The Persian Empire rules Judah. This Empire extends around the Mediterranean Sea from Macedonia in the north, through Judah to the east of the Mediterranean, and through Egypt to the south. It then extends all the way to India on its eastern border.
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther cover the last century of God’s dealings with Jewish history as recorded in the Old Testament (538-432 B.C.). To get a picture of this time, we need to look back in history:
- 2 Chronicles 36:15-16 (GNT) gives the reason for Judah’s exile to Babylon: ‘The Lord, the God of their ancestors, had continued to send prophets to warn his people, because he wanted to spare them and the Temple. But they made fun of God's messengers, ignoring his words and laughing at his prophets, until at last the Lord's anger against his people was so great that there was no escape.’
- 2 Chronicles 36:17-21 (GNT) describes the judgment upon Judah: ‘So the Lord brought the king of Babylonia to attack them… He had no mercy on anyone… God handed them all over to him. The king of Babylonia… burned down the Temple and the city… He took all the survivors to Babylonia.’
- 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 (GNT) describe God’s deliverance: ‘In the first year that Cyrus of Persia was emperor… He prompted Cyrus to issue the following command: “This is the command of Cyrus, Emperor of Persia. The Lord, the God of Heaven, has made me ruler over the whole world and has given me the responsibility of building a temple for him in Jerusalem in Judah. Now, all of you who are God's people, go there, and may the Lord your God be with you.”’
Sharing:
- Does God run out of patience? 2 Chronicles 36 says His anger was so great that the only thing left was for God to demonstrate it. So, apparently, God does reach a point where ‘enough is enough’. But, He is still merciful and longsuffering. He still has a plan with His people.
- The reference to the ‘God of Heaven’ used by Cyrus is the first time this title for God is recorded in Scripture. The king used it to acknowledge Israel’s God, but not to revere Him or acknowledge His sovereignty.
- The book of Ezra provides us with a good example that just because people are chosen by God, it does not make them automatically live righteous lives.
The key thought running through this narrative in God’s Story is found in Ezra 7:28: “The hand of the Lord my God was upon me.” God sovereignly rules His people. Ezra begins in Persia and ends in Jerusalem.
There are three returns to Judah:
1. Ezra 1-6
Date: Took place in 538 B.C.
Leader: Zerubbabel, known also as Sheshbazzar, and The Tishatha (Persian governor title). He was born in exile, as the great-grandson of king Jehoiachin of Judah, who reigned for three months before being carried off to Babylon.
Number: 49,697 returned to the province of Judah in the Persian Empire.
2. Ezra 7-10
Date: 80 years after the first return, in 458 B.C.
Leader: Ezra (1 Chronicles 4:17 – Ezrah, who belonged to the line of Aaron –
1 Chronicles 6:3-15). He is called a skilled scribe in the law of Moses (Ezra 7:6).
Number: 1,758 men (about 5,000 in total) returned to the province of Judah.
3. Nehemiah 1-13
Date: 13 years after the second return, in 445 B.C.
Leader: Nehemiah, a Jewish patriot who was cupbearer to the Persian king, Artaxerxes I (464-424 B.C.), had a position of great responsibility and influence. In this period only a man of exceptional trustworthiness was given the post, for the father of Artaxerxes had been murdered (historically by poisoning) and he himself had gained the throne by a palace revolution.
Number: An uncertain number returned to the province of Judah.
Think of restoration and reformation when you think of Ezra. Ezra is another Samuel!
Ezra continues God’s Story from 2 Chronicles by showing how God fulfills His promise to return His people to the Land of Promise. The Law required that every seventh year the land was not to be farmed (Leviticus 25:1-7). This is why 2 Chronicles 36:21 (GNT) says: “The land will lie desolate for seventy years, to make up for the Sabbath rest that has not been observed.”
Ezra easily falls into two parts:
· Restoration of the Temple (1-6)· Reformation of the People (7-10)
Ezra opens with God moving the spirits of ‘the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites… to go up and build the house of the Lord… (Ezra 1:5). The Lord had stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom: ‘…All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem…’ (Ezra 1:1-2). The Persians referred to Israel’s God as the ‘God of heaven’, so Cyrus uses this title. This is the first time this title appears in God’s Story.
Ezra 3 gives the specific order the Jews followed to resettle in their homeland: settled into their own cities; gathered together in Jerusalem; built the altar to God; kept the Feast of Tabernacles; began to observe set feasts of the Lord; prepared the materials for the temple; laid the temple foundation; those who saw the old temple cried and wailed (saddened by its size), while the new generation shouted for joy; the Passover was kept. This process is recorded to demonstrate how central worship was being restored for God’s people. The nation’s distinctive identity and faith was finding its rightful place away from idolatrous beliefs.
