Israel and Iran Have Some Good History

Supernatural Kindness that lasted many years.

Israel and Persia(now known as Iran) hava a relationship going back to before the time of Christ. The kindness of Cyrus the Great, the King of Persia was well documented and lasted for generations. He released the Jews from captivity and make a declaration to return all the items stolen from the temple in Jerusalem and set aside funds to ensure the temple and the wall of Jerusalem were rebuilt. It took a long road to get the result, but the decree was made and honoured. 

The historical relationship between Iran and Israel goes right back to 559-530 B.C. (before Christ). King Cyrus the Great was the King of Persia and after he captured Babylon that was a kingdom well know for one of its leaders Nebuchadnezzar. When the Jews were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon, they  also took away the precious vessels and other artifacts from the temple in Jerusalem. When King Cyrus the Great took Babylon captive, he also decreed that all the stolen vessels and other artifacts should be returned to Jerusalem to be placed in the temple when it was rebuilt.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello and welcome to our channel. Um, welcome here to the Strong Day podcast. So today we're discussing for the strong day the good history between Israel and Iran. So stay on board if you want to hear some more about this. I call it supernatural kindness. Persia, which is now known as Iran, offered supernatural kindness to Israel over generations. Stay on and hear more about it. Welcome your comments, and if you stick all through this video, you hear some amazing things about the wonderful to our podcast today. Today, um, this is our strong day podcast, so to introduce it. So our strong day podcast is a concept that came into my mind because I wanted to encourage other people about the way in which I have learned over the years to make my day strong or to rescue a day that's been going wrong for me. So I have five things upon the screen there, you'll see it then where I have learned that it makes my day stronger, which when I say strong, it makes me able to manage my day a lot better than if I didn't do these five things. And I'm saying that some days are better than others, but I aim to do these five things. So the first is to pray, and when I say pray, I mean just a soft prayer sometimes, just a whispered prayer. Um, just talking to the divine, talking to God, just even saying thank you, even saying you don't understand what's going on. That's the prayer the heart is speaking, and then focus. I started with the word meditation, but I think for some people meditation is a complicated word, so to use the word meditation doesn't work for everyone. So I thought the word focus would be better, so find something to focus on. Um focus on a reading, focus on something positive, something beautiful. My dad used to preach, it's used to say, Whatever things are good, whatever things are lovely, and whatever things are of good report, think upon these things or focus on it. Take time to think about it. And the other thing for me is being thankful, saying thanks. Even if it's for one thing, if everything has gone crazy, just think of one thing that you could be thankful for the breathe the breath that we're breathing, the green in the leaves, um, the snow that you can see if you're in a place that's snow, the sea and the sound of the sea if you live by the sea, and anything you have children, the the laughter, anything to give God thanks for, to be thankful for. And the other thing I find powerful is to read. Because reading is a way of embracing another world, or to have something explained to you that you didn't understand before. So I'm not saying read loads and loads, I'm maybe read a page of a nice book, something which is good, a poem. Um, and the other thing for me is exercise. Well, I do try to follow Sean T. Trying is not a strong word, but I do follow Sean T as much as I can, or I follow uh a dancer called Tara Body, um, maybe for 20 minutes. Mr. T is with 25 and sometimes 30, but I just try and follow a regime, or I just go for a walk. I'm not saying it happens every day, but that's I feel that's a strong day. So on for this strong day podcast, I'm focusing on reading really and meditation. The the the the title of this podcast is Reflection. Take a moment to remember the kindness of another. So take a moment to remember the kindness of another. And the reading I'm coming to is from the book of Ezra. In the Bible, it recounts the friendship and the kindness of Cyrus the Great of Persia to the people of Israel, you know, before Christ in that type of dispensation. So the people of Israel, if I do the do the backstory, so that if we can remember, just helping us to recount uh an act of kindness towards us or to a country or to a people or to a neighborhood. But I'm recounting the the the the the kindness of of of Persia, which it Persia is now known as Iran. Okay, Persia was Iran became Persia. Iranians saw themselves as Iran, as an Iranian, Iranian, um, but there was always so it was a Persia, is an old kingdom. And in the time of Cyrus the Great, um when he came into power, he