Second Exodus

Ezra 1:6 All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.

Déjà vu all over again! Many of us have had the feeling the present moment is really a flashback to some previous experience. We feel like we have been here before even while this moment is really a new moment.

Déjà vu is not evidence of some previous incarnation as Eastern religions would want us to think. It isn’t time travel or an out of body experience. It is probably another one of the fabulous workings of our amazing brains, one of the mysteries of begin created in the image of such a wonderful creator.

But as I read Ezra, I can’t help feel like I have been here before, like the things that are happening have happened before. And this is exactly what the writer of Ezra is expressing. Always remember, the Bible is one story from beginning to end.

Do you remember the account of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt and how the Egyptians gave the Israelites great gifts as they were leaving? Well they did. And this is the first parallel with the account of Exodus.

Ezra wants us to understand the return from Exile as a second Exodus. The LORD is once again delivering His people out of bondage into the Promise Land. The pictures and details written in these chapters of Ezra harken back to the pictures and details of the Exodus account. We are reliving the Exodus. Different cast, but the same plot.

They even use the proper source when starting to sacrifice to the LORD again. They pull out Moses’ “How to sacrifice to the LORD” manual, available for digital download or handy PDF format. (Just joking.) They open up the Law of Moses and follow His blueprints. Just as Moses laid out the Tabernacle according to the plan the LORD had showed him, they perform the duties of the priesthood according to the plan laid out by Moses.

They even pull out the old hymnal of King David and strike up his old familiar tunes. They used the tried and true to honor the LORD for His work among them. They didn’t fall into the trap their ancestors repeatedly yielded to.

You see their ancestors were not satisfied with having the LORD determine the right and wrong ways to live and worship as the People of God. So they brought idol worship and heathen practices into their communities and into their hearts. This is the reason they ended up in Exile. The LORD brought them there to cleanse them from their sinful practices.

Now they could have brought the practices of by Babylonians and Persians with them when they returned to the Promised Land. They could have taken a little bit of this and a little bit of that and made something new and up to date. But they didn’t!

Instead, they returned to the things that the LORD had prescribed. They returned to the fundamentals of their faith.

I fear we have lost the fundamentals of the Christian faith these days. The lack of Scripture reading and knowledge is appalling, especially among so many who name the Name of Jesus. The very people who ought to be ‘people of the Book’ aren’t. And because they don’t know the book, they just do whatever is ‘right in their own eyes.’

It is time for the Jesus-following community to return to the reading and teaching of the Scriptures. Discipleship of all believers. Systematic teaching, accountability to one another, disciplined and holy living.

We are supposed to be different! We are images of the Living God. We ought to act differently toward other people. Our lives should reflect the gratefulness of soul and spirit that marked the first Jesus-followers. And they changed the world.

What are we changing, other than channels?