"When Jehovah returns the captivity of Zion, we will be like those who dream." Psalm 126: 1
The worst thing that happens when the crisis comes is that your mind closes and you can not dream.
Psalm 126 is one of those known as Psalms of degree or ladder, which are Psalms 120 to 134. In those times, when one went to the temple to worship God, there were fifteen steps to climb. And the Jew what he did was that he read each of these psalms on each step. And on the pilgrimage to the church these psalms were read, because they remember the liberation of God on the people of Israel.
If we read them fifteen, we see that they are progressive. Psalm 126 is the seventh, and it is a psalm through which God wanted to remember something He had done for the people of Israel, specifically the moment He freed Israel from the Babylonian captivity.
In Ezra 1, we are told that Jehovah awoke the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, to free the people of Israel, to go up and build the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem. Cyrus was a pagan king, however, in Isaiah 45 God calls him his anointed. God anoints a pagan, a mundane, who is not perfect, who has made many mistakes, we do not agree with lots of things; but in each town, in each place, God raises a Ciro who perhaps thinks it is a political decision, and does not realize that it is God who raised his spirit to free those whom God wants them to dream.
God raised Cyrus so that the people would be free from captivity, because God wanted a people to dream.
This captivity of the people of Israel was not a geographical one. The people of Israel were held captive on several occasions: with the Egyptians, with the Babylonians, with the Romans; On each occasion, with different characteristics. Egypt was a slavery of geographical oppression, where the people were forced to work. With the Romans, it was a confusion of religion; They were allowed to praise God, but they were condemned to live under the rules of the Roman people in other things. In chapter 126 of the book of Psalms, it is specifically speaking of the moment when Cyrus stops the captivity to which Nabuconodosor had taken the people of Israel. This captivity was not like that of Egypt. In fact, part of the people did not want to leave, because the Babylonians had granted them the right to build houses. And that's the people who, in the middle of the crisis, what they do is settle for what they have, instead of following the cry of freedom to rise to a higher place, because they prefer to stay at that level, rather than start another time a new path.
What good is it to stay in a good house in Babylon, instead of walking towards your destination, knowing that what God has for you is much greater?
The enemy wanted to change the identity of the people of Israel as children of God. God has to raise Cyrus, who fulfills the prophecy that had been given that the people of Israel would be enslaved in Babylon for seventy years, and that God would turn that around.
When we look at the history of the Babylonian captivity, more than a physical captivity, it was a mental captivity, a captivity of thought, a crisis of identity. They wanted Daniel to change his name, they wanted him to speak another language, to eat another meal; because if you change the name, language, and food to a person, you changed it forever. Nabuconodosor chose the princes, the most intelligent, and castrated them, so that they would not reproduce. They changed the name, changed the language, and changed their food. Daniel did not allow that; That's why the Bible says that Daniel had a different spirit. Others yielded to culture, gave in to fashion, and wanted to live easier, but Daniel did not mind being thrown into the lion's den; He knew that from there God was going to take him out, and that the dream that God had placed in him was not going to die. In the same way that Daniel would not die in the lion's den, bankruptcy does not end with you, divorce does not end with you, that problem does not end with you.
Cyrus gave the order that the temple be rebuilt, because the first thing that Nabuconodosor did to enslave the Jewish people in Babylon was to take away the desire and the reason for walking to Jerusalem.
The first thing Nabuconodosor did was to take out the treasure, and the Word says that where your treasure is, your heart is. Nabuconodosor takes out the treasure, takes it away, and puts it in Babylon. Now there was no reason to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, because in their minds there was nothing valuable there, because Nabuconodosor had it now. So now there was no desire to go on a pilgrimage, to walk, to go to Jerusalem to worship God.
Every time the people went to Jerusalem, they went to a party. For them, it was not a martyrdom to give an offering, it was not a martyrdom to get dressed and walk to go to church. And on the way to Jerusalem, the people remembered what God had done when he brought them out of Egypt, for example. That pilgrimage is what made the people dream, and was eliminated, so the people lost the reason to travel to celebrate God. The same happens today. For some it is a martyrdom to go to church; Dressing, leaving, the service is very long, the collection of the offering, everything is heavy. At the movies, you're going to entertain yourself; But you do not dream of those who entertain you, you entertain yourself with those who dream; The artist, the singer, the sportsman who dreamed, entertains you; And what entertains you, captivates you. In life, you have to walk by what you dream; And, without realizing it, your treasure has moved you to another place, when your treasure must always be in the house of God, because it is on your pilgrimage to the house of God that you are free to dream.
