Return from Captivity by I. E. Kimball

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 23, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 17.

Return from Captivity

By I. E. Kimball

ZION AND BABYLON. NO. 2.

BY I. E. KIMBALL.

Return from Captivity.

We have noted how the chosen people came to suffer the Babylonian captivity. But God spake of a return after seventy years. And I will now note its fulfillment; for all this is made the basis of a most interesting prophecy, which we will hereafter consider. The New Testament has her Zion and Babylon, her captivity and her deliverance therefrom, as we shall see.

The fall of Babylon by the might of the Persian arm opened the door for the deliverance of Israel. In the first year of Cyrus, of whom God had spoken, calling him by name, nearly a hundred years before his birth, he, now monarch of all the earth, decreed Israel’s restoration. Thousands received it with joy; the golden vessels which had been taken from the temple at Jerusalem were given into the hand of Zerubbabel; they were brought forth from the temple of Bel, and taken, together with a long train of captives, back to the

ancient sanctuary. Cyrus not only permitted but commanded the temple to be rebuilt. So Israel came home to the desolated cities of Judea and raised up their former habitations; and when the seventh month came, they congregated at Jerusalem, built the altar, and began to sacrifice. At the beginning of the second year, they were ready for work upon the temple.

Joshua and the Levites set forward the work amid mingled wailing and rejoicing. They wrought sedulously. The walls of Jerusalem went up, as declared in Ezra 4:12, and the parallel in 1 Esdras, where it is said: “They built the market places, and repaired the walls of it, and do lay the foundation of the temple.” Then the people of the land, who at first desired to build with them, began to weaken their hand. They hired counselors to oppose Israel during Cyrus’ reign. Cambyses was informed against them. Finally Smerdis, known as the Impostor, stopped the work by decree and armed force. “A troop of horsemen and a great multitude of soldiers in battle array” stopped the work. The walls of Jerusalem were now or later broken down, and the gates burned with fire, as finally reported to Nehemiah. So the work ceased for some fifteen years.

Then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah began to speak in no hesitating manner. The people believed, and went to work, altho straitened in every way, when, lo! a decree from Darius favorable to their building was issued. Even the royal treasury was opened to them for the completion of the work. So they prospered. At this second decree many came up from Babylon, as we should infer from the records, particularly in 1 Esdras. The prophets who set forward the work called upon the people to “flee from the land of the north” and “deliver themselves,” and many must have responded.

Then followed, after many years, another grand move, and a third decree from the Persian king, which accomplished the final restoration.

Ezra prepared his heart to teach Israel statutes and judgments. The king favored him wonderfully with munificent gifts, and all the money he could find in all the province of Babylon. Thousands responded from all quarters of the dispersion, and returned with Ezra to Zion. This was a full generation removed from the first exode from Babylon.

Then, too, just a little later, Nehemiah, who bitterly wept that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the gates burned, obtained leave of the king, and joined Ezra, taking precedence in the work. He would restore the walls and gates. The residents of Jerusalem began to build over against their own houses, and all Judea joined in the work. Then the enemy mocked and ridiculed; they conspired to stop the work by force of arms. But Israel builded and finished in troublesome times, with sword in one hand and implements for work in the other. Forty-nine years are allotted by the prophet to this work of building. See Dan. 9:25.

A word with reference to Babylon, which now crumbled to dust. God had said she should be as Sodom—fall from her lofty state, never to be rebuilt, she should be desolations forever. She became in the Medo-Persian reign a second-class city. Finally the inhabitants removed to Ephesus and elsewhere, and her walls were quarried for other cities; she became heaps and a den of dragons forever.

A Greater Restoration.

I have set forth the return from Babylon, and the particular stages in the restoration; for this is made to forecast a grander restoration, as we will now see by consulting the prophecy of Zechariah.

Let us note first that Joshua, the priest-head of the nation, was a type of Jesus, the Messiah; for the two names are identical in the Hebrew. Thus he bore the name of the One who first planted them in the promised land, and of the One who will restore them to it eternally. In the book of Esdras this priest is called Jesus. And we are not left in doubt as to the design of God in thus making the Jesus of that day a type of the Jesus to come; for Zechariah was commanded to take silver and gold and witnesses from some of the principal families of the captivity, together with the priest; he should then go to the house of Josiah and make crowns of the gold and silver in the sight of the chosen witnesses, placing them upon the head of Joshua. Then he should utter this prophecy:—

“Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord; . . . and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. And the crowns shall be . . . for a memorial in the temple of the Lord. And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord,” etc. Zech. 6:12–15.

Those “far off” signify the gentiles, as in Isaiah and in Paul’s writings. Indeed, the apostle’s words in Eph. 2:11–22 are but a commentary upon this very prophecy. “The temple of the Lord” in the New Testament is a living temple. “Ye are the temple of the living God.” “The house of God, which is the church of the living God.” So then the temple which Christ should build was his church, which the gates of hell can never prevail against. Christ himself is the chief corner-stone, as Paul says.

In the third chapter of Zechariah the priest (Joshua) is represented in earnest importunity before God with Satan, his adversary. Joshua is accepted, Satan rebuked,—the priest glorified and crowned. Then the angel connects with this the revelation of God’s “servant, the Branch,” who is spoken of as the stone “which I have laid before Joshua,” whereon should be graven “seven eyes.” The temple is immediately referred to, and the foundation which Joshua and Zerubbabel had laid years before is doubtless referred to.

They were now preparing to finish the work. God himself should grave the graving of these seven eyes upon this stone, and in that day the iniquity of all would be removed. See Zech. 3:8, 9. This refers to the day of Christ’s glorification, when he took all sin upon himself, and became our High Priest and Intercessor. Then were the seven spirits of God given to him, which are variously shown as seven eyes, seven horns, and seven lamps of fire, to show the all-discerning, all-powerful, all-illuminating Spirit, which is sent forth into all the earth. See Zech. 3:9; 4:2, 6, 10; Rev. 5:6; 4:5; 3:1. So in Zechariah’s prophecy, the lesson to be impressed upon Zerubbabel’s mind by this was that in the building of the temple he should rely wholly upon the Spirit of God. In explanation the angel said: “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” Mountains should become plains,—great difficulties be removed,—and they should bring forth the finishing stone, shouting the grace of God as manifest in the accomplishment of the building. He goes on to say that those seven were the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth. See Zech. 4:7–14.

As the word “Jesus” was significant, so “Zerubbabel” was also; for Haggai, who prophesied at the same time, looking to the day when the “Desire of all nations” should come, and the thrones and strength of the kingdoms of the heathen be destroyed, said, “Will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, . . . and will make thee as a signet,” etc. It would seem that more than his personal salvation in the last time is here shown. The name, signifying scattered to Babylon, or born at Babylon, is made to apply to all who return from Babylon. Zerubbabel, the builder, is a type of all the Gospel temple. Thus God has his Zerubbabel in the builders of to-day. Moreover, the fall of Babylon is ever taken as a bold type of the end of the world. See Isaiah 13; Jeremiah 25, etc. And, coupled with this, we have the return to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy. See Isa. 13; 14: 1, 2; Isaiah 34 and 35; Jeremiah 31, etc. Hence we conclude that the return was altogether a type for the Gospel dispensation, which we will proceed to consider.