Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored.
Darius was asked to check whether Cyrus had truly authorised the rebuilding of the temple, so the king ordered a search of the royal records. The question this verse raises is not whether the record existed, but who guided the searchers to it.
The House of the Rolls
The place searched was the empire's records office, and the "rolls" were not paper. One writer explains both the material and the destination of the search:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe word "rolls" is "books" and these consisted of clay tablets on which the cuneiform inscriptions were preserved. Neither the Aramaic nor the Hebrew language has a word for clay tablets. Whole libraries of such clay tablets have turned up at Nineveh and other places. You can see them in museums today. The searchers found the record they wanted at Achmetha. Greek writers call it Ecbatana; it was the capital city of Media, and it is the modern Hamadan. Divine providence had preserved this interesting command of Cyrus. The same providence guided the searchers to the place where it was kept.
Found Where No One Thought to Look
The search began in Babylon. The document turned up somewhere else entirely — and that detail carries weight:
H. L. RossierIn all this, we can see the providence of God, watching over His people. The edict of Cyrus turns up at Achmetha, in the province of the Medes, and not at Babylon (v. 2). This proves that without divine intervention even the most careful research would have been in vain.
Opposition That Serves God
The search was not the Jews' idea. Their adversaries interfered — and that interference became the means of their blessing:
Edward DennettTo faith, God was clearly working behind the scenes. He was using the power of the enemy to accomplish His own purposes. Here is another instance of how He causes all things to work together for good to them that love Him. When their adversaries interfered, Darius did not only confirm the decree of Cyrus. He also issued another decree: everything the house of God needed was to be provided at his own expense.
The recovered decree did more than permit the work:
F. B. HoleOnce they discovered the original decree of Cyrus, it proved fuller in its details and more favourable to the Jews than their adversaries had imagined. It demanded that no one hinder them — and more, that they be actively helped in their work and supplied with what they needed. It also demanded that all who set themselves to hinder or destroy should themselves be destroyed, and their houses made a rubbish heap.
Faith Came Before the Decree
The building had stopped years earlier. Permission was not the problem; faith was. The order of events matters: they built again while a decree still stood against them, and the king's search came after.
J. N. DarbyAll this shows us that Israel was at fault in stopping the building of the temple… The adversaries had filled the Jews with terror, and that terror had stopped them. They had no excuse for this, since even the king's commandment was on their side. What they lacked was faith in God. We have seen that, when there was faith, they dared to build, although there was a decree against it. The effect of this faith was a decree in their favour — and it came through the intervention of their adversaries. It is good to trust in God.
Leave the Kings to God
Darius had his own reasons for reaching back to Cyrus. One writer draws a practical lesson from them:
William KellyHe had the greatest regard and reverence for Cyrus as the founder of the empire. He had a desire to restore all the institutions of Cyrus… So God knows how to redirect and arrange everything. Our business is not to set one king against another, but to go forward in the name of the Lord. We take His word as our full warrant. As we seek God's guidance, we can be perfectly sure of this: it is God's part to guide all men and all circumstances. That is His work, not ours. Our part, in short, is to go on in faith. He knows how to deal with those that oppose us.
Summary
- Fear stopped. Terror of their enemies stopped the work. The king's own command was already on the builders' side, so the failure was a lack of faith, not a lack of permission.
- Faith built. They built again while the opposition was still unanswered. That faith gave rise to a decree in their favour, delivered through their own adversaries.
- God searched. The adversaries triggered the search, yet the scroll lay in Media, not Babylon. Without God's hand the most careful search would have found nothing.
- Kings supplied. The recovered decree was fuller than the adversaries imagined: protection, active help, supplies — and Darius added that the cost would come from his own treasury.
- We go forward. Guiding kings and circumstances is God's work, not ours. Our part is to take His word as our warrant and keep building.