Celebrate Salvation!

If there’s ever a special occasion, we like to celebrate it with a meal. If someone graduates from school, or has a significant birthday, or if there’s a wedding, we get together for something to eat and drink. For food can be very festive. We see this in the Bible too. Think of all the feasts God gave his people—several times a year, they’d get together for a festive meal in God’s presence.

Well, the Israelites in the days of Ezra had much to celebrate. So in our text we see them share a holy meal! And what they rejoiced in was far bigger than a birthday or anniversary. For after decades in captivity, God’s people could go back to their land and rebuild the temple. That’s the story of this book, and the one that follows, Nehemiah.

The books of Ezra-Nehemiah originally formed just one volume in the Hebrew Bible. And though Ezra isn’t mentioned until chapter 7, he’s thought to be its author—probably of Chronicles too. About this Ezra we know a few things. He was a priest in Aaron’s line. And when he was in Persia, he was also a scribe in the royal court, with access to many key documents, like that decree of Cyrus, and that of Darius, recorded in our chapter.

Ezra certainly was witness to momentous times for God’s people. For just as there had been a few waves of exile from Israel, so there were various returns to the land. First, Zerubbabel, together with about 42,000 people. Ezra would lead a second wave, and in the future there’d be more. God’s people were coming back!

When you compare them, this return from exile was a lot like the exodus from Egypt. For both saw the building of a house for God, and the re-institution of God’s law among the people; both saw challenges from surrounding enemies, and the temptation to intermarry with unbelievers. And just like the exodus had been centuries before, the return from the exile was a new beginning, a time of revival for God’s people. And yes, how better to celebrate this salvation than with a meal? This is our theme,

The returned exiles joyfully celebrate the Passover:

1) the deliverance that made it possible

2) the purification that made it proper

3) the joy that made it powerful

1) the deliverance that made it possible: The book of 2 Chronicles ends with Jerusalem in ruins, the temple destroyed, thousands dead in the streets, and many more taken into exile. It’s not a pretty picture, but it’s not all gloom and darkness, either. For we are told that Judah’s captivity will be for a set amount of time, “until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths.” There’d be seventy years of rest for the land, seventy years of purification for the people. It wasn’t an indefinite sentence: there was hope for release.

And then if you keep reading in 2 Chronicles 36, you hear Cyrus declare his intention to build a house for God at Jerusalem, and say that any Israelite was free to go home. Of course, a lot has happened since then. By the time we get to our text, that first decree is more than twenty years in the past. For the return from exile, and also the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, had proceeded in fits and starts.

Doesn’t that happen so often with God’s people when we carry out our labours for the Lord? Enthusiasm wanes after an initial burst of excitement; worldly distractions emerge that keep us from progressing on the way; and even the opposition of unbelievers can deter us. We see some of these things in the book of Nehemiah, and then also in the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. Though graciously delivered from her bondage, the Lord’s people still needed to be prodded and coaxed along.

At any rate, the reconstruction of the temple is begun in 536, a couple years after Cyrus set them free. We might criticize the people for having a short-lived enthusiasm, but let this be said: they knew it was a priority to get the temple back in working order. For they might’ve said, “Let’s get those city walls rebuilt first. Or let’s get all this rubble cleaned off the streets.” But this came first: God’s temple, and holy worship.

Why, even before it’s completed, before the foundation is laid, we read that the people begin to offer daily sacrifices at the temple site—it was enough to be on that holy ground. They also observe the holy feasts again, together with the required offerings. You can sense that the people have learned something in exile, that the whole reason we’re alive, the reason that God has delivered us, is that we might worship him. It’s what comes first.