Return from Exile: Introduction (6)

Pray Psalm 92.1-4.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
And Your faithfulness every night,
On an instrument of ten strings,
On the lute,
And on the harp,
With harmonious sound.
For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work;
I will triumph in the works of Your hands.

Sing Psalm 92.1-4.
(Sweet Hour: Sweet Hour of Prayer)
How good it is to thank the Lord and praise to God Most High accord;
by day to let His kindness ring, His faithfulness by night to sing.
With ten-stringed lute, resounding lyre, and sweetest harp we’ll lift You higher.
For You have made our souls rejoice; we sing Your praise with blended voice!

Read 2 Chronicles 36.15-23; meditate on verses 22, 23.

Prepare
1. Why was Israel taken captive for 70 years?

2. Why did Cyrus issue his decree?

Meditation
The Babylonian empire fell to the Medes and the Persians while Daniel was still serving in Babylon (cf. Dan. 5.30, 31). Daniel continued in service to the Persian kings, and we can believe that God used his witness to help the kings of Persia look favorably on His people.

We might ask, “Why did God choose to make His people captive for 70 years?” The chronicler answers that question in verses 20 and 21. The people of Israel and Judah failed to keep the Sabbath year—every 7 years (Ex. 23.10, 11)—70 times. They owed God 70 Sabbath years, and He exacted them for His land by sending the people away captive to Babylon.

God is serious about His Sabbaths. We may regard them as some kind of “free day”, to do whatever we like. But He commands us to rest, meditating on His works of creation (Exod. 20.8-11) and redemption (Deut. 5.12-15) as we prepare in His Presence for another week of serving Him. The people of Israel scorned the Sabbath—Sabbath years and days—and preferred their own “pleasures” to what God commanded (cf. Is. 58.13, 14). Psalm 92 is a psalm for the Sabbath day. It provides an outline of God-honoring activities that can renew our soul, enlarge our vision, and deepen our faith in and commitment to the Lord. This is what God wants for us on the Lord’s Day.

The ascendancy of Cyrus to the throne of Persia fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 44, as “the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia” to send the people of God back to their land. God was about to bring back the captivity of His people, for which there would be much joy and rejoicing in Israel (Ps. 53.6). He heard the prayers of Daniel and others, and now He was about to act on behalf of His people and His glory.

But would the people, as they returned from captivity, realize the promise of God’s covenant? Would they become a holy kingdom unto the Lord? Would the salvation of God come roaring out of Zion as He had all along intended?

Or would the people merely fall back into their old ways and thus continue in a more subtle, but equally real, form of captivity?

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
I don’t know about you, but truthfully, I find this very disturbing. Let’s look at ourselves and our churches, rehearse all of God’s Law, then do the math on the years of captivity we owe Him.

How many times has God not been first in our hearts and minds?
How often does another god take His place of priority altogether?
How many times have we not worn the name of Christian properly?
How many times have we not observed the Sabbath Day correctly?
How many times did we not honor our parents with due respect and love?
How often do we think hateful thoughts toward another person? Or turned a blind eye to abortion?
How many times have we been unfaithful in thought or deed toward our spouse?
How often do we steal by not being fully honest with money? Or by not tithing?
How many times have we shaded the truth or maliciously lied?
How many times are we not thankful for what we have, and covet what someone else has? (Exodus 20.1-17)

Our debt surely surpasses 70 years.

All of God’s Law is meant for our good and the good of others. It was given to provide stability and security for God’s people. God gave us the way to life and peace with Him, and practice for our walk into eternity.

Let’s consider the nuts and bolts of the Sabbath for a moment: God gave it to His people for rest. God rested from His work, He wants us to rest from ours (Gen. 2.1-3). “Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls’” (Jer. 6.16).

But there is more to this rest than that. It is a practice session for our final rest in Him.
A weekly time to die to self and live to God.
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him…” (Rom. 6.8).
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2.20.
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1.21).
“If we died with Him, we shall also live with Him” (2 Tim. 2.11).

“For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (Heb. 4.8-10).

Each Sabbath day is a mini practice session on eternity, when we will one day cease from this life’s work and move on to our eternal work where His will is always done, He is always glorified, and praises for Him never end. “The Sabbath was made for man…” (Mk. 2.27).

God’s blessings fall upon those who practice, love, and keep His Sabbath:
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him,
not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,

then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Is. 58.13, 14).

“And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place” (2 Chron. 36.15).

It is never too late to repent—until it is.

For reflection
1. Why are the Sabbaths so important to God?

2. Would you say that your practice of the Lord’s Day lines up with God’s design for it? Explain.

3. How did God exert His sovereign will on Cyrus? Does God still do this? Should we be praying for this?

God had promised the restoring of the captives, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, at the end of seventy years; and that time to favor Zion, that set time, came at last. Though God’s church be cast down, it is not cast off; though his people be corrected, they are not abandoned; though thrown into the furnace, they are not lost there, nor left there any longer than till the dross be separated. Though God contend long, he will not contend always. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on 2 Chronicles 36.22, 23

Pray Psalm 92.5-15.
Praise God for His work of redemption. Exalt His Name, and call on Him to strengthen and use you for His service. Pray that you will flourish in His grace and bear fruit in all your Personal Mission Field.

Sing Psalm 92.5-15.
(Sweet Hour: Sweet Hour of Prayer)
How sweet Your works, Your thoughts how deep. The fool cannot such knowledge keep.
Like grass the wicked rise each day; in judgment they are swept away.
But You, O Lord, abide on high; Your enemies shall fall and die.
All those who sin shall scattered be, but, Lord, You have exalted me!

My eye my vanquished foe shall see; my ears hear those who threaten me.
Yet in God’s house, where he belongs, the righteous like a tree grows strong.
Then let us green and fruitful be and flourish like a mighty tree,
To tell God’s righteousness abroad: He is our Rock, our sovereign God!

T. M. and Susie Moore

We are convinced that this new study, Return from Exile, will be one of the most important we have done. We encourage you to share this installment with friends. Use the icons at the top of this column to encourage your friends to join you in this study.

Two books can help us understand our own captivity and lead us to seek revival and renewal in the Lord. The Church Captive asks us to consider the ways the Church today has become captive to the world. And Revived! can help us find the way to renewal. Learn more and order your free copies by clicking here and here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available free by clicking here.