Ezra
Ezra tells how God kept his promise to bring his people home. Stirring up the heart of Cyrus king of Persia — just as Jeremiah had foretold — the LORD moves a pagan empire to send the exiles back to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of God. The first movement follows Zerubbabel and the returned remnant as they raise the altar, lay the temple foundation with shouts of joy mingled with weeping, endure years of opposition and stalled work, and — spurred on by the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah — finish the temple and keep the Passover with gladness. The second movement brings Ezra the scribe, a man who had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, to do it, and to teach it, up from Babylon with the good hand of his God upon him. When he finds the holy seed compromised through intermarriage with the peoples of the land, his anguished prayer of confession leads the people to repentance and costly separation. Read through a biblical lens, Ezra shows a faithful God who governs kings, restores worship, and purifies a people for himself — and points ahead to a greater temple and a better mediator. Each chapter has a full deep study and a short summary handout.