Reading: Ezra 1-3, Psalm 45
Today we open the book of Ezra, which is the first part of a larger work of Ezra-Nehemiah, which was written as one book and later divided. It tells the story of the return of the exiles to the promised land in three movements. The first one is led by a guy named Zerubbabel, a descendant of the royal line, and Joshua, a descendant of the high priestly line. They are all about rebuilding the Temple. The second is led by title character Ezra, who is all about teaching and practicing the books of Moses. The third is led by Nehemiah, who is all about building walls. This book bears the attributes of a history, with various letters and reports to foreign kings appearing throughout. It is narrative, but unlike the grand history of Israel we read from Genesis to 2 Kings, it seems to have been written down as it was happening, probably by Ezra and Nehemiah themselves.
So what is going on in this story? Today we are introduced to Zerubbabel and Joshua, who are following the command of Cyrus, the king of Persia, to go rebuild the Temple. Seems a little odd for Cyrus to do this, but it was not that out of character. These imperial kings would sometimes build temples for the gods of conquered people, partly to pacify them and partly, I suspect, because it never hurt to have as many gods in your corner as you could. Anyway, Cyrus sends them to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. We are told that God stirs up his heart to command this, which lines up with God’s predicted use of Cyrus in the book of Isaiah. By this time the exiled Israelites were almost certainly reading the prophets and would recognize the character of Cyrus. Since he heralded some really good things for the exiles in Isaiah, I imagine morale was high as the exiles trooped across the empire to Jerusalem.
When they arrive, they are all counted up, and there are around 42,000 people all told. Compare these numbers with the Exodus, where there were 600,000 fighting men. The nation is dramatically diminished. Then there are issues of correct bloodline for the priests. Since these people had been reading the books of Moses, they knew that it was pretty important to be from the right family to serve as priest. Remember the stories of people getting roman candled or swallowed up by sudden chasms in the earth? Yeah, these people did too, and they wanted no such nonsense occurring in their shiny new Temple.
Once they finally get their people counted up and organized, the start up their mission: building a Temple. Two sentences in they are making daily sacrifices. Now wait a minute. Do you remember all the tabernacle regulations in Exodus and Leviticus? I knew you’ve been reading them in your spare time. Before they used the altar for sacrifice, there was this whole purification ritual for the priests and the for the altar and for the buildings. Apparently that was all skipped, because to do it they would have had to have finished the building, and we are told the foundation wasn’t even laid yet. Why would people who were taking the books of Moses seriously do something like that? Because fear was on them from the peoples of the lands. The returned exiles were afraid of the people around them, and started improper sacrifices because of it. Remind you of another ruler of Israel, a guy named Saul? This is not a great beginning for the new Temple.
On the plus side, they do appear to be taking the books of Moses seriously in other ways. Particularly the festival ways. They celebrate the feasts at the right times, and they get themselves ramped up to get this Temple building started. They all pitch in and get the foundation laid, and all the people have a big party. Well, some of the people. While everyone else is shouting for joy, the oldest people are wailing. They remembered the first Temple. They saw it destroyed. As we will see, this is foreshadowing something about the 2nd temple. It is not the equal of the first. It is not the source of life described by Ezekiel. It is a sad reminder, for those who can see it, that the people of Israel are diminished.