In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: (Ezra 1:1)

What a loaded caravan of cargo ships is this first sentence.

Left out of most English translations is that the very first word of the Hebrew sentence is the conjunction, “and.” Not only does it threaten no vital grammatical rule, it is often the case that biblical history books begin as a continuation of something before. Ezra picks up at a certain point on the timeline.

And a comparison of 2 Chronicles 36:22 with Ezra 1:1 show them to be verbatim. These are called “catch lines,” a practice of scribes to connect two separate scrolls by content. Ezra not only comes after 2 Chronicles in our copies of God’s Word, but proceeds with the next part of the history.

Speaking of our copies of God’s Word, what we have as Ezra and then Nehemiah were originally one book in Hebrew, and when first divided (by Origen in the 3rd century AD), called First Ezra and Second Ezra. What is also understandable, but somewhat unhelpful, is that the events of the book of Esther take place between Ezra 6 and 7, a space of almost 60 years. For that matter, though the book has his name, we don’t meet Ezra until Ezra 7, which is about 80 years after the decree of Cyrus where the book begins.

So where are we?

Setting the Timeline

Ezra 1:1 gives the When and a Why. Our literary time machine takes us back to the first year of Cyrus king of Persian and explains that what comes next is so that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled .

The prophet Jeremiah announced the captivity of Israel to Babylon and that their captivity would be 70 years. Habakkuk prophesied the same judgment on Judah through the Chaldeans/Babylon as they would become a great power (Habakkuk 1) and then that afterward Babylon would be judged with multiple woes for their wickedness (Habakkuk 2). So the Jews were captives in Babylon and it is not a Babylonian king that released the Jews, God used the Persian king Cyrus to defeat the Babylonians and then he released the Jews. The LORD revealed all this before the captivity:

Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, (Jeremiah 25:12 ESV)

“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. (Jeremiah 29:10 ESV)

For that matter, though Ezra doesn’t refer to it, we know that Isaiah named the king who would restore God’s people around 150 years beforehand.

who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;
saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’
and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”
(Isaiah 44:28 ESV)

We talked about these dates as we worked through Habakkuk.

• 605: Babylon first invades Israel
• 586: Almost all of Israel deported to Babylon

And then:

• 539: Cyrus conquers the Babylonians
• 538: Cyrus’ decree of repatriation (the return of someone to his own country)
• 537: First group returns with Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel

Under Zerubbabel’s effort the Jews rebuilt the altar and then two years later, 535, began rebuilding the temple, but they were discouraged and stopped in 534. They resumed in 520 (when Darius was the king of Persia, a great military officer who served Cambyses who was a son of Cyrus) and didn’t finish until 516.

In 486 Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes) becomes king, the king that Esther married a few years later. It was under Xeres’ son, Artaxerxes, that Ezra was commissioned to return in 458 (so Esther was probably Artaxerxes’ step-mother, and may have helped Nehemiah get his job as cupbearer). Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem in the 20th year of Artexerxes (Nehemiah 2:1), 444 BC. The Ezra-Nehemiah documentation was composed sometime soon after.

So in terms of the events of Ezra-Nehemiah-Esther:

• Ezra 1-6 : First Return - Zerubabbel - Rebuilding the Temple (538-515)

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• Esther 1-10 : (483-473)

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• Ezra 7-10 : Second Return - Ezra - Rebuilding the Culture (458)
• Nehemiah 1-13 : Third Return - Nehemiah - Rebuilding the Walls (444-425)

As for why we don’t have Esther in between, well, it would have to divide Ezra-Nehemiah, again originally one book and probably written by the same person.

Who was that? All good signs point to Ezra (at least as primarily responsible). As we’ll see, he was a scribe by trade, which gave him not only concern for God’s Law but likely gave him access to various documents. Ezra and Nehemiah include a variety of sources, for example, even in Ezra 1, the written decree from Cyrus and an inventory of items brought back to Jerusalem.

