From Scriptures to Today
Unraveling the timelessness relevance of the Old Testament
After the Exile, God brings a remnant of his people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and experience a true revival of faith. This post-exilic period (537 to 430 BC) is a time of heady victories and crushing defeats. Of noble leaders and polluted priests. Of corruption and cleansing.
Stages or Overview of the Old Testament
After the Exile, God brings a remnant of his people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and experience a true revival of faith. This post-exilic period (537 to 430 BC) is a time of heady victories and crushing defeats. Of noble leaders and polluted priests. Of corruption and cleansing.
Post-Exilic Stage
Summary
Book of Nehemiah - Nehemiah 5-6
Nehemiah chapter 6 focuses its story on the external challenges faced by Jerusalem during the reconstruction of the walls. Nehemiah is faced with many attempts to disrupt the building of the walls from enemies outside of Jerusalem. The enemies seek to undermine Nehemiah, proposing a meeting under the guise of resolving conflicts. Nehemiah sees through their tricks and responds by focusing on the completion of the walls. Not ready to give up, the enemies attempt various tactics to intimidate Nehemiah into taking shelter in the Temple. Nehemiah, however, stays resilient and soon finishes building the walls. After the walls were built, all the enemies were discouraged from going against the Israelites for they knew that going against them would be going against God.
The story of Ezra chapter 4 takes place after the Babylonian Exile, with Zerubbabel leading the Israelites, they head back to Jerusalem to restore their city. They first begin with the reconstruction of their temple. Their efforts to rebuild encounter opposition from their neighbors, enemies of Judah and Benjamin. When the enemies heard about the temple's restoration, they approached Zerubbabel and offered assistance. Zerubbabel declined their offer, he had seen through their malicious intentions.
Book of Ezra - Ezra 4
The story of Ezra chapter 4 takes place after the Babylonian Exile, with Zerubbabel leading the Israelites, they head back to Jerusalem to restore their city. They first begin with the reconstruction of their temple. Their efforts to rebuild encounter opposition from their neighbors, enemies of Judah and Benjamin. When the enemies heard about the temple's restoration, they approached Zerubbabel and offered assistance. Zerubbabel declined their offer, he had seen through their malicious intentions.
Nehemiah chapter 5 shifts its focus inward and highlights the internal challenges within the community during the restoration of Jerusalem. Nehemiah notices the economic problems among the returned exiles, where some of the wealthier Israelites exploited those less fortunate. Many of the less fortunate were burdened with high interest rates and were forced to sell off their land, homes, and sometimes their own children in order to secure enough food for their families to survive. Nehemiah reacted very negatively regarding the situation of his fellow Israelites. He assembled the nobles to address the issues, demanding them to return what had been taken and to put an end to their usury.
Catechesis, Reflection, and Game Assessment
Reflection
Like Israel rebuilding their city because it was broken, our lives also need repairing, because we are not perfect. One thing that we all disregard in our current day and age is respect. Because of digital technology we are able to communicate to thousands, yet we forget that behind every screen is a person with rights, feelings and lives. We become so used to disrespecting other people online that it may even come out in real life. That is why, at home we should remember to respect our parents and relatives, because they were given by God. In church, we should respect God. We should respect the laws in our country, as disobedience to it is what causes all the mess that the Philippines has today.
A side product of respecting others is to become a good and upright person. Being a good role model is one example. If only all people are like this, our world would be a much more peaceful place. We would be able to have safe homes, workplaces, streets, and nation as a whole.
Respecting God will lead to spreading the good news to others in obedience to His will. In fact, respecting God should make us want to please Him in everything we do, which would make us walk righteously.
Catechesis
During the Persian rule, the Israelites who were exiled to Babylon were free to return to their homeland of Jerusalem, allowing them to be freed from all the hardships they had faced during their exile. They were able to rebuild Jerusalem along with its walls and temple, giving them a stronger faith and connection to God. The Persian rule had also fulfilled one of the prophetic promises that God had given Jeremiah, written in Jeremiah 29:10 “For thus says the Lord: Only after seventy years have elapsed for Babylon will I deal with you and fulfill for you my promise to bring you back to this place”, which gives the people of Israel hope that other prophetic promises will be fulfilled.
The restoration of the city and the temple had great importance to the Israelites. The walls had given protection to the people of Israel. The temple had given the people of Israel a place to worship God. The restoration of Jerusalem had a greater significance to the people of Israel as it rebuilt and strengthened their faith in God as they faced many hardships during the restoration.
During the rebuilding of Jerusalem, there were leaders to rebuild the temples and walls. These leaders were Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, who both had their own share of joys and pains when leading the people of Israel.
Zerubbabel had the joy of witnessing his people, the Israelites, return to their home of Jerusalem. He was able to lead the rebuilding of the temple reviving and strengthening the Israelites and their faith in God. However, all was not good as Zerubbabel faced some pains during his leadership. In Ezra 4:1-5, during the building of the temple, enemies of Judah and Benjamin would attempt to slow down the building of the wall, sabotaging, discouraging, and bribing officials to work against the rebuilding of the temple. The work of the enemies would impact the Israelites, discouraging them from rebuilding the temple. This caused great pain to Zerubbabel to see his people lose their faith in God. Despite this, Zerubbabel and the Israelites finished building the temple which strengthened their love and faith in God.
Nehemiah was one of the leaders in the revival of Jerusalem. He aided in the reconstruction of the walls, which gave the Israelites safety, and displayed to his enemies the strength and power of God. When rebuilding the walls, Nehemiah found the people of Israel in poverty due to the high taxes of the king. This hurt him to see his own people be put into difficulty by people of the same faith. Nehemiah would confront the officials and convince them to return the property of the people.
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