Three different times a group of Jews left Babylon for the long journey back home, to Jerusalem and its environs. According to the Old Testament Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, anyway.
I wondered earlier this morning if I could ascertain some facts about that trek.
How long in miles?
How long in days?
What type of terrain?
So into the Bible I went!
I could only find specific information about one of the trips … that of Ezra and his companions.
“And he (Ezra) came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.” Ezra 7:8-9
Four months!
Of hard travel, with elderly grandparents and infants along as well … no doubt adding to the length of time involved. (An army could have made the trip much more rapidly, for example.)
My measuring says that about 900 miles had to be traversed, on foot! (One source said more like 500 miles, but that is still a long way!)
There was even talk of an armed guard (which would have been supplied by the Persian King, his government) … the migration was so dangerous!
No wonder not many (on a percentage basis) of the Jews of Babylon were willing to make the trip! Their hearts were not up to such an ordeal! (Their hearts may have no longer been in love with the Lord, as well!)
They were not willing to “pay the cost” of returning to the Land of Promise!
Jesus taught us a whole parable about that.
“And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and COUNTETH THE COST, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that FORSAKETH NOT ALL THAT HE HATH, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27-33
Wow!
Had I been alive back in Ezra’s day, or had you been alive … would we have uprooted our families and gone back to a gutted Jerusalem? Would we have “counted the cost” … and “paid it?”
Well, though a pittance of the whole Nation of Israel … about 50,000 people did!
Folks, think about his today.
In our age, even in America, the “cost” of being a Christian may soon become a greater reality than ever!
We may be asked, as Paul proposed to young Timothy, to … “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2 Timothy 2:3
Let’s keep steady as we together “march to Zion!”
Granted, not a literal march from Babylon to Jerusalem … but a journey nonetheless!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Let us “walk worthy” of our vocation, of our Saviour! (Ephesians 4:1)
Let us also “finish the course,” as the Apostle Paul did! (2 Timothy 4:7)