After God had departed and returned to heaven, the children of Israel were scattered. Some were carried away to Egypt, some to Syria, and the majority to Babylon. The temple was destroyed, and all its vessels were carried away to Babylon and placed in the temple of Nebuchadnezzar’s idols. This signifies that at a certain time the entire church was destroyed by the Babylonians, who carried away the contents of the temple to Babylon and placed them in the temple of their idols. At a certain time in church history, Babylonianism came into the church, destroyed it, and carried away its contents. If you study church history, you will see that this was truly the situation. Therefore, in Revelation 17 the apostate church is called Babylon the Great, the great prostitute.
How we thank the Lord that He never forsakes His purpose! After the seventy years of captivity, the Lord came in and told His captured people to return to Jerusalem. The Lord seemed to be saying, “Now is the time for you to return from your captivity. Go back to Jerusalem and build My house.” Ezra 1:5 says, “Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had stirred up, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem” (Heb.). The Spirit of God was moving to stir up the spirits of the children of Israel. This indicates that the recovery, the return from captivity, is absolutely a matter of the spirit. Ezra does not say that the Spirit of God stirred up their mentality. No, he says the Spirit of God stirred up their spirit. The Lord’s recovery does not take place in the realm of our mentality. If the children of Israel had exercised their mentality regarding the call to return to Jerusalem, they would have said, “Many of us were born in Babylon. Our homes and our jobs are here. Surely the Lord is omnipresent. If He could be in the holy land, could He not be here with us in Babylon? Look at how spiritual Daniel was. Even here in Babylon he was able to be so spiritual and do something for God. We all have been helped by him. It is crazy to go back to Jerusalem. Those who say that we must go back are narrow-minded. God is not that narrow; He is everywhere. We don’t want to be bothered traveling all that distance to a desolate land. We would have no houses or businesses there. What would we do when we got there? This must be Ezra’s crazy idea. We don’t think it is God’s command.”
Likewise, if you exercise your mentality to analyze the Lord’s recovery today, you will think that it is needless to return to the unique ground of unity. Today there are many who have performed some work for God, but none of them is willing to go back to Jerusalem. Rather, they say, “Why should I return to the ground of unity? This is Witness Lee’s crazy idea. Forget about it! He is too narrow-minded. God is everywhere, not just in the local church. As long as we have the Bible, preach the gospel, meet together, help others grow and seek the Lord, everything is all right. God is broad-minded. It makes no difference whether you are in the Catholic Church, the denominations, the free groups, or in your own home. God is gracious and He is everywhere. Don’t listen to the crazy talk about returning to the ground of unity.” Such Christians may be successful in their work, but they do not have the glory of God. Deep within, they are not satisfied. Thus, our spirit must be stirred up. Forget your troublesome mentality, turn to your spirit, and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus from deep within. If you do this, you will sense deep in your spirit that you should go to the church.
Hallelujah for the minority, the remnant, that returned to Jerusalem! Most of those who returned were not strong ones. Nevertheless, they went back, bringing with them the vessels of the house of the Lord, “which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put...in the house of his gods” (Ezra 1:7). After we come back to the church, the riches of Christ are gradually recovered. This is the return of the vessels.
After the children of Israel had returned to Jerusalem, they laid the foundation of the house of the Lord (Ezra 3:8-10). Then, according to Ezra 3:11, “All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.” Verse 13 says, “The people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.” Some Christians today do not agree with the matter of shouting. The reason they oppose shouting is that they have not been recovered. In Babylon people weep rather than shout (Psa. 137:1). Those still in Babylon would say, “Lord, have mercy upon me. I love You, Lord, but I’m still in Babylon. Although I am for You, I don’t have the temple. How pitiful!” How could such a person shout? However, when we return to Jerusalem and lay the foundation for the temple, the foundation of the recovery, we have something worth shouting about. We must shout because we have the foundation for the rebuilding of the temple. For this reason, many times in the church meetings we became so excited that we were beside ourselves. Where else could we experience such joy? Because we are so full of joy, we can hardly control ourselves. This is why the church meetings are often noisy and full of shouting. Some may say that our meetings are too noisy and that this is altogether unscriptural. But read Ezra chapter three. The people shouted with a great shout. How can you say that shouting is not scriptural? It is more than scriptural. We have not yet shouted enough. We must shout a great deal more. Hallelujah, the foundation of the temple of the Lord has been laid!