Overview of the Book of Ezra

The overview of the week for this Sunday is the book of Ezra. Like Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, many believe that Ezra and the following book,

Nehemiah, were one volume originally. But either way, whether that was the case, we're going to handle the two books individually.

So Ezra is believed to be the author, big surprise, written around the 5th century

BC. The theme of the book is the return of the remnant.

Some have called this the second Exodus. If you remember, 2

Chronicles ended with the Jews being taken away captive into Babylon where they remained for 70 years.

The book of Ezra begins with the Lord stirring up Cyrus, the king of Persia, stirring up his heart to make a proclamation for the

Jews to return to their homeland, where they were to rebuild the temple, because the temple was destroyed, the former temple, by the

Babylonians. So that's the emphasis of Ezra, the rebuilding of the temple.

Because he was a priest, that's where you would expect the emphasis to be. Now the emphasis of the book of Nehemiah is on the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

So those books both record an extensive genealogical record in order to establish the priestly line back to Aaron.

The key verse, or a key verse, of Ezra is chapter 7, verse 10, which says, For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the

Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes in ordinances in Israel.

The final chapters of the book then deal with the purifying of the

Jewish community, since there had been much intermarriage with the heathen.

The Jews had taken to themselves many pagan wives, and the issue is that they worshipped foreign gods.

And in response, Ezra says to the Jewish men who had done this, he said,

You have transgressed, adding to the guilt of Israel.

And if you remember, it was the issue of foreign wives that started the whole problem in the first place with Solomon.

So this action by Ezra in the providence of God was used to protect and preserve the messianic line of David.