Search The Archives

Ezra 6:1 Then Darius the King made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored.

Here we have King Darius, who was the king of Babylon I believe, searching for old documents. He did this because the Jews claimed that King Cyrus before him allowed them to rebuild their temple. So, in order to make sure they were telling the truth he went to the archives. When he found that King Cyrus did indeed give permission for the rebuilding of the temple he said this:

"Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on this site." (6:7)

I really like this scripture because it shows how much they relied on their own historical records and documents. Even the king considered what the document said to be a higher authority than his own. He proved to be a wise and humble king. Once he knew the truth of what was written he backed it up 100%.

Listen to what Paul tells Timothy around the time of his death:

"When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books and above all the parchments." (2 Timothy 4:13)

Paul is asking for his books and the parchments which is basically a stretched out animal skin that was used to write on. The parchment more than likely is Old Testament scriptures. Paul understood the importance of what was written, just like King Darius.

This all boils down to the Document of documents, the Book of books, the Writing of all writings, the Holy Bible. When were not sure of something we need to go to the archives like King Darius did. We need to search the documents, 66 documents are contained in the Bible. And when we find what it says we need to back it 100%.

LORD help me to do this, I struggle more than most but I trust in you and your Word.