September: Returned and Restored

I don’t know about you, but Back to School season always feels like a new beginning and a return, all at the same time. We’re hitting reset, but also getting back to the foundation. Something about the start of the new academic year with its drop-off lines and morning routines resembles a call away from the frivolous fun of summer and its indulgences, a call to come home.

In the same way, we’re taking the month of September as a call for us to turn away from frivolity and indulgence, and come home. For us as Christians, home is in the Good Book — the Bible — and we’re returning to God.

This month, we’ll be in the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Hosea. We’ll witness Israel’s return to Jerusalem after exile, renewed hope, approval of God over approval of people and God’s redeeming love.

For the first week, we’re covering the entire book of Ezra, in which we’ll follow the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. God’s people have been in exile in Babylon, most recently under the regime of King Nebuchadnezzar II, and all their possessions and the possessions belonging to the temple have been stolen from them. Their temples were burned and there were three mass deportations prior to where the Jews are in this Book. Sound familiar?

Many were killed or scattered while in Babylon. The Jews were beginning to doubt the promises of God — they had no king, no country, no hope.

In the Book of Ezra, the Jewish people are returned to Jerusalem and their hope is restored.