Day Thirty-Four -- Exile and Return: A remnant struggles on
2 Chronicles 35:16 to Ezra 10:44
Second Chronicles comes to an end after barely a mention of the northern kingdom of Israel. Jerusalem is reduced to rubble by the Babylonians and the people are taken into captivity. Scripture then says that for seventy years the "land enjoyed its sabbath rests" from the unfaithful people of Judah. Maybe God was also taking a break and considering his options.
The book of Ezra picks up the story after those seventy long years of exile as God "moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia" and proclaimed that any of the remnant of the LORD's people could return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. While we learn later that there are still some people around who remembered the splendor of the temple built by Solomon, the vast majority of those who went to Jerusalem were not actually coming home to a place they had known. They are at least several generations removed from the land, and maybe are more akin to their ancestors who came out of the wilderness and entered the Promised Land. In a somewhat similar way they push aside the people they find there and purposefully separate themselves "from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors."
With the temple finally rebuilt and the Passover reinstituted, Ezra also returns to Jerusalem to put the final touches on protecting the integrity of the remnant. The biggest threat he sees is intermarriage of the "holy race" of the LORD's people with the surrounding peoples who have polluted the land by their "detestable practices." Ezra rages for the men to get rid of their foreign wives, and they do. I'd say this remnant has bigger problems than women, which is to say they can't ever seem to stop blaming someone else for their troubles.
Second Chronicles comes to an end after barely a mention of the northern kingdom of Israel. Jerusalem is reduced to rubble by the Babylonians and the people are taken into captivity. Scripture then says that for seventy years the "land enjoyed its sabbath rests" from the unfaithful people of Judah. Maybe God was also taking a break and considering his options.
The book of Ezra picks up the story after those seventy long years of exile as God "moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia" and proclaimed that any of the remnant of the LORD's people could return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. While we learn later that there are still some people around who remembered the splendor of the temple built by Solomon, the vast majority of those who went to Jerusalem were not actually coming home to a place they had known. They are at least several generations removed from the land, and maybe are more akin to their ancestors who came out of the wilderness and entered the Promised Land. In a somewhat similar way they push aside the people they find there and purposefully separate themselves "from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors."
With the temple finally rebuilt and the Passover reinstituted, Ezra also returns to Jerusalem to put the final touches on protecting the integrity of the remnant. The biggest threat he sees is intermarriage of the "holy race" of the LORD's people with the surrounding peoples who have polluted the land by their "detestable practices." Ezra rages for the men to get rid of their foreign wives, and they do. I'd say this remnant has bigger problems than women, which is to say they can't ever seem to stop blaming someone else for their troubles.
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