The Old Testament lessons for this week all deal with the return of the Jewish people from their exile in Babylon. A new empire, the Persians, had conquered the Babylonians and reversed the policy of deporting people from their homeland. The decree went out: Whoever among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up [to Jerusalem], and may his God be with him! The Bible portrays this as a triumph but reading between the lines it becomes clear that there was some reluctance to leave the home they had known for the past 47 years! Two generations had grown up in Babylon and had no memory of Jerusalem. Should they move back to the promised land or bloom where they were planted?
