A Simple Man’S Study of Ezra

By Chuck Robertson

The book of Ezra is about redemption and relationship with God. In it, we see how God is working to restore man to a place of fellowship with God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781973608042

Chuck Robertson

Chuck Robertson became a Christian while a senior in high school. A year or so after graduating he became involved with a youth ministry in his community. While working in this ministry he was drafted by the Selective Service to go into the army. Being a conscientious objector he went to work in No. California for the California Forestry. While there he became active in a church in the local town teaching the youth in the church and in other churches. When he returned home in So. California he drifted away from the Lord and his studies and ministry. Eventuality he rededicated his life to God and began his studies and teaching again.

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Copyright © 2017 Chuck Robertson.

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Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,

1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-0805-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-0804-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017916243

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/07/2017

CONTENTS

Introduction

Background

Chapter 1     A New Beginning

Chapter 2     The Journey

Chapter 3     Worship Restored

Chapter 4     The Enemy Attacks

Chapter 5     God’s Response

Chapter 6     God Is In Control

Chapter 7     Phase Two

Chapter 8     God Provides

Chapter 9     Mixed Mess

Chapter 10   A Step In the Right Direction

Postscript

Study Answers (Partial)

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

In this book I will try to give you an understanding of God’s Word, to show you how it applies to you and how it is important for your spiritual growth. The study is broken up into two sections. The first is the exegesis study. This is what I call the literal, factual study. It deals with the author’s story in the everyday world, the world of the Jews. It tells what the author intended his original readers to hear and understand. This part of the study shows God’s work in the world, His fulfillment of promises and His continuing work of redemption. To help with this I have included a short background to let you know who they were and what the world was like in their time.

The Book of Ezra is an encapsulated recording of God’s work of redemption, which is seen throughout the entire Bible. In chapter 1 is the call of God to be His people. In chapter 2 is the response to that call. Some hear the call but the idea of responding is overruled by the life they have established and live (Matt. 13:19). Others say yes they want to go but they are convinced by family or skeptics they are not chosen (Matt, 13:20-21). Still some of them started out strong and worked to get support but when it was not coming and the bills were piling up they gave up and stayed put (Matt. 13:22). But there were some who heard the call and were stirred by the thought and kept going until they were able to go and join the caravan going to Jerusalem (Mat. 13:23).

The second part of the study is the hermeneutics study. Hermeneutics is the part of the study where we look at the scriptures we have just read for their spiritual application. How do they apply to you? What are the applications to your everyday life and to your spiritual life and growth? This study is not perfect and can be very confusing. It must agree with the whole of God’s word.

I suggest that you do not start a study of the Scriptures with the hermeneutics, but start with the exegesis study. When we attempt to study the scriptures starting with the hermeneutics we must be careful. It is very important to understand that if you think you perceive something, it must agree with the whole of Scripture; it can never stand on its own. The Bible is full of the truth about who God is and what He has done. It is very important to understand that the spiritual (hermeneutics) application will not lead someone to express themselves outside of the parameter of the Bible and God. Many who have done this have mistakenly misinterpreted the Bible – some have even started new churches and misled many people. What follows is nothing more than what I see in the book of Ezra. I offer it as an example with the hope that it will encourage you to seek the Holy Spirit’s help to understand all of the things that God has put in His Word.

I recommend that you read the Book of Ezra in its entirety at least once and then read each chapter just before reading the corresponding chapter of this book. If you have more than one translation, New American Standard, NIV, New King James, etc. Try reading the Scriptures one time in a couple of them to help give you a better understanding.

BACKGROUND

Adam and Eve were created a holy people and dwelt with God in the Garden of Eden. When they sinned they forfeited their holiness, their connection to God and were exiled from Eden. With the covenant God made with Noah He makes it clear that He wants to restore that relationship with man. Now after Noah, God made a covenant with Abraham, then through Moses God led His chosen people, the Jews, to the promise land. From the time of the deliverance from Egypt God was with them giving the Jews laws and guidance for holiness and a right relationship with Him. After He gives them the promise land He gives them a king (which they had demanded because the lands around them had kings) to lead them and unite them further. God made a covenant with David and promised him a king of his line who would reign in Jerusalem forever. God fills the temple built by Solomon with His Holy Spirit and thereby makes Israel, the land and the people, a holy nation. All of these are examples of His continuing work of redemption for man. Solomon in his old age sinned greatly by marrying foreign wives, and by doing so seemed to break the Davidic line of kings to sit on the throne of Jerusalem.

Even though God had given Israel land and everything they needed, just as He had promised, they did not remain faithful and obedient to Him. Instead they alternated between sinning and repentance. After many years of great and constant disobedience God did as He said He would through His prophets and the Jews were taken into captivity for 70 years. (Jer. 13:1-27, 25:9-11 and Is. 38:6-8) Because of their continual sinning they were exiled by God. This exile began, according to some, with the reign of Jehoiakim. (Jehoiakim’s father, Josiah, was the last obedient king of Israel). He was put on the throne by Pharaoh Necho, the current ruling monarch, as a puppet king. The Pharaoh wanted someone on the throne he could control and who would do what he wanted. Jehoiakim persecuted the prophet Jeremiah because of his words of prophecy.

After Solomon Israel was split into two kingdoms, each had its own king. The 10 northern tribes of Israel were taken by the Assyrians and removed from their land in two different campaigns, and as was the custom. The Assyrians were defeated by the Babylonians and when Nebuchadnezzar captured the two southern tribes, Benjamin and Judah, he scattered them throughout his kingdom. During the time of the exile there remained in Judah some the Jews, mostly the poorest and unskilled. This opened up the land to invaders from all over to come and posses the land.

In 2Kings 20 we are told how Hezekiah showed the Babylonian ambassadors all of his treasures and his armory. After his son Manasseh sat on the throne the Assyrian army captured him. The Babylonians attacked Jerusalem and they breached the wall capturing the city. They took the rich and powerful men to Babylon. At a later time the king they had set upon the throne tried to rebel and they came and captured him, burned the temple and the city. Jerusalem was destroyed this time and left a rubble. All of the people except the poorest and the weakest where deported.

Jerusalem and the towns around it were destroyed and the people removed. Like the Assyrians the Babylonians brought people from other lands and put them into the land of Judah. These people established towns and set up their own rule where the Jews once were. The land that the first exiles came back to with Zerubabble and Jeshua was not a move in ready land with homes and shops.

At this point it appears God’s plan of redemption had been upset by the sinful nature of His chosen people. But God had included this in His plans and all was proceeding on schedule. Through Jeremiah God had told Jews that after 70 years He would bring them back to their land and Jerusalem, at which time the temple would be restored.

In 539 BC Cyrus overthrew Nebuchadnezzar and the Persian Empire began. The Persian Empire lasted just over 200 years. It started with Cyrus (539 BC – 529). After Cyrus was Cambyses (529 – 522), Gaumata (522 – 521), Darius (521 – 486), Xerxes (486 – 465), Artaxerxes I (465 – 424) and ending with Darius the Persian (390 – 330). With the defeat of Babylon by Cyrus the restoration plan of God was moving again. Even though Cyrus, King of Persia, was not a believer God had chosen him to begin the return of the exiles to Jerusalem (Isa. 45:1,4-6; 44:28). It was Cyrus who God had chosen to build Him a house in Jerusalem (Isa. 60:10-11). In the first year of his reign, 538 BC, Cyrus issued a proclamation allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple and practice their religion.

During the 80 years covered in the Book of Ezra there were several kings. It starts with Cyrus and ends with Artaxerxes, the fifth King of Persia. There had been three deportations of the Jews and there were three major events of exiles returning to