+

THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM

+ + + REBUILDING THE TEMPLE + + +

When the Israelites had been slaves in Babylon for seventy years, a king called Cyrus came to the throne. Cyrus sent a message throughout his empire saying, "The Lord God has made me master of the world, and now He wants me to see to the rebuilding of His own Temple at Jerusalem. Let everyone who is of the race of Judah go home and help build the Temple of the true God." Cyrus brought out the Temple ornaments that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away, and returned them to the Jews.

+ + + Ezekiel + + +

One of the prophets, Ezekiel, had a vision of how Israel would rise again. He wrote, "The hand of God was on me, and He carried me away by the Spirit of God and set me down in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones, that were all dried up. He said to me, 'Can these bones live?' I said, 'You know, Oh Lord.' He said, 'Say over these bones: "The Lord God says to these bones, I am now going to make breath enter into you, and you will live. I will make muscle, and skin, grow on you. And you will live and learn that I am God."' While I prophesied there was a clattering noise, and the bones joined together. I saw that they were covered with muscle; skin was growing on them, but there was no breath in them. God said to me, “'Prophesy to the breath. Say to the breath, ‘The Lord God says: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead and let them live.’” I prophesied as He told me, and the breath entered them. They came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, mighty army.

"Then He said, 'These bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, "Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead." Say to them, ‘The Lord God says: I am now going to raise you from your graves, My people, and lead you back to Israel. I shall put My Spirit in you, and you will live, and you will know that I, the Lord God, have done this. It is the Lord God Who speaks.’”

God also told Ezekiel just how the Temple in Jerusalem was to be built, and how it was to be used. The East Gate of the Temple was shut. "This gate will be kept shut," God told him, "for the Lord God of Israel has been through it. So it must be kept shut."

And so they rebuilt the Temple of God in Jerusalem. The city walls were put up again and Jerusalem rose in its old glory. The children of God were once more in their own country, and an end had come to the Babylonian Captivity.

THE STORY OF JOB

There was once a man in the land of Uz, called Job. Job was a good man who loved God and did what is right. He had ten children. He also had many servants and many sheep, camels, oxen, and donkeys. Job took care that his family always did what is right.

One day Satan came to God. God asked him, "Where have you been?" "Around the earth," he said, "roaming about." God asked him, "Did you see my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth. He loves Me and does what is right." "Yes," said Satan, "but he does not do this for nothing, does he? You have blessed everything he does, and his flocks are all over the place. But stretch out Your hand and lay a finger on all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face." "Very well," God said to Satan, "all he has is in your power. But keep your hands off of Job himself." So Satan left God.

On the day when Job's children were all having a meal together, someone came in to Job and said, "Your oxen were plowing, and the donkeys grazing at their side, when some enemies swept down on them and carried them off. They killed your servants. I alone escaped to tell you."

He had not finished saying this when someone else came in and said, "The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up all your sheep, and your shepherds too. I alone escaped to tell you."

He had not finished saying this when someone else came in and said, "Three bands of robbers have made off with your camels. They also killed your servants. I alone escaped to tell you."

He had not finished saying this when someone else came in and said, "Your children were all having their meal together when a great wind blew up. The house fell in on the young people. They are all dead. I alone escaped to tell you."

Job got up and tore his clothes and shaved his head. Then he fell on his face and said, “Naked I was born and naked I will die.

God has given, and God has taken away.

Blessed be the Name of God”.

Even after all this Job did not sin or complain to God.

Once again Satan came to God. God asked him, "Where have you been?" "Around the earth," he said, "roaming about." God asked him, "Did you see my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth. He loves Me and does what is right. He is still as good as ever. You tried to ruin him in vain." "Skin for skin!" Satan said. "A man will give away all he has to save his life. But stretch out Your hand and lay a finger on Job himself, and he will curse You to Your face." "Very well," God said to Satan, "he is in your power. But do not kill him." So Satan left God.

He gave Job running sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Job took a piece of pottery to scrape himself, and went and sat in the ashpit. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still want to serve God? Curse God and die."

"That is how foolish women talk," said Job. "If we take what makes us happy from God, must we not take sorrow also?"

Still Job did not sin or complain to God.

Three of Job's friends heard of all that had happened to him, and came to comfort him.

When they saw him from afar, they did not know him. They wept aloud and tore their clothes and threw dust over their heads.

They said to Job, "What man can say that he is good before God?" But Job kept on saying, "I did not sin or complain to God. Why has He done this to me?"

At last God Himself spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. God said, "Do you think you can read My mind?

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell Me, since you know so much.

Who shut in the sea, and gave it a limit, saying

You can come this far, and no farther?

Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning?

And made the dawn to know its place?"

Job answered God,

"I know that You can do all things.

No one is more powerful than You.

I spoke of what I did not understand,

Of things too great for me to know.

Before, I had only heard about You,

But now I see You with my own eyes.

I take back all I have said,

And repent in dust and ashes."

Then God said to Job's friends, "I am angry with you, because you have not spoken the truth about Me as My servant Job has done. Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer. I will excuse your folly, that you have not spoken the truth about Me as My servant Job has done. "

Then God gave Job back two times as much as he had before. All who had known him before came to visit Job and eat bread with him in his house. They showed him every sympathy, and comforted him for all he had been through. And the last days of Job were even better than the first.

+ + + THE PROPHET JONAH + + +

The Lord told Jonah to go to the great pagan city of Nineveh in Assyria and preach to the people, who were living wicked lives. He was to tell them God would destroy their city if they did not repent of their wickedness. Jonah hated the idea; he was afraid the Assyrians might kill him.

So he quickly got on a ship going in the opposite direction.

But God sent a terrible storm. The captain and sailors were very frightened. "Is this storm your fault?" they said to Jonah. Jonah confessed that he was trying to escape from the Lord's sight. "Throw me overboard," he said. "It is your only hope."

The captain and his crew did not want to do this, but they knew the ship would sink if they didn't. So Jonah was thrown into the sea. The storm stopped at once.

At the Lord's command, a great sea-beast swallowed Jonah.

Three days and three nights Jonah spent in its belly. He prayed, "The Lord will rescue me from this prison. My prayer will reach Him." And at the Lord's command the sea-beast cast Jonah up high and dry on the beach.

Jonah went to Nineveh as fast as he could. He preached there as God had told him to, and the people of Nineveh, from the least to the greatest, were sorry for their sins. Their king told them all to call on God with all their might.

God heard them, and He did not destroy their city as He had said He would.

But Jonah was upset with God because God did not do what He had sent Jonah to tell the people He was going to do. Jonah went out of Nineveh and sat down to watch and see what would happen to the city.

God caused a plant to grow up, and give Job shade and soothe his bad mood some. And Jonah did feel better.

But very early the next morning, God had a worm eat at the plant, and it withered and died. Then God made a scorching wind blow, and made the sun beat down so hard on Jonah's head that Jonah was faint and even wished he could die.

God said to Jonah, "You are sorry about this plant, which you did not even work to make grow. It grew up in a night and withered and died in a night. Is it not right for Me to be sorry for this great city of more than 120 thousand people, many of them little children who cannot yet tell their right hand from their left?"

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