Where is Home? Ezra and the Returning Exiles

The conquering of Jerusalem by the Babylonians was the worst thing that ever happened to the ancient Israelite people. Some of the people were dragged off to Babylon and many of them were left behind. For 50 long years, they were separated. Then suddenly King Cyrus allowed the people who were taken away to go home, back to Jerusalem. Would the people be able to get along with the people who stayed behind. In this episode, I tell you about the troubles of the chief priest Ezra, what it was like to have people against him. It is the like the story of a teacher of mine, who moved to Korea. They felt in between. They weren't sure they felt American or whether they felt Korean. Many people who come from other countries feel like this. Perhaps you have felt confused about where you fit. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are all about finding a new sense of home. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome to the Real Bible Rob teencast, and I'm so glad that you're back with me today. I'm going to tell you a story about where home is. A lot of times, people, you know, do you feel at home? Do you feel secure in your home? And you can uh run into people or talk talk to people who they're not sure where their home is. And that may happen to you in your life. And I'm talking about it in the and about the probably the most important thing about the Bible in in the Old Testament is how traumatized the people were when some of the people in Jerusalem were dragged off to Babylon, and some of them were left behind. And this becomes a very central part of the writing of the Old Testament and a lot of the stories about later on in the Old Testament. So most of us know those stories about Abraham and Moses and uh the kings and so forth, King David. But then there's this whole part that after the people, it's called the exiles. This is when people are exiled. Exiled means um being forced out of your country. And um it's this uh particular time, it happened at um 587 BC, uh, when the last uh people who were going to be dragged off to Babylon were taken away. And it it was the worst thing that ever happened to these people, and it changed everything for them. So even though much of our Bible was written about things that happened long before this, these stories were made and pulled together and created into or brought into the Bible and written down a lot of them during this time when it was really difficult. Some it sometimes it's the difficult times, it's the really hard times that causes you to make your stories and bring them together into one thing. So many of the things that we know about of the Old Testament, even though they may have happened long before, were written down and made into these books that we read around this time of the exile. And um so one of the things that's really important is when they came back, so after 50 years of being away in Babylon, the people came back and they struggled to get along with each other and to rebuild their society. Their society, the um, the people of Judah in Jerusalem, the Israelite, ancient Israelite people, um, were completely scattered and they were trying to come back and build the temple again. So I'm going to tell you also a little bit about a personal story I heard about whether um you can feel at home or not. And it will kind of give you an idea of how these people felt. So let's start uh at the beginning talking about what happened when uh in 587 BC, when uh these exiles, so we heard about um uh story of Daniel. I've told you about that, and uh there are many other parts about what happened to these people. Not all the people of um Jerusalem or Judah, where Jerusalem is, were taken away to Babylon. Only the leaders, the top leaders were taken away. Um, these are the people that had money, they were the ones that were the um, you know, the judges and the priests and people like that, the people who you know ran the society. A lot of the people uh who uh worked the land and were you know were farmers and some of those families stayed behind. And uh and they they had to go on without the these other people. So when they pay they came back, and uh after 50 years, the kings that took them away were no longer there, and the Persia, Persia is in Iran today, and the Persians took over Babylon, and when they did, their king was called King Cyrus. So if you've ever heard of King Cyrus, this is where he was. And King Cyrus wanted the um the Jewish people who had been taken to Babylon to send them back, to send them back to Jerusalem and to start over again. So King Cyrus is is a good guy uh in the Bible, and um it says uh in this is um a book written by uh the chief priest, and his name is Ezra, and in Ezra one, just starting right off, it says, in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia in his rule, to fulfill the Lord's word spoken by Jeremiah, a prophet, before that, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus, and the king said, Throughout his kingdom, he said, The king of uh of Persia's king Cyrus says, The Lord, God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, he has commanded me to build up him a house in Jerusalem in Judah. If there are any of you who are from his people, meaning the people that were taken away, may their God be with them, and may they go up to Jerusalem, back to Jerusalem in Judah, and build the house of the Lord, meaning the temple, and the God of Israel, and he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And as for all those who remain in the various places where they were living, let the people of those people supply them with silver and gold, uh, with goods, with livestock, with um all these gifts. So this is kind of saying that we're not only going to send you back, but we're gonna also give you some support, give you some money, give you some food and things like that. So you can go back and you can resettle the land that you came from. That sounds really great, doesn't it? It's a wonderful thing. But a a couple of problems happen. First is you can see it would take a long time to get settled again. And the whole story in uh the book of Ezra is how they started for a while and then they stopped because the king changed. Uh, King Cyrus dies, and then he's replaced by another king who's not nearly as nice, not nearly as good, doesn't care about them, and everything stops. And then they have to wait for another king in order to be able to go and do that and get get that um