Ezra - book summary
The prophet Ezra wrote this book.
And the main purpose of it was to tell the story of the exiles coming back home
to the Promise Land! This is huge because Persia was the super power of the
time [after defeating Babylon], and King Cyrus had decided that it was better
to be loved that feared… so, he made a decree to let all exiles go back home! [Prophecy alert!!!! In Isaiah 44:26-28,
God tells Isaiah that “Cyrus” will decree to rebuild the cities and the temple.
That’s not really surprising unless you know that Cyrus, was born around two
hundred years after this word was given to the people of Israel. And the fact
that Cyrus was called by name gives me chills, because sometimes prophecies are
so general that we cannot tell with a 100% certainty that it already happened
or if it’s something that will happen in the future… but this one is a fact, it
did happen! King Cyrus of Persia, sent the Israelites back home and told them
to rebuild their city and the Temple! (Ezra 1:2-4)] Remember that it’s been
around 70 years for the Israelites in Babylon. They continued their lives, they
married and had kids, and maybe their kids had kids of their own! So, not
everyone wanted to go back, and in fact only a small portion of Israelite
exiles went back with Zerubbabel [first wave] to rebuild the Temple (Chapter
1-6). And then Ezra himself lead another wave of exiles back home with the
intention of rebuilding the spiritual condition of the people! (Chapters 7-10)
Character of God:
God takes care of His people:
“Ezra
arrived in Jerusalem in August of that year. He had arranged to leave Babylon
on April 8, the first day of the new year, and he arrived at Jerusalem on
August 4, for the gracious hand of his
God was on him.” (Ezra 7:8-9 / 7:28 / 8:18)
God demonstrates unfailing love to Ezra (7:28)
God protects His people! (8:31)
Redemptive plan:
I see the redemptive plan in the
stages in which the book is set up:
1st step is to
reconstruct the temple and the 2nd step is to rebuild the people’s
spirituality so that they could come closer to God. Sin had separated the
people from God, both, physically [the destruction of their place of worship
and sacrifice / exile to foreign lands] and spiritually [they had intermarried
with people from other nations and followed their customs and practices]. And
right at the very end, in the last chapter, I can see that God puts in Ezra’s
heart to purify the people by analyzing the marriages and deciding if they were
to divorce their pagan wives, one case at a time. It took them around 3 months
to sort the whole thing out! And then the offenders offered a guilt offering to
the Lord to atone for their sin, cleansing themselves from this sin.
This to me seems to be a clear
representation of the atonement that Jesus presented when He died in the cross
to help us clean our very own sins and He took our consequences with Him to the
grave.
Nehemiah
The book of Nehemiah was written by
Ezra! The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were actually one book originally! The
book was written “to remind God’s people of their spiritual heritage and to
keep them from becoming careless toward the Lord.” (SourceView Bible p. 613)
You might be wondering at this point, why is the book named Nehemiah and not 2nd
Ezra or Ezra Reloaded? Well, these are actually the memoirs of Nehemiah, but
they were compiled by Ezra. I know, these Bible book namers…
Character of God:
Great and awesome! (Nehemiah 1:5)
He has a gracious hand (2:8)
He is the God of Heavens (2:20)
He is my God! (5:19)
Ezra praised the Lord, the great God (8:6)
Great and Almighty and awesome, and
keeps His unfailing love (9:32)
He punishes because he is just
(9:33)
He is compassionate (13:22)
The people or Judah said this about
God:
“May your glorious name be
praised! May it be exalted above all blessing and praise!
“You alone are the Lord. You
made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the
seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you.
“You are the Lord God, who chose
Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and renamed him Abraham. When he
had proved himself faithful, you made a covenant with him to give him and his
descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites,
Jebusites, and Girgashites. And you have
done what you promised, for you are
always true to your word.” (9:5-8)
Redemptive plan:
Again the redemptive plan for the
people of Judah seems to be in steps… and the whole book of Nehemiah is calling
the attention to the “…political and
geographical restoration.” (SourceView Bible p. 613) Because Nehemiah was in
distress because he learned that the city of Jerusalem [still] did not have a wall
to protect itself and its citizens, God moved his heart to do something about
it! He was a cupbearer for the King of Persia, and when he told the King about
this issue that was making him sad, the King let him go and rebuild the wall of
Jerusalem. I feel this is the last necessary step for Jerusalem [and its
people] to be back on its feet, the restoration comes from the inside out! And
the final little stage is the outside of the city: the wall. We cannot be whole
if we don’t receive a tune-up from the inside-out! And I feel that exactly what
restoration, redemption and salvation share as common ground. The change will
be evident in all levels of our lives, just like Jerusalem needed a restoration
of the people, the temple and the outside walls!
