A Study in Ezra - Week 01 - Part A

Four things to look for in Ezra:

1.  What does Ezra say about the character of God?

2.  What does Ezra say about God's love of His creation?

3.  What does Ezra say about God's plan of redemption?

4.  Whether Ezra relates to the Old Covenant or to the New Covenant...and how.

God told His people that if they chose to break their covenant with Him, He would again allow other nations to take them into slavery (Jer. 2:14–25). In spite of God’s repeated warnings from the mouths of His prophets, Israel and Judah chose to reject their Lord and to participate in the worship of foreign gods.

The Jews’ return from the Babylonian captivity seemed like a second Exodus, sovereignly patterned in some ways after Israel’s first redemption from Egyptian bondage. The return trip from Babylon involved activities similar to those of the original Exodus: 1) the rebuilding of the temple and the city walls; 2) the reinstitution of the law, which made Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah collectively seem like a second Moses; 3) the challenge of the local enemies; and 4) the temptation to intermarry with non-Jews, resulting in idolatry.

The decrees, proclamations, letters, lists, genealogies, and memoranda, many of them written by the Persian administration, attest to the sovereign hand of God in Israel’s restoration. The primary message of the book is that God orchestrated the past grim situation (captivity) and would continue to work through a pagan king and his successors to give Judah hope for the future (return). God’s administration overrides that of any of the kings of this world, and thus the book of Ezra is a message of God’s continuing covenant grace to Israel.

Here is an outline of Ezra:

I. The First Return under Zerubbabel (1:1–6:22)

A. Cyrus’ Decree to Return (1:1–4)

B. Treasures to Rebuild the Temple (1:5–11)

C. Those Who Returned (2:1–70)

D. Construction of the Second Temple (3:1–6:22)

1. Building begins (3:1–13)

2. Opposition surfaces (4:1–5)

3. Excursus on future opposition (4:6–23)

4. Construction renewed (4:24–5:2)

5. Opposition renewed (5:3–6:12)

6. Temple completed and dedicated (6:13–22)

II. The Second Return under Ezra (7:1–10:44)

A. Ezra Arrives (7:1–8:36)

B. Ezra Leads Revival (9:1–10:44)

 The events in the book of Esther are just about in the middle of the chronology of the book of Ezra.

 The book of Ezra witnesses that God keeps His covenants quite apart from the keeping of those covenants by the Jews. As people of the New Covenant, that must be considered welcomed news to us.

 Ezra, like Esther, is the story of how God kept the lineage of David complete until the coming of Messiah, Jesus, Christ.

Ezra reports how the sovereign hand of God moved kings and overcame varied opposition to reestablish Israel as Abraham’s seed, nationally and individually, in the land promised to Abraham, David, and Jeremiah.