THE SECOND RETURN

One of the complaints that is often made of the Bible is that it contains what is perceived to be two different creation accounts. There is the account given in Genesis 1 in which we see a setting forth of the six days of creation. And then there is a second account given in Genesis 2 in which man and woman are created in a single day and set into the Garden of Eden. These two accounts reflect a common Hebrew style of writing known as parallelism. First we see the broad description of what took place - sort of a bird’s eye view. Then we come back for a closer look at the key elements of that narrative, focusing on a worm’s eye view. The same thing takes place in the seventh and eighth chapters of the book of Ezra.

That had taken place 70 years earlier. It had been in the days of Cyrus, the founder of the Median-Persian Empire. That empire has now been established for 70 years. Persian emperors have come and gone. The city of Jerusalem and its Temple have been rebuilt. And by now, even the generation that saw that rebuilding have now grown old and died. A new generation has arisen. This new generation are a people divided. There are those in the new generation who live in Jerusalem and Judea. And there are those who live somewhere else in the Persian Empire.

It is at such a time that Ezra is moved by the Lord to institute a second return of Jews to the land. Some of these returnees will be cousins and nephews to those who returned the first time under Zerubbabel. This will be reflected when we see them coming from the same family names.

The Levites were the workers at the temple. They were responsible for the care and maintenance of the holy place. They were the ones who were chosen to clean up after the sacrifices, to make sure everything was in place and they were responsible for the daily routine at the temple. Being a student of the law, Ezra knew that only Levites could perform those jobs. Yet when the call went out for people to return to Jerusalem to revitalize the worship in the Temple, no Levites stepped forward.

And so, a second call is sent out. Ezra asks for some very specific volunteers. And this time he gets them.

Is there a principle for us today? After all, there is no more Temple today and therefore no need of Levites to serve within it. How are we to apply such a passage.

Did you hear about the five-year old girl attended a formal wedding with her grandmother? Although she had been in Sunday school, this was her first time in a formal church service. During the wedding, the minister said, "Let us pray." Every person bowed his head in prayer. The little girl looked around and saw all the heads bowed and all eyes turned toward the floor. In her confusion she yelled out, "Grandma, what are they all looking for?"

What are you looking for when you pray — A God who awaits your beck and call, ready to fill your slightest whims? Or an Almighty Lord who sovereignly rules the affairs of nations yet gracious determines to listen to your petitions?

There is a principle here. It is that God’s people do not presume upon God. Ezra knew the promises of God. He was a scribe - a professional student of the Scriptures. He was confident in God’s promise to bring them back to the land.

But he does not take God for granted. Ezra knows that God’s will is accomplished in response to prayer. He knows that God’s blessings are appropriated through prayer. And so he lead the returnees to fast and pray.

This tells me something about prayer. It tells me that prayer is a sign of dependence upon God. Their prayer showed their dependence on God’s protection. They confessed that they did not have the power to protect themselves or to complete their journey successfully. They needed God, or they would fail without Him.

Indeed, they had committed themselves to trusting in God alone. Ezra tells us that he was ashamed to request from the king troops and horsemen to protect us from the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, "The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who forsake Him." Do you see what he did? He deliberately refused to request the protection of the king of the Persians for this returning party. He went out on a limb for God. He told the king, "God will protect us." And now he turns to the Lord and says, "If You do not protect us, then no one will."

This prayer is accompanied by fasting. Fasting involves an abstinence from food. That is not a pleasant thing. It shows that they were serious about this; they were willing to give up everything, even life itself.

What is the purpose of this fasting? The answer is given in verse 21: I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God. Do you see it? One of the purposes of fasting is to humble us. It is to remind us of our NEED. Just as we need food, so also we need the Lord. And so we fast as a sign and a reminder of that need.

Ezra had determined NOT to ask Artaxerxes for protection. He had proclaimed that God would protect His people. And now he is leading them in prayer and in fasting that they might receive that protection.

Up to now we have been reading of all of the varied preparations for the journey to Jerusalem. That actual journey takes place in this verse and then we will see in the rest of the chapter all of the aspects which take place upon the completion of that journey.

Ezra had his fellow travelers in prayer and fasting that they might have a safe journey. The answer to that prayer is seen in the brevity of this one verse. There is nothing to tell about the journey. No bandits. Not even a speed bump. Instead we read that the Lord delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambushes by the way. The fact that they were said to have been delivered from enemies and ambushes assumes that there were indeed enemies and ambushes from which they had to be delivered. They had not been unreasonably afraid.

The church needs this kind of accountability. There have been far too many instances in which large Christian ministries have been rocked by financial scandals. It ought not to be. The pattern of the Scriptures is for a financial accountability.

In conclusion, this chapter points out five needs within the church: