The story of a country, a people, or a town can not be told, but by telling the story of certain people within that place. I've heard said that a group has no morals. That is true, and illustrates why certain things happen within group situations, which never would have happened in any other context. The problem is that usually, within a group, each individual is waiting for the decision of the group. A group can not act. It always takes someone to incite a group. Likewise, it only takes one person to change or set the course of action for all those in the group.
    "There is no way of making three men right but by making right each one of the three; but a cure in one man who repents and turns, is a beginning of the cure of the whole human race." -George MacDonald Hope of the Gospel
     George MacDonald was a remarkable creature. I use the term creature because we are all created by God. George was a writer of fantasy genre, or rather the instigator of the fantasy genre in his time. just like C. S. Lewis, he was a preacher and had extensive theological training. They were brilliant theologians, and creative writers as well. But George lived a lifetime before Lewis, as Lewis was 7 years old when George died. Lewis credits George MacDonald as being his mentor, or  "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." Of course, MacDonald also inspired Tolkien, and many other writers to follow in the fantasy genre.
     Lewis himself was a man of remarkable vision, living among men of great vision. He died the same day as two other prominent visionaries; John Kennedy and Aldous Huxley. Men such as these did not wait for the group to take action. They set the standard for their time, and many followed them; still follow them today. The fact is, some are propelled forward only by the group, while others are self-propelled by an inner navigation system. It should be God who determines our direction in this life, or how can we expect Him to handle the itinerary for the next life? Yes, His is the GPS, God Positioning Satellite System that will help us find our way.
Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.
     MacDonald explains in his book Hope of the Gospel the importance of hope. You see, hope is fueled by vision. If you don't have hope, or you have lost hope, then you need to get a fresh vision. Just turn on the navigation system.

 Hosea 10:12  Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up
your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he comes and rains
righteousness upon you.
      What a beacon of hope imbedded in this passage of judgment! It begins in
verse ten with God longing to punish. Then comes the harvester metaphor. Then
this gem of a promise in verse twelve, and then a reversal of the promise is
given in an indictment against the people of God who have not listened. 
      The Harvester Metaphor points out the loving care God has given to His
people. They were like a heifer that has been trained gently how to thresh the
corn in the threshing barns. This is quite an easy job for a cow, considering
the care the heifer would get. They were fed all they could eat, and were not
yoked together to plow, which is very hard work for a cow. They were not
muzzled, but were allowed to eat as they worked.
Deuteronomy 25:4  You shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain.
1 Timothy 5:18  For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle the ox that
treads out the grain. And, The laborer is worthy of his reward.
      But, now due to the sin of the people, God is going to “yoke them to a
plow,” so to speak. They will be sold into bondage to another country, and
forced to work, backbreaking work. Sin is never easy on the flesh or spirit of
man. And, sin makes our life much more difficult than God intended it to be. 
      Take the Fall in the Garden of Eden. God promised life for obedience,
and death for sin. Adam and Eve chose “Door #2.” So now we work with the sweat
of our brow, suffer in childbearing, and eventually we all will die. But, that
was not what God had planned for us, was it? No. And, now what have we gained?
We have worked for 6,000 years, and the job is not finished yet! We toil day in
and day out, and we’re getting nowhere fast. The earth spins around one more
time, as we work and toil at our labors. But, the job isn’t completed. Pointless
work… work that is forever incomplete, as earth spins.
Hosea 11:10  They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion:
when he shall roar, then the children shall come trembling from the west.
      Notice that God is comparing Himself to a ferocious, destructive
lion…
Hosea 5:14  For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to
the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear them and go away; I will take them
away, and none shall rescue him.
      Next He compared the tribe of Ephraim to a silly dove. But in chapter 11 the
lion is no longer behaving fiercely, nor is the dove acting stupidly, like it
has no sense. But, the lion is sounding a call to bring His people home. Oh, can
you hear that call of the Lion of Judah??!! He is calling His children home from
afar! And, now the silly doves are no longer muddleheaded in sin, but they are
winging their way home from the land of bondage, following their Lion-Savior’s
call. 
      God transacts a change in our lives as we allow ourselves to be changed.
Only by listening to His call can we ever escape the bondage of the world. Only
a birdbrain would choose “Door #2.” We must not allow ourselves to remain in
this land of bondage, but we must break free into God’s Kingdom. One day soon we
will wing our way home.

