Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Monday, December 10, 2012 Read – Ezra 1 & 3 Before we pick up the story in the book of Ezra it is important to make a few observations. First of all we have not read the books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles. Those books tell essentially the same story that the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings tell. One feature of the story in the books of Chronicles, however, is that that story is considerably “cleaned up.” For example we will not read about David and Bathsheba. Nor will we hear about David’s calling for a census manifesting his lack of faith – in Chronicles it is Satan who incites the census. The books of Chronicles also focus almost exclusively on the kingdom of Judah. The reason for mentioning the books of Chronicles at this time is because the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are connected to that story. The books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah form a unit much like the books of Samuel and Kings formed another unit. So while the books of Ezra and Nehemiah carry the story we have been following forward we need to notice a change in tone. For whatever reason, those who produced the books of Samuel and Kings did not write about the aftermath of that debacle. Maybe they wanted to leave their readers with the dreadful story that concludes in 2 Kings. At any rate we are listening to a different narrator with a slightly different point of view. Another thing for us to consider is the second half of the book of Isaiah. It is very likely that this part of the book of Isaiah – chapters 40-66 – was written by an anonymous prophet connected to the “school of Isaiah” who wrote sometime just ahead of 539 BC when the Babylonian empire was conquered by the Persians. Of course an argument could be made that Isaiah, living hundreds of years earlier, simply was given a vision of all of this. That is not impossible, but it is unlikely. God works in all times. And every other prophet of God spoke God’s word into the immediate life situation in which they lived. It is more likely that God was speaking through this Isaiah at the very time when a word from God was needed. The argument for the “earlier Isaiah” as the writer is driven more by a desire to make the Bible more dramatic than it is from really listening to the Bible itself. Anyway, I am of the opinion that an anonymous prophet, whose writing are attached to the book of Isaiah because this prophet shared much of Isaiah’s theology, was called by God to proclaim God’s powerful message of freedom from bondage in exile in Babylon. That message comes prior to the story we pick up in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. One final consideration is the book of Daniel. The setting of the book of Daniel is certainly the exile in Babylon. Daniel is one of the people taken hostage during the reign of Jehoiakim. The first six chapters of the book of Daniel are a collection of stories about how to survive in a desperate time. The last six chapters are a series of visions about the various kingdoms of the world that unfolded after the return from exile. The book of Daniel is a difficult book to understand. My view is that it reflects the stories of a real person, Daniel, who experienced the exile, but that those stories have been embellished over time to speak to more situations of desperation. The last six chapters, the visions of Daniel, reflect a much later date when Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem around 165 BC. The Jewish writer Josephus understands them in the same way, viewing them as prophecy on the part of Daniel about what occurred under Antiochus. Of course, it could be possible that the whole book of Daniel comes from during the time of the exile, but, again, that is unlike any other way in which God has been working. We will read the first six chapters of the book of Daniel after we have completed the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and more will be said at that time. Having taken care of some of these preliminary considerations it is time to look at Ezra. The book of Ezra begins with a decree of Cyrus, the king of Persia, that the exiles of Judah be allowed to return home. This agrees with the proclamation of Isaiah 45 where Cyrus is named by Isaiah as the LORD’s “anointed one – messiah”. That is quite a statement on the part of Isaiah! Ezra is a priest, thus he is concerned to talk about the return of the Temple vessels and to create lists of those who returned. Ezra 2 is one of those lists we need not plow through. Soon after the people return home, Ezra gives and account of the rebuilding of the Temple which had been destroyed by the Babylonians and burned to the ground. In the third chapter Ezra names two people who are very important to the story – Jeshua, who was the high priest at the time, and Zerubbabel who was the political leader. Zerubbabel is especially important because he was the grandson of Jehoiachin, the king who had been taken into exile and wound up sitting at the Babylonian kings table when the book of 2 Kings ended. Perhaps we have something of an answer to one of our questions about whether or not God keeps his promise to David. Zerubbabel was of the line of David – and eventually his descendant will be Jesus. Two more prophets come on the scene at this point – Haggai and Zechariah. Haggai reflects that fact that it was difficult to get the people to be involved in the rebuilding of the Temple. Perhaps they were just beat down and tired from the exile – or maybe they were just worried about themselves and their own needs and God could wait. At any rate Haggai chastises the people for their slowness in rebuilding the Temple. Zechariah shares much of the same sentiment, however, the main point of his rather long and sometimes confusing book is that Zerubbabel and Jeshua are signs of a new beginning. In fact Zechariah implies that Zerubbabel is the long-awaited Messiah. He thinks that the “golden age” is about to unfold. While his timing appears to be off his book is part of the longing for the Messiah that was growing within the people of God – he was waiting for the Messiah who actually came about 500 years later in Jesus. The book of Zechariah is a series of visions much like the second half of Daniel and it is no wonder that both of these books are drawn into the book of Revelation in the New Testament which is also a book of visions. Daniel, Zechariah, and Revelation have much in common. Both Haggai and Zechariah are mentioned in the book of Ezra at the time of the dedication of the rebuilt Temple.