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Ezra & Nehemiah

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Ezra & Nehemiah Ezra & Nehemiah A Brief Introduction: The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are about renewals. 1) God’s renewal of the na- tion of Israel; a nation which He had promised to Abraham to establish; 2) the re- turn of some Jews to the land promised to Abraham; for many were located in Babylon; 3) the restoration and maintaining through a remnant, the third of the renewed promises to Abraham, the promise that through his seed all nations will be blessed; a reference to the coming Christ. These two books are put together as one book in the Hebrew Bible. Ezra is about the return of the exiles from Babylon, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the restoration of God’s people spiritually. Ne- hemiah is about the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, as well as the spiritual renewal of God’s people. Background: The Jews in the Period of Exile The first three kings of Israel were Saul, David and Solomon. They ruled over a united kingdom for approximately 120 years, but when Solomon died, the king- dom divided into a northern kingdom of mainly 10 tribes (Israel) and a southern kingdom of primarily the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Judah). This continued for many years until the northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire in 721 B.C. due to their wickedness. But, the kingdom of Judah continued on a short while longer, though themselves becoming equally as wicked and steeped in idolatry until God brought the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 597 B.C. Although those captured in battle probably were taken to Babylon as slaves, and some of the exiles were poor, the situation of most Jews in Babylon appears to have been Page 1 good. Actually some the best brightest were taken to be of service in Babylon, such as Daniel and his three friends and Ezekiel, too. Do not picture the Babylo- nian captivity as 70 years in which 1000’s of Jews were in prison...or even en- slaved in forced labor camps. Jews were free to settle in communities and to en- gage in normal agriculture or trade. During this time is when the story of Esther takes place and we see Esther among the women brought before the king...and her relative Mordecai is freely moving about. It should come as no surprise then, considering conditions in Judah were left really bad and Babylon...well by compari- son it was very good, that when the Persians (who by the time of Ezra and Nehe- miah had conquered Babylon) allowed the Jews to return under Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel (some think these two names refer to the same person) and again in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, many preferred to remain in Babylon. Here is another thing to consider...during the captivity or exile the Jews lived among a foreign population and were naturally influenced by that environment. The most important influence was the Aramaic language. During the captivity, Aramaic became their principal spoken language. This will remain until even the time of Christ, and is likely the language He spoke most often. “Eli, Eli lamasabac- thani” is Aramaic. Babylonian influence is also seen in names such as Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel. All of these cultural influences will pose problems to the renewal. The prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel greatly influenced the Jewish captives in Babylon. Before the fall of Jerusalem, few in Israel heeded these prophecies; but when the predictions about Jerusalem’s destruction came true, the Jews realized that Jeremiah and Ezekiel were truly prophets sent by God. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel predicted the fall and destruction of Jerusalem as punishment for the Jews’ unfaithfulness to God, but they also included messages of hope for the continued purpose of God for his people Israel. This included a return from captivity after 70 Page 2 years and the promise of the Messiah. Although Jeremiah’s ministry appeared to be a failure during his lifetime, his messages became one of the principal reasons for the survival of the Jewish faith. There is a lesson in that in a much smaller way for you and me...can you tell me what it is? The doing of good can have longterm effects beyond what you may even be aware...but here is another...let us continue steadfastly in doing good, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. * Show map The Returns to Jerusalem Ezra 1-2 describes the happy time in 538 B.C. when the first Jewish exiles were permitted to return to Judah. This was a day that was to have profound signifi- cance for the whole subsequent history of God’s people. Nevertheless, the group that returned under Sheshbazzar was small. According to Ezra 2:64-65 the num- ber of those returning was 49,897. Later we know about five thousand returned with Ezra (Ezra 8:1-14), and other groups of Jews probably also arrived from Babylon from time to time. It was not all at once. Ezra Overview: The Book of Ezra falls into two sections: Chapters 1-6 deal with the initial return of a remnant from Babylon under the leadership of Zerubbabel in 538 B.C., with the aim of rebuilding the Temple. The project began in 536 B.C., but opposition quickly arose, leading to the abandonment of the project for 16 years. Through the minis- tries of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah (5:1-2), the construction was renewed, coming to completion in 515 B.C. Between chapters 6 and 7, there is a 58-year gap during which the events of the Book of Esther took place. At the beginning of chapter 7, in 457 B.C. (81 years af- ter the first return), Ezra the priest led another smaller group to return to the land Page 3 and bring renewal to the people, who were already drifting into assimilation with the surrounding people. So the theme of the book is God’s restoring His people as a nation and to the land according to His gracious promise and restoring His people spiritually to a place where the unbroken line to the promised Christ can be continued. Read chapter 1 Aloud I do not wish this to be a study without application, and so I shall as we go along and I solicit your interjections also. Let us begin with this one... 1. God has chastening purposes for dry times in RENEWING His people For centuries the Lord had warned His disobedient people, calling them back to Himself through His prophets. Finally, they had persisted in their idolatry for too long, and God fulfilled His warning by scattering them among the nations, as God had prophesied through Moses almost 1,000 years before. Read Deut. 28:64-67. Question: Why would God give His people a trembling heart, failing eyes, despair of soul, and no assurance of life? What would that accomplish? Answer: Is He not chastening them? -- Do you think God might do a similar thing to those he loves today? To accomplish the same purpose? We have to recognize that all that this world offers will leave us with a trembling heart, failing eyes, and despair of soul. The dry times spiritually should make us thirst after the living God, who alone can satisfy. Psalm 137 pictures the Jews in Babylon who were not comfortable there. Let’s read it. So when they heard the unbelievable news that Cyrus, the Medo-Persian Page 4 king, had issued a call to the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Lord’s temple, it must have seemed like a dream. True, some Jews in Babylon were comfortable there. Many of them had been born in captivity and Babylon was all that they knew. They heard stories from the old- timers about the glories of Zion and the beauty of the Temple. But they just shrugged, “Why go back there when we have a good life here?” Besides, it was both inconvenient and risky to go back to Jerusalem. It meant saying good-bye to the comfortable and familiar surroundings and friends and venturing across 1,000 miles of hostile desert terrain to a land that had been decimated by war. There weren’t cities with beautiful empty homes awaiting them. There were piles of rub- ble and some hostile people who had moved into the empty land after the Babylo- nians had dragged off many of the best surviving Jews earlier. So why go back? This too has an application for us today. What is it? Answer: We can become so comfortable in sin that we do not long for our soul to be restored. We are like a pig wallowing in the mud...we kinda like it and we don’t want to be clean. 2. Spiritual RENEWAL requires God’s great power. Ezra 1:1-3 is identical to 2 Chronicles 36:22-23...just a page prior. They are as- tounding verses. In Jeremiah the Lord had sent word through His prophet to those who were already in exile in Babylon: Let us read Jeremiah 29:10-14. * Show pic of Cyrus Cylinder The seventy-year captivity thus ended in 538, in the first year of the reign of Cy- rus over Babylon. A remarkable and significant thing is said...that it was God who stirred up Cyrus to make this dramatic proclamation. About 150 years before, Isaiah had predicted this event (Read Isa. 44:28-45:7). Why would Cyrus, a pagan king, issue a decree for the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild their Temple? In Page 5 the 19th century, the Cyrus Cylinder was discovered.
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