The Resurrection of Israel in a Band of Exiles

Raised up as a people
The language of return uses a verb that has to do with going up, ascending, raising from low to high. It can have social as well as physical resonances.

The people of God had lost their name, their status, and their places. Like fatherless children, they become nameless and homeless. Think of a person who dies. In the grave, he has no name, no status, no position in the community, no power, no identity.

Israel is dead. There is no community, no people, no land. Like Lazarus in the grave, God calls them back to life. They have a name and are returning to a place and will build a Temple.

This imagery is similar to the resurrection imagery applied to the people of God in Ephesians (2:1-9). God in His great mercy has called us when we were “dead in our trespasses” and “made us alive together in Christ.” He raises up the Jew and the Gentile into one new Man who is becoming a house of praise unto the Lord.

A Family of families
The people returning to the land are people within families. We are born in families and raised up in families and shaped in families and ultimately die in families. These families have specific purposes in the overall community. This is also a story of humiliated families. The glory they once carried is diminished.

Consider Zerubbabel, he is of the house of David but he is not listed as king. In fact, no king returns to the throne from the house of David until the Messiah. While they seem to have lost their glory, the promise is that they now bear a greater glory in the midst of their struggle and suffering.

The Israel of God within Israel
When Moses led the people out of Egypt, he led over 600,000r 600,000
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja! Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se za?ne z ¹! Vrstica ⁰ ne obstaja!

WP-Bible plugin warriors and an estimated population of over 2 million. In this departure from Ezra, the whole assembly comes to only 42,360 people.

A much smaller band of people return to the land, and they are still in subjection to another king. Once again the glory seems greatly diminished.

But this is supposedly more glorious. How could this be? It seems our understanding of glory and God’s understanding of glory are two different things. Jesus will be the more glorious Temple that replaces this Temple, but he looks inglorious. And his highest point of glory will be hanging on the cross: lifted up for the world to see. He is humiliated and lifted up at the same time.

In Him, we see a glory that is not about overlording people, but a glory this is completely self-giving. In his emptying out, He receives glory from the Father by the Spirit. This is the glorious calling of the “called out” ones throughout Scripture. And in Him we see an Israel of God within Israel.

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