Tanak Foundations-Concepts on the Exile and Return-Conclusion

There is a theme that will be consistent in the prophecies of the prophets of return, such as Daniel, Esther, Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi, Ezra and Nehemiah. They will be dealing with the final return when Messiah comes, when the great dispersion that is being experienced today is over, and their prophecies will be dealing with the Day of the Lord (Messianic Kingdom, Lord’s Day, Atid Lavo, etc). But, you could say that about other books like Isaiah and Jeremiah also, but there is a different “tune” and mindset in the prophets of return as we shall soon see.

This time period between the end of the Divided Monarchy and the coming of Yeshua is also the beginning of what is called the “Apocalyptic Age.” This is a style of writing that had visions, dreams, symbols, signs and images that needed to be interpreted and the Jewish world was flooded with writings that were in this style. For example, the Book of Revelation, parts of Daniel, Zechariah and Ezekiel have apocalyptic writing styles. The book of First Enoch and some of the Pseudo-pigrapha were “apocalyptic” in style. The word means “to reveal” and that is why they call the last book of the New Testament “The Apocalypse” or as most people know it, “Revelation.” It is because of the style it was written in.  It was to reveal the Messiah and teach about the birth-pains and his coming.

The word “apocalyptic” carries a different meaning to most today. When one says, “It is the apocalypse” it carried the meaning of “the end of the world” but it really does not mean that. People reading Revelation for instance tend to forget (or don’t know to begin with) that it is an apocalyptic work with visions, dreams, signs, symbols and images that will convey a prophetic meaning. They will try to read it in the “peshat” level (literal) and it doesn’t work because it is not written to be taken literally, unless the context tells you something is literal. When you understand the apocalyptic style you will be able to understand what the symbols, images and signs mean to understand the prophecies. For instance, in Rev 13 John sees a seven-headed beast rising out of the sea. That is not to be taken literally, but it is symbolic for Leviathan, the twisted serpent, who is also called Rahab and Pharaoh, who are pictures of the False Messiah (Isa 27.1; Ezek 29.1-7; 32.1-8; Psa 74.13-14; Job 26.12-13; Job 41). A Jewish person in the first century familiar with the apocalyptic style would have thought, “That’s Leviathan and a picture of the False Messiah!” We have discussed this many times before and if you want more information, see our teaching on the False Messiah on this site.

Nebuchadnezzar has a dream in Dan 2.1-45 and his dream is apocalyptic in style, and the dream needed to be interpreted. Daniel revealed the dream and the interpretation, and this pleased Nebuchadnezzar, but he was disturbed by the prophecies and the end of Babylonian rule and the coming of other nations. The small stone in his vision is of course Yeshua the Messiah who comes to set up an everlasting kingdom (Dan 2.35; Gen 49.24). He rebels against this interpretation and makes a huge statue of gold only in the valley of Dura (Dan 3.1-30). Some Jews did not bow to the image and were cast into a burning furnace, but survived. Nebuchadnezzar was amazed and had them released unhurt.

The valley of Dura will be the scene of another vision where Ezekiel sees the valley filled with dry bones (Ezek 37). This vision will have the bones coming alive after Ezekiel prophesies to them (Ezek 37.9-10). They come alive and they become a great army. Ezekiel brings the message of the dry bones coming alive to the exiles, telling them that Israel will once again have life and will return to the land (Ezek 37.11-13).

About 30 years after the destruction of the Temple, Nebuchadnezzar died and this caused the Jewish people to rejoice (Prov 11.10). Two Judean kings, Yehoichin and Zedekiah were released. Zedekiah dies soon after but Yehoichin lived for many more years as the guest of Evil-Merodach (man of Marduk), the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Yehoichin had a son while exiled named Shealtiel, and he became the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel will eventually lead the Jews once they are back in the land as governor. Evil-Merodach reigned for 23 years and was followed by Belshazzar, the last Babylonian king.

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, interpreted by Daniel, now unfolded when King Darius of Media and King Cyrus of Persia came together and conquered Babylon and the surrounding lands. Daniel was appointed to a high office in the Medo-Persian court, but others were jealous of him and plotted against him. They knew Daniel prayed to Yehovah so they got the king to issue a decree that disallowed anyone to pray to their own God for 30 days. But Daniel did not just offer silent prayers, but Daniel prayed toward the site of the destroyed Temple three times a day following Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8.46-49. His enemies knew this and informed the king. They asked that Daniel be thrown into a lion’s den, and we have all heard the story.

Now, the king loved Daniel but he had to comply with his own law. And we all know the lions did not harm Daniel and when the king saw this miracle he commanded that Daniel’s enemies be thrown into the den. Then the king issued a decree that said all the people were to worship Yehovah.

After a one year rule, Darius the Mede was followed on the throne by Cyrus of Persia. This is the king that Isaiah prophesied would come about 200 years earlier. He said Cyrus (Hebrew “Koresh”) would defeat many nations and enable the Jewish exiles to return back to the land (Isa 45). When Cyrus ascended the throne, the 70 year captivity has passed and it was time to return.

