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A QUICK AND EASY SURVEY OF HEBREW HISTORY

Returning From Captivity

Introduction.  This study is our last stop on a long road.  Over the course of the last couple of years, we have walked with Abraham out of Ur, stood with Israel at Sinai, watched the kingdom rise under David and Solomon, then watched it split, decline, and fall.  Judah went into exile.  Jerusalem burned.  The Temple of Solomon became a heap of stones.  For seven decades the people of God lived as strangers in a strange land.

But now, the story turns.  Exile isn’t the last word.  God had promised a return, and God always keeps His word.  The Book of Ezra tells how a remnant came home, how they rebuilt the altar and the temple, how opposition nearly toppled the work, and how the House of God was finished at last.  The narrative is a window into the character of God and a pattern for every generation that must return form of exile and rebuild what has been lost.

God’s people return.

Moved by God, Ezra 1:1 – 5; 2:1.

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 their God be with them, and let them go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. [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.’ ” [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.  (Ezra 1:1 – 5 | TNIV)

Now these are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive to Babylon (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, all to their own towns…  (Ezra 2:1 | TNIV)

 The Book of Ezra doesn’t begin with a human plan; it begins with God.  Two facts stand side-by-side in the first verse.  First, God had already spoken.  The prophet Jeremiah had already prophesied that the exile would last 70 years and that the Lord would bring His people back.

But if any nation will bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let that nation remain in its own land to till it and to live there, declares the Lord.” ‘ ” [12] I gave the same message to Zedekiah king of Judah. I said, “Bow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and you will live.  (Jeremiah 27:11, 12 | TNIV)

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.”  (Jeremiah 29:10 | TNIV)

And another prophet, Isaiah, had even named Cyrus long before the man was born and had said that this pagan king would rebuild Jerusalem and let the exiles go free.

…who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.” ‘  (Isaiah 44:28 | TNIV)

“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: [13] I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the Lord Almighty.”  (Isaiah 43:1, 13 | TNIV)

Second, God now moves a king’s heart so that the old word becomes a present fact.  History is not a closed system.  Empires rise and fall, but the Lord of heaven can turn the will of the most powerful man on earth as easily as a man turns a watercourse with his hand.

In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.  (Proverbs 21:1 | TNIV)

Cyrus’ decree is truly remarkable.  He doesn’t just permit a private pilgrimage, he authorizes the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord, the God of heaven, invites any of God’s people to go up to Jerusalem, and commands their neighbors to supply all the silver, gold, various goods and livestock, and even freewill offerings!  Persian policy favored the restoration of local temples because it served the empire, but it also served the purpose of God.  The Lord is NOT limited to believers when He chooses instruments.  He used Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and now Cyrus.

Verse 5 is as important as verse 1.  The same God who moved Cyrus also moved His own people to leave Persia and make the long and dangerous trek back to Jerusalem.  Not every Jew in Babylon/Persia packed their bags.  Many had built houses, planted gardens and raised families who had never seen Zion.  Life in exile had become normal.  Return required a second, divine stirring:  Not only an open door in the palace, but an open heart among the people.

Ezra 2:1 names the company to returnees.  The memory of judgment had not been erased.  They are still the exiles.  Yet they are also the people of the province, turned each to their own town, under leaders whose names still matter:  Zerubbabel of David’s line and Joshua the high priest.  Political hope and priestly hope travel together.  God was restoring both worship and a remnant of the royal house.

Here’s a hard question:  When God opens a door, does He also have to move your heart before you will walk through it?  Comfort can be a quieter prison than Babylon.  The first lesson of the return is that restoration begins with God and requires a people whose hearts He has awakened.

Every number is a story, Ezra 2:64 – 70.

The whole company numbered 42,360, [65] besides their 7,337 male and female slaves; and they also had 200 male and female singers. [66] They had 736 horses, 245 mules, [67] 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys. [68] When they arrived at the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site. [69] According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver and 100 priestly garments. [70] The priests, the Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.  (Ezra 2:64 – 70 | TNIV)

Chapter 2 reads like a census and so many Bible readers just skip it.  That’s a big mistake.  The group that returned to Jerusalem numbered 42,360, plus male and female slaves and singers.  So there were at least 50,000 making the trip, which is a small nation, not a picnic party.   They also brought 736 horses, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.  This is a people on the move, with livestock, luggage, and along road from Babylon to Judah.

Every number is a story. Behind 42,360 stand families who left fields they knew for ruins they had only heard about. Behind the 7,337 servants stand households of uneven means. Behind the 200 singers stand men and women who believed that praise belonged on the journey, not only at the destination. The list earlier in the chapter names clans, towns, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, and temple servants. Some could not prove their ancestry and were excluded from priestly service until a priest could consult the Urim and Thummim (2:59-63). Identity mattered. Holiness mattered. This was not a random crowd. It was a covenant remnant trying to come home clean.