Esther
This is a book full of providence. However, there is no mention of God
in this book! When I think about the story of Esther all I can think about is
like a domino effect type of account… one thing leads to another one, and then
the next one and everything is a chain reaction of the very first event.
The [unknown] writer of this book
knew a lot about the Persian laws, words and customs. He [she?] even knows the
layout of the palace, which means he lived in the very same time of the events,
and had access to the palace. In addition, this person was a devout Jew.
(SourceView Bible p. 634)
The book was written as a “dramatic
reminder to the Jews of God’s protection.” (SourceView Bible p. 634) And this
is even truer because of the fact that these Jews are the ones that did not go
back to Jerusalem, for one reason or another, but they decided to stay away
from “the promise land”.
God’s character:
Even when God is not mentioned in
the book of Esther, I can see His hand at work. For example:
The fact that Esther was instantly
treated better than the other young ladies by Hagai, the person in charge of
King Xerxes’ harem.
The fact that King Xerxes selected
her from all the other “contestants” to be the Queen of Persia!
And the key verse for me where I see
that God is in control and He takes care of His people is when Mortecai
(Esther’s uncle/adoptive father) tells her “Who knows if perhaps you were made
queen for just such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14) And that is because the Jews
living in the provinces of Persia were facing a death sentence, decreed by the
Haman, the enemy of the Jew, in the name of the King.
Redemptive plan:
God has a way to surprise us…
especially when the most unlikely underdog pulls of the biggest trick and wins
the game! In this case, I can see that not only was Esther a minority in the
Persian empire but also she had no chance of changing the futile future of her
people, unless something miraculous occurred. And it did! But I think my
favorite story is not hers but Mordecai’s, because he had an explicit enemy, a
person who hated him and the worst thing is that this person was the second in
charge of this whole empire. What were the odds that God would deliver him from
his enemy and help him overcome all his
problems to have a good life? Not only did that happen, but also he became a
“…prime minister, with authority next to that of King Xerxes himself. He was
very great among the Jews, who held him in high esteem, because he continued to
work for the good of his people and to speak up for all their descendants.”
(Esther 10:3) And that for me is the clue to restoration: doing the right thing
consistently. God will not forget those who do good, He wants to bless them! If
you need further proof… read Deuteronomy 28 (the whole chapter)
Haggai
The author of this book is the prophet Haggai, who actually only
prophesied for less than 4 months! His prophecies all came in the same year
between August 29th to December 18th! (SourceView Bible
p. 1208)
The message is directed to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of
Judah, and to Jehozadak, the high priest (1:1) to encourage them to start the
work on God’s house: the Temple!
Another thing I really liked is that God asks the people of Israel about
the original temple and its splendor, and tells them to be strong, because He
will fill this temple with His glory. God even says that this new temple will
be even greater than Solomon’s temple! (2:2) This is because this second Temple
was smaller and not as fancy as the original… but God knew that Jesus was going
to visit this Temple! And He knew that when Jesus walked inside this Temple,
the glory of God would be there again! It’s nice to think about the very first
time that Jesus visited this Temple at age 12 as the fulfillment of this
prophecy of God.
Haggai also asks an important question about cleanliness (2:11-12) -
There was not law to clean the unclean by touching them, it was actually the
other way around in the Old Testament: the clean would become unclean by
getting in contact with the unclean! Jesus changed this himself when He walked
on earth but we haven’t read that yet… just know that Jesus touched unclean
people and made them clean!
Character of God:
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies (Haggai 1:2)
He is with us
and that sparks our enthusiasm!
