The Return Home

Intro

Good morning church! It’s good to be gathered with you all again in worship. We are continuing our series of The Story today. Last week, we saw how God provided for those who were faithful to Him while scattered across Babylon in exile. Because God’s judgement had come on the nation of Israel and through the Assyrians and the Babylonians He had defeated them and taken them away from the land that was promised to Abraham.

New Rulers of Israel

The Babylonians were overthrown by the Persians, and Israel was now under the control of King Cyrus of Persia.

The Persians had a very different way of interacting with their conquered peoples. Under Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonians diluted conquered cultures as much as possible, carrying away the best and brightest of Israel and integrating them into the service of the Babylonian king. This way they would lose their own identity and over time gain a stronger and stronger Babylonian identity. King Cyrus on the other hand had a different approach. The Persian Empire practiced tolerance towards all of its people, allowing them to retain their own language, religion, and way of life if they submitted to Persia. Cyrus even put into writing on a clay cylinder what is thought to be one of the earliest written declarations of human rights in ancient history, condemning the Babylonian practices of forced labor and religious persecution, and declaring that people should be able to live in peace and worship their gods.

As part of God’s story, Isaiah prophesied that under Cyrus they would be able to return to Judah and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

Prophesy

Paraphrase this:

Isaiah 44:24–28 ESV

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins’; who says to the deep, ‘Be dry; I will dry up your rivers’; who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ”

Here’s the thing about Isaiah’s prophesy, it was made in the 8th Century B.C, over 150 years before Cyrus and the Persians came to power in the region.

God had called Cyrus by name before he was even born to allow His people to return home and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. This prophesy was repeated in Jeremiah, who did not mention Cyrus by name but instead specified the time at which the return would take place, 70 years after the desolation of Israel at the hands of Babylon.

Cyrus, for his part, lives up to the prophesy, which brings us to today’s scripture reading.

Ezra 1:1–4 ESV

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

Judah Restored (For Christ’s work)

We’ve talked a bit over the last several weeks about how Judah had to be preserved by the Lord, because it was promised that through the house of David, the Messiah would come.

Remember Genesis 49:10 which says

Genesis 49:10 ESV

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

And so it is through Cyrus, and his decree that the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the Levites and the priests, and some from other tribes began to return to Jerusalem.

The first return

All totaled, the first caravan returning to Jerusalem had 42,360 Jews, 7,337 servants, 200 singers, 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys. When they return to Jerusalem they gathered together to rebuild the altar so that they could sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord. And after they had been back in Jerusalem for two years, the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, and there was a great celebration. The people and the priests and the builders gathered and they sang out, giving thanks to the Lord saying:

“He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” Ezra 3:11

Imagine how impossible this moment would’ve seemed just a few decades before, when Israel had been destroyed, and the remaining faithful people in Judah watched as the Babylonians invaded and tore down every last stone of the great temple build by Solomon. Who had been carried away far from home and told that their nation, their identity no longer existed, that their existence was now for the benefit of Babylon.

And then watching as an even more fearsome and powerful military conquered the conquerors, as Babylon was conquered by Cyrus.

There is a story from the Greek historian Herodotus that as Cyrus was marching to conquer Babylon the great river Gyndes swept away one of the king’s white horses and drowned it. So Cyrus stopped his army’s march and set out work parties to dig 360 trenches off of the river that would be small streams, and this once great river that could be crossed only with the help of boats could be crossed by a woman without wetting her knees. How fearsome would such a man seem who came to lay siege on Babylon after bringing even a raging river to submission.

But, as we know, God has a different plan for Cyrus, and he was good to the Jews, and by his royal decree a faithful remnant of God’s people were now back in Jerusalem making sacrifices at the altar to the Lord. That had to be quite a celebration in Jerusalem.

Stalled constructions

Unfortunately, that celebration and ferver wouldn’t last long. You see the people of the nations surrounding Judah remembered how powerful Israel had been when God was with them, and so they plotted against the Jews and wrote to Artaxerxes, who was then the king of Persia. They persuaded Artaxeres to order the construction to stop, and it remained stopped for the rest of Artaxerxes reign.

Prophet’s Rebuke, Renewed Work

So the Jews continued on living in Jerusalem, but without the temple. I imagine that being one of the Jews who had left Babylon to return to Israel and rebuild the temple at THIS point is a little bit like if THIS was the first season you decided to buy season tickets for Buckeye football. Or if you drove all the way across the country to visit the grand canyon… and the day you were there it was so foggy you couldn’t see 6 feet in front of you. They got to where they were going but there was no payoff! No big moment! Work on the temple just… stopped.

That is, until the prophet Haggai came along. Haggai rebuked the people, saying to them:

Haggai 1:6–8 ESV

You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.

You see the people of God had been living in the promised land, but they hadn’t been fulfilled. They had their harvest and their land and their clothes but SOMETHING was missing.

Have you ever had one of those days where things just didn’t feel right? Where no matter what you did or said nothing quite felt satisfying? Have you ever eaten your favorite meal with stuffy sinuses? Put that delicious steak in your mouth only to find you couldn’t quite taste it like you usually could and you definitely can’t breathe while you’re chewing! And you know that what you’re eating is delicious but you just can’t ENJOY it because your body isn’t healthy enough to?