When they reached the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, that is, the site where the house had stood, some of the heads of families gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site. They gave according to their ability: 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priestly garments (2:68-69). The site was still rubble. They gave anyway. Faith does not wait for a finished building before it opens its hand.

Then they settled. Priests, Levites, musicians, gatekeepers, temple servants, and the rest of the Israelites took up life again “in their towns” (2:70). Return is not only a moment of departure. It is the long work of putting down roots in the place God has given. Some of those towns were half empty. Some houses were gone. Reoccupation is itself an act of hope.

Do not rush past lists in Scripture. God counts people because people count to God. The church is not a crowd of statistics. It is a company of stories, each one summoned, each one needed, each one invited to give according to ability toward the work of God.

Rebuilding the Temple.

Rebuilding the altar, Ezra 3:1 – 6.

When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled with one accord in Jerusalem. [2] Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. [3] Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices. [4] Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day. [5] After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of the Lord, as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the Lord. [6] On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.  (Ezra 3:1 – 6 | TNIV)

The seventh month arrived. In Israel’s calendar that month held the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Festival of Tabernacles. The people had settled in their towns, but they did not stay scattered. “The people assembled together as one in Jerusalem” (Ezra 3:1). Unity is the first visible fruit of a true return. They came as one because they needed one altar.

Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor, with priests and associates, “began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God” (3:2). Notice the order. They did not wait for walls, courts, or a roof. They rebuilt the altar first. Worship comes before architecture. Sacrifice comes before stonework. They built “on its foundation” on the old site, in continuity with the worship their fathers had known.

They did this “despite their fear of the peoples around them” (3:3). Fear was reasonable. The land was not empty. Neighboring peoples had their own claims and their own gods. A restored altar announced that the God of Israel was back in the midst of his people. That announcement would not be welcomed by everyone. Obedience that waits for fear to vanish will never build an altar. They feared, and they built anyway. Morning and evening sacrifices began again.

Then they kept the Festival of Tabernacles “with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day,” and after that the regular offerings, New Moon sacrifices, appointed festivals, and freewill offerings (3:4-5). The calendar of grace started to tick once more. On the first day of the seventh month there were already offering burnt offerings, “though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid” (3:6).

That last clause is the heart of the paragraph. The temple was still a memory and a hope. The altar was a present fact. You do not need a finished sanctuary in order to meet God. You need a place of atonement and a people willing to come. For Christians, this points beyond Ezra to the one altar that does not need rebuilding: The cross of Christ, where the final burnt offering was made. Yet the pattern still instructs the church. When life has been in ruins, start again with worship. Gather as one. Open the Scriptures. Come to the sacrifice God has provided. Do not postpone obedience until the building program is complete.

Rebuilding the foundation, Ezra 3:7 – 13.

Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia. [8] In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work, appointing Levites twenty years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. [9] Joshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah ) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God. [10] 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. [11] 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. [12] 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. [13] 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.  (Ezra 3:17 – 13 | TNIV)

Work on the house itself began in earnest. They hired masons and carpenters. They paid Sidon and Tyre with food, drink, and olive oil so that cedar could come by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, “as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia” (3:7). The same Phoenician trade route that had supplied Solomon now supplied the remnant. God can recycle old mercies.

In the second month of the second year after their arrival, Zerubbabel, Joshua, the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned from captivity began the work. Levites twenty years old and older were appointed to supervise (3:8-9). Leadership was assigned. Age and calling were respected. The work was not a scramble. It was ordered service.

Then the foundation was laid, and the scene splits into two sounds. Priests in vestments with trumpets, and Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, took their places “to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel.” They sang, “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.”  All the people shouted praise “because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid” (3:10-11).

But many of the older priests, Levites, and family heads who had seen Solomon’s 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” (3:12-13).

Here is one of the most honest pictures in the Bible. Restoration is mixed. The young shout because they see a future. The old weep because they remember a glory this new house cannot match. Haggai will later ask a question:

Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?  (Haggai 2:3 | TNIV)

God does not rebuke the tears. He also does not let the tears stop the work. Both sounds rise together, and both are heard far away.

Churches that rebuild after loss know this mixture. Some remember what used to be. Some know only what is. Ezra 3 gives room for both. Praise the Lord that a foundation exists at all. Grieve what sin and judgment have cost. Then keep building. The God who is good, whose love endures forever, is not finished.

Completing the temple.

Overcoming opposition, Ezra 4:1 – 5, 24.

When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, [2] they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” [3] But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.” [4] Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. [5] They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia. [24] Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.  (Ezra 4:1 – 5, 24 | TNIV)

Success attracts enemies.  The offer of help sounds generous. It is not. These were the mixed peoples settled in the land after the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom. They practiced a blended religion.

Separation is not always schism. Sometimes it is fidelity. The leaders did not deny that these neighbors offered sacrifices. They denied that those neighbors had a share in this particular work. The temple was not a community interfaith project. It was the house of the Lord, built according to his word and the king’s decree.

