Week 38

Esther 5-10

Queen Esther devised a plan, and invited the king and Haman to a great dinner.  At that dinner she asked that the king and Haman come again to a banquet the following evening, which was then planned.  That very night the king couldn’t sleep, so he had some history of the kingdom read to him, and discovered that Mordecai had saved his life, so the next morning he had Haman give honor to Mordecai throughout the streets of the Capitol city of Susa (this galled Haman to no end).  Haman had a gallows built, and planned to hang Mordecai on it the next day.

When the king and Haman went again to the banquet set by Esther, she revealed to the king the plan of genocide that Haman had made against the Jews, which included herself, and she begged the king to stop it.  Haman was exposed as the villain that he was, and the king had him hung on the same gallows intended for Mordecai, and then promoted Mordecai to the place Haman vacated.

On the appointed day in the 12th month, the king allowed the Jews to defend themselves, and they were rescued from the genocide that was intended on them by the enemies of Israel.  Because of this rescue, the 14th day of Adar, which generally corresponds to March on our calendar, was set aside as a day of celebration, which is called Purim, and celebrated annually to this day.

Ezra 7-8

We now see Ezra enter the narrative, many years after the first return of Jews from Babylon, in the days of Artaxerxes Longimanus, who issued the decree to rebuild Jerusalem.  This decree also triggered the beginning of the prophetic countdown that was written by Daniel (9:25-26), which predicts 483 years until the appearing of the Messiah, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey in April of 32 AD.  Ezra was a priest, and a descendant of the High Priest in Israel, but not the High Priest.

The king gave Ezra a letter of authorization, as well as a great deal of money and valuables to take to Jerusalem, along with all Jews who were willing to return to Israel under his leadership.  The money and valuables were distributed into the hands of 12 priests, who swore responsibility for their part until it was delivered to the temple priests in Jerusalem.  The trip took 5 months, and the Lord provided them all the protection they needed along the way.

Ezra 9-10

When Ezra and his company arrive in Jerusalem, he is told that there were many in Israel who had taken wives from among the pagans in the land, and Ezra responds with mourning and prayers to God.  They ultimately do a census of all in the land who had taken foreign wives, and it was decreed that they each put away such foreign wives, or they would be excommunicated from the congregation of Israel.  It was a prohibition from God that the children of Israel never intermarry with the pagan gentiles in the land, as such marriages always resulted in adopting the idol worship that the women had practiced before marriage.

Nehemiah 1-5

The book of Nehemiah is considered to be the last of the historical books, and treated by many as the 2nd book of Ezra, even though it was clearly written by Nehemiah.  It relates the history of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the walls of the city, being led by Nehemiah with position and authority from the king in Persia.  Nehemiah had been the cupbearer to the king, but when he found out that the inhabitants in Jerusalem were floundering, and the city walls remained in ruins, he went into a state of mourning.  But the king noticed this, and gave him a letter of permission and authority to go and oversee the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, with a promise that he return to the king’s service in the future.

Chapter 3 relates how the various families in Jerusalem each took responsibility to rebuild the portion of the wall that they lived closest to, so that each section of the wall, and all of the gates were gradually built up.  The enemies of Israel were led by Sanballat, and other gentiles in the land, and they continually attempted to opposed Nehemiah and the people in their work, but all the people pulled together to both work, and to also provide protection against attacks by their enemies.

Nehemiah 6-7

The efforts of Sanballat and Tobiah continued in trying to thwart the work, and in various ways they attempted to foment fear among the Jews in Jerusalem, and even with Nehemiah, but all of their efforts failed.  The walls were completed successfully, and the gates hung, and then Nehemiah ordered a census of the people, with more than 42,000 in total.

Nehemiah 8-10

On the first day of the 7th month the people gathered in Jerusalem and had Ezra the priest bring out the law of Moses, for it to be read to them.  He read the law, and the priests interpreted and explained its meaning to the people, so that they understood it.  Upon reading God’s law, the people went out and gathered materials to make temporary shelters, so that they could celebrate the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) in remembrance of the 40 years that Israel lived in tents, which was the first time that Israel had celebrated this feast throughout its history.

After celebrating the Feast of Booths, the people came back together and entered into a contract with God, to serve Him, and to obey His commandments going forward, with the priests and the leaders of the people affixing each of their names to a document that declared their intentions before God.

Nehemiah 11-13

Nehemiah oversaw all of this revival in Judah and Israel as the king’s Governor over the land, and made sure that everything was in proper order.  There were people chosen by lot to live in Jerusalem, while 90% of the people lived in their own cities in Judah and Benjamin.  The people were chosen by lot to bring provisions to Jerusalem for the priests and Levites, and to give their tithes to the temple for their upkeep, and the care of the temple.  He also oversaw the dedication of the fully constructed walls of Jerusalem, and then after 12 years in Israel he returned to Persia to serve the king, as he had promised before he left.

However, after further time in Persia Nehemiah hears bad things from Israel, so he goes back to investigate, and discovers that the people are already going back on the things they had promised in writing.  They were not bringing tithes and provisions to the temple.  They were intermarrying with the pagan gentiles around them.  They were allowing ungodly gentiles into the temple.  They were working and doing business on the Sabbath, etc…. Nehemiah strongly reprimanded the people for their disobedience to God, and again worked to put things back in order.