Ezra: A First Person Reflection on the Exile, the Return, and the Future (pt 1)
Welcome. It’s good to see you!
In the 2500 years since I lived on earth, I’ve enjoyed meeting my heroes of the faith. Some, like Barnabas and Stephen lived after I did, but I admired their work. Some, like Job, Caleb, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael... (oh... you may know them by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), some lived before I did, so I learned from their examples.
Please forgive me for not introducing myself. I am Ezra. I am, by vocation, a priest and a scribe [Ezra 7:11], a record keeper. By avocation, I am a teacher of the Law [7:10]. I served the Lord during the Restoration of Israel, the most exciting time in our history since the Exodus.
Both as a record keeper and a teacher, history is important to me. For some of you history may be a boring list of names and dates. Others may view it as a series of events. I like what English speaking Christians have done with the word “history,” defining it as “His story,” the story of the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Redeemer. I like that play on words. Too bad it doesn’t work in Hebrew.
For the devout among God’s people in my day, history was more than just a series of events. It was much more than a boring list of names and dates. Our history was the realization, the unfolding, the fulfilment of prophecy.
Fulfilled prophecy is powerful evidence for the Jewish faith under the old covenant and the Christian faith under the new covenant, a claim no other religion can make. It is powerful evidence for the inspiration of scripture, a claim no other book can make. In most of your lifetimes, Jehovah’s Witnesses have tried and failed to predict the second coming of Jesus. In some of your lifetimes, they have tried more than once or twice. In a recent century, Joseph Smith Jr, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, claimed to be a prophet while repeatedly failing the biblical test for a prophet. Almost 200 years later they still claim to be led by an unbroken, though repeatedly discredited, succession of prophets.
Some people perform intellectual somersaults to find prophecy in the rambling verses of Nostrodamus. Their intellectual somersaults are more impressive than his rambling verses.
Years ago, on New Year’s Eve, broadcasters on one of your TV shows saved check-out line tabloids from a year earlier when famous psychics made predictions for the new year. As I recall, their accuracy ranged from a low of 0% to a high of less than 20%. They looked ahead only one year, into events already unfolding in the lives of people already known. I do not understand how those psychics became rich and famous failures with a faithful following.
In the years since I lived on earth, I’ve had the chance to talk with Isaiah about his prophecies. Are you students of scripture? Have you read Is? What do you think is his most amazing prophecy?
[take answers, which will surely include the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53.]
Isaiah eventually staggered his twentieth century critics. Again and again he was 100% accurate looking forward hundreds of years. Compare that to the psychics looking ahead one year.
It’s now obvious that the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is the Messiah. At the time the prophecy was given, I don’t think anyone realized that. They were looking for a kingly Messiah even greater than David himself. I haven’t gotten Isaiah to admit this, but I don’t even think he understood the prophecy, but he reported it faithfully.
Let’s look at a few of the prophecies from Isaiah 53.
The Messiah will be a sacrifice for sin, 53:5-12. Paul explained the fulfillment in Romans 5:6-8.
Messiah will be silent before His accusers, 53:7, fulfilled in Mark 15:4-5.
Messiah will be buried with the rich, 53:9, fulfilled in Matthew 27:57-60.
Messiah will be counted among the criminals, 53:12, fulfilled in Matthew 27:38.
There was a time when skeptics claimed that the prophecies in Isaiah 53 were too detailed, too specific, too accurate to be mere coincidence. I agreed. But then the skeptics argued that the ONLY logical explanation was that Isaiah was written after the gospels and patterned the suffering Servant after what the gospels wrote about Jesus.
Then a Bedouin shepherd left his sheep and goats to look for a stray. He found a cave in a crevice among the limestone cliffs. He tossed a rock in. Instead of hearing a “thud” when it hit, he heard something break. With a cousin and a friend, he entered the cave and found clay jars holding the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Prior to that day, the oldest known copy of Isaiah in your modern world was dated between 800 and 900 AD. The first handful of scrolls he brought out included a copy of Isaiah 900 - 1000 yrs older than previously found mss. Pieces of that scroll have been carbon 14 dated four times. The latest of those dates, the latest, is a century before, not centuries after, Jesus lived.
