Ezra

Themes and Insights from Ezra

Theme 1: The Lord has a plan for the events of history and is faithful to the covenant promises he makes. The Lord was faithful to his promise to bring back the Jews scattered abroad as King Cyrus freed the people of Israel. (Ezra 1:2-4). In addition to this the neighbors of the Jewish people are generous to them giving them what they need for their journey to Jerusalem. ( Ezra 1:6). The Lord also prospered the people in exile as they continued to grow in number. ( Ezra 2:1-67).

Theme 2: Worshipping the Lord involves being obedient to him in the present and remembering what the Lord has done in the past. The people celebrated the Passover rejoicing in God’s delivering them from bondage in Egypt in the past. (Ezra 3:1-6). They were also faithful to work on building the Temple and rejoiced when it was completed. ( Ezra 3:8-13). As a result of opposition the Temple was not completely rebuilt until a period of 6 years but when it was completed , the people rejoiced celebrating the Passover. (Ezra 6: 14-22). Part of their worship of the Lord involved repenting of their sins and removing sources of temptation. Ezra prayed on behalf of the people for their sin of intermarriage ( Ezra 9) and then the men sent away their foreign wives and children from the community. ( Ezra 10).

Theme 3: Following the Lord involves preserving despite hardships and delays to the work which we do for the Lord. The work of the Temple restoration was stopped by Persian force ( Ezra 4) and later restored by an edict from King Darius which also gave support to the project of Temple restoration. (Ezra 6).

Theme 4: Following the Lord involves seeking his will, being willing to be used by him and being grateful for what the Lord has done. Ezra trusted in the Lord and was used by a foreign King Darius to accomplish the task of bringing the people back to Jerusalem and settling them in their ancestral homeland. King Darius searched the archives finding the order of King Cyrus and writing orders that protected the Jews from their enemies and provided financial and other support to the project. (Ezra 5- 6:13).