In order to have one testimony, God always kept the children of Israel together in a narrow piece of land, not allowing them to become too great in number. They were a particular people in a particular place, and they were in oneness. But the captivity scattered them, some to Assyria, some to Egypt, and most of them to Babylon. This caused them to be divided and thus to lose their oneness as a people for God’s testimony. Their return from their captivity to the unique ground of Jerusalem (Deut. 12:5, 11-14) recovered this oneness. However, as we will see, in their return elements of the captivity returned with them.
God brought the children of Israel into His promised good land through His redemption and salvation that they might partake of the good land and enjoy it as their portion in God’s economy. Because of their failure, they lost this portion of the good land in their captivity. Their return from their captivity recovered their enjoyment of the portion of the good land promised by God.
Those who are in today’s denominations do not stress the enjoyment of Christ, and the denominational people are not taught, instructed, and directed to enjoy Christ. When I was with the denominations, I did not have any enjoyment of Christ. Only after I left the denominations did I begin to enjoy Christ.
Those who are in captivity are away from the good land, away from Christ. The Israelites who were captives in Babylon were away from the good land. Likewise, the Christians in the denominations are kept away by many things from the enjoyment of Christ. They have the name of Christ but not the enjoyment of Christ. If they would have the enjoyment of Christ, they must leave their captivity and come back to the proper ground where Christ, the good land, is.
God intended to have His house built and His kingdom established on the earth through Israel’s participation in and enjoyment of the good land. There would have been no way to accomplish this unless the children of Israel returned to the good land from their captivity.
Where is God’s house and His kingdom today? Satan, the enemy of God, has usurped the earth. He has kept the earth as his house and as his kingdom. This has caused a great problem. Why does God need a people today? God needs a people because He wants a house where He is the Father and a kingdom where He is the King. The Lord needs His house and His kingdom in order to carry out His eternal economy. This is the reason God needs a return of His people from their captivity. God needs a house and a kingdom, and for this He needs the recovery.
All the foregoing crucial points are types typifying today’s recovery of the church life, which is a recovery out of the church’s captivity in the great Babylon (Rev. 17:1-6) back to the unique ground of God’s choice.
The book of Ezra has two sections: the return of the captivity under the kingly leadership of Zerubbabel (chs. 1—6) and the return of the captivity under the priestly leadership of Ezra (chs. 7—10).