The Book of Ezra: Rebuilding and Returning to God
Imagine a time when God’s people, the Israelites, were far from their home and their temple lay in ruins. That’s the scene in the book of Ezra, a story about hope, courage, and the importance of following God’s rules.
The Big Return
After years of living in exile, God tells a leader named Ezra that it’s time for the Israelites to return to Jerusalem. Ezra, along with many others, makes the long journey back to their homeland. They’re excited to rebuild their city and the temple where they worship God.
Rebuilding the Temple
But rebuilding isn’t easy. They face many challenges, like opposition from their enemies and struggles to find resources. But Ezra, with the help of another leader named Nehemiah, encourages the people to keep going. They work hard, pray to God, and eventually rebuild the beautiful temple!
Remembering God’s Law
Ezra isn’t just focused on building the temple; he’s also concerned about the people’s relationship with God. He reads God’s law to them, reminding them of the importance of following His rules. Many people had forgotten or ignored God’s commands while in exile, and Ezra wants them to return to God with their whole hearts.
Tears and Repentance
When Ezra reads God’s law, the people are deeply moved. They realise how far they’ve strayed from God and feel sorry for their mistakes. They cry, pray, and promise to follow God’s commands. This is a powerful moment of turning back to God, called repentance.
Lessons from Ezra
- God keeps His promises: Even after the Israelites had disobeyed, God remained faithful to His promise of bringing them back to their land.
- Importance of God’s word: Ezra’s reading of the law reminds us how important it is to know and follow God’s commands.
- Repentance and forgiveness: The people’s tears and turning back to God show us that it’s never too late to change and seek God’s forgiveness.
- Rebuilding and restoring: Just like the temple, our lives can be rebuilt and restored when we turn to God.
The book of Ezra is a story of hope and restoration. It teaches us that even when we’ve messed up, God is willing to forgive and help us rebuild our lives. It encourages us to follow God’s rules, remember His promises, and always seek Him with our whole hearts. So, let’s learn from Ezra’s example and be inspired to rebuild our own lives with God at the centre!
The book of Ezra relates how God’s covenant people were restored from Babylonian exile to the covenant land as a theocratic (kingdom of God) community even while continuing under foreign rule.
The Jewish church puts on quite another face in this book from what it had appeared with; its state much better, and more pleasant, than it was of late in Babylon, and yet far inferior to what it had been formerly. The dry bones here live again, but in the form of a servant; the yoke of their captivity is taken off, but the marks of it in their galled necks remain. Kings we hear no more of; the crown has fallen from their heads. Prophets they are blessed with, to direct them in their re-establishment, but, after a while, prophecy ceases among them, till the great prophet appears, and his fore-runner. The history of this book is the accomplishment of Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the return of the Jews out of Babylon at the end of seventy years, and a type of the accomplishment of the prophecies of the Apocalypse concerning the deliverance of the gospel church out of the New-Testament Babylon. Ezra preserved the records of that great revolution and transmitted them to the church in this book. His name signifies a helper; and so he was to that people. A particular account concerning him we shall meet with, ch. 7., where he himself enters upon the stage of action. The book gives us an account, I. Of the Jews’ return out of their captivity, ch. 1., 2. II. Of the building of the temple, the opposition it met with, and yet the perfecting of it at last, ch. 3.-6. III. Of Ezra’s coming to Jerusalem, ch. 7., 8. IV. Of the good service he did there, in obliging those that had married strange wives to put them away, ch. 9., 10. This beginning again of the Jewish nation was small, yet its latter end greatly increased. Matthew Henry
