2020.06.07 Return of the Exiles
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2 So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid.
3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?”
4 Then the king said to me, “What would you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5 I said to the king, “If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”
6 Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time.
7 And I said to the king, “If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah,
8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me.
1 Now when the wall was rebuilt and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed,
2 then I put Hanani my brother, and Hananiah the commander of the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many.
3 Then I said to them, “Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot, and while they are standing guard, let them shut and bolt the doors. Also appoint guards from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, each at his post, and each in front of his own house.”
4 Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few and the houses were not built.
66 The whole assembly together was 42,360,
67 besides their male and their female servants, of whom there were 7,337; and they had 245 male and female singers.
1 And all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel.
2 Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.
3 He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law.
11 So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.”
12 All the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival, because they understood the words which had been made known to them.
Return of the Exiles
Return of the Exiles
Welcome back … Welcome back … Welcome back
Today’s Scriptures were long because I wanted to give you as much context as possible. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther cover about 100 years at the end of the Old Testament’s history writings. From 586 to 538 B.C. Israel was a conquered nation, carried away in exile.
When we think of an exile, I usually think of every person being moved out of the conquered land, but that’s not how exile works. When one nation conquers another, the last thing they need is the added expense of uprooting every citizen and relocating them. However, they also don’t need the local leadership stickin’ around causing dissension and questioning their authority.
So, exiles usually go in waves. The first wave is the obvious leadership of the area - kings; governors; elected officials. Then, after seeing how the people respond, there may be another wave with more identified leaders, and wealthy people with strong voices get moved out. These waves would rarely remove EVERYONE from the land. They remove enough “higher-ups” so that the “lower-downs” will fall in line with the new rulers.
So for about 50 years, Babylon ruled Israel and Judah. In 539 BC, Persio conquered Babylon, and King Cyrus found Nehemiah a Jew in his court. He trusted Nehemiah, and Nehemiah leveraged that position to get the king’s permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the defensive walls.
The Persian Empire rarely exiled their conquered lands, in fact, Cyrus is known for repatriating exiles BACK to their lands after he defeated Babylon. So, Nehemiah returns with the first wave of homecomers. We may expect their homecoming to be a joyous celebration. We think of soldiers returning from a long war … World War II. We think if celebration in the streets. We would expect music and dancing, perhaps balloons and confetti. We would expect Nehemiah’s return to be an unrelenting party. To say it simply … It is not!
Nehemiah returns to find the destruction left behind by the Babylonians. Imagine an invading army destroys Decatur, burns all the buildings and tears down EVERYthing we value. Then, imagine they leave the rubble laying there … for 50 years. Remembering that Jerusalem was the capital … imagine the scene in Washington, DC. Imagine the people Nehemiah encountered when he returned.
They were defeated in battle 50 years ago … but they were probably completely emotionally defeated by now. Hopeless.
Over the next 94 years, three waves of deportees would return to Israel and Judah. Nehemiah was the leader of the first wave. He encountered destruction, rubble, and a people who likely had no hope of anything improving … ever!
We think we’re tired after 3 months of every-changing rules. We think we’re weary of staying in our smaller circles after a quarter of a year. Their experience was 200 TIMES as long as ours! No one alive remembered the prior Jerusalem. All they’d ever known was a desolate, destroyed city. Imagine trying to recruit help after 50 years of community depression.
They had surely developed some idea of ‘normal.’ But their normal was nothing of what it was before the exile.
[But] it must be remembered that Jerusalem and the surrounding cities had been devastated by the Babylonians, and that living conditions for most of those still living in the land must have been less than ideal.
--Halley, H. H. (2000). Halley’s Bible handbook with the New International Version. (Completely rev. and expanded., p. 292). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
And perhaps your homecoming today isn’t what you’d expect, or what you’d want. We have all sorts of regulations in place, and we have to sit far apart from each other. Some churches aren’t singing at all in worship. You weren’t greeted with the usual hugs and handshakes. What we enjoyed before has been diminished in almost every aspect, but we’re only experiencing a small sliver of what Nehemiah and his crew experienced when they returned. And I can assure you, while you were away, living conditions for those [of us] still living in this land have been less than ideal.
Most historians would proclaim Nehemiah’s accomplishment a success of (pardon the pun) biblical proportions. Biblical historians would call Nehemiah’s accomplishments miraculous.
