Rebuilding Jerusalem

Book excerpt: Daniel was serving the Babylonian Empire on October 12, 539 BCE, where a great party was underway. Belshazzar, one thousand of his nobles, and their wives were drinking wine from gold cups plundered from the temple at Jerusalem. Suddenly, the fingers of a hand wrote on the wall, Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. That very night, the Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great. The exiled prince, Daniel now served the Persians instead of the Babylonians. Author Sandy Millers Rebuilding Jerusalem examines the biblical, historical, and archaeological record of the Persian Empires relationship with Jewish exiles after they conquered Babylon. Through a series of twelve lectures, it follows 114 years of the Persian Empire, relaying the history of Persian kings who helped various Bible figures preserve the Promised Land for future generations. It includes stories of their unique involvement with the Persian Empire found in the Old Testament books of Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Rebuilding Jerusalem shows that Israel is a vibrant country today, at least in part because of the ancient Persian Empires involvement in the restoration of the country.