Ezra: Intro
In these later days it seems the church is struggling to retain its mission of the Great Commission and congregations are dwindling in number and size. In many assemblies there seems to be a clear aging of members and a movement of younger believers to more youthful and less traditional worship. Yet, there also seems to be a consistent yearning for restoration of the spirit. People long to recover a fresh and intimate relationship with God as years of busyness and perhaps spiritual neglect have led many of us to a spiritual wasteland of distance from God.
Our need for restoration also touches on our relationships with others. Broken marriages and splintered families fill our communities and our churches. Brokenness seems to touch many parts of our hearts and it seeps into our churches as well. Discord and even hate seem to be priority in our society. Throughout the western world churches are closing their doors. Church leaders in our day are asking “... how can restoration happen in our churches...?”
The wonderful book of Ezra allows us to find answers to these issues. It narrates the story of how God restored His fallen nation after it had been destroyed by the Babylonians. The study of Ezra will help us to become renewed in our own lives. People who are just like us fill the pages of Ezra. Here we find people mourning over the “good old days”, struggling in disobedience to God, facing difficult ethical decisions, confronting the treachery of friends, delighting in some success and reeling in failures.
Even though a gulf of over 2400 years stands between us and those in Ezra, we will find our own lives and struggles portrayed in the pages of the book of the prophet Ezra.
English translations give us the books of Ezra and Nehemiah as two books, the original Hebrew Bible originally and today offer these two as one book, known originally as Esdras B. Most scholars agree the book was finished around 300 B.C., with certain elements of the book clearly documented earlier, perhaps back to 430 B.C. We do know from history that the edict of Cyrus, Ezra 1 & 6, was given in 538 B.C. While the theme of the book is restoration, Ezra himself does not appear until the last four chapters.
David's kingdom had fallen into ruins and his grandchildren divided the nation to two sections with Israel in the north and Judea in the south. The north rejected God and worshiped idols with happy delight and and in 722 B.C. God raised up the powerful nation of Assyria to overwhelm and conquer Israel.
In 586 B.C. the same issues overtook Judea, who had apparently learned nothing from the destruction of Israel, and God raised up Babylon to destroy both the southern lands as well as the Holy Temple. God sent His prophets to warn the people but none repented and sin continued. The captivity of the southern kingdom was to last 70 years. In exile the people longed for restoration, yearning for the day when God would rebuild His chosen people in the promised land. Jeremiah and Isaiah promised deliverance through God's anointed one, Cyrus, who was called by name by God before he was ever born. The appointed time had come and restoration was near as the book of Ezra begins.
The long night of captivity and servitude was over and the shame of the Hebrew people was ending as they began to return to their land. Under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Ezra renewal had arrived. Nehemiah would be appointed by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and Ezra had been appointed to rebuild the faith of the people as Zerubbabel took charge of the physical task of rebuilding the Temple.
The book of Ezra falls into two sections, the expedition under Zerubbabel, chapters 1-6 and then the expedition under Ezra in chapters 7-10.
Under Zerubbabel the work began to restore the Temple, then with opposition, the work stopped, and then after a period of years began again and the Temple was completed and dedicated in 515 B.C.
Under Ezra the focus was on the spiritual restoration with the foundation of the Law of Moses implemented again among the people. Ezra found himself in a most difficult leadership position when great sin was found among the people and Ezra, who was God's messenger, arranged the necessary repentance of that great sin which was widespread and was deemed by Ezra as unacceptable to God.
Ezra's great message was that the Law was to be obeyed and understood by the people. His work was to rouse the people up to renewed faith, prayer, and action.