CHAPTER SEVEN The one theme which runs through chapter seven is the qualifications, or credentials, of the man Ezra. A new age is being born. As in the days of Moses, or David, or Elijah, or Jesus, attention must be focused on the question of legitimacy, or authority, of the new leader or new forms... [ Continue Reading ]
TEXT AND VERSE-BY-VERSE COMMENT III. Ezra Becomes Involved In The Restoration of Israel (Ezra 7:1 to Ezra 10:44) A. Ezra leads a second band of returnees back to Israel, and gives God thanks. 1. Who Ezra was, and what he was doing. TEXT, EZRA 7:1-10 1 Now after these things, in the reign of Art... [ Continue Reading ]
2. The letter of Artaxerxes TEXT, EZRA 7:11-26 11 Now this is the copy of the decree which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, learned in the words of the commandments of the LORD and His statutes to Israel: 12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the la... [ Continue Reading ]
3. Ezra's thanksgiving and compliance TEXT, Ezra 7:27-28 27 Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to adorn the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, 28 and has extended lovingkindness to me before the king and his counselors and be... [ Continue Reading ]