he also took the the the the country or the the the the the kingdom of Babylon and Babylon and the king Nebuchadnezzar had taken the people of Israel captive. I think it was 70 years, but if you want to read upon that, you can do. But when he got Babylon, he said, I want the God of Israel has stirred up my heart to be kind to Israel, to be good to Israel, and for Israel to release Israel from Babylon, and for Israel to be the people of Israel and Judah to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Because they've been left that long that the temple had absolutely it it had you know got into well disrepair, terrible and broken down. So Cyrus the Great, and so in the read reading, I'll read that from Ezra, the book of Ezra in the Old Testament of the Bible, it says, the proclamation of Cyrus. Now, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that is in the first year he ruled Babylon, because Babylon, who was the great, had now become overtaken by um Persia, um, which we now know as Iran. So, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet, the Lord stood up, put in motion the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it into writing, saying, put it into writing as well, which is law. He says, Thus says Cyrus, King of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you all his people, may his God be with him. Let him go to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is God who is he is God who is in Jerusalem. In any place where a survivor, a Jewish exile, may live, let the men, Gentiles of that place, support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with free will offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem. And then can you see the act of kindness wasn't just a oh let's just be kind to him. It was literally, I'm doing a pluckerate pluck proclamation, I'm making it law that the Jews are in exile to go back to Jerusalem of their freedom. And I'm saying to the Gentiles and anyone who is their neighbor, be good to them. If you've got gold, give them gold. If you've got copper, anything you have, which would be helpful to them building back the Jerusalem and building the wall was another place, but also to this is about building back the temple that Solomon had built and other kings had repaired over time. And you say, well, why bring this up now? I think because the world is very confusing at the moment, and it's quite trying to understand, well, who is Iran? Who were they? What's their history? What's this thing with Israel? Well, if you go back to those days when Iran or Persia had a chance to be kind, Persia was kind. And then look in the book of Ezra, and if you like reading, and this is all about the focus of the focus and the reading, Ezra was uh also in exile in in Babylon. And but Hezrah was uh a priest, and more than that, um Ezra was a scribe. So a scribe is someone who writes, of course, we know that, but it was beyond that. They would repair the the Torah, they would um make sure that people um living in line with the word of God from the holy books written in the time of Moses and the word that God had given for the people of Israel to live. So Ezra was accomplished and educated, and he was also a priest, and he was also a man of the pen, he he wrote. And so this is a thing. One of the things that happened to Israel when Nebuchadnezzar took the people of Israel captive into Babylon was that Nebuchadnezzar also stole from the the temple in Israel. He they they took they took very precious things from the temple and uh put them up in in Babylon, and so when the the this level of kindness, when you think about when someone is kind and good, and God has stirred it up in them to be good to you or to good be good to someone, to be good to their country. So the people of Babylon had also taken from the temple, which is a desecration, really. And um so not only was the king of Persia saying, Look, you know, be kind, let's take the people of Israel out of captives, he also decreed that people should, if they give an offering to Israel, it should be of their free will. It wasn't a force, it was a law, but it wasn't a force. And also they realized and he said, please take from Babylon all the things, the precious vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken away from Israel, please return them to Israel. And also they had taken a an inventory of all that was taken from Israel, and please return them. So that was just not just an act of kindness, it was going beyond. But it's because he felt that God had stirred him up to be kind, and when God stirs us up to be kind, it's a different level of kindness. So this is the relationship between Persia and Israel, Iran and Israel, and then when um Ezra went back to Israel, so much things were sent with them. You know, so much stuff was sent back with them to Israel and gifts to to give to Israel to make sure that they could rebuild and also re make the temple again and replenish it with what belonged to it in the first place, and if anyone had any other free gifts that they could give. So we're if you want to look at reading, we're reading from the Old Testament in the book of Ezra, and then the in in the book of Ezra, chapter two, it lists all the