During Israel’s decades-long exile the prophet Jeremiah tells them to pray and seek the peace of their foreign city. They are to confess their sin, lament its consequences, and hope in God’s promises. The God who wounds is the God who heals, so they must put their hope in him.

After several decades God raises up a Persian king named Cyrus to defeat the Babylonians and send God’s people back home.

The few exiles that return are a new Israel of sorts. But they return as a broken people to a broken land with a broken-down temple. They begin to rebuild the temple, but it is amid opposition from non-Jewish people who have settled in the land. Many weep at the laying of the temple’s foundation because it is a mere shadow of Solomon’s glorious temple.

Reading Time: 8 Minutes
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered. Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels; all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.

EZRA 3

Family Discussion Questions

1. Why was the laying of the foundation of the temple a time of celebration?
2. Why was this sad for the older people who remembered Solomon’s bigger temple?
3. How does this story show God’s faithfulness to his people and his promises?

God brings Israel to a high point during the reign of Solomon. He establishes Solomon’s reign, gives him unmatched wisdom, and draws the nations to his rule. But Solomon turns from the Lord, and the people of Israel continue their centuries-long pattern of idolatry and disobedience. The united kingdom of Israel splits into northern and southern kingdoms. God uses the Assyrians to judge and exile the northern kingdom of Israel. Later he uses the Babylonians to judge and exile the southern kingdom of Judah. As God promised through Moses long before, he would remove his blessings from Israel if they continued in rebellious unbelief. Israel is exiled from their good land just as Adam and Eve were exiled from Eden in the beginning.

But God continues to remain faithful to his covenant promises to Abraham and to Israel and to David—promises that will lead ultimately to the restoration of God’s presence and blessing to all nations. He raises up the Persian ruler Cyrus to conquer Babylon and send many Israelites back to their land. These Israelites raise a new temple and rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. It is a day of small things—it certainly is not the full and glorious restored kingdom God promised through the prophets—but the Lord is blessing them. They now must trust him for a coming day of greater blessing, a day in which he will send his true King to restore Israel and send his blessings to the nations.

Israel was in exile in Babylon, away from its land, for about seventy years. After several decades God raised up a Persian king named Cyrus to defeat the Babylonians and send God’s people back home.

The small number of Israelites who returned to the land was like a new Israel. But these exiles returned as a broken people to a broken land with a broken-down temple. In this next reading we see them begin to rebuild the temple. However, we also see many older Israelites weep when the temple is completed. They weep because this temple is not even close to the beauty of the previous one. They are back in the land, but they are still discouraged.

Reading Time: 3 Minutes
When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.