COMING HOME,The Return of the Jews From Babylonian Captivity to Rebuild Their Temple in Jerusalem

By Pauline Youd

How do we know that God is real and that He interacts with people and nations?
Ezra says we only need to follow the story of the release and return of his people, the Jews, from their seventy years of captivity in Babylon. He begins his journal with the startling proclamation of Cyrus the Great, the Persian conqueror who allowed the Jews to go home. He introduces us to Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel, and others with strange names who encouraged the Jews along the way, letting each tell his on story.
Finally, Ezra, too, goes to Jerusalem armed with sweeping powers from King Artaxerxes I, to put the religion of the Jews back on course. The restoration of the temple was to be Israel's consummate symbol of resurrection. But Ezra is met by a population both apathetic and disobedient to God's law that forbids Jews to intermarry with non-Jews.
The story Ezra tells is truly one of grand scale. God interacts with kings and commoners, with servants and leaders, with Jews and their enemies to accomplish something greater than just their release from captivity.
Thoroughly researched, the author includes information from II Chronicles, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah and Malachi to create an easy-to-read narrative.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pauline Youd
• Release date: Sep 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370777051

Pauline Youd

I like to write, read, teach, sing, play the piano, swim, cook, play in the yard, and walk by the ocean. I prefer coloring books to plain paper, summer to winter, daytime to nightime, and morning to afternoon. I like large families, but I prefer to visit with one friend at a time. I love to study the Bible and discuss what God is doing in the world today, but I can't handle really scary adventure novels. I am more interested in people and animals than in rocks and plants. I tutor reading and writing and prefer second graders. I live with my husband Bill and cat Sasha in the center of California.

Book preview

COMING HOME

The Jews Return from Babylonian Captivity to Rebuild their

Temple in Jerusalem

Pauline Youd

Copyright © 2016 by Pauline Youd

Published by Pauline Youd at Smashwords

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Table of contents

Part I

Ezra

Cyrus, King of Persia, 539 BC

Sheshbazzar, 538 BC

Zerubbabel, 538 BC

Building the foundation 536 BC

God sends Haggai and Zechariah 522 BC

Darius I, King of Persia 522 BC

Artexerxes I, King of Persia 465 BC

Part II

Ezra Goes to Jerusalem, 458 BC

A Great Sadness

Part III

Nehemiah, 445 BC

Nehemiah Appeals to King Artaxerxes I

The Wall Goes Up

More than Walls and Gates

Israel Makes a Covenant with God

The Dedication of the Wall

Nehemiah Returns to Susa, 433 BC

Part IV

Malachi’s Special Prophecy, circa 430 BC

Part V

Nehemiah’s Second Governorship, circa 424 BC

Part VI

Ezra’s Legacy

COMING HOME

The Jews Return from Babylonian Captivity to Rebuild their

Temple in Jerusalem

Part I

circa 440 BC

EZRA

Priest, Scribe, Historian

How can we know God is real and that He interacts with us? To me, the answer is obvious. One only needs to follow the story of one nation – my people, the Israelites.

Ingenious and resourceful as we Israelites are, we could not have survived oppression, captivity, and threats of annihilation throughout the years of our existence without divine intervention. Israel alone had proclaimed and followed the one true God in a world of many gods. So if this God intended a continued presence among men on earth, my people had to survive.

Born into a family of priests, I am the16th generation in the line descended from Aaron. I am a historian, passionate about genealogies, old letters and government documents. When I was young, I studied important proclamations and sifted through court documents by the hour. I trained as a scribe, but I often wondered how God would use that passion and extensive training in history. What I really wanted to do was tell the flesh-and-blood stories of my people. Future generations must know that these stories aren’t just folklore or myths. Our history tells of real people living in real time.

I began writing the wonderful stories of the kings of Judah. My soul seemed to fly. Through my words, the great kingdoms of David and Solomon and the building of the magnificent temple in Jerusalem came to life.

Then abruptly I stopped. Joy left, replaced by a dark, impenetrable gloom. I felt as if I couldn’t write any more. I wanted to hide my eyes and close my ears because the stories didn’t culminate with the glorious building of the temple in Jerusalem. They told how our nation squabbled over the succession of leadership, ruptured over where we should worship, and finally and irreparably split into two. How could I get past my pain and sadness? My fingers grew stiff. My pride rebelled at telling others how our people had turned their backs on God.

Weeks turned into months before I knew that if I was going to show people our God, I was obliged to tell them that He disciplines, He judges, He rejects, and He restores. Compelled to tell the truth, I described a disobedient people who grieved their God by turning to the idols that were worshiped by the very people in the land they were supposed to conquer. I told how God had sent prophets to them time after time to turn their hearts back to Almighty God because He pitied His people and loved the land He had given them. But page after page described a people who despised God’s words and ridiculed His prophets until the wrath of the Lord was so thoroughly aroused against them that there was no remedy.

God reluctantly handed His beloved people over to Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Babylonians. The king’s soldiers set fire to God’s temple, broke down the walls of Jerusalem, and marched the people 800 miles from their beautiful land to Babylon. They shoved and prodded men, women, and even children along the way, giving neither compassion nor the decency of burial.

My people were abruptly swallowed up by the wealthiest, most advanced culture in the world. Babylon’s very name implies splendor. Whether they would be annihilated or assimilated, the odds seemed infinitesimal that they could retain their identity and not pass into history among the forgotten ones.

For 70 long years my people lived as captives in the land of the Babylonians. I, myself, was born there. To this day, I am ashamed to say that many Israelites did assimilate into the Babylonian culture and ceased to worship the God who made them. Some, however, remembered who they were. They kept their Israelite names and gave their children names like Yaakov, Nathaniel, or Havah. They cried out to God. They longed to go home. They wanted to see their ancestral land, but most of all they wanted to rebuild their temple.

Finally, in fulfillment of the words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, God rescued His people. Miraculously He used both those who worshiped Him