BIBL105: Old Testament Survey
9 EZRA--ESTHER
EZRA & NEHEMIAH
Fast Facts
•Author: Ezra (scribe and priest)
•Time period: Post-exile, 5 Century B.C.
th
•Audience: returned exiles
•Location: Judah
•Reason:
1. To encourage returned exiles
2. Explain how the nation returned and rebuilt
3. To record preservation of the Messianic Line
THREE ROUNDS OF RETURN
Round 1
•Around 50,000 people return
•Zerubbabel (descendant of David): leads people to begin to rebuild the temple. It is
finished in 515 B.C.
•Haggai and Zechariah: post-exilic prophets encourage the rebuilding of the temple
Second Round
•More Jews return under Ezra in 458 B.C.
Third Round
•Nehemiah returns and becomes the governor (445 B.C.)
•Builds city walls
BIBL105: Old Testament Survey
•High Priest becomes the leader of the nation since they have no king
EZRA:
Setting
•Return from Babylon
•Edict of Cyrus the Great
•Zerubbabel becomes the new governor
•Reconstruction of the Temple
•Temple finished: 515 B.C.
•Ezra returns
•Attempts to reform the nation in three ways
•National fast
•Separation from the Samaritans
•Intermarriage with pagans is renounced; pagan wives divorced
NEHEMIAH:
•Nehemiah is the royal cupbearer to Artaxerxes of Persia
•The king sends Nehemiah to return and be the new governor of the region
•Nehemiah begins the rebuilding of the city walls
•Faces opposition
•The walls are finished in 52 days
•Ezra reads the law
•The people repent and admit their sin; the covenant is renewed.
BIBL105: Old Testament Survey
ESTHER
•Background info:
•When? 450 B.C.
•Why? Teach providence of God over the Jewish people even if they are outside of
Israel
•Only book of the Bible where the name of God is NOT mentioned
•Xerxes banishes Vashti from being queen
•Esther wins the beauty contest to become the next queen
•Mordecai warns her not to tell anyone she is Jewish
•Mordecai also discovers an attempted assassination plot and stops them
•Haman is promoted to the king’s advisor
•He devises a plan to not only kill Mordecai (who refuses to bow to him like
everyone) but all the Jewish people
•Esther bravely goes to the king in his court. He graciously shows her the scepter
•Meanwhile, Haman is humiliated by Mordecai yet again
•After hosting two banquets, Esther reveals her request: that she and her people not die
•Haman is beside himself and attacks the queen. The king commands his soldiers to hang
Haman on the very gallows he was building to kill Mordecai
•The king cannot change the law, but he makes a new law that allows the Jews to defend
themselves
•The Feast of Purim is established in Judaism to remember how God delivered the Jews
during this time
BIBL105: Old Testament Survey
Esther & Jesus
•Jesus as the embodiment of grace
•Jesus as the protector of his people
Application for us:
•How to act in a pagan world
•Recognizing God’s hand even when it seems bleak
