Introduction to Ezra...

Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,

Both the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were written by Ezra, the priest during the 5th century B.C.  The northern tribes of Israel had been taken captive by Assyria.  The Assyrians had repopulated northern Israel and had intermarried with the people.  This is where the Samaritan people originated.  The Babylonians had conquered southern Israel or Judah and most of the people had been carried away captive. Judah was mostly unpopulated for the 70 years they remained in captivity.  The Babylonian Empire was captured by the Persians while the children of Israel were in captivity and the Persians began to allow them to return to their homeland to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.

The book of Ezra begins here and in the Hebrew Bible Ezra and Nehemiah are combined into one book.  The first wave to go back went with Zerubbabel .  He took about 50,000 with him to work on the reconstruction of the temple. Ezra later followed with about 2,000 more to aid in the rebuilding of the temple. Nehemiah followed to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem.

I love Ezra because he was such a shepherd to the people.  He stood on the word of God and really cared for them spiritually.  It was not all about the building project.  He wanted the people to remember why they went into captivity in the first place and encouraged them to obey the word of God so as not to make the same mistake twice.  Ezra was an outstanding leader and led by the word of God.

Next installment...verses 1-4 of chapter 1 that are to me some of the greatest apologetic in the Bible.

Love
Mom