The return from Babylonian captivity is truly one of the least known parts of the history of Israel but marks one of the most remarkable periods in the lives of God’s chosen people. When Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, left the city of Jerusalem, he left nothing but ruins behind. The walls were gone and no longer was there a temple, a priesthood, an altar, an ark of the covenant, two tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments inscribed on them—there was no city—it all lay in ruins. It was destined to stay this way for seventy years, for God had promised a return of a righteous remnant to restore the great city.
The return was not immediately completed nor was Jerusalem rebuilt quickly. When the seventy years of captivity ended, Zerubbabel brought the largest number of Jews with him back to the city. The population of Jerusalem during the celebration of its feast days before the captivity had to be hundreds of thousands. The number who returned with Zerubbabel was 42,360 (Ezra 2:64). They did not immediately rebuild the city but they first built the temple. True worship was not restored until Ezra and those who came with him brought that about. Nehemiah came later and the city was still devastated, and he brought about the rebuilding of the walls so the city could be safely repopulated. God had promised and it had happened!
With the temple, the priesthood and the walls completed, all the Jews—all the men, women and children who were old enough to understand—assembled in an open square. Ezra stood on a large podium and brought the copy of the law of God with him. The Bible described it this way: “So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading” (Neh. 8:8). He began at daylight and finished reading the Word of God at noon.
The results were amazing. “All the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law” (Neh. 8:9). They listened to the reading of the Word of God for the next seven days and there was a great revival (Neh. 8:18). When they found they had not been worshiping God in the right way in keeping one of the feast days, they immediately did what they had learned from simply reading the Bible. They did it the right way. “For since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness” (Neh. 8:17).
This is precisely what respecting the Bible brings about. Read the book. Make it simple enough so even children can understand it. Let the listeners’ hearts be humbled and determined to do His will and change their lives to do it God’s way. What would happen if America had this kind of heart!?