"OVERVIEW OF EZRA"

Proposition -

Interrogative question -

Background info –

Author – Unknown – most would attribute it to Ezra

Date – 457 BC

Theme – “Rebuilding the Temple and the People”

Let us review briefly what has happened thus far –

The kingdom was divided and destroyed in Kings 722 BC – the Assyrians destroy Israel – they take part of the people to Assyria and bring some of the Assyrians into Israel they intermarry, and things are not good in Israel 586 BC – the Babylonians destroy Judah – they take them captive to Babylon –

Ezra 1:2-3

“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

You have got to get the big picture – Jerusalem was burned, it was utterly destroyed and here Cyrus was instructed to rebuild the Temple

Notice vs 3 says – “whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up…” that is allow the people who were taken captive to return to Judah and build the temple. This is a complete act of God.

As we come to the book of Ezra we will come to see how two groups of people are lead out of Babylon, and God then graciously allows them the ability to play a part in rebuilding the temple as well as the people.

Rebuilding of the Temple 1-6

The Exiles return – 2

i. 2:1 – the exiles are going to return to Jerusalem to rebuilt the temple – this is a complete act of God alone –

ii. 2:64 – the number of people who returned to rebuild the temple –

iii. Keep in mind that Judah was destroyed b/c of sin and let God is allowing them to return to rebuild the ark –

1stlead by Zerubbabel in 538 BC

· Consisted of about 49,897 people – Can you even imagine that?

· 22 years – 538 – 516 BC

The work begins 3

i. Notice what they did before they started building the Temple – 3:2-3

1. Build an Alter to offer burnt offerings – Why would they do this?

2. Burnt Offering – “voluntary, signifies propitiation for sin and complete surrender, devotion, and commitment to God.”

3. Prior to building the Temple they wanted to show their devotion to God.

As we seek to apply this to our lives – I would ask you this question –

· When was the last time you should your devotion to God?

· How do we show are devotion to God?

The primary way to show our devotion to God is through our actions –

Starting at 3:10 – The foundation of the Temple is laid – the beginning of the Temple has begun

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The only reason that this happens is b/c God orchestrates it –

The challenge – 4 (work stops for about 15 years)

The Christian life is never easy – God wants us as His children to follow and obey Him regardless of the cost.

God is using the nation of Israel to rebuild the temple Jerusalem – In chapter 4 the encounter many challenges –

· 4:1-3 – The Adversaries approach the leaders and say hey let us work with you we worship the same God – well that is certainly not true – they would not allow them to work with them.

· Therefore the enemies b/c they did not get their way - got upset and discouraged as well as made the people who were building the temple afraid. Vs. 4-5

· In fact their Adversaries wrote a letter to king Artaxerxes falsely accusing them of doing wrong – As a result of the letter the king prohibited them from continuing to build the Temple. They were unable to build for about 15 years.

The Israelites are doing what the Lord wanted them to do. Even though they were doing the Lord’s work they still experience challenge and extremely difficult times.

As believers in Christ we will certainly experience challenging and very difficult times. Be encouraged to know that you are not the only one who goes through these hard times. In fact followers of Christ during the OT faced difficult times.

Do you remain faithful to the Lord in the midst of difficult times?

The work resumes and is completed – 5 - 6

· 5:1-2 – the people were encourage by the prophets and they began to build once again

· The king Darius questions as to why they are building – 10-11 – they response was this “we are servants of God…” they explain how Cyrus made the decree to rebuild the Temple

· Darius response – 6:6-12 –

· The temple is finished and is dedicated –

Now, let us quickly look at the rebuilding of the people –

Rebuilding of the People 7-10

Within these chapters we learn about a man named Ezra –

· 7:6 – Scribe skilled in the law of Moses, the hand of the Lord is upon him

· 7:10 – Studied the law, lived the law, and he taught the law

· This is certainly a man of God.

King Artaxerxes allows Ezra to lead some people out of Babylon and return to Judah. 6-7

2ndlead by Ezra in 458 BC

· Consisted of about 1,754 people

· 1 year – 458 – 457 BC

3rdlead by Nehemiah in 444 BC

As Ezra does this notice what he begins to do - 7:10

The fall of the people – 9

· 9:1-2 – the people forsake the teaching of Ezra –

· 9:6-11 – Crying out to the Lord

As we learn about the Word through personal reading and teaching of the word how are you responding to it?

The response of the people - 10

· 10:1-4 – Repent of their sin

When the people were confronted with their sin they repented and turned back to following the Lord.

What is your response to the teaching of the word?

Application – Praise the Lord that He is a God of second chance! He does not just strike us dead when we forsake Him!

Take a couple of minutes and thank the Lord that He is a God of second chance –

A brief chronology of the period would look like this:

606–605

Babylon begins invading and deporting people

586

Jerusalem falls to the enemy (Babylonians)

539

Babylon falls to Cyrus and the Media-Persian empire begins

538

Cyrus permits the Jews to return; about 50,000 return

535

The Jews begin to rebuild the temple, but the work stops

520

After fifteen years, the work begins again

515

The temple is completed and dedicated

476

Esther becomes Queen of Persia

458

Ezra travels to Jerusalem (see Ezra 7–10)[1]

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1993). Wiersbe's expository outlines on the Old Testament. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.