The Exiles Return

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This is Day 29 of my 40 Day Lenten Blog.

The Jewish people were exiled from the Promised Land multiple times because they turned away from God and He turned them over to their enemies. But God always returned them to the land. The last time He returned the Jews to the land was in 1946 following World War II and the horrors inflicted upon the Jewish people by the Nazis.

It is really a testament to the truth of the Jews being God's chosen people that despite being spread around the world time and again, wandering without a country of their own, they have always maintained their distinct culture and religion. While other peoples would have simply assimilated as refugees in foreign lands, the Jewish people have never completely turned from God. As the Lord told Elijah, He has kept a remnant.

It was through the Jewish people that God promised to bring forth the Messiah, so He had to return them to the land from their exile in Babylon before that could happen. And they did return to the land around 500 years before the birth of Christ.

The Lord spoke to Cyrus the king of Persia who controlled all of that part of the world at that time, and said that it was because of the Lord that Cyrus was allowed to rule over the kingdoms of the world. He commanded that Cyrus rebuild His temple in Jerusalem which was in the land of Judah and allow His people to return there.

Cyrus obeyed and even returned the treasures which King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the house of the Lord. So God's people were allowed to return to the land and worship of the Lord was restored there. And they rebuilt Jerusalem and the Temple. And all of the documents that could be found that had been taken from the Temple and from Jerusalem were returned. And the Jews celebrated the Passover for the first time in a long time. But they had to relearn all of God's laws and commands and their traditions.

And when the people learned of the commands of God they realized that they had been unfaithful and they and their forefathers had broken God's commands. They confessed their sins by the door of the Temple, and they made a covenant with God to follow only Him and to obey His commands.

And they waited for over 500 years for the Messiah that was to come and rule over the Earth and deliver them. While they waited Persia fell, and so did many other empires. Until finally about 63 years before the birth of Christ, the Roman Empire conquered Judah. Soon after that, a great belief that the Messiah's coming was imminent began to grow and flourish among the people. And so the entire nation waited desperately for the king who would come and save them and all of humanity.

Next: The Handmaid of the Lord.

R.C. VanLandingham is a Catholic homeschool dad just trying to make it through this life and into the next! He has written a Christian children's fantasy series about a boy named Peter Puckett!