BIBLICAL SUMMARY SERIES – EZRA & NEHEMIAH

I know that I am not a professional contractor, but what little that I have done has taught me one thing: tearing down is much easier than building up (or trying to rebuild afterwards). When you destroy or tear apart something, pieces go in different spots, tools end up in different places, and if you aren’t careful you may lose something you will need later! The point is that rebuilding is a difficult process. Ezra, the person for whom the next book in our monthly series is named, knew that firsthand. Ezra, along with Nehemiah and others, returned to the Promised Land decades after the Israelites had been taken captive as refugees. Under the Kings that had followed David and Solomon, the people gradually drifted away from following God and had turned to following idols instead. Despite warning after warning from God’s prophets, they had refused to turn from their evil ways and thus were captured and exiled to a far-off land. Nearly seventy years later they had been allowed to return, but they had rebuilding to do.

When Ezra and his group of Jewish refugees returned, they set about rebuilding Jerusalem, but it was not always a unified effort. Struggle came in the form of still being under the rule of a foreign government (rather than be an independent nation with their own king like they had been accustomed), and also internal strife. Ezra and Nehemiah needed to remind the people something that every church needs to understand: they are God’s people. Our identity rests on who we are made and redeemed to be in Him. Ezra needed to remind them that God’s faithfulness and his power are stronger and more constant than any human empire. Despite the hardships that we endure even today, this lesson from ages past is still just as fresh today as it was then, and we need to hear it. Friends, God has not abandoned you. He is with you through every struggle, and I know I need to preach that to myself very often, if not every day. 

One final note on Ezra. Even after they had completed a new temple in Jerusalem (one of their top priorities), it did not have the splendor of the first temple built under Solomon when Israel was at the peak of its glory as God’s kingdom of priests. The main reason was that while the building had been rebuilt, God’s glory had not returned, and it was not present in the second temple as it had been the first. So in a sense, Israel, while having returned to the land were still in “exile” because God’s glory was not present. Soon, however that would all change. God’s glory would return, but not dwell in a building. Instead that glory would “take on flesh and dwell among us” (John 1). In the person of Jesus Christ, God had returned to His people! Through His crucifixion and resurrection the greater exile was over! This exile was not of simply one people (the Jews) away from their Promised Land and God’s presence due to their sins. Instead, the bigger picture emerges. We see this when we look at Genesis. In Eden, we as one people (humanity) were exiled from our Promised Land and God’s presence (Eden) due to our sin. Now, in Jesus Christ, God had returned to humanity, taking on humanity in order to redeem humanity. Through the cross and resurrection, our exile is over! The powers of darkness and death have been defeated, and now we understand “temple” not as a place to visit God, but His dwelling inside each one of our hearts when we become followers of Christ. The beginning of new life is now friends, and it will be completed when, as we see in Revelation, God will once again dwell with humanity in fullness and in a new garden. We will be restored and no longer will death hold any power whatsoever, and every tear will be wiped away. That is the best news ever given to humanity. Dear friends of Conemaugh, I pray that would be the good news we speak and live daily. 

Your Brother,

Craig