And the children of the captivity kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month.
The children of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month shortly after the restored temple was dedicated, as part of restoring worship according to the law of Moses. That keeping took place in the newly dedicated second temple. The verse stands in the chapter recording the command of Darius for rebuilding the house of the Lord, the second command for the building after the proclamation of Cyrus king of Persia to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah.
That second temple did not equal the first in magnificence and lacked its visible tokens of divine presence. There was no manifestation of supernatural power to mark its dedication, no cloud of glory filling the sanctuary, and no fire from heaven descending to consume the sacrifice upon its altar. There was no Shekinah abiding between the cherubim in the most holy place, no ark and mercy seat and tables of testimony found there, and no sign from heaven making known to the inquiring priest the will of Jehovah. Yet this is the building of which it was declared through Haggai that the glory of the latter house would be greater than that of the former and that this house would be filled with glory when the Desire of all nations came.
That promise was fulfilled in the advent of Jesus of Nazareth, whose personal presence hallowed the precincts of the temple as He taught and healed in its sacred courts. The second temple was honored not with the cloud of glory but with the presence of the One in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, God manifest in flesh. In being honored with the personal presence of Christ during His earthly ministry, and in this alone, it exceeded the first in glory. In its context the verse shows the Lord still moving upon the hearts of kings and rulers in behalf of His people and moving the world to do what He wills, an example of God working through rulers to advance His cause.
So long as the Spirit strives with the world, God's people are to both impart favors by giving the light of truth and receive favors by accepting what God moves the world to do for the advancement of His cause. They are not to cut off favors or withdraw from the help God has moved others to give.
The children of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month shortly after the restored temple was dedicated, as part of restoring worship according to the law of Moses. That keeping took place in the newly dedicated second temple. The verse stands in the chapter recording the command of Darius for rebuilding the house of the Lord, the second command for the building after the proclamation of Cyrus king of Persia to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah.
That second temple did not equal the first in magnificence and lacked its visible tokens of divine presence. There was no manifestation of supernatural power to mark its dedication, no cloud of glory filling the sanctuary, and no fire from heaven descending to consume the sacrifice upon its altar. There was no Shekinah abiding between the cherubim in the most holy place, no ark and mercy seat and tables of testimony found there, and no sign from heaven making known to the inquiring priest the will of Jehovah. Yet this is the building of which it was declared through Haggai that the glory of the latter house would be greater than that of the former and that this house would be filled with glory when the Desire of all nations came.
That promise was fulfilled in the advent of Jesus of Nazareth, whose personal presence hallowed the precincts of the temple as He taught and healed in its sacred courts. The second temple was honored not with the cloud of glory but with the presence of the One in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, God manifest in flesh. In being honored with the personal presence of Christ during His earthly ministry, and in this alone, it exceeded the first in glory. In its context the verse shows the Lord still moving upon the hearts of kings and rulers in behalf of His people and moving the world to do what He wills, an example of God working through rulers to advance His cause.
So long as the Spirit strives with the world, God's people are to both impart favors by giving the light of truth and receive favors by accepting what God moves the world to do for the advancement of His cause. They are not to cut off favors or withdraw from the help God has moved others to give.