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Ezra 6:1-16 Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. - Ezra 6:16
What a fascinating story of the return of Israel from exile. It is hard to summarize the background to this passage for a short devotion. But in brief, our reading happens 6 or 7 decades after the Israelites went into exile in Babylon and Solomon’s temple was destroyed. After the Persians conquer Babylon, the Persian King Cyrus sends many of the Israelite exiles back home. He lets them take some of the jewels and treasure looted from Jerusalem, and he even offers to fund the rebuilding of their temple. The first group back to Jerusalem gets started, and lays the foundation. Ezra 3 says that on seeing even the foundation, the shouts and cries of joy (from those who remembered what worship had been in the old temple) are so loud they were heard far away. Those who had been there before can’t wait to worship God just as they had way back when. But progress soon slows. They get distracted. They endure a few bad years of crops. They have some conflict with the Samaritans who impede their rebuilding efforts. No temple. More years go by. Prompted by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the people finally get back to working on the temple. But then, another roadblock: this time it is the Persian provincial governor who starts hassling them. The governor wants to know who authorized this building, and he reaches out to the king. By now there’s a new Persian king, Cyrus’ grandson Darius. Darius finds his grandfather’s original order in the archives, and our reading describes his endorsement of it, commanding the governor to provide funds to finish the project. Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. Through all these roadblocks and false starts—external and internal—God faithfully provides for his people. He faithfully draws them back into worship. He draws them back to himself. Maybe we feel as if we are on the cusp of return from a shorter exile of sorts, that of the Covid pandemic. We are starting to gather for worship in ways that look and feel similar to the way things were prior to Covid, and more and more people are returning. Like the Israelites coming back from Babylon who missed the temple, maybe we crave what we had before. Of course, we don’t need to rebuild our building. But surely some aspects of our congregation may need to be refurbished. Relationships rebuilt, sins confessed, forgiveness sought and granted, and grace extended. Like the Israelites, we may find our share of roadblocks and false starts too. Some may be external, some may be of our own doing. But this story of Israel’s return from exile can give us confidence that God will be faithful in drawing us back together, back into worship, back into stronger communion with him and with each other. How will God do this? There may be some hint in the verses just beyond today’s reading, at the end of chapter 6. There, just after their “reopening” of the temple, we read of their celebration of the passover, the slaughter of the passover lamb. As Christians, this season of Lent instructs and prepares us to reflect anew on our passover lamb—the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Let us turn anew to him, seeking return and restoration in him.