Lives of Scripture

Zerubbabel, grandson of the exiled King Jehoiachin and thus part of David's royal line, was appointed governor and led the first wave of Jewish exiles back from Babylon to Jerusalem under Cyrus's decree (Ezra 2:1-2; 1 Chronicles 3:17-19). With the priest Jeshua, he rebuilt the altar and laid the foundation of the second temple, an event that provoked both joyful shouting and weeping among those who remembered Solomon's original temple (Ezra 3:8-13). Opposition from surrounding peoples, who offered false help and then wrote hostile letters to the Persian court, halted construction for years (4:1-5, 24). When work finally resumed under Darius, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah directly confronted the people's excuse-making and encouraged Zerubbabel specifically, with God's word to him promising success "not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit" (Zechariah 4:6; Haggai 1:1-15). Zechariah pictured Zerubbabel's hands that had laid the foundation also finishing the temple, and it was completed and dedicated in the sixth year of Darius (Zechariah 4:9; Ezra 6:14-16). As the last governor of David's royal line recorded in the Old Testament, Zerubbabel carried forward the messianic line through the exile's disruption, and both Matthew's and Luke's genealogies of Jesus trace through him, connecting the temple-rebuilder directly to the ultimate hope his generation was still watching for (Matthew 1:12-13; Luke 3:27).