established. That's one big problem. It just took it took um years and years and years, many uh tens of years for the temple to be rebuilt and for them to get established. So it didn't go nearly as smoothly as they had hoped. The other big problem was that the people who didn't get taken to um to Babylon, the people who were left behind, they didn't like the fact that these people came back and started telling them what to do. How would you feel that if you were living in a place and then all and a really sad thing is that the all of your neighbors around you get taken away for and for 50 years they're away, and you'd feel really sad about that. But for 50 years, you know, it's going to be your children and your grandchildren that are left over. How are your children and grandchildren going to feel when those people come back, their children and grandchildren come back and start saying, okay, this is our land, we're coming back, and we're going to start telling you what to do. You'd be pretty mad about it. And that's what happened. So not only did it take a long time to get um to get started again, it also caused a lot of um um division and a lot of uh um, you know, bad feelings between these two groups of people and that they had to overcome. And it took them a long time to overcome it. Some of the things that we read about Nesra sound kind of cruel, actually, because they were putting down the people that were left behind. And um, and it's kind of sad to read that, but it's just such a human story. It tells us so much about what it means to feel like you're at home or not. So I'm gonna tell you this story about um a teacher of mine that uh I had a really interesting um uh I talked to him about it. And he he was a teacher of mine, and he was writing a book. So he was a professor, and he was writing a book about this book, Ezra, and then there's another book that goes with it called Nehemiah, that are in the middle of the Old Testament. And these two books that kind of go together because uh Ezra was the chief priest, and then Nehemiah is the one that did a lot of the building. So they worked together. So um, and I and and he was going to write a book about this from his perspective. Now, this teacher of mine was Korean, he was born in Korea, he then came to the United States as a child and he grew up. So he grew up basically as an American. He could speak English, you know, like an American does, and and he uh went to school in American schools and you know, uh with Korean parents. And um, and he grew up here as an American. And uh then he uh he had children uh and then later in his children, he took back to Korea. He had a chance after doing his work here in the United States, he had a chance to get a job back in Korea. And his children had grown up, grown up speaking Korean, had Korean parent grandparents. You know, uh this is a story that if you know anyone from another country who's come to America, or if you've done this, it's very familiar, isn't it? That you have uh, you know, maybe their parent grandparents were come from the old country, and and they speak their language at home, and then uh, you know, and they're not sure what to think about it. That they are Americans in every way, except they don't know, you know, they they feel a little different. Well, that's what happened uh to this man. He always knew he was Korean growing up, he spoke Korean, uh, my teacher. Um, and he was gonna, and and he was writing this story and uh about Ezra and Nehemiah telling his story about and a big part of that is he has a whole chapter talking about how his children felt moving back to Korea. So here he is, moves his whole family, children born in America, um, grow up speaking English, but also know Korean from the grandparents and speaking that. They moved to Korea, and he said it was very hard for his children because even though they look Korean, they talk, they speak in a Korean language, uh, of course, they were American in their um attitudes and in their culture. Um, so when they were there, they felt lost. They didn't feel Korean, they didn't feel really American either, because they grew up as immigrants, you know, the the children of immigrants. So this in-between feeling was very important to them and very a big part of their lives. And he, as the father and and um and his wife, the mother, uh, were very worried about the children and how they felt that way. And they spent several years, I think five or six years in Korea, and then they came back to the United States because that job was over, and then he came back to the United States and he began to write um this book. He became a professor at the at the school I went to and he began writing this book. And I asked him, I go, you're crazy. Why are you writing about Ezra and Nehemiah? Because he was in uh the same uh kind of church that I am. I'm a Presbyterian. You know, same kind of church that I am. And we don't, in my um kind of church, we don't talk so much about these books. Um, I don't know why, but I said, uh, it's very interesting that you're you're choosing these books. And he goes, to to be an expert on. He goes, I'm choosing these books because of the experience that I have as an uh as the children of immigrants, and the experience that my children had about going back to Korea and then them feeling lost. So they never knew where home was. And it was such a um it touched my heart. In fact, I read it. He gave me before that book became published, he gave me the chapter where he's talking about his own experience and why he chose to do, you know, to study this uh Ezra and Nehemiah so much. And he said, it's because the way the people in um Jerusalem felt is that they really didn't feel like they were um Jude, you know, from Judah and Jerusalem, because they'd lived in Babylon for 50 years. And they they may not have been the they were the children of the people who were sent off to Babylon, or the grandchildren of people sent off to Babylon 50 years before. So they weren't Babylonians um or Persians now because the Persians took over Babylon. So they weren't Babylonians, they weren't Persians, they were and then when they came to Jerusalem, they didn't feel like they were um from Judah or Jews, they didn't feel like they were Jews either, even though they said they were, you know, or they originally were, they looked like people from that part of the world, they spoke like people from that part of the world, but because they had this multi or these different cultures in their