Ezra 6:14 states that there were more than just 3 decrees from earthly kings that allowed for the rebuilding of the temple (and by extension, rebuilding Jerusalem). There was a fourth. In addition Ezra seems to list the earthly decrees in chronological order. That would suggest that the decree by God, which no one recognizes, happened BEFORE the one from Cyrus. Where is this decree? Why does no one recognize or address this?
Various individuals
have already addressed this. Perhaps you have just not encountered them yet.
As you have said, there were, of course, more than just three decrees. If you consider the one given by God to be an additional decree, then there were
a total of five decrees: the original one by God Himself, repeated by Cyrus, then by Darius, and
two decrees by Artaxerxes I - one in the seventh year of his reign, and one in the 20th year of his reign, found in Nehemiah 2.
Since the stipulations of the decree mentioned by Daniel 9 particularly mentioned the building of
Jerusalem's walls and street in "troublous times", the only one of the decrees which particularly dealt with rebuilding these things under stressful times was the one given in Nehemiah 2 by Artaxerxes I in his 20th regnal year.
And since Artaxerxes began a co-regency with his father in 474 BC, the actual 20th year of his reign fell in 454 BC. The book of Nehemiah tells of this rebuilding process of the walls and gates during those "troublous times" of Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem's harassment, and with the street in front of the temple finally used for the congregation to assemble in the seventh month's ceremonies.
Counting forward the 70 weeks of 490 years from 454 BC onward, everything lines up for all the terms of the prophecy to be fulfilled by AD 37. The people of Israel in AD 30 were well aware that Messiah was to show up then (at the beginning of the 70th week). This is why the Pharisees in John 1 sent a delegation to John the Baptist to find out if he was the prophesied one to come. "All the people were in expectation", and were musing in their hearts whether John was the Messiah Christ or not (Luke 3:15). Even the Samaritan woman at the well knew that Messiah was coming and would tell them all things when he arrived.
When Christ Himself in Mark 1:15 at the beginning of His miraculous public ministry in AD 30 told the people, "
The time is fulfilled...", He meant that the 69 weeks of years of the prophecy were finished, and that the 70th week of the prophecy with the coming of the Messiah unto His people had just begun.
When the majority of that generation of Jews finally realized that Jesus was not going to be a military-type of Messiah to deliver them from Rome, they rejected Him and His message, thus sealing their doom by AD 37, when they had "judged themselves unworthy of eternal life", and the gospel focus turned to concentrate on the Gentiles. This "sealed up" judgment by the end of the 70th week was poured out on that generation of Israelites later in the "Days of Vengeance" which came upon them in the AD 66-70 "Great Tribulation" period that Daniel 12 wrote about.