people that were returning, all the priests, all the Levites. But it is said, and it is said to this day, that many people of Israel made uh good in Iran, in in Persia, and didn't leave. They'd set up a home there and they didn't chose not to go back. So as Nehemiah as went, Nehemiah is another book, you know, because Nehemiah went back to build a wall, and Ezra went back to look at make sure that everything the temples were sorted out and checked the way that the people of Israel were living to make sure they were living as was written in the Torah, in the in the in the books uh that God had given to to Moses and the people of Israel, as the years have gone gone on. But what they they found is that not only had they uh Nebuchadnezzar they'd taken away the stuff, and now as they began to rebuild the wall, Jeremiah Nehemiah had these people called Sambalat and Tobiah who were there constantly staring at them, saying, Yeah, right, you not can't do it, discouraging them, pulling them down, saying everything that they were did wasn't good enough, and and then you had another set of people who were saying the Jews are just out of order, they're just not right. We need to get uh, you know, as they lived there years and years, and more years had carried on, and a new king had come in to Persia, they'd gone to that king and said, Hey, we need to get rid of the Jews, stop them building the wall, stop them um redoing the temple. They're just not good people, you know. You know, you can read it in more length for yourselves, but it's like get you know, we we get rid of them. We want to hinder this work, and by this time a new king was in place, the king Artaxerus, I'll I'll spell it, is a king artaxer, was now in power, and now Cyrus had going at passed so many year generations afterwards. So these other guys, discouraging, uh said we need to write to the king to stop them, the people of Israel doing this work um that they're doing in Jerusalem, so we need to contact that king and get it sorted, get rid of this stuff, and then because he's a scribe, Ezra, and also as a priest, he and then began to write back to to the king of Persia saying, Look, if the decree, this wasn't an ordinary kindness, there's a supernatural kindness, right? It's supernatural kindness. If there's such a word, I'm I've just I've just it's just coming to my spirit. So supernatural kindness right had come into into play then it was not just done, it was decreed. And that decree must be somewhere it must be somewhere in in in the archives somewhere so that we can't just throw this work down and not rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, not rebuild the temple and live a life that is good in Jerusalem. So they went back to the king and the king said, look in the archives, just look in the archives, and you'll see that the decree by Cyrus the Great is still there. Well, these people said nope, absolutely not. Get rid of them, stop this wall being rebuilt, stop the temple thing. They're not good people. But then Ezra went they all went back and they sent a letter. And then so that king sent back a word about the temple for it to stop and then we want to check how is the work gonna be redone. The the key thing about the work being done is that a decree was sent out by King Cyrus the Great. A decree is a decree. If a king makes a decree, it will be established. And that is still the th same thing now. A decree is a sta word, is established, it's written. So then the people of Israel and also through Ezra had contacted the king, and then the king actually went back into the archives and found the decree originally made by Cyrus the Great. And so he had to abide by that because that was a decree. So I want to read um that, and while we think about kindness, and we think about Israel now, and we think about Iran, the relationship, and we think back where that relationship was a good relationship. There was kindness when there could not that there need not be kindness. It just shows you. So I'm just gonna read a little bit now. The king sent an answer to Rahum the Persian commander, to Shim Shai the scribe, and to the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria, in the rest of the provinces west of the river. Peace, greetings. And now, the document which you sent to us has been translated and read before me. I have issued a command and a search has been made, and it has been discovered that this city, Jerusalem, in earlier times had revolted against the kings, and that rebellion and sedition had been perpet perpetrated in it. There have also been mighty kings over Jerusalem who have ruled over all the provinces west of the Euphratus River, and tax, customs, and toll were paid to them. So now issue a decree to make these men stop work, so that this city is not rebuilt until a new command is issued by me. Beware of these negligent in carrying out this matter. Why should damage increase to the detriment of the kings? Then as soon as a copy of the king's artext's documents were spread before Rahum and Shemshah, the scribe and their colleagues, they went up horribly to Jerusalem to the Jews and made them stop work by force of arms. Then the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped. It