Stirred Up

God stirred the hearts of the priests and Levites and the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of the LORD. Ezra 1:5

THE PEOPLE OF GOD were far away from the land where God had promised to dwell with them, far away from the Temple where they had gone to find forgiveness, far away from being all that they were meant to be. They were five hundred miles east of Jerusalem in Babylon, living in a foreign culture that was intent on assimilating them. But then a new regime came into power. The Persians overtook the Babylonians. God “stirred the heart” of the Persian king, Cyrus, to send out a proclamation that all of the Jews who wanted to could go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.

So who would go? “Everyone whose spirit God had stirred” (verse 5, ESV).

To bring his people home to himself, God stirred up the pagan king to release them. Then he moved in the hearts of some of his people, giving them the desire to leave Babylon behind and find their home in God’s land. In several waves, over several decades, a remnant of God’s people went home to start over —to start over in the land, to start over on the Temple, to start over with God, and to be the people he had always intended for them to be. Going back to Jerusalem was not merely a geographical relocation. It was a personal transformation, a whole-life reorientation —away from the world that wanted to assimilate them and toward the city where God intended to sanctify them.

God still stirs up people to leave the world, with all of its familiarity and comforts, and to enter the city of God, where true security can be found. We long for this stirring in the hearts of our children so that they will be drawn to make their home in God.

Lord, you stir the hearts of pagan kings, and you move in the hearts of your people. Won’t you kindle a fire in ________’s heart to leave behind the Babylon of this world and come home to you? Won’t you stir until ________ moves?