EZRA Lesson 1, Introduction Part 1 The beginning of our introduction to the Book of Ezra (which is heavily intertwined with the Book of Nehemiah) will take us on a bit different path than you’re accustomed to. There’s a couple of major points that I would like to make today…

EZRA Lesson 2, Introduction Cont. The first half of our introduction to Ezra began last week, and we took the time to look at the books of Ezra and Nehemiah from the distant view and discussed how there are aspects of the story of the return to Judah of many…

EZRA Lesson 3, Chapter 1 After an extensive introduction, we’ll open the Book of Ezra for the first time today. It’s a short chapter, but we’re going to go into some detail that will help us the rest of the way through Ezra and then Nehemiah. First, however, to keep…

EZRA Lesson 4, Chapter 2 The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are commonly referred to as the story of the restoration of Judah (or Israel) that comes at the end of their 70 year Babylonian exile. But restoration in what sense? Typically it is meant as the restoration of the…

EZRA Lesson 5, Chapters 2 and 3 We will continue in Ezra chapter 2 to begin our lesson today. What we’ve seen thus far in the Book of Ezra is what we can call “the preliminaries”. Chapter 1 begins by recording the official end of the Babylonian exile, and it…

EZRA Lesson 6, Chapters 3 and 4 As we continue in Ezra chapter 3 today, let’s review last week for just a moment. Let us always keep in mind that the underlying foundation for both Ezra and Nehemiah is the zealous desire of many thousands of emancipated Jewish exiles for…

EZRA Lesson 7, Chapter 4 If Ezra and Nehemiah (which is the story of the return of the Jews to Judah and the rebuilding of the Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem) demonstrate one thing that is rather easy for us to identify with, it is that a religious…

EZRA Lesson 8, Chapter 5 If ever there was proof that history is cyclical and that God-patterns repeat themselves endlessly, then we ought to readily see the fascinating similarities between the challenges that the Jews of Ezra’s day faced trying to re-establish their unique Torah-based Hebrew culture in their own…

EZRA Lesson 9, Chapter 5 continued We’ll continue today with the Book of Ezra; however we are in the midst of a substantial detour to look at the invaluable contributions that the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah made to the rebuilding of the Temple. These two Prophets were, predictably, bringing to…

EZRA Lesson 10, Chapter 5 continued (2) We’ll continue today with the Book of Ezra, but we’ll also continue our detour into the books of the prophets who prophesied concerning the Temple and Jerusalem in that era. There are so many valuable principles and lessons that are directly applicable to…

EZRA Lesson 11, Chapters 5 and 6 We’ll conclude chapter 5 of Ezra this week and get well into chapter 6. What has taken us so long is that we have chosen this point in the book of Ezra to pause to examine the prophets Haggai and Zechariah who arose…

EZRA Lesson 12, Chapters 6 and 7 It is a fascinating and unique style of the Holy Bible to thoroughly, carefully, and some times to expansively document God’s instructions to a Prophet or a King or to His people in general (as with the Law of Moses), but then instead…

EZRA Lesson 13, Chapter 7 I’ve stated on more than one occasion during our study of the Book of Ezra that it feels as though we are traveling through a time warp and reliving the Book of Ezra in our day. As we found to begin chapter 7 last week,…

EZRA Lesson 14, Chapter 8 Thus far in Ezra we have traversed an uneven landscape full of details, dates, Kings and history. I applaud you for hanging in there. So before we begin Chapter 8 let’s pause, take a deep breath, jump into our hot air balloon and float upward…

EZRA Lesson 15, Chapter 8 continued We took some time last week to back away and get a broad perspective of the Book of Ezra that spans from chapters 1 through 7, before beginning the home stretch of chapters 8, 9, and 10. Our purpose is not merely to know…

EZRA Lesson 16, Chapters 8 and 9 For rightly dividing God’s Holy Scriptures, context is the key. Without proper context we follow rabbit trails to nowhere, or worse, we establish dubious doctrines based on misunderstanding, unaware of what we’ve done. So we’re going to spend a little time this morning…

EZRA Lesson 17, Chapter 9 Continued We have entered a hard hitting, sobering, meddling portion of Ezra and I have some things I need to say today. We’re also going to add in an important detour and so we’ll still be in chapter 9 after today; there’s much that comes…

EZRA Lesson 18, Chapter 9 Conclusion Principle after principle, application after application erupts out of Ezra chapters 9 and 10 that are surprisingly illustrative of how modern Believers (Christian and Messianic) are to relate to God’s laws and commandments. Ezra’s era was almost a millennia apart from when God gave…

EZRA Lesson 19, Chapter 10 As we enter the home stretch in our study of Ezra, we find ourselves neck deep in principles and applications that surprisingly transfer from Ezra’s era to our own in a near seamless way. One application that I’d like to present to you in regard…

EZRA Lesson 20, Chapter 10 Continued As we near the end of our study of Ezra, we’ve got some loose ends to tie up. I’ll incorporate some thoughts today that perhaps haven’t been as self-evident as some of the other ones that have surfaced. So let’s begin our continuation of…

EZRA Lesson 21, Chapter 10 Conclusion END This lesson will end the Book of Ezra. Has it not been eye-opening how much of what Ezra experienced and his goal of reforming the seriously degraded Hebrew religion in his day is so similar to the state of 21 st century Judeo-Christianity?…