From the recording 12 Stories: the Bible Album
STORY 9: The Restoration (Ezra, Nehemiah, Lamentations, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isaiah 55-66, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah)
In 538 BC, Cyrus, the king of Persia, the next empire to take over, allows the exiles to return to Judah if they want to. The ones who do find Jerusalem in ruins and are devastated (recorded in Lamentations), and what’s worse, they run into serious trouble with the Samaritans, the Israelites from the previous northern kingdom who are now mixed with Assyrians and Babylonians. These mixed Samaritans fight the returning exiles as they try to rebuild Jerusalem, referring to them now as “Jews”, short for “Judean” (Judah is now called Judea). At this time the scribe Ezra finds a copy of the laws of Moses, and he and the prophets Nehemiah, Zecharaiah and Haggai inspire the Jews to reform and keep rebuilding! Finally, during a period of relative peace, they have time to reflect, and record their crazy history so far. The proverbs and other wisdom writings attributed to Solomon ponder the meaning of their tumultuous history, and of life in general. There is a play called Job, which asks why good people suffer. There is the Book Ecclesiastes (my personal favorite) that ruminates over the apparent meaninglessness of life. And they even add to the wisdom writings a secular song - the Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon - to describe the history between God and his people as a romance. During this time, out of zeal, these devout Jews do not want to lose their land again, so they start taking the laws of Moses to the extreme, breaking any marriages to foreign women and even killing someone for violating the Sabbath. What they take away from their history is that God had been using the nations (including their enemies), as his own holy warriors against each other to teach them his ways. At any time a nation could be God’s good guys or bad guys, depending on their faithfulness. They see their history as a story of the good, the bad, and the holy.
Lyrics
Now this here’s the story about a chosen people who were like a house.
No, more than that. They were like a doorway to an even larger house:
a mansion, if you will…
Ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt
when you kicked us out of our land.
The prophet said somethin’ ‘bout a shoot in Jesse,
a lion lyin’ down with a little lamb.
The good are bad and now the bad are holy,
They’re the warriors that you anoint.
But ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt.
I think we got the point!
Now how did this mess get started? Oh yeah!
The king of Persia took us off the hook with his decree in 538.
We got back home and saw our city ruined,
lamented hard, and don’t appreciate
Samaritan mutts are tryin’ to kick our butts!
We’ll turn our plowshares into swords.
When this is through your people swear to you
we’ll keep the laws that we ignored!
Ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt
when you kicked us out of our land.
The prophet said somethin’ ‘bout a shoot in Jesse,
a lion lyin’ down with a little lamb.
The good are bad and now the bad are holy,
They’re the warriors that you anoint.
But ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt.
I think we got the point!
Now what came next? Oh yeah!
Nehemiah and Zechariah and Haggai all inspired our lives.
Ezra found a copy of the Law of Moses
and we divorced all our foreign wives,
‘cause we don’t wanna lose the land again,
So this time we’re gonna keep it clean.
It’s time to rebuild the promise that we killed
and keep the Law to the extreme!
Ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt
when you kicked us out of our land.
The prophet said somethin’ ‘bout a shoot in Jesse,
a lion lyin’ down with a little lamb.
The good are bad and now the bad are holy,
They’re the warriors that you anoint.
But ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt.
I think we got the point!
One day God would be the king of the world
and not confined just to Israel.
Instead of a whore we’ll be a brand new bride.
It’s prophesied now. Listen well!
The book of Job and Ecclesiastes
and the Song of Songs display
that suffering, vanity, and romance too
are all a part of the Yahweh way! Yes sir!
Ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt
when you kicked us out of our land.
The prophet said somethin’ ‘bout a shoot in Jesse,
a lion lyin’ down with a little lamb.
The good are bad and now the bad are holy,
They’re the warriors that you anoint.
But ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt.
I think we got the point!
Ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt, I think we got the point!
Ya left a permanent bootprint in our butt, I think we got the point!