(1:13-14)
God is almighty and powerful,
He can shake earth and heaven and he can overthrow thrones and win wars
(2:21-22)
Redemptive plan:
This little book is only a page a
quarter in my Bible. It only contains four short messages from God, delivered
by Haggai. Yet, it is packed with promises and prophecies. But my favorite has
to be the one in chapter 2 verse 9:
“The
future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the Lord
of Heaven’s Armies. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the Lord of
Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”
And I like it so much because the
Temple once was a majestic creation… and then it got destroyed, burned to the
ground. And here is God telling them not to worry about it, not to put their
trust in things but in Him. He reassures that the past was good, but the future
is greater! And He tells people that He will bring peace to this place [the
Temple]. He is promising restoration for the Temple, but at the same time He is
promising to restore the people. To bless them and to prosper them! Because
they are being obedient. God promised me good… and He has spoken!
Zechariah
This is the most difficult book in the
Old Testament [after Ezekiel] and for the very same reason that Ezekiel is: the
visions.
Here is a quick list of the visions
(SourceView Bible p.1212):
A man among myrtle trees
Four horns and four blacksmiths
A man with a measuring line
Jeshua clothed before the Lord
A gold lampstand and two olive trees
A scroll flying
A basket with a woman sitting inside of it
Four chariots from two mountains
A crown placed in Jeshua’s head
Zechariah wrote this book. He was a
priest by birth and a prophet by calling. He was contemporaries with Ezra and
Haggai, and all of them pushed to rebuild the Temple. In a very special way,
Zechariah was like the “cheerleader” of the time! The people of Judah were
discouraged about building the Temple, and Zechariah was especially assigned to
bring their morale up. And he did a great job because his visions really
inspired the people, and even when the visions are hard to understand, right
after them comes the encouraging words of God, who does not stop to tell people
how much He loves them and wants them to finish the task at hand. And of
course, people go right away to finish the Temple!
Character of God:
He is…
The Lord (Zechariah 1:2)
Passionate about His love for His
people (1:14-15)
Holy (2:13)
The one “who stretched out the
heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the human spirit.”
(12:1)
Redemptive plan:
There are some books were it is hard
to see the redemptive plan plainly, Zechariah is not one of those. It is even
displayed in a nice order: reference to Jesus and then the redemptive plan!
Here are the passages in chapter 9:
“Rejoice, O people of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!
Look, your king is coming to you.
He is righteous and victorious,
yet he is humble, riding on a
donkey—
riding on a donkey’s colt.” (9:9 Reference to Jesus!!!)
“I will remove the battle chariots
from Israel
and the warhorses from Jerusalem.
I will destroy all the weapons used
in battle,
and your king will bring peace to the nations.
His realm will stretch from sea to
sea
and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.
Because of the covenant I made with
you,
sealed with blood,
I will free your prisoners
from death in a waterless dungeon.
Come back to the place of safety,
all you prisoners who still have hope!
I promise this very day
that I will repay two
blessings for each of your troubles.” (9:10-12)
I really enjoy the very last
sentence in which a promise is made where people who have had troubles will
receive a double amount of blessings… that’s a pretty good deal I’d say…
Malachi
Malachi means “my messenger”, and
for this reason many people believe that this is not the actual name of the
person who wrote it. I want to believe that this was his name, and it happened
to mean “my messenger”, which is very appropriate for a prophet of God. This
messenger of God was sent at a time when the Temple had been finished, and the
people were caught up into a worship “routine”. So he wrote this book to
“…confront the spirit of complacency and indifference that so easily overcomes
God’s people and their spiritual leaders.” (SourceView Bible p.1227)
This is book is mainly a
conversation between, the prophet, God, and the people! And there’s a lot of
questions asked, but many answers come back right away. Throughout the book I
cannot stop noticing how much God pushes for a relationship with His people.
Maybe it’s because this is the last book of the Old Testament, the last push
before 400 years [approximately] of silence from Him.
God…
…is not pleased with you (Malachi
1:10)
…is a great King, and his name is
feared among the nations (1:14)
…hates divorce (2:16)
…loves you so much that He is
sending a messenger who will prepare the way for Him! (3:1)
…is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
(4:1)
God’s redemptive plan:
This starts a little rough, but I
promise it gets better toward the end…
“I
am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not
already destroyed. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my
decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me,
and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
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