Introduction to Ezra

The year was 538 B.C. The Jewish people of Israel were at the conclusion of seventy years of captivity in Babylon and were destined to return to their home country. They were led into subjugation initially by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 597 B.C. when he attacked and exiled King Jehoiachin and the people of Israel in Jerusalem. God allowed the people of Israel to be captured because they did not keep the Sabbath years for four hundred and ninety years. (See Jeremiah 25:8-12; 29:10; 2 Chronicles 36:20-21; Daniel 9:2) Now they were to return to their homeland led by Ezra.

Ezra was a priest and a scribe who descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses. He was an expert in the Law of Moses (Torah) and played a major role in restoring Jewish religious practices. Ezra preserved the records of that great revolution and transmitted them to the church in this book. His name signifies a helper which relates to the Holy Spirit or Comforter spoken of within the New Testament.

The book divides into the following sections:

1. The Jews' return out of their captivity – Chapters 1-2

2. The building of the temple, the opposition it met with, and yet the perfecting of the temple at last. - Chapters 3-6

3. Ezra's coming to Jerusalem – Chapters 7-8

4. The good service Ezra did in Jerusalem by obliging those that had married strange wives to put them away – Chapter 9-10

Next time we begin our study in the book of Ezra as we discover what happened, “in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

See more devotionals on the website "thewordfortodaywithray.com" or look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".