Introduction
After staying in exile in Babylon for a significant period, the Jewish individuals started their journey back to Israel under their chosen leaders. The Jewish individuals were forced to flee their original settlements after a horrific interreligious conflict during the ancient period, where the majority were against the Christian faith. The return journey to the land of Israel was led by three leaders, Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, who had their own kings, goals, oppositions, and hopes to improve the quality of civic life.
Zerubbabel
The first leader, whose work was sanctioned by the Persian King Cyrus, was Zerubbabel. He played a significant role in leading the first migration of the Jewish faithful back to Jerusalem from exile. Zerubbabel utilized his great influence under the authority of the King to settle more Jews in Jerusalem and restore the Jewish religion.
In addition to promoting the return of people, his main objective was to rebuild the temple. However, the elders who had witnessed the original temple disagreed with Zerubbabel and created a major opposition (Books of Ezra-Nehemiah, 2016). Individuals who never went into exile wanted to help, but Zerubbabel rejected their help because he believed they had no right to the temple, leading to community division as the anticlimax of the story.
Ezra
The second wave of the movement of Jewish believers from exile to Jerusalem was led by Ezra. He was one of the greatest scribes and priests, whose main contribution was to ensure the observance of the Jewish religion and laws within Jerusalem. His goals, like teaching the Torah and rebuilding the community, were sanctioned by the Persian King Artaxerxes.
Still, many men who returned to their native land married foreign women and created families not according to the laws of the Torah. Thus, Ezra, passionate about following God’s will, called those women as bad as Canaanites and made them leave the land (Books of Ezra-Nehemiah, 2016). Another anticlimax with mixed results (because God opposed divorce and never said to separate families) questioned the work of Ezra and destroyed people’s hopes.
Nehemiah
Nehemiah led the third wave of the Jewish migration back to Jerusalem. This man had close relationships with the Persian King Artaxerxes, who authorized him to return and settle in Jerusalem. His goals were to maintain the community’s spiritual renewal and rebuild Jerusalem’s walls for protection and peace-making.
However, even that clear intention was characterized by opposition from the people who had already been living around Jerusalem (Books of Ezra-Nehemiah, 2016). Nehemiah did not consider those people’s demands and expectations, and cried out to his neighbors because they had no part in Jerusalem. Again, the anticlimax was the same—a significant part of the people left the region.
Conclusion
Three main prophetic hopes greatly impacted the future of Israel but were never accomplished during the Exile period. First, it was expected to get a future Messianic King from the line of David. Second, people hoped for God’s presence in a new temple. Finally, to fulfill the promise to Abraham, God’s kingdom had to come over the nations and bring his blessing to all individuals.
Despite their expectations, a depressing way was present in the story of each of the three leaders. The core problem of the Israelites was that even if they could return to the land, their spiritual state remained unchanged from before the exile (Books of Ezra-Nehemiah, 2016). The leaders did their best to improve social and economic reforms, but they could not address the core issues in the hearts of their people. The only thing that could happen to people to obey God in the future was a holistic transformation of their hearts. Christians believed it could be accomplished by reading the wisdom and prophetic books to understand what God wanted to fulfill his covenant promises.
Reference
Books of Ezra-Nehemiah: Old Testament overview. (2016). BibleProject. Web.