Setting the Stage for the Main Event The Return from Exile

Where we Have Been Beginnings (Genesis 1-11) Patriarchs (Genesis 12-50) Egyptian Slavery and Deliverance (Exodus-Deuteronomy) Conquest and Settlement (Joshua-Judges) United Monarchy (Saul, David, Solomon) Divided Kingdom (Kings, Chronicles, the Prophets) The Babylonian Exile (Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel) The Return from Exile (Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)

The Demise of Babylon “Who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose.” (Isaiah 44:28)

The Demise of Babylon “you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: ‘how the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution. The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing. The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon saying ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’ Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. All of them will answer and say to you ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers. How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you; ‘is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?” (Isaiah 14:4-17)

3 Groups Who Return from Exile Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel. (538 BC) “And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1000 other vessels, all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.” (Ezra 1:9-11) “Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the Lord.” (Ezra 3:8)

3 Groups Who Return from Exile Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel. (538 BC) Ezra (458 BC)

3 Groups Who Return from Exile Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel. (538 BC) Ezra (458 BC) “And at the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God saying ‘O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for OUR iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens…” (Ezra 9:5-6)

3 Groups Who Return from Exile Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel. (538 BC) Ezra (458 BC) “And at the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God saying ‘O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for OUR iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens…” (Ezra 9:5-6) “While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly. And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra “We have broken faith with our God, and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.” (Ezra 10:1-2)

3 Groups Who Return from Exile Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel. (538 BC) Ezra (458 BC) Nehemiah (445 BC) “…and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for a wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy. And the King granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.” (Nehemiah 2:8)

Haggai “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?” (Haggai 2:3)

Zechariah Messiah will come in lowliness (6:12) Messiah will ride into town on a donkey, be rejected, and betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. (11:12-13) Messiah will establish a reign of peace and prosperity. “I will cut off the chariot from Ephriam and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” (9:10)

Eternity is about to enter history! “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) “I will cut off the chariot from Ephriam and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” (Zechariah 9:10)

Malachi “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear?’ says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name….” (Malachi 1:6)

400 Years of Silence “Behold days are coming declares the Lord when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water; but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11)

400 Years of Silence “Behold days are coming declares the Lord when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water; but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11) “Long ago, at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…” (Hebrews 1:1)