The body of God’s people isn’t healthy when Haggai begins prophesying. They aren’t fulfilling the purpose that the Lord brought them back to Jerusalem to complete. And so the people of Israel they are working but not building wealth, they are eating but not being filled, they are sowing their fields but harvesting little, they are putting on clothes just to find they they are still cold. They are living out of sync with their purpose and they can feel it in their bones.

And God moved the people through Haggai, and Zerubbabel, who was a descendant of David and the Persian-appointed governor of Judah, ordered work to continue again. This time, when the people around them appealed to the king, the new King Darius found the decree that Cyrus had made, ordering the temple to be built. And as a result Darius decreed that not only should construction continue, but that the very leaders who complained to him about it should fund the construction from their own tax revenue!

Temple Completed

Six years into Darius’ reign, the temple was completed. They offered hundreds of burnt offerings to the Lord and 12 male goats as a sin offering, one for each of the tribes of Israel. And the next year they celebrated the Passover, back in the land that God has given them, in the temple of the Lord.

While the Jews had been in exile, the Passover celebration had had an extra line sneak at the end, which has lasted in some Jewish communities to this day as something that is sung at the end of the meal.

“L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim” - next year, in Jerusalem

You see it was the great hope of God’s people to be able to return to the place the Lord had chosen for them to celebrate this important holiday in the temple where the Lord’s name would reside among them.

There are two parts of that prayer, one is obvious, we might call it the lower story, for the immediate restoration of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.

The other, upper story meaning is a prayer of ultimate redemption for God’s people, redemption that would be complete generations later through Jesus Christ.Faithful Remnant

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 Jews eventually returned to Jerusalem in the years leading up to the completion of the second temple. This was but a small portion of the Jews living in Persia at the time, so what was going on?

In Ezra chapter 1 it actually says that “everyone whose spirit God had stirred” was traveling home to Jerusalem, everyone whose spirit God had stirred.

I guess that’s interesting to me because the Jews are not suffering in Persia. They’re not besieged by enemies on all sides, or suffering wave after wave of invasion as God brings His judgement down on His sinful people.

In fact under Persian rule the Jews had even more freedoms and security than they had under the Babylonians. And Bryant taught last week about Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, and the tests of faith they had under the Babylonian kings, but in those tests God had mightily delivered His people, and made such a strong case for His own power and glory that by royal decree all in Babylon were required to fear Yahweh!

Compared to many other times in the recent history of the Jews, they had it pretty good. So it seems like some of them simply decided not to go.

Now, I don’t know how many of the people of Israel God intended to return to Jerusalem to build this temple, obviously by God’s will enough people went to get the job done! But only a small remnant of God’s people actually went back to rebuild the house of the Lord.

This stuck out to me because WE, right now, are God’s people in exile. Christians all around the world are living far from our home with our Father. Look at how Peter writes to the Christians in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia:

1 Peter 2:11 ESV

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Now, some Christians around the world have it hard, much harder than others. Some of us, like Christians in the United States, are quite comfortable. We have beautiful church buildings and good jobs and Christian community and a cultural influence and inalienable rights to worship written in the Constitution itself.

But at the end of the day we are just like the Jews in Persia, living in a stranger’s land until our Father declares it is time for us to return home. Consider the parable of the 10 virgins.

Paraphrase this:

Matthew 25:1–13 ESV

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

There are 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom to arrive, but only half of them brought any oil for their lamps! So when the bridegroom was approaching, the foolish ones turn to their friends who had brought oil and say “hey! give us some! our lamps are going out!” But the wise virgins did not bring enough to share! so the 5 foolish ones ran to the market in search of the oil. By the time they returned, the wedding party had entered, and shut the door behind them as the feast began! The virgins knocked on the door but the bridegroom said to them “I do not know you”.

So I want to ask you, today, when God calls His people home, are you living your life preparing for that moment? Or are you comfortable in Persia, perhaps even too comfortable to go home when called? Are you waiting eagerly to go home to the New Jerusalem or are you satisfied because life here in Shawnee Hills isn’t as bad as it used to be. Are you satisfied with your portion here in Ohio, or like the Jews who Haggai spoke to, do things just not seem fulfilling until you can do them at home with God?

Like the Jewish people in exile, let our prayer always be for L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerusalayim, for the ultimate redemption of creation that God has promised.

Unbeliever invitation

Do you need to answer God’s call today, to return home? Just like the Jews were called to return to Jerusalem and build the temple, we are called today to profess our faith in Christ and be baptised for the forgiveness of our sins, so that the Holy Spirit will dwell within us, making our very bodies a temple for the Lord.

You see in the fullness of God’s story He sent His only Son to heart, where He lived a perfect, sinless life. He suffered the death that we all deserve for our sins, and then rose again on the third day and ascended to Heaven, so that all those who believe in Him and obey His Gospel would be saved.

Christian invitation

Or maybe you’ve already answered God’s call but you’ve stopped working on your temple. Maybe, like the Jews, you stopped working on your temple because the people you’ve been around have discouraged you, maybe you’ve simply gotten comfortable again.

Whatever need exists in your life, we would appreciate the opportunity to pray with you this morning. Won’t you make that need known while we stand and sing.