Reply To: Ezra and Nehemiah – Deborah Equels

[Deborah Equels]

Biblical Studies 102       Week 4             Lesson 4            2nd Quarter

Book of Ezra:

This Book is named after the main Character of its second part. The book of Chronicles ended with an official message that King Cyrus of Persia sent in (538 B.C.) which allowed the Jews to return to their land and to rebuild the Lord’s Temple. The first part of the book of Ezra in (Chapter 1-6) begins with the same message and then goes on to tell how many of the Jews returned to Jerusalem and began to work on the Temple.

Ezra (Chapter 1:1-4) Many years before this time, the Prophet Jerimiah had predicted that God’s people would be in captivity for seventy years, Now King Cyrus was beginning to complete that prophecy. King Cyrus was not a Jew, yet God caused this ruler to be a special part of God’s plan for his people, God kept his promise to return his people to their Homeland. God often uses people and events that not any of us would suspect of being able to help us, such as our bosses, teachers, Leader’s, coaches, commanding officer’s, and even Judges or Government Officials, this may be God’s way to speak directly to us, and at the same time these people may not even know it…  You see when were open to hearing God’s word and seeing God at work, we see how vast God’s REACH IS….

Book of Nehemiah:

The book of Nehemiah teaches us that only with God’s help can we actually change ourselves and recover from the damages and ruins from our past. Twelve years after the last events of the book of Ezra, a Jew named Nehemiah received bad news about  Jerusalem. That the walls of the city were still broken down, and the burned gates had never been replaced. Nehemiah was a personal servant to King Artaxerxes, at that time Nehemiah prayed and asked God to have Artaxerxes send him to Jerusalem to rebuild the City. And yes, his prayers were not only answered but Artaxerxes also provided him with all the materials, you see hear when we ask God specific prayer’s he always has a plan and provides all that we would need or whom we shall need to get the Job done. So, we can see that today all we need to do is to TRUST AND OBEY GOD WHOLE HEARTEDLY, Never forget that GOD REIGNS OVER THE ENTIRE WORLD AS “THE GOD OF HEAVEN”.