Isaiah really enjoyed the looks on his critics faces when that news came out. Isaiah accurately prophesied. Fulfilled prophecy is powerful evidence for the Jewish faith under the old covenant and the Christian faith under the new covenant, a claim no other religion can make. It is powerful evidence for the inspiration of scripture, a claim no other book can make.
Isaiah staggered his twentieth century critics. Again and again he was 100% accurate looking forward hundreds of years.
Isaiah’s prophecies of the suffering Servant get the most attention, but Isaiah 49:6 is his most staggering prophecy. It is dear to my heart. I may be biased because I lived during part of the fulfilment.
“It is too light a thing that you should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Do you understand how staggering that prophecy is?... No?... Try to put yourself in the place of an exile. Assyria had destroyed the northern kingdom and scattered the people. Then Babylon devastated the southern kingdom. We were exiled. It was inconceivable that we would ever return, much less become a nation again. It was barely conceivable that future generations would even remember we had ever existed. Before the exile began, God inspired Isaiah to prophesy that Israel would be preserved and that the light of His salvation would reach the end of the earth. To discouraged exiles, that sounded like utter nonsense.
But Assyria fell to Babylon. Babylon fell and we returned. The Medo-Persian Empire perished but Israel was preserved. The Greek Empire rose, conquered the known world, and fell but Israel went on. Then Roman Empire came. Jesus came. He died but rose again. Missionaries carried His light to the ends of the empire and beyond. Even Rome could not outlive the One it had allowed to be crucified. The light of God’s love, the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone has shown on every continent. Isaiah 49:6 came true, though it defied the combined imaginations of world empires for a thousand years, though it defied the combined imaginations of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and even of God’s own people.
I am reminded of the opening lines of Genesis. What happened every time God said, “Let there be...”? Every time God said, “Let there be,” inevitably “there was...”
Do you remember the bumper sticker theology popular in the US a few decades ago? “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” Do you know what’s wrong with that bumper sticker statement? “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” The middle line doesn’t belong. When God says it, THAT settles it, whether I believe it or not.
When God says “let there be,” the “there was” is so certain, that when Isaiah received a prophecy hundreds of years in advance, he was not limited to writing it in future tense. He could correctly write it in both past and present tenses.
“But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed,” Isaiah 53:5.
God gave this prophecy. The fulfilment was certain. Is could write “He WAS pierced,” “He WAS crushed,” and “upon Him WAS the chastisement.” He could write in past tense as if it had already come true. He could write “with His wounds we ARE healed.” Isaiah could write in present tense as if we were already enjoying the promise. When God says it, that settles it.
Fulfilled prophecy is powerful evidence for the Jewish faith under the old covenant and the Christian faith under the new covenant, a claim no other religion can make. It is powerful evidence for the inspiration of scripture, a claim no other book can make.
I have said all of this as an introduction to my reflection on the Exile, the Return, and the future.
I said that for the devout of God’s people in my day, history was more than a boring list of names and dates. It was more than a series of events. History was the fulfilment of prophecy.
God warned us that we would be defeated and scattered if we did not obey the covenant.
“I AM the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. But if you will not listen to Me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn My statutes, and if your soul abhors My rules, so that you will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant, then I will do this to you... I will set My face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And I Myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled,” Leviticus 26:13-16, 17, 32.
That’s exactly what happened. This prophecy became our history. First, Shalmaneser V led the Assyrians to defeat the northern kingdom of Israel and deported the people in 722 BC.
Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar replaced Assyria as the world power in 605 BC. He promptly invaded the southern kingdom of Judah. He attacked twice more, destroying Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC.
The prophecy of Leviticus 26, that we would be defeated and scattered if we did not obey the covenant, had been fulfilled.
The prophecy of Jeremiah 25 also became our history. After prolonged disobedience, but before the Babylonian exile, the Lord promised that the Exile would only be 70 years.
“This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Then after 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste,” Jeremiah 25:11-12.
The Persians formed alliances and intermarried with the Babylonians, but they were not to be trusted. Cyrus II conquered Media in 549 BC and formed the Medo-Persian empire. The combined armies of the Persians and Medes defeated Babylon 10 years later, 539 BC.
Suddenly, the Exile was over. We were allowed to return, though few did at the time. God revealed much of this to Isaiah.
“Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them,” Isaiah 13:17-19.
Isaiah describes the Medes, who by this time are united with the Persians, as ruthless in battle. They slaughter young men. If pregnant women get in their way, they have no mercy. The splendor, the pomp that had been Babylon, would look like Sodom and Gomorrah after God Himself had rained down fire.