For some additional context, the names of these Persian kings may sound familiar:

• Cyrus (559–530 B.C.) began Persian empire
• Cambyses (530–522 B.C.) son of Cyrus
• Smerdis (522 B.C.) pretended to be brother of Cambyses
• Darius I (521–486 B.C.) great officer of Cambyses
• Ahasuerus/Xerxes (486–464 B.C.) - married Esther, making her the step mother of:)
• Artaxerxes I (464–423 B.C.)
• Darius II (423–404 B.C.)

The Battle of Thermopylae took place in late August 480 BC, when King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans held off Xerxes, and this lines up between Ezra 6-7.

And for context on the broader world scene:

• Buddha (c. 560–480 B.C.) is in India
• Confucius (551–479 B.C.) is in China
• Socrates (470–399 B.C.) is in Greece
• Herodotus (c.484-429 B.C.) also in Greece

We’ve got to get about 50,000 Judeans about 900 miles from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild their way of worship.

Problems to Address, if not Solve, working through Ezra-Nehemiah-Esther

Why should we take a year (or likely more) of Sunday sermons to study these books?

1. Our Unfamiliarity with the Old Testament and Its History

The same argument works for any OT Scripture. Especially in our current age that not only is bad at knowing where we came from but sits up on our progressive high-horse named Pride&Prejudice, these inspired history books are profitable for teaching and training in righteousness that we’d be equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

2. Our Pragmatic and Un-providential Mindedness

We’re not all at the same level of grasping God’s sovereignty. It’s a doctrine that is hard enough to swallow as true and even then sometimes seems irrelevant for our choices. We are all barraged by the propaganda of The Things That Are Seen.

Ezra-Nehemiah-Esther leave no doubt that everything has a theological interpretation. Each king, brick, and bowl of gold was put in place by God. Global powers and individual hearts are moved by God.

“The two centuries of the Persian empire were among the most formative periods of Jewish history” (Kidner), including the allowance and some financing for the return. “The LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.” We may not know every moment what the Lord is up to, but we must be mindful of “Him who is invisible” (see Hebrews 11:27).

3. Our Quick Fix Mentality

Ezra-Nehemiah-Esther demonstrate that divine restoration is not quick, rarely clean, and usually accompanied by resistance.

It would take the average person about 3 hours for a non-rushed read of all three of these books. It would take around 90 years if you lived them. And in order to read the story you wouldn’t need to travel, by foot or beast, 900 miles. Plus, there’s questions about accepting the money of pagan kings; “he who takes the king’s coin…” and all that. What about those who didn’t want to return because they’d built themselves a decent life in Babylon?

Want reformation? Ready for oxen in the stall (Proverbs 14:4)? Abundant blessings require backbone to carry.

4. Our Need for Word and Worship

Judah’s religious life could not have been more disrupted, especially since the altar and the temple were so crucial. And the first thing the first returnees do is build the altar then the temple for sake of worship. As repeated as anything in these books is prayer, and multiple examples are prayers of confession. The Lord is the one “with whom we have to do” (see Hebrews 4:13).

In Ezra-Nehemiah-Esther religious identity, defined by the priority of God’s Word and worship, is the key to the kingdom.

Ezra “had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). While Nehemiah was governor, Ezra and others “read from the Book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8). The Book was relevant, and also some new applications were needed. But the Book was the standard.

5. Our Temptation to Lose Heart

Ezra-Nehemiah-Esther rally us toward a better future by stirring up our faith to work.

Not all the Jews returned from Babylon. Not all the prophecies were fulfilled, including promises of a new Davidic king, a new palace, and Israel ruling over the other nations (see Jeremiah 30:8-9, 18; Isaiah 49:22-23; even Habakkuk 2:14).

But Aslan (as it were) is on the move.

Conclusion

Where is Jesus in Ezra-Nehemiah-Esther? He’s about 400 years out from Bethlehem, in Judea. He wasn’t born in Babylon, and as the Messiah He remains the object of their ultimate hope.

Remember, “the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). And pray, “But now, O God, strengthen my hands” (Nehemiah 6:9), “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

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Charge

On Friday as a plane landed in San Francisco a flight attendant said, “Have a blessed evening.” This caused the editor of national, left-wing magazine to have a fit about the dangers of “creeping Christian nationalism.” Ha!

May the Lord bless YOU to bless so palpably for such a time as this.

Benediction:

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28–29 ESV)