October 28, 2024 | Be God's Light
Jews Can Return from Exile to Build Temple
Scripture: Ezra 1(NIV)
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 go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 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. 6 All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.
7 Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. 8 Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
9 This was the inventory:
gold dishes 30
silver dishes 1,000
silver pans 29
10 gold bowls 30
matching silver bowls 410
other articles 1,000
11 In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Devotional
It had been nearly fifty years since the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple of God. Now, half a century later, the Babylonian Empire was overthrown by the Medo-Persian Empire, headed by King Cyrus. For the next hundred years after that, Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city.
The book of Ezra records the return of the first remnant to rebuild the temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel. Later Ezra himself would return with the second remnant to rebuild their spiritual lives. The book of Nehemiah records the return of the third remnant to rebuild the walls around the city.
Daniel 6 was written about the same time as the events of Ezra 1. At about the same time that the new Medo-Persian authorities were throwing Jews into lion’s dens, they were also allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the destroyed temple. Solomon had built the temple when Israel was a powerful nation, only to be destroyed by the Babylonians four hundred years later. Now, the temple would be rebuilt again.
Ezra 2 tells us that some 50,000 people were released by King Cyrus to relocate from Babylon to Jerusalem and surrounding towns to rebuild the temple under the direction of Zerubbabel. They brought with them thousands of work animals and tons of silver and gold to complete the project. Even those who did not return contributed to the success of the project.
The temple again became the center of worship for the Jewish people. In all, a Jewish temple stood on Mt. Zion for most of the one thousand years from the death of David to the death of Jesus. Rome would destroy that temple just forty years after Jesus’ death. Today the Islamic Dome of the Rock stands on the site of the ancient Temple of God.
When Jesus was beginning his ministry, He said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it in three days” (John 2:19). The Jewish religious leaders thought he was being ridiculous. Then John, one of his disciples, explains: “But the temple He had spoken of was his body. After He was raised from the dead, His disciples recalled what He said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (John 2:21-22).
Writing the book of Revelation six decades after Rome crucified Jesus and two decades after Rome destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, this same author John wrote this about his vision of heaven: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb [Jesus] are its temple” (Revelation 21:22).
What do you think? Why was the temple so important to the Jews of Old Testament times? As a Christian, how is Jesus our true temple?
Poem
The Lord Can Move The Heart
The LORD can move the heart
Of the most unlikely one
To execute His plans
To see His will be done
The LORD can freeze the heart
Of those set high above
To render full redemption
For those He fully loves
The LORD can stiffen necks
Of ones set to destroy
As weak ones yield submission
His glory to employ
The LORD can bring transforming
So great, it gives all pause
For His, the great intention
To save those named “lost cause”
