The Restoration Song - The Return of Freedom

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Psalms 126:1‭-‬3 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.126.1-3.NIVUK The phrase "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion" can also be translated "When the Lord returned the captives to Zion". This is entirely appropriate. When the Babylonians finally took Jerusalem, what happened was pretty dramatic (2 Kings 24:10‭-‬16). King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had essentially decapitated the state of Judah. Anyone of any significance, any standing, anyone who had the power to potentially lead the people in rebellion against him, was captured and taken to Babylon. The dirt poor were left behind to farm the land. The future of Judah, indeed the whole land of Israel, rested in the hands of people many hundreds of miles away in Babylon. The poor were powerless to change the situation. Not while anyone with any leadership potential had been taken to serve a foreign king and master.Judah effectively ceased to exist as a nation. I don't know if you followed the drama of the Chibok girls in Nigeria. On the night of 14–15 April 2014, the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram broke into a boarding school in the village of Chibok in northern Nigeria and kidnapped 276 young girls. The reason for the kidnap was chilling. They believe that all western education is forbidden and believe in particular that girls should not be educated. Many of the girls were not Muslim but Christian. Over the next few years, periodic raids by the Nigerian army and a few escapes brought most of the girls back home. But the harm they had suffered at the hands of the brutish rebels was extensive - both psychologically and physically. Some even came back with children, forcibly conceived and born in captivity. They all had to go through reintegration programs before they could be released back into their villages, but the joy on their parents' faces when they emerged from captivity was deeply moving and infectious. Their daughters had been taken into captivity and were now free! This gives us a tiny picture of what was happening when these captives returned home. Only, they weren't gone for a few years. No, they were gone for seventy years (Jeremiah 25:8‭-‬11; Jeremiah 29:10‭-‬14; Daniel 9:1‭-‬2; 2 Chronicles 36:21)! Just imagine the scene. People are living in absolute poverty, scratching out a living among the ruins of their devastated cities. And then, in the distance, they hear the slow thumping of exhausted pack animals like donkeys and camels approaching, and trundling of wooden carts. The noise comes closer until it stops. Men and women get out: men and women who were here when the Babylonians ruined these towns. And they bring with them their children and grandchildren - maybe even great-grandchildren - who only ever heard of the Promised Land second hand through stories and poems and songs. They are met by relatives they haven't seen for decades, and many they had never met before. Can you imagine the joy? Can you imagine the tears? Some of you might even be weeping at the thought of what I am describing. This is what these verses describe. I am absolutely sure that we have missed seeing friends and relatives during Lockdown. However, for most of us it has been months and not years. What these verses portray is the delight the Jews felt when reunited with long lost relatives after the exile. Everything appeared to be against them. They had been taken by the greatest superpower of the day, and when you read what happened to the King of Israel at the time then you realise just how heartless they were: They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. 2 Kings 25:7 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/2ki.25.7.NIVUK When their friends and relatives were dragged from their houses by ruthless soldiers, I'm sure they pretty quickly lost all hope of ever seeing them again. And as time past, even more so. But, as the original Hebrew states very eloquently in these verses, God had turned their situation completely around. If He can do it for them, He can and will do it for us. Just how much their situation has changed can be seen in the verses below: I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions. And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, “These are the Lord ’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.” I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone. ‘Therefore say to the Israelites, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: it is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord , declares the Sovereign Lord , when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. ‘ “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. Ezekiel 36:19‭-‬24 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/ezk.36.19-24.NIVUK Contrast this with verses we read earlier: Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ Psalms 126:2 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.126.2.NIVUK You see, the dreadful situation the Jews faced here had caused the pagan nations to question the glory and majesty and might of their God. In the popular religious systems of the day, wars were not just about trade or prestige or national pride. They were also religious affairs: a battle of gods and religious systems. If you won, your god was greater. If you lost, your god was lesser. Thus the crushing defeats both Israel and Judah had suffered had caused the pagans around them to view their God as weak and defeated. They, of course, were not aware of what God had stated in His Covenant with His people if they disobeyed Him: The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Deuteronomy 28:25 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/deu.28.25.NIVUK Nevertheless, God's glory among the nations had suffered during those seventy years of exile. But not now. Now the nations were looking at the near miraculous emotional reunions, the return of their noblemen, inteligentsia and leaders, and they realised only God could do this. From being seen as cursed, God's people were now seen as blessed. I want you to grasp two things here. Firstly, just how serious a situation the exile was for Israel and Judah. How painful their losses were. How deep their disgrace was. How far gone and seemingly beyond help they were. Secondly, how much their condition changed when God brought their captives home. How much hope would have flooded through their veins. How much joy would have returned. How much faith would have been restored. Coronavirus may have left you beaten down, broken in your spirit, feeling without hope. But these verses tell us that there is always hope in God (Psalms 30:4‭-‬5). Hold your head high, friend, and trust in God. He is fully able to turn your situation around. And it doesn't need to take seventy years. So we've seen the return of freedom - a return which was seventy long years in the making. In my next post we will see something a little more sudden: THE RETURN OF FERTILITY: