“Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia.” (Ezra 2:1, ESV)

Often the best thing to do is the hardest thing to do. The Jews had been in captivity in Babylon for seventy years. Probably at first they hoped that they could soon return to their homeland. But as time went by they became settled in Babylon, as God told them to do (Jeremiah 29:5-7). Since they had lost their farmland, they started banking. By the time King Cyrus gave the decree that they could return to Jerusalem, many had lucrative jobs in Babylon. Why would they leave a comfortable life to pioneer in the ruins of Judah? Why indeed? We don’t know how many of the exiles were living in Babylon at the time, but less than 50,000 returned. They stepped out in faith, courage and sacrifice. God thought enough of these returning exiles to record their family names and numbers in Scripture.

I don’t know of anything worthwhile in the kingdom of God that doesn’t require these three things. We need faith, because we must believe that God exists and that He will bless us when we obey His will. We need courage because we will always face opposition as well as our own fears. And we need sacrifice because the offerings that please God always cost us something.

We look at all these names in Ezra 2, and they are meaningless to us. But they were precious to God because they were willing to put everything on the line to build something great that would endure. Their wisdom was vindicated, for Babylon was ultimately destroyed, but Jerusalem is the city of the Great King that will endure forever (Psalm 48:1-8).

Have we become so settled in this world and seduced by its comforts that we no longer step out in faith, courage and sacrifice for Christ? This world and everything in it is passing away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:17).