Ezra - "why would we go back?"

I'd like to request that each of us read the first two chapters of Ezra this week. We will be "camping" here for a while as we study what the Spirit is ready to teach us . . .

We know from the history that we read in our Bibles, that for many hundreds of years the Lord warned His people; He called them back to Himself by the words of the prophets. Time after time, the people repented and turned back to YAHWEH. Time after time, their determination would ebb, and they would slip into the idolatry and cultural practices of the people surrounding them.

Finally, they kept going down the wrong path too long, and God fulfilled His warning to them.

Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, ....Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.  (Deuteronomy 28:47-48a, 64, NASB)

Moses' prophecy continues in verses 65-66:

Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. 

Why, we may ask. Why would He do all of these dread things to them?

For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,And He scourges every son whom He receives.”7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. (Hebrews 12:6-7, 10)

It's the dry times that teach us. We are so immersed in this world and the things of this world that sometimes God must bring us to a place where we find no rest. This is what forces us to recognize that all the world offers is shallowness and pretense. It will leave us with "despair of soul." These spiritual dry times will make us thirst for our living God -- it is He Who can satisfy us.

Let's think about it. There were many Jewish people in Babylon who had become comfortable there. They'd been there for years; the older folks had gotten accustomed to it and many of the younger ones had been born there. Babylon was all that they knew, since they had been born in captivity, in exile. They heard the stories that the older folks would tell . . . all about the glories of Zion and the awe-inspiring beauty of the temple. But they probably thought, "Why go back there, when we have a good life here?"

It would be risky to go back to Jerusalem - inconvenient, too. It would mean packing up all the stuff they would want to take with them, and leaving some of it behind. Leaving for Jerusalem would mean saying farewell to the houses and surroundings that they found comfortable. It would mean trekking across about a thousand miles of hostile desert territory. And their destination was a land that had been ravaged by war. There were no cities with beautiful, empty homes that were "move-in ready." No lovely mural-covered walls or murmuring water features or cool roofs for the evenings. They'd see piles of rubble everywhere. And the neighbors? Not your typical "here's some matza balls and some cool water to refresh you after your journey" type of neighbors . . . these were hostile people who had moved into the empty lands after the Babylonians had dragged off the surviving Jews fifty years earlier.
Why go back?
Fortunately, there were other Jews in Babylon who were not comfortable there. They remembered Zion. They remembered the temple and more. They said as the psalmist did:

How can we sing the songs of the Lord    while in a foreign land? May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth    if I do not remember you,if I do not consider Jerusalem    my highest joy.(Psalm 137:4, 6)

These Jews remembered Jerusalem and the joy of worshiping God in His temple. When they heard the unbelievable news that Cyrus, a pagan king, had issued a call to the Jews to return to the city of Jerusalem and rebuild that temple, they may have thought they were dreaming! Such happiness!

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,    we were like those who dreamed.
 Our mouths were filled with laughter,    our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,    “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us,    and we are filled with joy. (Psalm 126:1-3)

When we are sitting in an air-conditioned house, with our feet up and relaxing, a glass of cold water tastes pretty good. But it tastes even better to a person who is parched and dry, after traveling with none available . . . God's living water tastes so good to us when we've gone through a dry time. When we have realized anew that the pleasures of this world only leave us with despair.
When we are in Babylon, we must not become satisfied there -- remember the living water and cry out for God's Spirit to revive us. This will happen because of God's love and because of His power.

After all, how in the world was a pagan king moved to send them back and pay for the repairs? (Grin)
We'll look at this more tomorrow.