The first return is a trip into the fog. They do not know exactly what will greet them. They do not fully know the condition of the land. The journey of hundreds of miles will take them weeks to complete. Yet they go because they have a higher purpose in mind. They go to rebuild God’s holy temple and to reestablish the true worship of God in God’s chosen city of Jerusalem. They go also to replant the land given to their father Abraham.
The Jews had been taken captive because of their disobedience. Here, they return to the Promised Land and begin to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. They begin with the Temple—the place of worship. Later, Ezra restores spiritual purity to their obedience. Finally, Nehemiah rebuilds the walls for protection.
Moses is dead. Joshua must accept the fact and take his role as leader of the Israelites.
In this chapter, we learn three great lessons: 1) your sin will surely catch up with you and find you out; 2) the judgment of sin is more than you can ever imagine; 3) God shows great mercy to those who truly repent and turn to Him.
Perhaps the most prevalent sin of the Christian today is that of complaining. It is in our nature. How many things have we murmured or complained about today and we were not even conscious of it? In our heart we have strategically placed complaining as one of the smaller sins or perhaps not even sin at all. God, however, has a different outlook on the matter and we would do well to adopt God’s viewpoint versus our own. God tells us in His word “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content”, and in another place He says “and be ye thankful”. Complaining is not so. As such we ought to learn what the scriptures say about complaining and take heed to its warnings.