Proverbs 13:12  Hope deferred makes the heart sick: but when the desire is
fulfilled, it is a tree of life.
     Seventy years is a long time to wait for restoration. There are two possible responses for the mind that perceives that the object of their long awaited hope has not yet materialized...beyond any time frame imaginable. The first is common...forget it.  That is an easy for the natural mind to accept closed response. It omits any need to question or debate. Case closed... forget it! This is the path of cynicism and despair.
     The other response is to cling to what you believe until your hopes are materialized. That is not something that most people are willing to do. Nobody wants to look foolish and most people opt for the sure bets in life. Of course, if I know something that you don't know, an inside track maybe, then you may buy and sell stocks at my suggestion, despite the apparant lack of logic to that stock choice. Like, if I worked for a company and I told you that it was about to fold tomorrow, you would run to sell your stock. I know nothing about stock...except that cows have spots...sometimes. And, cows give milk, and they don't fly. 
Isaiah 44:28  That says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all
my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built; and to the temple,
Your foundation shall be laid.
     But, the Bible is timeless and God's plan is unchanging. I believe every word was inspired by God almighty. I buy into it, and invest all I own in the black words, as well as the red. So did some of the Jews in Captivity. King Cyrus was far ahead of his time. He was King of Babylon and it was nearing the end of the seventy years of captivity that had been prophesied for the Jews. Cyrus believed he was also in Bible prophesy slated to set God's people free, so he set in place some very humanitarian policies of allowing displaced persons to return to their homeland. A few of the Jews jumped at this chance to return home, but many didn't want to walk away from all the possessions they had acquired in Babylon. So, the few repatriotized Jews lived in a state of despair, almost giving up hope that they would ever be restored as a country when Cyrus was quickly replaced by a not so humanitarian King, and the Jews filtering back into Israel was halted.
     Of course, there were a lot of Jews who had never been deported out of Israel to start with, and they had been there all those 70 long years, while their countrymen lived in far off Babylon. These guys were not much help or hope for rebuilding a country when they were not even seen as worth deporting, left behind in decaying Jerusalem's rubble as worthless to the Babylonian empire. The remaining Jews were the ones who put up the most resistance to Nehemiah's plans to rebuild.
     Zechariah is an awesome book of hope. He lived at a time in Israel, being just a child in one of the first few families allowed to return, before Cyrus died. He had reason to believe the time was near. He had hope, a precious commodity. He was called by God to mobilize the people in Israel to rebuild Jerusalem. This was to prove a big task and would invoke a lot of criticism and animosity from people who didn't want to see it done. The detractors were mostly Jews, not outsiders. There were even plots on Nehemiah's life.
Zechariah 5:9  Then I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and, behold, there
came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the
wings of a stork: and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.
     There is so much more to the story, if you read all of Zechariah and Nehemiah, but you can't fly through Zechariah. It has so many beautiful vignettes of hope. Zack was told to pay attention by an angel that was in his vision. So he looks up and sees this large basket or pot being carried through the sky with an old lady inside, and then a huge lid was dropped on top of it. Zack sort of looked surprised and exclaimed, "What is that?!" The angel said the old lady was symbolic of wickedness and was being carried to Babylon where she was worshipped and would have a nice home. Now, I am laughing at the appropriateness of this political slam made by a politically incorrect prophet. Well, actually it wasn't his gaffe, but the angels' carrying the basket, you could argue. But, wickedness is happier in some places than others I have seen.
     Two lady angels were carrying the basket through the sky. The women had wings like a stork. I wonder why they were women? To me it sounds like prayer. These women were prayer warriors carrying away the sin of the people with prayer. When we pray, it feels like our words have wings, being carried to God with ease, sometimes. I've seen God respond so fast it almost shocked me. And, that it why I continue to hold onto my hope in God when hope is deferred. I have every reason to believe Him when I have seen His promises fulfilled so many times. He is a man of His words.

Psalms 102:13-14  You shall arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come. For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof.
Even the dust of Zion far exceeds the treasures beyond the Hill of the Lord. God's got so much more for His people; more than pebbles and dust here. And, its been a long time coming, but a change is gonna come. This Psalm reminds me of the old Spiritual...

It's been a long time coming But a change is gonna come
When the dark clouds pass away Feel the warmness of the sun
I know that You love me, oh yeah, I know that you care
I can't wait to be by Your side In the middle of the air.

CHORUS
Until my change comes Here's what I'll do
Renew my strength Keep holding on
I'll wait on You.
(REPEAT)

It ain't gonna be easy But I'll be strong. 
Some say if You Really cared um,
It  wouldn't take so long for You to Return for me
If with You is where I ought to be
But I'm gonna believe until that day I will

BRIDGE
Gotta wait gotta wait on you That's what I'm gonna do
I'm gonna stand still I just wanna be in your will
Just like David and Goliath I gotta encourage my soul, yeah
Said I'm gonna stand still Until um...

Psalms 102:16-28 
When the LORD shall build up Zion,
(And He's just getting started building.)
he shall appear in his glory.
(Can't you see Him in the middle of the air?!)
He will regard the prayer of the destitute,
and not despise their prayer.
This shall be written for the generation to come:
and the people who shall be created shall praise the LORD.
(The here and now...written ages past for the age present.)
For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary;
from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;
(He's looking at YOU!!!)
To hear the groaning of the prisoner;
to loose those that are appointed to death;
(Go ahead...you know you want to rattle those chains!)
To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
When the people are gathered together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
(Have you ever felt weak?)
I said, O my God, take me not away
in the midst of my days:
(Don't you just know God has got so much more for you to do?)
your years are throughout all generations.
Of old have you laid the foundation of the earth:
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They shall perish, but you shall endure:
(And, now that we're looking at what God has done...)
yea, all of them shall grow old like a garment;
as a vesture shall you change them, and they shall be changed:
(Don't you know, nothing's going to last forever??!!)
But you are the same, and your years shall have no end.
(Just God...)
The children of your servants shall continue,
and their descendants shall be established before you.
(And YOU with Him!)

This earth, this life is just the beginning of what God is doing. he will make a work and this is just the foundation. God gave the Word for a hope of what is yet to come. 
     1 Corinthians 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for examples:
and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are
come.
     Here, you have it again, written for us in the end.
     Romans 15:4  For whatever things were written before were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have
hope.
     Patience + Scripture = Faith.  Here we have patience and hope together in the same equation. And, we know that patience adds up to hope. Remember Romans 5? 
   Romans 5:3-4  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing
that tribulation works patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
tribulations = patience = experience = hope
You do the Math.
Isaiah 43:18-19  Remember not the former things, neither consider the
things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall
you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the
desert. 
And, I can hear another old Spiritual tucked away in my memory now... 
I'm gonna lay down my burdens...down by the riverside...down by the riverside... Aint gonna study want no more!