None of this was accomplished without opposition. Ezra 1:5 says the people got ready to build the temple. Ezra 3:6 records that they had not yet started to rebuild the temple. Finally, according to Ezra 3:8, a year and two months after they came back to the site of the temple, they began work. God provided two prophets to encourage them to resume building: Haggai and Zechariah. Opposition was raised again. Ezra 5:5 shows that this time God chose to intervene, and the officials permitted the work to continue until they should hear from Darius. This takes us back to Ezra 1:1 that uses a phrase that is expressed through the story involving Ezra and Nehemiah: ‘the Lord stirred up the spirit of’ the king. When the people celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Ezra 6:22 says: ‘the Lord made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king toward them.’ After King Artaxerxes issued a letter permitting Ezra and his countrymen to return to Judah, Ezra 7:27 says: ‘the Lord… put such a thing as this in the king’s heart…’ God works sovereignly through responsible human agents to accomplish His plan.
Where there is restoration, there is resistance… The people of the land were a mixed race descended from the foreigners who had settled in the country from Assyria after the fall of the northern kingdom and had intermarried with the Israelites left behind (2 Kings 17:24). They came to be known as Samaritans, a name derived from the former capital of the land. They worshipped many gods and incorporated worship of the Lord into their polytheism (2 Kings 17:33). Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the households rejected the Samaritans’ offer to help build the temple because of their history: “We don’t need your help to build a temple for the Lord our God. We will build it ourselves…” (Ezra 4:3, GNT). Maybe they remembered that alliances with foreigners led the Israelites into idolatry (see 2 Kings 17:7).
Sharing:
- The Samaritans were opposed to going to the temple in Jerusalem for their worship, so it made sense to them to resist the restoration of the city and the temple.
- The Samaritans practiced ‘syncretism’, by blending their worship of God at Mt. Gerizim in Samaria with idol worship.
- The solution to a standstill in the work of God is to pray, receive the message from God (for example, Haggai and Zechariah were sent to bring God’s message), and then act upon the message – pray, listen, work!
- We need more true messengers of the Lord to remind us of God’s message to us, especially those who are courageous enough to address immorality.
Ezra 7:6 gives us some insight into the man Ezra: a priest of the line of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, and ‘a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses’. This man ‘had devoted his life to studying the Law of the Lord, to practicing it, and to teaching all its laws and regulations to the people of Israel’ (Ezra 7:10).
Nearly sixty years after the completion of the temple, Ezra arrived in Jerusalem with about 5,000 exiles.
He would not compromise the honor of God by asking for an escort of soldiers from the king, but instead he prayed to the Lord for protection. After all, he had said to the king, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and wrath are against all those who forsake Him” (Ezra 8:22). In total, the amount Ezra collected for the temple from the emperor, his advisors, and officials, and the people of Israel, was:
· 25 tons of silver· 100 silver utensils – about 150 pounds
· Gold – about 7,500 pounds
· 20 gold bowls – about 22 pounds
· Two fine bronze bowls, equal in value to gold bowls
Four and a half months after his arrival, the leaders of Judah responded to Ezra’s teaching by reporting the sins of the people (Ezra 9:1-2, GNT):
- Priests and Levites were imitating the disgusting things foreigners were doing.
- Jewish men were marrying foreign women, so that God’s holy people had become contaminated. The leaders and officials were the chief offenders.
Ezra 9:3 (GNT) describes how Ezra expressed his grief: ‘I tore my clothes in despair, tore my hair and my beard, and sat down crushed with grief.’ Read his prayer in Ezra 9:5-15. Over a period of three months, repentance and restoration was made among the people. A list of 113 transgressors is given from among the priests, Levites, and the people. We cannot help but conclude the account with Ezra without noticing: ‘The good hand of his God was upon him' (Ezra 7:9).
Sharing:- Ezra arrived in Jerusalem sixty years after the completion of the temple. Ezra 7:1-5 proves that he was a true priest from the line of Aaron. There were many who returned from exile in Babylon who could not prove their lineage and claim a rightful place among God’s chosen people in Judah. This makes the lists of those who returned important (e.g. Ezra 2; 8).
- Ezra shows himself to be a true leader of God’s people when he includes himself in his prayer of repentance: “…for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown to the heavens…” (Ezra 9:6). Ezra does not act as an individual, but as part of a family. He does not treat the people as those who simply committed sins, and need to repent. He goes through the process of repentance and restoration with them. This is a good example for dealing with sin among us.
- Ezra experienced pain (plucked out his hair) over the sins of the nation.
- Ezra was a skilled scribe and well-acquainted with the Law. More especially, he had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to obey it, and to teach it in Israel (Ezra 7:10). He provided a good example for the people he lived among.
- Ezra continually recognized that the ‘hand of the Lord’ was upon him. No work of restoration can be taken on without this. Repentance and restoration is God’s work.
- Repentance is never easy. It lasted three months. Sin affected the family of faith. The record ends with broken families. Our sins are not private because they affect family structures and society.
- Ezra (along with Nehemiah) is a unique book that gives good insight into true praying and repentance.
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