Ezra-Neh overview

Introduction

Thank you all for coming out tonight. Looking forward to starting a new study this evening. Open your Bibles to the book of Ezra tonight.

Over the next few weeks I would like to go through Ezra and Nehemiah and see what God has for us in those.

Tonight will be an overview of the books and then we will get into the details of the books. So tonights lesson may be a little shorter than most.

Let’s start first with some background to the books.

I. Background

Ezra and Nehemiah are post exilic books. This means they were written after the exile of the Israelites to Babylon.

If your not familiar with the exile it came as a result of Israels unfaithfulness.

God had the people captured and delivered into the hands of the Babylonians for 70 years.

The book of Ezra takes place about 50 years after the exile so 20 years before everyone returns home.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were actually one book that was divided into two separate ones.

They are