ReTurn, ReBuild, ReNew - God Prepares the Way for ReTurn

Today we start a new series of messages from the book of Ezra. We’ve titled this series of message Return, Rebuild, Renew. Before we read, I wanted to give you a bit of an introduction to the book, where it fits in the timeline of Biblical History and mention a few other books in the Bible that are related.

In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Ezra and Nehemiah are one book. If you were to compare the books, there is a great deal of overlap as they both tell about the events surrounding the return to Jerusalem after Babylonian captivity.

There is quite the dispute about who the final author of the book of Ezra is. There is no dispute that some of the text was indeed written by him as part of what is referred to as the Ezra Memoir, but some think that both this book and the book of Nehemiah may have been compiled with other writings into one work.

As we will look at an outline of the book, one can divide the book into two main sections:

Ezra 1-6

First Return and Rebuilding under Zerubbabel

Ezra 7-10

Second Return and Renewing of faith under Ezra

We’ll spend roughly 3 weeks on each section. Looking at how God put together the return of His people into Jerusalem, How they rebuilt the temple and the city, and how all of that started with and resulted in a renewal of faith in the Lord God.

Go ahead and open your Bibles to Ezra chapter 1. We are going to read this entire chapter and into chapter 2 a bit. If you are having trouble finding, it, open your Bible to about the halfway point, that should land you somewhere in the book of Psalms. Flip backwards a few books past Job, Esther and Nehemiah. If you made to Chronicles, you went to far…The Jewish people are finishing up their 70 year exile to Babylon that was prophesied about in Jeremiah 29 and then spoke about at length in Daniel. Let’s read...

Ezra 1:1–4 NIV

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: 2 “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. 3 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. 4 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.’ ”

This king Cyrus of Persia had just united the Medes and Persians into one empire and had conquered the Babylonians. This took place roughly 50 years after King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and brought the Jews back as slaves.

Have you ever been in a situation where things are not quite going as you hoped, or even wanted and yet somehow God has spoken a promise to you over that situation and how he would bring you from where you are to what He has for you? I want to read a quick passage from Jeremiah 29...

Jeremiah 29:10–14 NIV

10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

This word was spoken over the nation of Israel during their time of exile in Babylon. Their exile was a result of the compromises they made with what God wanted them to do. Babylonian conquest and capture was seen as a judgement for their lack of following what God wanted.

So they find themselves in Babylon and the prophet Jeremiah sends this prophecy to them in the midst of their time there. The prophecy starts a few verses earlier, but I want to focus on these…let’s read them again.

Jeremiah 29:10–11 NIV

10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

After 70 years they would be brought back to the promise land. God’s plans were always for this to happen. I imagined they questioned what God was doing since they were serving a foreign kingdom in a foreign land for long. In the midst of a difficult situation, we can get a bit disillusioned with our situation and even resort to saying that it’ll never get better.

Jeremiah 29:12–13 NIV

12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

God makes a promise to bring them home, that his plans for them was always their good and then he tells them that they will essentially return to Him in prayer and in seeking Him.

Notice it says “Then you will...” God’s coming to their aid results in their returning, not the other way around. Even in the Old Testament God is a God of grace and mercy. He was the same then as He was when Jesus came and as He is now and will be the same forever.

And then another confirmation of the promise:

Jeremiah 29:14 NIV

14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

I imagine they got this letter from Jeremiah while they sat in Babylon and wondered how God would accomplish this. In their past, Pharoah had to be stricken by plagues in order for them to be released and then they escaped on dry ground as the waters parted in the Red Sea only to return and drown the army of Pharoah. How would God accomplish this next escape?

God would convince a neighboring empire to conquer Babylon and then send the Jews home with gold, silver and other provisions needed to begin the rebuilding process.

Speaking for myself here…I have received a promise from the Lord and immediately began imagining how that promise would come to be. I have never been right. God always amazes me with how He is orchestrating, positioning and placing things in place in order to fulfill the plans He has. It happened in Egypt, in Babylon, in Bethlehem and it’s happening now in Vermont.

