God heard the repentant prayers of His people and fulfilled His promise. Beginning in 536 B.C., Jews left Babylon and returned to Judah (Ezra 2:1). The first group, led by Zerubbabel, restored sacrifices “as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God” (Ezra 3:2). They began to rebuild the temple, but enemies interfered. Eventually, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah revived their efforts, and the temple was completed (516 B.C.) About this time, as reported in the book of Esther, a crisis developed at Persia’s capital. An archenemy of the Jews, Haman, nearly succeeded in plans to annihilate the Jewish race. Again, God was at work. He used faithful Esther, the Jewish queen of the Persian king, to save her people.
Two more groups of Jews, led by Ezra and Nehemiah respectively, returned to Jerusalem. Ezra the priest directed the spiritual restoration. Nehemiah, the new governor, directed the rebuilding of Jerusalem and enforced obedience to the Law of Moses.
What does spiritual restoration look like? As seen in Ezra and Nehemiah, the restorers…
● deeply mourned having strayed from God’s way (Ezra 9:3-4;10:6; Nehemiah 1:4)
● entered into serious fasting and prayer (Ezra 8:21-23; Nehemiah 1:4, 11; 3:4).
● confessed their collective sins (Ezra 9:10-15; 10:11; Nehemiah 1:6; 9:3).
● learned history’s lessons; they refused to repeat the errors of previous generations (Ezra 9:14; Nehemiah 9:2-3; 13:25-26).
● devoted themselves to learning God’s will (Ezra 7:10; Nehemiah 8:1-18; 9:1-3; 13:1-3).
They based corrections on the Scriptures—“as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God” (Ezra 3:2 cf. Ezra 3:4, 10; 6:14, 18; 10:3, 11; Nehemiah 10:29; 12:44-47; 13:1-3).
● made the radical changes demanded by true repentance (Ezra 10:3; Nehemiah 9:38; 10:29; 13:1-3).
● persisted in restoration despite ridicule, delays, risks and sacrifices (Ezra 4-5; 8:21-23; Nehemiah 4:9).
● depended on God’s promises and providential help (Ezra 1:1, 5; 5:5; Nehemiah 2:8-20; 4:20; 6:16).