So what is God going to do through this [return to Jerusalem]? Think about what happens. Here in 538 BC, you have these Jews that are returning to their land. Do you understand that these people that returned to the land, in that being the very root of the coming Messiah? And it would be them that would in a sense be the soil, the birthplace of God's ultimate promise and God's ultimate exodus through the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think any of them had any idea that that is what God was doing when they were going back? Do you think any of them said,
Brian Borgmanyou know what, this exodus is kind of look small [only a small number of people went back to Jerusalem in relation to the exodus out of Egypt], but I bet God is going to do a bigger exodus?You need to remember God is always doing more than what it looks like and God always has the long view. Do you realize that God always has the long view? What is our perspective? Now, and if not now, at least three seconds from now. Our view is always so short. God's view is always the long view and he knows exactly what he is doing. [God is] putting all the pieces together to bring about his redemptive purposes, to bring about his Son who would accomplish the greatest exodus. And it would be the faithfulness of God, working in and through the faithfulness of his people, that would lay the foundation of the greatest work of redemption of all approximately five hundred years later. God is always doing something.1
1 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. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.