was suspended until the second year of the reign of Dirus, king of Persia, another king of Persia. And as we said, Persia, that kingdom, in modern times, is now Iran. And Iran changed its name to Persia, I believe in 1978. Sorry, 1938, they began to work on the whole name of being using the word Iran, the name Iran rather than Persia. Right, so then we're having a debate here. The people have gone to the king, the king has stopped the work. And then so they asked, please find the decree that was made by Cyrus the Great so that we can resume the work in Jerusalem. This after after after act of kindness, and also. So the king of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean, they destroyed the temple and they exiled the people to Babylon. That's what they did. And Cyrus the Great released the people of Israel. So now we have a situation where the people have been released. A decree was made. They start building the rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the walls of Jerusalem, and start repairing the temple. And here we have mischief makers. And then rightly so, the scribes and other priests and educated the people in Israel said, Well, find the scroll, find the decree that was initially decreed by the king, king of Persia. And so in chapter 6, we see then King Dirus issued a decree, and a search was conducted in Babylon, in the archives where the treasures and records were stored. In Ekbathana, in the fortress palace in the provinces of Media, a scroll was found on which this was recorded, a memorandum. In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the house of God in Israel, in Jerusalem. Let the temple house, correction not Israel, in Jerusalem, let the temple house, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt, and let its foundation be strongly laid, its height and its width about sixty cubits. With three layers of huge stones and one layer of timbers, let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. That's a gift, that's a kindness. Also let the gold and silver utensils of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon be returned and brought back to their proper places in the temple in Jerusalem, and you shall put them in the house of God. Now therefore, Tatiniah, governor of the province west of the Euphrates River, Shephar, Bosanai, and your associates, the officials or wests of the river, keep far from there. Leave the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on his side. Also I issue a decree as to what you are to do for these Jewish elders for the rebuilding of this house of God. The full cost is to be paid to these people from the royal treasury. Again, repeat, out of the taxes of the provisions west of the river, and without delay. Whatever is needed, including young bulls, rams, and the lambs for the burnt offering to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine, and anointing oil, according to the request of the priests of Jerusalem, let it all be given to them daily without fail, so that they may offer pleasing, sweet smelling sacrifices to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and his sons. I have also issued a decree that if there is any man who violates this edict, a beam of timber shall be pulled from his house and set up. Then he shall be impaled, oh dear, very sounds really awful, impaled on it, and his house shall be turned into a refused heap for his violation. May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king of the people who attempt to alter his command, so as to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I Dirus have issued this decree, let it be carried out quickly and with due diligence. So we see there the following through by a king after another king had decreed it, the kindness to the Jews and to Jerusalem and Israel. So in this troubled time that we see the war in the Middle East and the disaster and the lives being lost and the lives of young children, the chaos. I think we're to remind be reminded of kindness, the kindness of Persia, which is now Iran, to Israel. And that the the word of the kings continued over generations actually. So I just wanted to do this podcast. I wanted to do it for quite a few weeks. I've not wanted to get preachy in any sense of the word, but I just had this deep thinking of it's so important to remember the kindness of others to us. Whether it's to us as individuals or whether it's to us as a nation or or countries. I think just talking through the whole decree, the kindness and to remember that so-called Gentiles, well the Gentiles are the word called Gentiles because you're not Jew, you're a Gentile, who shouldn't have no understanding of God of Israel, but the God of Israel is stirred up in his heart to be kind, and it wasn't just a a a passing kindness, he made a decree, and that decree was honored afterwards. So I think in our doing in the world, if we could all decree kindness to each other and kindness to nations it would be a valuable thing and a great contribution to this earth. So Persia has had a relationship with Israel from biblical days. And I think this is a good note to leave on. Please subscribe and like, and we're invited to come and watch our other podcasts as well. Thank you.