May 14, 2014 (Wednesday)
The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book, and tell the story of how, when Persia defeated Babylon, the new king, Cyrus, allowed over 42,000 Jews to go back to Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Jewish governor of Jerusalem, and rebuild the Temple (which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar when he took the people into captivity). The original group that returned numbered only slightly more than 42,000. It took them 23 years to rebuild the Temple on its original site. Ezra came later with more people and instituted reforms mainly dealing with intermarriage with non-Jews. Still later, Nehemiah came as governor and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in a remarkably short period of time. This marks the end of Hebrew history in the Old Testament. The rest of the books of the Old Testament deal with subject matter that runs concurrently with the history that we have already covered in this series of blogs.
When the northern kingdom of Israel was defeated by the Assyrians, the people were taken into captivity and never returned. The southern kingdom, Judah, however, was a different story. After 70 years, as promised, the people returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the Temple and the city walls. The Levites from Israel had returned to Judah, and the history of Jews is about the tribes of Judah and Levi from the time of their return from captivity to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. Except for the period of independence under the Macabees, 164 BC to 63 BC, Israel remained a province of Persia, then Greece, and, finally, Rome.
After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, remaining Jews dispersed throughout the earth, until our present era, and they have once again become a nation. Paradoxically, one of the oldest nations on earth has become one of the newest.
Ezra-Nehemiah – a devotional thought
As the Bible reaches the end of its history of Abraham and his descendants, we marvel at their preservation as a people, then and now, throughout the world, and now again in Israel.
The Apostle Paul prayed for the conversion of Jews (Romans 9-11), as he presented the gospel to Jew and Gentile alike. He told us that both Jews and Gentiles are descendants of Abraham by faith, if they have faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world.