Ezra and Nehemiah The Story of the Second Exodus

God restores God’s people to the promised land after 70 years in exile in Babylon 3 waves of deportation, 606 – 597 – 586BCE 3 waves of return 538 – Zerubbabel 457 – Ezra Nehemiah

Axial Period in World History Book of Ezra ( BCE) Guatama Buddha India ( BCE) Confucius China ( BCE) Socrates Greece ( BCE) More inward and Moral development Spiritual Turning point

Three million Hebrews were removed to Babylon only 50,000 returned, the larger group preferring to remain in Babylon rather than trek 900 miles back to Israel to face a ruined land and the task of rebuilding. Those who returned were mostly from Judah, in the South.

King Cyrus of Persia, defeated the Babylonians and freed the Hebrews to return home. – Isaiah 44:29-45:4 – Jeremiah 29:13-14 Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel are ‘types’ of Jesus because they led the people out of captivity and back to freedom in the Promised Land

Ezra was a priest, who while in Babylon studied the Scripture. He was a direct descendant of Aaron. He was also a scribe. Nehemiah was the cupbearer for Artaxerxes, King of Persia. He was a trusted official who was appointed governor of Judah. Ezra and Nehemiah worked as a team rebuilding Jerusalem

Nehemiah attended to the physical rebuilding and the civic rebuilding while Ezra attended to the spiritual rebuilding of Judiasm. Both encourage the Jews to recommit to the Torah and follow its precepts. (no intermarriage, follow dietary laws, Temple practices, etc.) The people were called to be ‘holy’

Nehemiah and Malachi the last of the Old Testament prophets lived at the same time. Both spoke against the same evils, especially cold hearted indifference Four hundred years between Nehemiah and Malichi and Jesus, the Messiah.