A fresh start? Ezra 2-4

Ezra offers a bit of a census for those who return to Jerusalem after their 70 exile in Persia.  Zerubabbel is a descendent of the last of the Judean kings and in the lineage of King David.  Jeshua is the High Priest and is the son of the High Priest slain as Jerusalem is destroyed and the temple demolished.  The names of those returning are all men.  We can expect that women and children and servants return as well.  The Jews were well treated in their exile and many prospered.  Most do not return to Jerusalem.  To those who do not return, they obviously do not consider Israel to be the promised land any longer.  It has been 70 years.  Most will not remember the place of their ancestors except in the stories told by their parents and grand parents.  According to our reading, 42,360 return in this 1st wave of exiles.  Some biblical experts believe that as many as 100,000 others return in additional waves of immigration.  Included in these numbers are remnants of the tribe of Levi, priests and those called to serve the temple.  They return to a devastated land.

The land that was once given to them by God is not empty.  Remember that the poorest had been left behind.  Others from other conquered lands had been moved into the vacated spaces left by the deportation of many of the Judeans.  These had blended into a culture that we will come to know as the Samaritans.....a mixed race that is disdained by the Jews.

This group comes with the blessing of Cyrus the Great.  He sends them back to their homeland to rebuild a temple to God.  Some believe that he even sent them with some resources with which to accomplish their work.  It would have been a long and difficult journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, covering hundreds of miles walking and leading and tending the weak and the weary.  It must have felt much like an exodus of another kind.  When they arrived they found a city in ruins and the ashes of a once splendid place of worship.  They celebrated God's goodness in allowing them to return to a land that had once been promised to them.  They took an offering to begin the sacred work ahead of them.  They found the base of the former altar that had once seen the huge offerings of a great country and they began to rebuild upon that same base.

When the altar was completed, they made offerings to God and they celebrated the Feast of the Tabernacles.  This particular festival was in memory of God's faithful care for Israel as they crossed a wilderness with Moses.  This must have been a very sweet celebration as they gave thanks for God's provision in another crossing of another wilderness and of his preservation of a remnant of those ancient tribes.  Certainly there must have been a prayer lifted that this time they would be more faithful than the generations that had come before them.

Having successfully completed the altar, they began to work on the temple.  That is when new trouble arose in their midst.  The Samaritans offered there help but Zerubabbel refused.  Only those who had kept themselves pure in their service to God, even in exile would be allowed to be a part of this new temple.  This angered those who had been left behind and they began a campaign to 1st discourage the Israelites and when that did not work they began to write letters back to Persia telling about this rebellious and stiff necked people who had a long history of rebelling against authority.  their letter writing worked and the command came from Artaxerxes to cease the building.

Even if we are operating in God's will, we will face obstacles.  There are forces in this world that do not want the Church of Jesus Christ to succeed.  We must see beyond the difficulty and lean on our spiritual understanding of God's purpose in our work.  We must not be deterred.  The salvation of those who have not heard the story is dependent upon our faithfulness.  There is this promise that is woven through this story of return from exile as well:  God will always preserve a remnant.  Ultimately the mighty army of faithful that will grow from that remnant will be lead by a conquering king who will triumph over every evil in this world.  The result of that victory will be a new heaven and a new earth and a new city of Jerusalem.  All of these will be more grand than anything that we can humanly imagine.  Work hard, pray hard and do let yourself be shaken from the remnant. 

God is good and his reward to the faithful will be blessing that is unimaginable.  Serve with gladness and keep a song in your heart.  Hope today is filled with blessing.