The Destruction of Solomon’s Temple. See 2 Chron. 36:17-19.
V. Returned to Jerusalem
The children of Israel returned to their country and to their former places of residence. We find that in seven months from the time of their going forth from Babylon, they are in their cities, settled in the home land. When some of those who claimed to be Levites desired to join the priests in their work, they could not prove their lineage. These sought to register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found. There was the possibility that they were not priests at all. What should be done about There was only one thing to do. If those who were responsible for the purity of the priesthood and the service of the sanctuary should allow those who could not prove their genealogy to act as priests, there was risk that they were not qualified to be priests. On the other hand, if these were really of the right lineage, to repel them was to hold that those who so far as descent was concerned had a right to serve in the temple. The matter was therefore left until such a time as a priest should appear who had the divine gift of urim and thummim. Inquiry from such a priest would determine whether these candidates for priestly service were entitled to do such work or not.
The fact that there was no priest with the urim and thummim, is a comment of itself upon the condition of God’s people at this time. This divine method of knowing God’s will, had fallen into disuse. The expression “till there stood up a priest with urim and thummim,” shows that the practice had fallen into disuse. We notice the matter at this time merely to show how careful God’s people were lest the service could be contaminated by the work of those who were not appointed to the priesthood.
Care in God’s Service
Another incident shows us how careful God’s people were with reference to the sacrificial service. In the opening verses of the third chapter of Ezra is recorded the fact that the altar of burnt offering was set up, and they were offering “burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening.” The phrase “as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God,” shows that they were carefully following the Word of God; and this outward absolute conformity to the law becomes more and more a distinguishing feature of the work of the Jews from this time onward. Their many experiences in captivity, and the many hard and severe experiences which they were now to undergo, gave them increasingly a conviction that their success as a nation, and therefore their temporal success, depended upon absolute conformity to the law of God. In the scripture which speaks of their carefulness in setting up the altar of burnt offerings, we read: “And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries.” It is evident that they were fearful of trouble and even of calamities, and therefore were very precise in obeying God.
Form Alone Valueless
This was all perfectly proper; that is, if there was joined with it the same carefulness of personal relationship with God. But we are sorry to see that gradually it came to be about the only thing in the religion of the Jews; for when Christ appeared, we find the only religion that the majority of God’s professed people had was an outward conformity to the law of God, and that even this outward conformity was very imperfect, having been changed by traditions and exactions which made void obedience to the literal Word of God.
In beginning the work of restoration, God’s people not only set up the altar of burnt offering, but we read that they also kept the Feast of Tabernacles “as it is written,” and we find them also offering “daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required.” We find that they also observed all set feasts, and thus began their work by perfect obedience to all the requirements of the ritualistic law. This was all quite right, and we wish to throw no discredit upon it, but to point out the fact that it gradually, as the years passed, became the only conformity that God’s people gave to His great demands.
