As I noted yesterday, Ezra chapter 2 is the longest in the Book.
Yet (I noticed earlier this morning) it begins and ends with the same note, probably a clue to one of the facts the Holy Spirit is therein emphasizing.
Let me show you. I will capitalize the phrase in focus …
Ezra 2:1 … “Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one UNTO HIS CITY.” Which could also include the suburban area, countryside, around those cities.
Now Ezra 2:70 … “So the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt IN THEIR CITIES, and all Israel IN THEIR CITIES.”
Wow!
Cities!
Let me remind you, there has been a decades-long gap between the time these Jews last lived in Israel … and the time of their (Ezra 2) return to that dear homeland of theirs!
Technically, seventy years!
Jeremiah 25:11 … “And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon SEVENTY YEARS.”
Read the next verse too. “And it shall come to pass, when SEVENTY YEARS ARE ACCOMPLISHED, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.” Wow! As God predicted, Babylon fell and the Persians took over!
But best of all, Jeremiah 29:10 … “For thus saith the LORD, That AFTER SEVENTY YEARS be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in CAUSING YOU TO RETURN to this place.”
That’s what is happening now in Ezra 2, the “RETURN!”
But my “point” today …
I deeply admire how these Jews instilled a love in the hearts of their children (a word used 99 times in Ezra 2, “children”) … a love for their former cities, a love for the Holy Land, the Promised Land, the country (real estate) of Judah!
Few of these returnees were even alive when they originally left Judah, as captives … being marched northward … in front of the pointed swords of cruel Babylonian soldiers!
But the old folks taught the new generation what they land meant!
Talk about passing along values to one’s children!
Talk about being old-fashioned!
Talk about following the old paths!
I so admire their tenacity and loyalty and (frankly) obedience to Almighty God!
Are WE doing that good a job teaching our children, grandchildren, future generations?
Think about it.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell