The Hebrews placed Ezra-Nehemiah in the Writings just after Daniel and just before the books of Chronicles.
There were three specific returns of Jews to the land of Judah.
The first was led by Zerubbabel and involved an initial rebuilding of Jerusalem.
The second was led by Ezra who oversaw the rebuilding of the Temple and the reinstitution of the sacrifices.
The third was led by Nehemiah and involved the rebuilding of the defensive walls of Jerusalem.
There are three major points to Ezra:
2. The Continuing Need for a Land. God’s plan called for a return of the Jews to the land. They had been taken away as a punishment for their idolatry. They are now brought back so that they might serve Him and worship them in the land. This would be necessary so that the Messiah could be born in Bethlehem.
3. The Grace of God. He was bringing the people back into the land to give them another chance to serve Him and to follow Him. They had formerly sinned in their idolatry. Now there is a call to renewed purity.
Ezra is a book of covenant renewal. The people return to their covenant relationship with God and renew their promises to follow Him.
Ezra can be outlined like this:
A. Chapter 1 – 6: The First Return to Jerusalem
under Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel
Chapters 1 – 2: The Return from Babylon
Chapter 1: The Edict of Cyrus
Chapter 2: The Exiles who
Returned
Chapters 3 – 6: Rebuilding of the Temple
Chapter 3: Construction Begun
Chapter 4: Construction Opposed
Chapter 5: Construction Delayed
Chapter 6: Construction Completed
B. Chapters 7 – 10: The Second Return to
Jerusalem under Ezra
Chapters 7 – 8: The Return from Babylon
Chapter 7: The Decree of
Artxerxes
Chapter 8: The Journey to
Jerusalem
Chapters 9 – 10: The Restoration of the
People
Chapter 9: The Problem of Mixed
Marriages
Chapter 10: God’s Solution to the
Problem
In this post we will deal with chapters 7-10.
Chapter 7
Verses 1-10 – Our first introduction to Ezra is in the seventh chapter
of the book that bears his name. We see Ezra's priestly pedigree. We also see
that he was a student of the Word of God. We no longer need the office of
priesthood, because we are each priests in every sense of the word. As priests,
one of our duties is to feed on the meat of the Word of God.
Verses 11-26 – King Artxerxes sent a letter to Ezra giving him
permission to bring the Jews to Jerusalem, their most sacred place of worship.
Our place of worship is in our hearts and in the church. The word for church in
the Greek is ekklesia, meaning
“the called out gathered”.
Chapter 8
Verses 1-14 – This is the roster of who Ezra
brought with him to Jerusalem. It is meticulous. Meticulousness is part of God’s
character. It is what brought the universe into being. If He were not
meticulous, our salvation would be in doubt or altogether impossible. It was
His perfect plan that afforded us salvation in Christ.
Verses 15-36 – Here we have the detailed account
of the trip to Jerusalem.
Chapter 9
Verses 1-15
– In these verses, we find Ezra in deep sorrow over the intermarriage of the
Jews with pagans. He prays exhaustively about this sad situation. God required
His people to be pure; perfectly pure from morning to night in every possible
way.
With respect to marriage, God knows that when one
of His unites with someone who is not his it is difficult to raise the
unbeliever up (unless he turns to Christ in faith). Most often the believer is brought
down, emotionally and spiritually. That is why Paul wrote: “Do not be yoked
together with unbelievers.” (2 Corinthians 6:14).
In the Bible, marriage is always a picture of our
relationship to God. It is to be like the union of Christ and the church, for
whom He died. God hates divorce because it pictures that Christ’s love for the
church can somehow be broken.
The Jews were semi-pure at times and very impure
at other times. Like us, they just could not keep God’s law perfectly.
When Ezra was informed that the people had sinned against God by
marrying their heathen neighbors, he learned that the leaders (priests,
Levites, princes, and rulers) had "been foremost in this
unfaithfulness." The very people charged with the responsibility of
modeling obedience to the law violated that trust by transgressing the law.
Their disobedience no doubt emboldened others to do the same. We must keep in
mind that God will hold leaders accountable for the example they set.
All the time, God was revealing His plan of salvation, as he
forgave Israel over and over again for their trespasses. He forgives us our trespasses through the shed
blood of Jesus at the cross of Calvary.
Chapter 10
Verses
1-17 – Ezra’s actions and prayer had a tremendous impact on the people. Their
consciences were awakened to the seriousness of the problem.
Shecaniah
stepped forward to make a penitent proposal. He was a man who was not only
willing to admit sin, but to do something about it. He proposed that the
offenders "put away [divorce] all the [pagan] wives and their
children."
While
this proposal seems harsh by modern standards, the religious identity of the
Jewish people was at stake. Shecaniah exhorted Ezra to act on his proposal and
promised him the support of the people. Ezra responded by calling upon the
people to take an oath to put Shecaniah's proposal into action.
Verses
18-43 – This list of those who had intermarried shows that none of them were
able to hide their sin. They were exposed.
Sin
is not to be trifled with and it cannot be hidden from God. When man sins, his only
recourse is to repent and trust fully in, and only in, the finished work of
Christ at the cross of Calvary.
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