Ezra 6:1-22 - Building work completed

6:1-7

Darius issued an order for the archives to be searched, and it was discovered that Darius had indeed issued a decree. So Tattenai and Shethar-Bozenai and other officials were told to stay away  and not to interfere with the work.The Jews were to be allowed to get on with the work.

6:8-22

Moreover they were to ensure that the JEws were supplied with all that they needed. There were to be severe consequences for disobeying the order. This was a decree of King Darius. The decree was carried out with diligence, So the work carried on, the ministry of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah continued to be important,and the work was completed.The Passover was then completed, and there was great celebration.

Ezra 5:1-17 - The work continues and a letter is sent to King Darius

5:1-17

Haggai and Zechariah are now mentioned. Their prophetic ministries played an important role in the rebuilding work. Zerubbabel and Joshua seem to have led the rebuilding work, and the two prophets supported them. Tattenai and Shethar-Bozenai went to see what was happening, but the work was not stopped. They wrote to King Darius and suggested that a search be made of the archivist to see if indeed Cyrus had decreed the rebuilding work. The Jews had told them that they were doing the work of God, and that Cyrus had decreed it, and had ordered the return of various artefacts.

Ezra Chapter 4 - Opposition and the work comes to a halt

4:1,2

There was opposition to the rebuilding, as Nehemaih also found when he set about rebuilding the walls. So there was opposition to their setting up a place of worship, and to their setting up defences. The enemies adopted subterfuge, pretending to be wanting to help worship the Lord. As Jesus said in Matt 7:21, “not everyone who says Lord, Lord....” We need to beware of those who claim to follow the Lord, but in reality do not.

4:3-8

Zerubbabel and Joshua were wise, and knew that these people were not really followers of the Lord. However, the enemies bribed officials  to frustrate the work. We can expect opposition, and of a harassing nature. When Xerxes succeeded Cyrus they took a more direct approach, lodging an accusation against Judah and Jerusalem.. In the days of Artazerxes they sent him a letter, written in Aramaic.

4:9-16

The letter claimed that the rebuild was part of a rebellious act. Israel has always suffered false accusations, as we have today in the October 7th war. The enemies claimed there would be no more taxes for the king. They urged the king to search the records to see how rebellious Judah was.

4:17-24

The king made a search and seemed to agree that Judah had a troublesome history, so he ordered the work to stop. So the rebuilding work came to a standstill.

Ezra Chapter 3 - rebuilding begins

3:1:1-6

The people first got settled in their towns, then they assembled in Jerusalem. Joshua and Zerubbabel began to build the altar of God. Sacrifices would be offered here in accordance with the Law of Moses. They lived in fear of the surrounding people, but continued to offer the sacrifices. Then they celebrated the festival of Tabernacles. Everything was done in accordance with the Law of Moses. We can perhaps appreciate why, in Jesus’ time, so much importance was attached to the Law of Moses. The temple had not been rebuilt at this stage, indeed work had not even started on it.

3:7-13

After the sacrifices had been put in order, work began on rebuilding the temple. Money was given to the masons and carpenters. Levites were appointed to manage the work. Praise was given to the Lord. All the people gave a great shout when the foundation stone was laid. There were some who remembered the original temple, and the situation was particularly emotional for them, and they wept aloud. There was a lot of noise.

Ezra chapter 2 0 Lists!

2:1-70

We now get back to my favourite lists, in this case lists of returnees, this list parallels that in Neh 7:6-73. There are differences, particularly in the numbers, probably due to copying errors. The “province” is probably Judah. Joshua is the same Joshua as in Hag 1:1. The Nehemiah is  probably not the Nehemiah of the book. “Parosh” in 2:3 means “flea”, it was common for Israelites to be named after insects and animals. From 2:36 onwards the names are grouped by temple function.

Ezra - Chapter 1 - The return

 1:1-4

The beginning of Ezra is almost identical to 2 Chron 36:22,23. The emphasis is that Cyrus’ decree was to fulfil the word of the Lord, the Lord is sovereign over the nations. The decree of Cyrus fulfilled the word given through Jeremiah.  So the Jews were to be allowed to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, and they were to be provided with silver, gold, goods and livestock for the temple. Cyrus acknowledges who the Lord is.

1:5-7

Not everyone returned, but only those whose hearts God had moved. Their neighbours assisted them in providing them  with various goods. In the time before the exile, and after the defeat, various temple artefacts had been sent to, or taken to, Babylon. Cyrus arranged for these items to be sent back to Jerusalem.

1:8-11

It was common practice for Assyrian and Babylononian conquerors carried off plunder that kept a careful inventory. The list in v9,10 adds up to 2499. V11 refers to 5400 articles, it may be that the list given just includes the larger items.

Ezra - Introduction

Ezra - Introduction

2 Chronicles ends with Cyrus conquering Babylon, Ezra and Nehemiah deal with the return.The two books, Ezra and Nehemiah, were combined into one at an early stage. Indeed the Septuagint treats them as a single book.Origen (AD 185-253) is the first writer to consider them as separate books.. Many consider that the author of Ezra and Nehemiah was also the author of 1 & 2 Chronicles. Indeed the end of 2 Chronicles and the start of Ezra are very similar. Nehemiah is focused on the rebuilding work, while Ezra is more concerned with the religious rebuilding.

The TNIV study Bible lists the major  themes as:

• The restoration of Israel from exile. Sending  them into exile was a sovereign act of God, Babylon could not have defeated Judah unless God was against them. The restoration was also a sovereign act of God.

• The restoration was complete, although there was much work to be done in terms of rebuilding and restoring proper covenant worship.

• The restoration evoked opposition.

• The people needed to be taught, rebuked and corrected.

We can see parallels with Christian salvation. The work of Christ is complete (justification, sending of the Spirit) but there is much corrective work to be done (sanctification). There will be opposition, we need to be  taught rebuked and corrected.