background, they felt very confused. And um, and if you know, if you you may have if you feel this way yourself, or if you know people come from other countries, they feel this way. They they go, yeah, I um I've been here a long time. There's a lady in my congregation at my church, and she's from Ethiopia. So she and her husband moved from Ethiopia to the United States 30 years ago. And, you know, they're citizens, they they've settled here, um, they uh raised two children here, and their children are uh now, you know, they're adults, they're in their 20s and they're making their life and everything. And um they and I I asked her, well, how do they do? She goes, they feel a little bit confused because even though they were um born in the United States and grew up, but they also grew up knowing their Ethiopian language. Um, and and she goes, you never feel completely at home. I go, wow, because that's not a feeling I had. I I have um my parents, my grandparents, they were all born in the United States. So um, except for one grandparent I had was born in France, but still, you know, I felt very American, I feel very at home in in the United States, and maybe that's true for you too. But um when I and I lived uh in Germany for a number for a few years, and I oh, I now I understand how people feel this way because I didn't feel at home there completely. I felt, you know, comfortable there, but it wasn't my home. And when I came back to America, it felt more like home again. But what if I came back to America and I really wasn't here uh long enough, then I wouldn't feel at home here either. So that feeling of home is such a big part of this. So when you um look at this story, this um some of the bad feelings that the people had with each other is that some people said, no, this is our home, this is where it is, this is where I feel it. And then the people coming back and no, no, no, this is our home. This is how I feel. That I I I but it's not my fault that we my my grandparents were dragged away um to um uh to Persia or to Babylon and then Persia. It's not my fault. So you can see how that difficult this is. This is also what we hear about around the world today. We hear about uh Jewish people in Israel and how they feel like um they're finally home, uh, even though because they were kind of they might have been forced out of Europe or other places. Um, we feel that about the Palestinian people that lived there before um the Jewish exiles or the Jewish immigrants came in. We feel that about uh, you know, people uh in the United States who, if you're Native American, all of a sudden when uh there are terrible, terrible stories about people being taken away from their parents or forced to move to places where they didn't want to go. Um of course that was true for African slaves that came to America. They were just pulled away from their hometowns where they felt comfortable, they had their own language and they were with their own people, and then all of a sudden they're ripped away and they're they're taken to another country. So that's where this story is so um real, and it's so much about our lives. So when you read some of these Bible stories, think about that. Think about where did the people come from, and think about whether they're accepted where they're going to. And do they feel at home where they were, and do they feel at home where they're going? Because that's a big, big part of the story. It's a big part of the story about people coming out of Egypt and going back to Israel, uh, or going back to Canaan, which would become Israel, uh, in you know, in Moses, in the story about Moses. It's also very, very much a part of the story of Jesus, because Jesus is a Galilean, he is not from Jerusalem. His his ancestors, his parents and ancestors come from Jerusalem, but he grew up in Nazareth, way up in the north. Um, and so, you know, they're they're Jews and they do speak the same language and you know have many things in common uh with each other, but still when Jesus came to Jerusalem, or when people, you know, they would talk about Galileans as if they're a separate people, and they kind of were. So you can see that Jesus was kind of an an outsider. And and that was true for all of the um the disciples that followed Jesus, like Peter and John and um the other disciples who were fish fishermen from that area, so mostly fishermen, uh, or uh Matthew, who was not a fisherman, he was a tax collector, but he was from Galilee. All of those people, when they're um going uh toward Jerusalem, they don't feel at home. They feel, you know, they're Galileans. And people Will remind them. Well, you Galileans. So you can see, even in that story, these are about people who are displaced. They're not exactly at home. So if you ever feel that way yourself, if if you feel like maybe you're being pushed aside, or maybe you moved and you don't feel at home in the place that you've gone to, or maybe you're from a different country and you don't, you're not sure how you feel, that's a very familiar feeling in the Bible. And so many of the stories there feel like that. So many of the stories in the Bible can give you comfort because if they felt that way and you feel this way, then you can go, oh, they understand. These stories are about people like me, um, and can be very useful, very helpful, and that God gives comfort to them. God gives comfort to you, that you um, even though you feel strange and you can say, Oh, God, you know, I I feel so strange. Why am I feel I don't feel like I'm part of these people? They're not treating me like this. Well, there are so many places in the Bible where God basically says, you're okay, to love the foreigner, to love the stranger. You should love them just as you want to be loved yourself. Um, sometimes it's exciting to go to new places. Sometimes uh you feel that urge to learn a new culture or go to another country or go to another uh another place and learn that. So there's excitement in that too. But there's also feeling of being dislocated or not feeling at home, and that's a feeling that you feel familiar with, you understand it. So with that, I thank you so much for listening. And I hope that you feel at home or you can feel at home wherever you are. But if you don't, there are people who understand you. And there are stories in the Bible that can help you understand that feeling as well. So, with that, I thank you so much for listening and uh look forward to the next time that you uh listen to one of these uh podcast episodes.