September 2, 2011 – Ezra 1 – 2:19

Cyrus ruled from 539 – 530 BC, so we get an understanding of where we are starting. It seems a bit odd that after a certain time the king would just say, “ok, you can all go home”, but God is just that powerful. He had brought about the exile through the use of the other nations and now was releasing them. So, after 70 plus years, they are returning to a city most of them had never seen and had only heard about. In our day in age it is hard to imagine not knowing something with all the information we have access to. It would be like me going back to where my family lived in Germany before they came over here. It is completely foreign to me, yet it was their home for possibly hundreds of years. Keep that in mind as we read on.