He rallied the locals and led the effort to rebuild the walls as his first act. Protection was his first order of business, as it has been here. They rebuilt the walls of the city in 52 days! FIFTY-TWO DAYS! That’s while all of the neighboring mayors, governors, and rulers accused him of preparing for battle and demanded his time to gain an in-person explanation. They plotted to assassinate Nehemiah to put an end to his “plot” to rebuild Jerusalem.
If his return was so successful, let’s look at what he did.
First, he inspected the walls. He looked to see the size of his project, and he did so at night. No one in the land knew he was even there!
In case you haven’t taken the opportunity yet, I want to give you a moment to look around. Survey the land. See what’s different than before. See what’s different than you expected. Without surveying the land, you can’t make plans for the future … and people who follow Jesus HAVE to consider the future in order to build his Kingdom here on earth. [give them time to look around]
Second, he issues a call for cooperative action.
Nehemiah 2:16-20
16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; nor had I as yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials or the rest who did the work.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach.”
18 I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they put their hands to the good work.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard it, they mocked us and despised us and said, “What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
20 So I answered them and said to them, “The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem.”
From beginning to end, Nehemiah was challenged by people wanting to distract him from the important work to be done. Sanballat and Tobiah are a pain in Nehemiah’s side until the walls and gates are completed.
Who are the distractions in your life? Maybe they have names like: work, or family. Maybe they have names like: status, reputation, or respect, wealth, or control. What or who is trying to pull you away from the work you know God would have you do?
As Nehemiah rallies the people to do this work, he repeated deflects Sanballat and Tobiah; their messengers; and the threats they whisper in secret. When they can’t stop the work, their first effort is to mock the Jews. I’m sure none of you have ever been mocked or ridiculed for doing what’s right … ahem .. but that’s what the Jews were experiencing.
When you’re doing God’s work, and you’re being opposed, listen to the words of the Jews’ prayer from Nehemiah 4:
4 Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity.
5 Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders.
DANG!
Nehemiah isn’t delayed even by bickering within the Jewish camp. In Chapter 5, he discovers that some are lending money to others at ridiculous rates that effectively enslave people to their debt-holders. So, Nehemiah (who was named Jerusalem’s governor by King Cyrus) outlaws such practice and moves on with the work.
In the middle of an important work, he refuses to let people be taken advantage of … so he ends it, and returns to his important work.
At the beginning of Chapter 6, the walls are all in place, but the gates aren’t fixed yet. Sanballat sends FIVE different messengers to setup a meeting with Nehemiah. He tells them all that he’s too busy to meet with them.
3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”
I want you to hear a couple of things based on this story:
First, the global, universal Church of Jesus Christ has not been diminished because of our temporary exile!
Second, we need to join together for cooperative action!
Third, this cooperative action MUST be for the good of God’ Kingdom. Our own comfort, wealth, and even our building MUST be sacrificed as distractions to the charge of Jesus’ Kingship! We exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ. We cannot let anything distract us from that task.
The world has been dramatically changed. Our building has been dramatically changed. Our processes and procedures have dramatically changed.
Our MISSION HAS NOT!
We exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and everything else must accept secondary status or be fully removed if it refuses that position.
On Easter, I told you that 11,572 souls confess to not knowing Jesus on surveys. I assure you, there are more than that, but if we start with 11,572 souls … we can see we have cooperative action to take.
I’m willing and ready to lay down my own distractions so that I might be effective in that mission. If you’d like to know how that might look:
We envision a Christ-centered community of prayer and fellowship, reaching out with the hope and love of God.
We will roll out of this exile differently than we rolled into it. And I pledge to do my best to lead like Nehemiah into the uncertainty of today with the hope of tomorrow. I renew my pledge to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and am willing to sacrifice everything else for that effort.
Because HE sacrificed everything for that effort. He laid down his life and picked it back up again so that I might enjoy the privilege of being a part of his family.
As we join in Holy Communion today, we’re doing it differently. But the “how” and even the “what” don’t matter. The “why” is what matters.
We celebrate Holy Communion because Jesus told us to.
We celebrate Holy Communion because Jesus laid down his life, and picked it back up again.
We celebrate Holy Communion because he invites us to lay down our lives and pick HIS life back up moving forward.
We celebrate Holy Communion because He will return in his glory at the end of time.
And so,
With God’s people on earth
And all the company of heaven
We praise his name and join their unending hymn:
HOLY HOLY HOLY LORD
GOD OF POWER AND MIGHT
HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE FULL OF YOUR GLORY
HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD
HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST
[Pastor Ernie prays over the elements]