Rejected partnership became open hostility. Discouragement, fear, and political sabotage: the same three tools still appear whenever God’s people try to rebuild. The campaign lasted for years. Verse 24 states the result with bleak simplicity:

Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.  (Ezra 4:24 | TNIV)

Sixteen years of silence followed the laying of the foundation. The altar stood. The foundation stones lay in the weather. Houses went up. Fields were planted. The temple waited. Haggai later exposes the inner logic of that delay:

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house. ‘ ” [3] Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: [4] “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin? ”  (Haggai 1:2 – 4 | TNIV)

Opposition from without met weariness from within. That combination still stalls more ministries and churches than dramatic persecution does.

Ezra 4 also inserts later letters from the reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes to show that resistance was a pattern, not a one-time event. Do not be surprised when rebuilding draws opposition. Do not accept every offer of help that would dilute the work. Do not assume that a good beginning guarantees a swift ending. Standstill is part of this story. It is not the end of the story.

Finally finished, Ezra 5:1,2; 6:1 – 5; 13 – 17.

 The work did not restart because the enemies grew kind. It restarted because God spoke.

Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.  (Ezra 5:1, 2 | TNIV).

Word and work belong together. Haggai confronted the people’s excuses and promised that the glory of the latter house would be greater than the former (Haggai 2:9). Zechariah called them to return to the Lord and showed them visions of a God who would again choose Jerusalem. The prophets did not replace Zerubbabel and Joshua. They stood with them. Leadership that has grown tired needs a fresh word from God more than it needs a new committee.

The renewed work drew official inquiry. Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, asked who had authorized the building. The Jews appealed to Cyrus’s old decree. The file was not in Babylon. It was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in Media. Darius read the memorandum: the temple was to be rebuilt as a place of sacrifice; dimensions and construction methods were specified; costs were to be paid from the royal treasury; the gold and silver vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar were to be returned (Ezra 6:1-5). What enemies had tried to bury, the archives preserved. God can use a forgotten scroll in a distant fortress.

Darius did more than confirm Cyrus. He ordered Tattenai not to interfere, commanded that expenses be paid in full and without delay, and threatened death and ruin on anyone who altered the edict.

Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence.  (Ezra 6:13 | TNIV).

The same imperial system that had been bribed to stop the work was now required to fund it.

So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.  (Ezra 6:14, 15 | TNIV).

The date is March 515 BC, about twenty-three years after the first return and four and a half years after Haggai and Zechariah had stirred the people again. Two authorities are named, and the divine command stands first. Kings issued decrees. God gave the command.

Then came joy.

The people of Israel, the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. For the dedication of this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel.  (Ezra 6:16, 17 | TNIV).

Compared with Solomon’s dedication, the numbers are modest. Compared with a ruined court and a silent altar, they are a miracle. Twelve goats for twelve tribes say something the remnant needed to hear: all Israel is still in view. The people who came home are few, but the God who brought them home has not reduced his people to a fragment without a future.

The next verses, just beyond our outline, record a Passover kept with purity and joy because “the Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel” (6:22). The whole book of Ezra is that sentence in narrative form. God moves kings. God moves his people. God finishes what he begins.

Conclusion.  We have surveyed Hebrew history from the fathers to the fall, and now to the return. The last chapter of this survey is not a neat “happily ever after.” Judah is still a small province under a foreign king. The second temple is smaller than the first. Many Jews remain scattered. Sin will still need confronting when Ezra the scribe arrives decades later, and the walls will still need rebuilding when Nehemiah comes after him. Restoration in this age is real, and it is unfinished.

That is why this story belongs to the church. We too live between promise and completion. Christ has come. The greater temple, “His body,” has been destroyed and raised (John 2:19-21). By the Spirit we are being built into a dwelling place for God (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-5). Yet we still know exile of heart, stalled work, mixed tears and shouts, and enemies who offer help that would hollow out the gospel. Ezra’s book does not tell us to deny any of that. It tells us to believe that the God who stirred Cyrus can stir us, that every name in the remnant matters, that the altar comes first, that a foundation is worth both weeping and singing over, that opposition is not a veto, and that the house will be finished “according to the command of the God of Israel.”

Returning from captivity is not mainly a change of address. It is a change of center. The people came home in order to build a house for the Lord. If we return only to rebuild our own paneled rooms, we have not yet understood the lesson of Haggai or the joy of Ezra 6. The end of Hebrew history, as this survey has traced it, is not Israel’s glory. It is God’s dwelling again in the midst of a people he has brought back from the grave of exile.

The remnant’s temple was never the last temple. It was the stage God prepared for the coming of the Lord. In that same house an old man named Simeon would one day take a child in his arms and say that he had seen the Lord’s salvation.

Until God finishes all things, the call remains the same as it was in the days of Zerubbabel and Joshua: rise and build. The Lord has moved. The door is open. The work is His.