the royal funds received from taxes in West-of-Euphrates, so that the work is not interrupted. ⁹Day by day, without fail, you are to give the priests in Jerusalem whatever they tell you they need: young bulls, sheep, or lambs to be burned as offerings to the God of Heaven, or wheat, salt, wine, or olive oil. ¹⁰This is to be done so that they can offer sacrifices that are acceptable to the God of Heaven and pray for his blessing on me and my sons. ¹¹I further command that if any disobey this order, a wooden beam is to be torn out of their houses, sharpened on one end, and then driven through their bodies. And their houses are to be made a rubbish heap. ¹²May the God who chose Jerusalem as the place where he is to be worshiped overthrow any king or nation that defies this command and tries to destroy the Temple there. I, Darius, have commanded. My command is to be fully obeyed."

The Temple Is Dedicated

¹³Then Governor Tattenai, Shethar Bozenai, and their fellow officials did exactly as the emperor had commanded. ¹⁴The Jewish leaders made good progress with the building of the Temple, encouraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. They completed the Temple as they had been commanded by the God of Israel and by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, emperors of Persia. ¹⁵They finished the Temple on the third day of the month Adar in the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Darius. ¹⁶Then the people of Israel--the priests, the Levites, and all the others who had returned from exile--joyfully dedicated the Temple. ¹⁷For the dedication they offered 100 bulls, 200 sheep, and 400 lambs as sacrifices, and 12 goats as offerings for sin, one for each tribe of Israel. ¹⁸They also organized the priests and the Levites for the Temple services in Jerusalem, according to the instructions contained in the book of Moses.

The Passover

¹⁹The people who had returned from exile celebrated Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month of the following year. ²⁰All the priests and the Levites had purified themselves and were ritually clean. The Levites killed the animals for the Passover sacrifices for all the people who had returned, for the priests, and for themselves. ²¹The sacrifices were eaten by all the Israelites who had returned from exile and by all those who had given up the pagan ways of the other people who were living in the land and who had come to worship the LORD God of Israel. ²²For seven days they joyfully celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread. They were full of joy because the LORD had made the emperor of Assyria favorable to them, so that he supported them in their work of rebuilding the Temple of the God of Israel.

God the King

Psalm 93 The LORD is king.
He is clothed with majesty and strength.
The earth is set firmly in place
and cannot be moved.
²Your throne, O LORD, has been firm from the beginning,
and you existed before time began.

³The ocean depths raise their voice, O LORD;
they raise their voice and roar.
⁴The LORD rules supreme in heaven,
greater than the roar of the ocean,
more powerful than the waves of the sea.

⁵Your laws are eternal, LORD,
and your Temple is holy indeed,
forever and ever.