The Story Ch 19: The Return Home

Cold Open

Hey Dublin Powell youth! Hope everyone had a great week, it’s time or our time of study together again. This week we are looking at The Story Chapter 19, which follows the faithful remnant of God’s people as they return home to rebuild the temple after it was destroyed by God’s judgment. It is Sunday, August 16th, let’s get into it.

Intro Videos

Introduction

So last week we followed Daniel and his friends as they navigated life as faithful Jews in exile, serving God steadfastly while also serving as officers in the Babylonian empire, and it nearly cost each of them their lives! We finished off last week with the prophesy of Jeremiah, who brought the word of the Lord to the Jewish people that some day soon the Lord would return His people to the land He had given their ancestors! This week, that time has finally come! The Lord’s people are coming home.

A New King in Persia

Babylon falls to Persia, and there is a new ruler of the region. Cyrus, the king of Persia, had his heart moved by the Lord. Cyrus is generally considered a just and benevolent leader, relative to the Babylonian rulers who had come before him. Under Cyrus, Persia began to reverse the policy of deportation that the Babylonians had instituted on conquered peoples, including the Jews. In fact, Cyrus appears to have been specifically instructed by the Lord to allow His people to return home, and build the temple:

Ezra 1:2–4 NIV

“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “ ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”

Cyrus even return the items that the Babylonians had stolen when they destroyed the temple, so that they could return to the new temple. It’s clear from these actions that Cyrus has great respect for Yahweh.

The Return

Zerubbabel, who had been made governor of Judah by Babylon, led the first main group of Jews back to Jerusalem, over 40,000 of them! Zerubbabel was also the last of the line of David that would rule in the Promised Land.

When Zerubbabel and the people reached Jerusalem, the first thing they did with the formal temple sight was build an altar to sacrifice burnt offerings to God, for the first time in about 40 years, God’s chosen people worshipped Him in the site He had chosen for them.

When they began to lay the foundation for the new temple, there was a great celebration!

Ezra 3:10–13 NIV

When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

This was an emotional moment for the Jewish people, rebuilding once again the house of the name of the Lord, where Yahweh would dwell among his people.

Obstacles

However, it was not all easy, soon after temple construction began, the people who had settled around Judah after the Israelite exile decided that the reestablishment of the temple would threaten their new influence in the region, and they bribed other local officials and disrupted the construction for over a decade.

During the reign of King Darius, who succeeded King Cyrus, the prophet Haggai came to the Jews in Jerusalem and chastised them for being discouraged from their work on the temple, saying:

Haggai 1:4–11 NIV

“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

Haggai reveals that the Lord has not been blessing the efforts of the Jews because they abandoned work on the temple, and so their work began again!

More Obstacles

Once again the people around Judah sought to disrupt the efforts to build the temple, and Tattenai , the governor of Trans-Euphrates, wrote a letter to king Darius, asking him to confirm that King Cyrus had indeed commanded the temple construction. It’s interesting that even in their letter, the people of Trans-Euphrates, who plotted against the Jews, referred to the temple as “The temple of the great God.” The Lord had surely made his name known through His power displayed through His relationship with His people.

King Darius responded that of course King Cyrus had issued the decree! And further, the funds needed to complete the temple would come directly from the income of the province of Trans-Euphrates! Remember this theme of people who plot against the Jews often having to do the exact opposite of their goals, we will see this again in weeks to come!

Temple Completion

In 516 BC, the temple is completed. It is not as large as Solomon’s temple, but it will have a much longer life. Priests were established from among the Levites and the people of Israel celebrated the dedication of the house of the name of the Lord, taking up many offerings as sin offerings for all of Israel.

What does it mean?

Christians in 2020 are a lot like the Jewish people in exile. We do not have a home, a nation to call our own, we are waiting here in Babylon for God’s timing, when we will all go home! There’s a lot of references in this section the “the remnant” of people who stayed faithful to God in exile and returned to rebuild the temple when the opportunity arose! We must focus daily on not being too comfortable in our “Babylon”, focusing on staying faithful to our Lord as we are told in 1 Peter 2:11 to

1 Peter 2:11 NIV

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

Our time is coming where the kingdoms of this world will fall away and Jesus will call home all those who are in Him! Let us be prepared to lift a shout of celebration on that day like the Jews did at the temple site!

Next Week

Next week, we’re going to look into how God worked for the good of His faithful people who remained in exile in the story of Esther, it’s one of my favorites! Let me pray for us before we go: Lord, thank you for calling us to be your people, and thank you for the hope that we will one day go home to be with you. As we spend our time here, exiles in Babylon, strengthen our faith and let us be your faithful remnant in this world, waiting with joyful hope for the time that we can go home. Thank you for Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.