Advent Day 9: Who Will You Serve?

 

Born into  a priestly family in Babylon, Ezra was born into captivity.   Ezra spent his first years studying Torah.  He became a scribe by trade, writing the books of the Torah and Prophets, but was especially skilled in the law of Moses.  

Scribing was an especially tedious skill.  One 'jot' or one 'tittle' utterly changed the meaning of the scripture.  Deep concentration and attention to detail was needed.   His Mosaic scrolls are the ones still used today as the standard for modern day scribes to follow.  

The captives had waited in hope for years for a King of Babylon to allow them to return to their own country.  Persia conquered Babylon.   When King Cyrus of Persia ascended the throne God put it in his mind to issue a proclamation:

...2 This is what  King Cyrus of Persia says:  "The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah.   3 Whoever is among His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem..." Ezra 1: 2-3

43,000 went to Judah in the first wave of returning exiles.   They were determined to rebuild the temple in all of it's former glory, but their enthusiasm was short lived.   The  captive Jews who had remained in the land to work it for all these years of captivity, were not keen to be crowded in by their returning kinsmen, nor were they eager to give up the pagan ways they had adapted. 

A second group of exiles came to Judah from Babylon/Persia and a third and fourth group also arrived over time.  Ezra led the third group.  The fourth group arrived in the country with Nehemiah,who was sent by the King to oversee the rebuilding of the walls of the city.   After he had done so, Nehemiah returned to his position in the King's household and served him until the end of his days.  

Ezra was determined to obey the Torah and teach it to the people.  He remained in Babylon during the first two exoduses, studying the Torah laws, genealogies, family lineages and had identified each member of the Jewish community.

When Ezra received word that after many delays the temple had been rebuilt, he was eager to go to Judah.   Upon returning, Ezra  became very unpopular when he insisted the community purify itself by dissolving the unholy and unlawful marriages they had made and give up the sins they committed.  Ezra prayed so vehemently for the people that he fell on his face weeping, begging God's forgiveness for the wayward people.  They were so impressed by his great grief that they too began to weep and repent.  

Ezra gathered the people and began to read the Torah to them.  He became their spiritual leader and reestablished Torah adherence for a time.  He is known as the father of Judaism. 

God's temple had been rebuilt and his people reestablished in the land he had given them, but the people who came to that temple were still captives, in service to not God, but a foreign King.  

Music:  For Your Name is Holy I Enter the Holy of Holies by Paul Wilbur