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Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
We’ve all had the experience of packing up for a long trip. Many of us have perhaps packed to move permanently to a far distant place. So, it should not be difficult for us to imagine what the Jewish exiles were doing in Babylon when I left you yesterday in Ezra 1:7, about 538bc. King Cyrus had issued an edict that ANY Jewish captive, anywhere in the Persian empire, was free to return to their homeland with specific instructions to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and especially the great Temple of King Solomon which had been destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586bc. (2 Chron. 36:22,23)
Now we might assume that EVERY Jewish captive, everywhere in the Persian kingdom immediately set about to pack and prepare for the long journey back to Israel. But that is not reality. The truth is many of the Israelites scattered around the world in 538bc had been born in the places where they lived and to them Jerusalem was nothing more than a place they’d heard stories about.
“Home” was where they lived far, far away from Jerusalem. That’s why there’s a little phrase in Ezra 1:5 which is so significant, I wonder if you notice it? “Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites – everyone whose heart God had moved – prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.” Do you see the key phrase: “everyone whose heart God had moved.”?
What does it mean? Well first of all, do you notice only TWO tribes of Israel are mentioned as Israelites anxious to return to rebuild Jerusalem? They were the tribes Judah and Benjamin. The other 10 tribes, probably by this time more than 1 million Israelites, had been the northern kingdom Israel and they had been invaded and conquered in 722bc by the Assyrians. That was 184 years before the freedom edict of King Cyrus. For them it had been several generations of living scattered all across the middle east region, exiled from Israel.
There is no indication ANY of them rose up with excitement about this freedom opportunity to return to the homeland of their ancestors! As you may remember friends, we took several weeks to trace the story of the people of Israel through the Kings and Chronicles, and after the division of Israel into two kingdoms, at the death of King Solomon, (2 Chronicles 10) the northern kingdom 10 tribes, with their capital city Samaria, were led by wicked, idol worshiping kings, and as a nation they turned far away from the God of Israel.
These two tribes, Benjamin and Judah, had been the southern kingdom of Judah with their capital city Jerusalem, and they were people greatly passionate about their city and the great Temple of God, built by King Solomon, which had been the centerpiece of their city. Therefore, this unexpected edict of King Cyrus was welcome news to many of them.
However not all, for many Jewish exiles had found life in Babylon to be attractive, lucrative and enticing. Therefore it was actually a spiritual stirring in the hearts of the Jewish captives which drew them to pack and prepare for the long journey back to Jerusalem. Ezra 1:8 tells us their neighbors helped them pack and blessed them with bounty to take with them, to help them re-establish their lives in broken down Jerusalem.
Oh yes, my friends, that was another challenge in this unexpected opportunity of freedom! Their last memories of Jerusalem, as they were dragged off as prisoners of war, were that Jerusalem and the Temple had been demolished and set afire! (2 Chronicles 36:18,19) They should assume nothing remained of Jerusalem but rubble.
Their first task would be a total cleanup of the rubble and a slow rebuild process of their city and then their Temple. It would be neither easy nor a rapid process. And with every day of hard labor they would be reminded of WHY Jerusalem had been destroyed! It was their fault and the fault of their ancestors!! They had profaned God’s holy name by turning their backs on God and worshiping idols of foreign nations. (Ezekiel 36:16-36)
God had not only permitted the destruction of Jerusalem, God had actually led King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army to demolish it. God had removed His hand of protection from His people and His city and Temple!! It’s very important we understand, my friends, that the demolition of Jerusalem and the Temple was God’s judgment on His people and His city because they had refused to repent of their wicked ways or honor the warnings of God’s prophets! (2 Chronicles 36:15-21)
Sin has consequences, all sin, in all places, committed by anyone and everyone. No sin is ignored by Holy God. Do we understand this vitally important life truth, my friends? We all have a natural tendency to make excuses for our sinful attitudes and behavior, or blame other people, or compare ourselves to others and conclude we really aren’t all that bad.
But Romans 3:23 is very clear: “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” The burned rubble of Jerusalem and the Temple, even the broken-down city walls, were the standing evidence of this truth of consequences for sin. If we look closely, each of us probably has some rubble strewn along the path of our life history that is the consequences of our own sinful behavior, am I right?
As these Jewish exiles were packing and preparing, word came to them that King Cyrus wanted to return the booty which King Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the Temple in his last crusade so many years before. Can you believe that? Ezra 1:7 reports: “King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god in Babylon. Cyrus king of Persia had them brought…and counted out for Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah… In all there were 5400 articles of gold and silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they traveled up from Babylon to Jerusalem!” (Ezra 1:7-11)
My friends, I wonder what you see happening here. While it is true there are consequences for sin, it is also true that God’s sovereign purpose will NOT be overcome. King Solomon had written: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails!” (Prov. 19:21)
God had not abandoned His people or His purposes for His people, His city or His Temple! Jeremiah had made that clear! (Jeremiah 29:10-14) Solomon also wrote: “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.” (Prov. 21:30) Nebuchadnezzar’s army had demolished and burned to the ground the great temple of God which King Solomon had built, but not before ransacking the temple and taking from it everything of value.
But nearly 50 years later God had not only moved King Cyrus to free the Jewish captives Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem, but also return, with those captives, all that Cyrus could find of what Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple! God’s purpose of having His name honored again in Jerusalem and the Temple was about to be accomplished as prophesied by His prophet Isaiah 150 years before! (Is. 44:24-28; 45:11-13)
Now let’s pause and ponder this. Could God see your life and mine 100 years ago, or 500 years ago? How is God working TODAY in your city, your family, your life, to accomplish His Sovereign purposes? And are you and I cooperating with God, participating with God or resisting God? Let’s worship with this song and tomorrow we’ll join the huge caravan of nearly 50,000 Jewish captives journeying back to Jerusalem!
Today’s Scripture: Ezra 1:1-11.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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