Hi James and Ellen,
Ezra is the scribing of an influential priest. This priest – whose name is Ezra, may have been the historian who authored the Chronicles Book along with being the author of a book in the Bible that bears his name. Ezra starts out what became the Ezra Book by extensively recounting what took place after Cyrus – who was a Persian king, gave Zerubbabel permission in 538 B.C. to lead a group of 42,360 of God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids from the land of Babylonia where they have been living as exiles back to their homes in the city of Jerusalem. God’s specially chosen guys and gals – who are the Israelite people group guys and gals, once lived in the city of Jerusalem. They were taken in 586 B.C. as exiles to the country of Babylonia by the Babylonian king – who was Nebuchadnezzar, and his Babylonian army. Zerubbabel’s seemingly heartfelt desire upon his return to the city of Jerusalem was to rebuild the temple of God which had been razed by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army when they ravaged the city of Jerusalem. Even though there was undermining, upsetting opposition from Samaritans – Samaritans being misguided guys and gals from Ephraim and Manasseh Israelite people group tribal clans, who arbitrarily decided that they would live in the city of Jerusalem after a vast number of the city’s inhabitants were killed or taken away as exiles by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army, the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem was rebuilt in 516 B.C. After a brief period of religious fervor, God’s specially chosen guys and gals who had returned to their homes that were in the city of Jerusalem drifted back into living lives that were not God-centered.
Ezra does real time recounting and chronicling in the final chapters of his Ezra Book’s 10 chapters. Ezra asked for and was given in 458 B.C. a royal edict by the Persian king at the time – who was Artaxerxes Longimanus, to lead a contingent of God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids who wanted to return to the city of Jerusalem. Ezra was given permission to take offerings from his Israelite people group exiled compatriots who had remained living in the city of Babylon as well as to draw whatever he needed from Persia’s royal treasury to buy animals that would be sacrificed to God in the temple that was in the city of Jerusalem, appoint magistrates in the land of Judah – which was where the city of Jerusalem was located and enforce God’s laws on God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah that included the city of Jerusalem. 1,800 Jews – Jews being another name for God’s specially chosen guys and gals, left with Ezra from the city of Babylon for the city of Jerusalem. Nine days into their four month – 900 mile hike to the city of Jerusalem, Ezra and his entourage stopped in the city of Ahava – where after it was determined that that there were no guys from Levi tribal clan in Ezra’s caravan, 38 Levi tribal clan guys chose to go to the city of Jerusalem with Ezra where these guys would take on the task of being the primary workers in the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem. When Ezra finished doing what Artaxerxes Longimanus had commissioned him to do upon his arrival in the city of Jerusalem, Ezra began the daunting task of reforming God’s specially chosen guys and gals from living self-centered, idol worshipping, heathen-driven lifestyles that they had embraced. Because there were so many of God’s specially chosen guys who had married foreign or non-Israelite people group gals, a divorce court consisting of Ezra and other guys was set up where God’s specially chosen guys were to go to if they had married a foreign or heathen gal and where they were to formally divorce the gal. It took three months against some strong resistance before Ezra and his divorce court team were finally able to process all the divorces that needed to take place in the city of Jerusalem before . . . Ezra then goes on a hiatus that would last for 13 year before he appears again in Nehemiah’s edited diary that is known as the Nehemiah Book.
Ezra finished his last chronicled report in 440 B.C. – six years after he appeared again in the city of Jerusalem with the then governor Nehemiah. Ezra was a key player – along with Zerubbabel, Haggai and Zechariah, in what God promised would happen – which was that He would restore His specially chosen guys and gals back in the land that He gave to them to always to have to live in as their very own land. The specific task that God designated Ezra to do – as He did with Zerubbabel, Haggai and Zechariah, was to reestablish the old forms of temple worship in His temple that was in the city of Jerusalem and to stop His specially chosen guys and gals from pursuing paganism or heathenism. Heathenism has compromised the Christ-follower church the United States. Per a Barna Group study finding published in 2008, divorce is almost as prevalent today in United States Christ-follower churches as it is in the United States non-Christ-follower community. Your grandpaa recently heard someone say that fifty percent of the guys and gals who are living in the United States have gotten a divorce. The divorce rate in the United States is the highest in any country on planet Earth. Even though a divorce breaks up a family unit, it is better to be divorced than – by what Ezra did 2,452 years ago in the city of Jerusalem, be married to a gal who is not a Christ-follower. Your grandpaa believes that apostate guys have taken over United States churches. Your grandpaa is hoping that God will begin to send Ezras who will literally throw pagan guys out of United States Christ-follower fellowships.
Ezra