They got the prophesy and now they’ve been given the way home by King Cyrus…let’s keep reading...

Ezra 1:5–11 NIV

5 Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. 6 All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings. 7 Moreover, 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. 8 Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 9 This was the inventory: gold dishes 30 silver dishes 1,000 silver pans 29 10 gold bowls 30 matching silver bowls 410 other articles 1,000 11 In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Talk about exceeding expectations. Not only did they get help from their neighbors, but the king released 5400 articles of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar removed from the temple. Just gave them back, encouraged them and sent them return home to Jerusalem.

A promise, a prophecy fulfilled. They were returning home.

Remember the reason for their exile was the nation’s rebellion against God. Part of the return required them to turn away from their selfish ways and return back to God’s ways. To pray, to have faith, to seek God and the promise is that God would be found.

The nation of Israel was returning back to the promise land, back to the holy city of Jerusalem to ultimately reconstruct the temple. They were returning back to relationship with God.

God met them right where they were at. He said He would and He did. Not because they did anything first, but because God loved them. God’s love poured out on them resulted in a return.

This same promise that was for the nation of Israel is for you as well. He showed in the form of a baby in manger who grew to a man who died on a cross and rose again. He made a way back to him in the most unlikeliest of ways. Just as he did in Babylon.

His desire is not that we “do” something for Him. Just as he told the Jews in exile: Call on me, Pray, Trust me. Seek me. I will show myself to you in the midst of your circumstance. Watch what I’ll do with what you are going through.

I want to read verse 5 again as I believe there is a little nugget in there for us. It’s about our willingness to respond...

Ezra 1:5 NIV

5 Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.

These people were waiting for the sign that it was time to go. The sign came, the offer was made and then they “prepared to go up and build.”

As I continue to read God’s word, I see His people in one of three places: Waiting on a promise, waiting for the promise and living in the promise.

Here is what I mean…

There are times when we have no idea what is going on and what in the world we should be doing. I imagine the people of Israel feeling that way as they were carted off to exile. The promise to be rescued had not been given yet.

Then there are times when we think we’ve receive a word from the Lord and we are just waiting on when that might happen. Sometimes it takes 70 years and sometimes it’s quicker, but we’ve got the word, we just don’t have a clue on how.

Then the time comes for the word to be fulfilled, for the promise to come, for the prophecy to be realized. Sometimes the hardest part about this is being willing to take that first step. To put our actions in line with what God is already doing. Our first step to that promise is called faith. We still have no idea how it is all going to work out, but we’re going to point our toes in the direction we are going and we are going to lift our foot and lunged our body forward not fully seeing the ground in front of us except through eyes of faith.

I believe there some of you right now that are thinking of situations in your life where you are feeling that nudge, that prompting that now is the time to step out in faith.

God is saying to you I’ve called you to do something. I’ve been preparing you and other circumstances…it’s time.

There are others where the first step is a step of preparation. He’s revealed his plans to you. You probably didn’t believe them or questioned how it would happen. God has already moved your heart and you need to prepare to go up. You may feel like you have no idea what or you will do it when you get there, but now is the time for you to make your preparations.

Sometimes you get to the promise and then over time the promise loses its luster. It is no longer as exciting as it used to be. Other shiny things are distracting and our focus moves from what it should be to something else. That’s what happened to God’s people just before the exile. They had the promise, yet they didn’t stay focused.

I think we are all either waiting on a promise, waiting for the promise to happen or are living in the promise. Perhaps we are even in transition between them. I want to spend a few moments and pray for you.

Pray for those searching for their promise.

Pray for those who are receiving a promise to have clarity and assurance in the promise.

Pray for those waiting for the promise to happen.

Pray for those who are confronted with the promise happening that they would have faith to make the step.

Pray for those living in the promise to continue to seek God and strengthen that relationship.