Rebuilding The Temple: Ezra's Journey

Last week we talked about how Israel was taken into captivity in Babylon. And during that time God continued to be with his people, even after they had failed him so completely. He worked through people like Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo. Daniel saw many dreams and visions, and even saw the coming of the messiah, and the end times.

So now we talk about the return home. And we see two predictions made, by Jeremiah and Isaiah, old testament prophets being fulfilled here. First of all God proclaimed through Jeremiah these words from Jeremiah 29:10, “This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.”

So God made it clear, Israel would be in Babylon in captivity for 70 years, but then would return home.

God also spoke through the prophet Isaiah, who wrote these words from Isaiah 44:28, “When I say of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,’ he will certainly do as I say.

He will command, ‘Rebuild Jerusalem’; he will say, ‘Restore the Temple.’”

And that’s exactly what happens as we’ll see. You can open your Bibles to Ezra chapter 1. And it says, “1 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given through Jeremiah. He stirred the heart of Cyrus to put this proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom:

2 “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Any of you who are his people may go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem. And may your God be with you! 4 Wherever this Jewish remnant is found, let their neighbors contribute toward their expenses by giving them silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock, as well as a voluntary offering for the Temple of God in Jerusalem.”

So they gather up their supplies, and it says God stirred in the hearts of the levites, the priestly class of the Jews, to lead this effort. They gather up everything they need, and Cyrus even provides for them the original artifacts from the original temple that was pillaged by Babylon, to take with them to rebuild the temple.

In total 42,360 men returned to Israel. In chapter 2 of ezra it’s actually documented how many men came from each tribe and their various lineages. 42,360 men, so if we add in women and children, it’s probably around 100,000 people who returned to Judah from Babylon.

We see two main leaders emerge from this group returning, their names are Jeshua, he is the prophet/priest figure, and Zerubbabel, the political leader. As we’ve seen in previous books of the Old Testament, in Israel there would always be a prophet and a king.

So they gather supplies and take donations from people and they begin work on rebuilding the foundation of the temple, just where the original sat. So imagine this, you’ve come back to Judah, to Jerusalem, the capital. And it’s in ruins. I mean it’s burned out. And you’ve gotta somehow try to rebuild. And not only that, the city and the lands of Judah are now occupied by foreigners who have claimed the land and begin to live there while you were away in exile. It’s an enormous task before them.

Have you ever had to come back from exile in your life? Can you relate to finding burned out ruins around you? For me I can relate in some ways. For about 10 years in my life I went into a sort of exile. I rebelled against God and my upbringing and turned toward self-destructive ways. And during that time, my whole life burnt up. It was in ruins. So returning home, when I became a born again Christian, I found endless ruins of what had once been my life. And I had to set to work to rebuild and become who I was always meant to be.

Maybe you’re in that process right now, in some ways. Keep rebuilding. Don’t give up. And I guarantee you that you will face opposition just as the Israelites did. But keep rebuilding. Don’t let anyone stop you.

So the Israelites led by the Levites, the priestly class begin working and they complete the entire foundation of the temple. It says this in Ezra 3:10-13, “10 When the builders completed the foundation of the Lord’s Temple, the priests put on their robes and took their places to blow their trumpets. And the Levites, descendants of Asaph, clashed their cymbals to praise the Lord, just as King David had prescribed. 11 With praise and thanks, they sang this song to the Lord: