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Exile and Return

#4b Return from Exile
Part of the series on the Flow of OT History

THE THREE RETURNS FROM EXILE

  1. FIRST RETURN -  In 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia issued a decree for the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild their Temple (Ezra 1:1-6). About 50,000 people returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:1-2, 64-67). They started enthusiastically and rebuilt the altar of burnt offerings and laid the temple foundation (Ezra 3:1-3) but they soon met with opposition and rebuilding works stopped. God sent prophets Haggai and Zechariah to rebuke the people (Hag. 1:2-7); they exhorted the people to finish rebuilding the temple. The temple was dedicated 22 years later, in 516 BC (Ezra 6:15) … the sixth year of the reign of Darius the Great. 
  2. SECOND RETURN - The second return occurred 57 years after the completion of the temple under the leadership of Ezra. He led a smaller group of about 2,000 to bring renewal to the first returnees who were assimilating with the heathen through intermarriage (Ezra 9:1-2).

    Sandwiched between the two returns is a gap of 57 years. The Book of Esther records the events that happened to the Jews who remained in Persia during this time.
  3. THIRD RETURN - An unknown number of people returned (the third return) with Nehemiah who challenged the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. In spite of opposition, the walls were completed in 52 days which even their enemies acknowledged that it could not be done without the help of God (Neh. 6:15-16).
400 silent years: Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets; he probably prophesied during the time of Nehemiah. Then from Malachi to John the Baptist is a period of 400 years during which no biblical prophet spoke or wrote – a period that came to be known as “the 400 years of silence”.
Presence of God: God first dwelt among the Israelites in the tabernacle and then in the temple that Solomon built. But God withdrew His presence from the people and His temple when Judah continued to rebel against Him. The glory of God did not return when the people returned to their land and God did not dwell in the second temple as it did in the first. He did not return till the Word became flesh, and dwelt (tabernacle) among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

© April 2018 by Alan S.L. WONG