God used Babylon to judge His people. Eventually, God would use the Medes to judge Babylon. The end of the Exile only began the return of God’s people as a nation. Remnants returned in multiple waves. We still had lessons to learn about devotion, repentance, and providence.
The Persian Empire is in the background as God continues to prepare His people for the coming Redeemer. Three historical books, mine, Nehemiah, and Esther, are set in the Return. Three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, ministered during the Return.
I began my book by writing,
“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 & also put it in writing: ‘Thus says Cyrus k 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,’” Ezra 1:1-3.
“The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.” The Hebrew phrase, “stirred up the spirit,” can also be translated “stirred the heart” or “aroused.” It occurs often in Restoration writings. It’s a way of showing that God is in control. What He wills will happen.
God willed for this decree to be made “that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled.” God said it. That settled it. It had to happen. So what was that “word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah?”
“For thus says the Lord: When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you My promise and bring you back to this place,” 29:10.
The prophecy of Jeremiah 29 had been fulfilled. It became our history.
Remember that Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus to send a remnant to rebuild the Temple. We’ll mention that phrase again.
Do you recall those first three verses from my book? Some people read too much into them When Cyrus decreed that “the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth,” some people think he was a true believer. Scripture and history tell us he was a pagan. He believed Ahura Mazda was the god of heaven. Isaiah tells us he did not know the true God.
“Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him... For the sake of My servant Jacob, & Israel My chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know Me. I am the Lord, & there is no other, besides Me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know Me,” Isaiah 45:1, 4-5.
His victory over Babylon, recorded on an archaeological artifact, the Cyrus Cylinder, includes a line translated as, “May all the gods, whom I brought into their cities, pray daily before Bêl and Nabû for long life for me, and may they speak a gracious word for me and say to Marduk, my lord...”
He was not a believer in the one true God. Writing, “the Lord,” in his decree suggests that he allowed Jewish leaders to write or help in writing it. For them, “the Lord” is “the God of heaven.” He is above all so-called gods and He gave Cyrus victory. Cyrus was a polytheist who believed local people had local gods. Instead of mocking the people and the gods he thought his gods defeated, he wanted those people and their gods praying to his gods to bless him. That’s why he let people the Babylonians and Assyrians deported to return to their homes, to pray to their local gods for his blessing.
Listen again to that line from the Cyrus Cylinder. “May all the gods, whom I brought into their cities [the idols he returned to the cities from which they were taken], pray daily before Bêl and Nabû [2 of his gods whom he thought defeated the local gods] for long life for me, and may they speak a gracious word for me and say to Marduk, my lord [another of Cyrus’ gods]...”
There were no idols to return to Jerusalem, but he did send back the Temple vessels. He deluded himself by thinking his gods defeated the God of Israel and that the God of Israel would pray to Cyrus’ lifeless idols.
Still, this was an exciting moment in Israel's history. Last year, they were exiles in Babylon. Now, the most devoted of them can return home to build the Temple! Can you imagine the eager anticipation these returning exiles must have felt?
Psalm 126:1-3: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.”
We would think that surely they had learned from their fathers’ mistakes. Surely they would avoid their fathers’ sins. Surely, this time, they would get it right! Surely, this time, they would be completely devoted to God.
We don’t have time for the details now, but we’ll be disappointed next week. First they give up on building the Temple. God gets them going again. Then they give up following God’s word. Like their fathers before them, they marry pagans. God restores them before they fall completely into idolatry. Eventually, instead of presuming on God’s grace as their fathers had done, they become slaves to the Law instead of God. The story disappoints us. How much more it must have disappointed God.
But these disappointments will not be the end. The people will rebuild the Temple. They will rebuild the wall. God will rebuild the people and the covenant.
Eventually, God will use these events to give a new covenant and the Redeemer Who was first promised in Genesis 3:15.
It’s a wonderful story. I look forward to sharing it with you next week.
Thank You, Father, for fulfilling so many of Your promises in the past. Help us to trust You to fulfill Your ongoing promises for the present and Your great promises for the future. Thank You for loving us divinely.
Please help us to learn from the mistakes of Your people in the past. Help us to always trust You, always obey You, and always love You.
In the name of Your Son, our Redeemer, we pray.
Amen
