The men go back to work on the temple at the urging of the prophets, who spoke to them in the name of the Lord.

We don’t have their words recorded here, but you can read them, or some of them, in the books of Zechariah and Haggai. Their books of prophecies seem to have been written around the time the work on the temple resumes, which was after years of waiting.

Then more leaders come questioning their right to work.

But, the Lord is in it. He was always in it. When a trial comes, we’ve not been separated from God’s love and good purposes for our lives.

The Lord’s eye is on them. They were obeying and not letting fear get the better of them. The Lord is going to bless them to continue in the work, even while dealing with a challenge. He was seeing what was going on. He was keeping watch and keeping them.

This time the letter to the King is truthful. God had allowed the lies to go out before. Now, God is making sure the truth goes out. He is Lord over it all.

The leaders of Israel acknowledge their God. They acknowledge they are His servants. They acknowledge their people sinned against God.

The chapter ends with them waiting on word from the king.

But the one true King had already spoken. The work was already going and it would continue. The earthly king didn’t actually have authority over them. No earthly authority has any authority that God doesn’t give them.

We can trust that their actions are being allowed as God has deemed, for the time, because He rules over all earthly authority.

That doesn’t mean it’s all in our favor, as in what we want and what would make things easy, but it does mean it will always be with favor toward us, His people.

His favor—that’s grace. Those words are interchanged in our New Testament. His grace will always be helping us, for us, providing, meeting the need of the moment. Sometimes that need is the removal of the work, but just for a time.

The Lord’s will is our completing the good works He’s prepared for us to do, but there’s a greater work He wants accomplished, and that’s going on in our hearts. He will accomplish His purposes. All of them.