However, during the Babylonian exile the enemies of Israel were now in possession of the land in Samaria, the Negev and the eastern part of the country. The people of Tyre settled along the coastline. There were no non-Jews in Judah in and around Jerusalem, and the land was desolate. Only a small portion of the people came back to the land, while the majority of the people stayed in Babylon/Persia. For example, the events of the Book of Esther happened to the Jews who did not return back to the land when they could have.

Several things will be different now. The Ark of the Covenant will not be in the Holy of Holies, the garments of the High Priest and the breastplate of judgment with the Urim and Thummim was missing (Neh 7.64-65). While the earlier prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel) prophesied of the coming redemption, the prophets of return will take that to a higher level. It will be a central focus. They will look at the “here and now” but they will also look at the return of all that was lost in the First Kingdom.

In the first year of his rule, Cyrus issued a decree found in Ezra 1.1-3. The Temple in Jerusalem will be built again. The leaders of the people were Zerubbabel, Yehoshua (Joshua) Ben Yehozadok the High Priest, Nehemiah, and the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi to name a few. Nearly fifty thousand people, accompanied by over seven thousand servants, came back. Those that stayed behind will help out financially and with livestock. Cyrus returned the holy vessels from the Temple that had been taken by the Babylonians.

Cyrus also sent troops to protect the people on the journey, and two hundred singers led the people in song. Here is an important note. The book of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book We will get into more detail on these books later.

So the people are returning because of the decree of Cyrus, which was prophesied 200 years before in Isa 45. That prophecy was given by Yehovah before the Persian Empire even existed. Cyrus was one of seven people named in the Scriptures before they were born. The others are Isaac, Ishmael, Solomon, Josiah, Yochanon Ha Matvil (John the Immerser) and Yeshua.

The people do not come back to build forts and houses. Their primary objective is to build the Temple. This shows that at the core of their loss was not the destruction of Jerusalem or the land, but it was the loss of the Temple (Psa 126). It was the center of a Torah-based faith, the festivals, worship and prayer. Everything related around the Temple. In honor of Cyrus, in the Mishnah, Middot 1.3 it says there were five gates to the Temple Mount. One of them on the east side was called the Shushan Gate because it pointed to the Persian Empire, the ones who gave them permission to build the Temple.

When the people began to return, the first thing they did was to reinstate the korbanot (offerings) in Jerusalem, and they began to erect an altar even before the Temple was rebuilt (Ezra.3-16). After that they began to build the Temple and the people were very excited to see it go up in an answer to prayer. However, some of the older people who had seen the greatness of the First temple wept at the sight of this new sanctuary.

The Samaritans (Cuthites) didn’t like the fact that the Jews came back to rebuild because they had their own thing going. So they decided to obstruct the process. They wanted to “help” in the construction but the Jewish leaders said, “No.” Once this failed, they sent messages to Cyrus accusing the Jews of rebellion. Cyrus ordered that the work be stopped. After this, Cyrus dies and Ahasuerus (Achashverosh) ascends to the throne There are many who believe that Ahasuerus was Xerxes, the one who invaded Greece and won the battle of Thermopylae. It is also during his reign that the events in the book of Esther transpired.

We know that by the plan of God, the Jews were spared from an evil decree instigated by a man named Haman, a descendant of the Amalekites, as we shall see when we discuss the book of Esther. The Temple had not been built yet and it has been nearly 20 years since Zerubbabel had returned. The Jews in Persia had been saved from Haman, but in Judea the people struggled. Hag 1.6 describes their difficulties and the people were suffering because they had not rebuilt the Temple. Hag 2.4 tells us that the people were exhorted to start building the Temple again.

Again, the enemies of the Jews tried to stir up trouble again but Persia was ruled by the son of Ahasuerus and possibly Esther, King Darius II. He did not regard the accusations of the enemies of the Jews to be credible, and gave assistance to the rebuilding project. Four years later the Second Temple was completed and standing on the exact spot where the First Temple stood on Mount Moriah.

Eschatologically, when Israel gets the Temple Mount back very soon they will not have to have a sanctuary building in place in order to start offering the korbanot and have some services, according to Ezra 3.1-6. However, in order to start the services they will need to have an altar. Seven days prior to the beginning of these services, the site of the Temple, the altar, the priests, Levites and the vessels that will be used will need to be sprinkled with the ashes of a Red Heifer (the tenth one in Jewish history). But, you cannot stop at the building of the altar, you must continue to build everything else. The altar was just the first step. We will see the scenario in Ezra 3.1-6 and the reestablishment of the altar and the Temple will happen again. It will happen in the coming Third Temple and will also happen in Ezekiel’s Temple as well.

Many of the concepts we have briefly gone over in this short series will be revisited when we go into the coming books of the Tanak, only in much more detail. We wanted to go over a few things now so that we can have a basic understanding of what is going on as we move forward to the book of Ezra and the rest of the Tanak.

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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