We are journeying through the little book of Ezra. And what an amazing book it is. Ezra is a very short book, a brief book, and it picks up exactly where II Chronicles leaves off. It is one of the Post-Exile books. There are some double books in the Old Testament. For example: I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, I and II Chronicles. Originally the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were viewed as one book, and they were referred to by the Jews as I and II Ezra. Now we call them the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. 

Listen to An Overview of Ezra:

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Journey Through Ezra

Ezra and Nehemiah were both used by God. The Lord often sets people in pairs. You have Moses and Joshua, David and Jonathan, Paul and Timothy, and the like. It is interesting to see how God uses men in pairs – they complement one another. Ezra and Nehemiah do that very same thing. Ezra was the religious leader. Nehemiah was the political leader. Ezra dealt with the internal issues. Nehemiah dealt with the external issues. Do you notice the divine order? We want to go straight to Nehemiah, coming back and rebuilding the broken-down walls. God wants our hearts to be right before we build the walls. It doesn’t matter that you get all the externals in place if your heart is not right with the Lord.

The Background

The setting of Ezra and the post-exilic books is the return from Babylonian captivity. God’s people come back in waves. There were three returns from Judah’s 70 years of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:9-11, Ezra 1:1).

• The first is led by a man named Zerubbabel.
• The second is led by a man named Ezra.
• The third and final one is led by Nehemiah.
  • This account is found in the Book of Nehemiah 

Walls are important. But before you start trying to straighten your life out, get your heart right. Before you try to get everything on the outside where it looks good to men, let’s get our hearts right. God sees the heart. 

The first step to rebuilding is returning. And the first step to rebuilding is revival. And that’s really what the Book of Ezra is all about. It’s a book about returning to God. It’s coming back to where we need to be. We use, sometimes, the word backslidden.

You know, my friend, we all get backslidden at times. We all drift. Our life gets broken down from the way it used to be and should be. And what do we need? We need God to build this up again. We need renewal. God’s people need revival. And we begin by returning. The key verse of this little book is Ezra 1:5, where the Bible says: “Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priest, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised to go up to build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.”

How to Study the Book of Ezra

There are two distinct parts in Ezra:

1. The Construction (Ezra 1-6)
   1. Returning to the Land
      1. Zerubbabel leads a group of about 50,000 back to Jerusalem.
2.  The Reformation (Ezra 7-10)
   1. Returning to the Lord
      1. Ezra leads another group to Jerusalem.

Between these two sections, we find 60 years of silence. The work ceased because of opposition and intimidation. While the construction ceased, God was still at work. The account of Esther falls within this time period. We also know that God used the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah to stir up His people.

The Spiritual Return in Ezra

Notice that the first thing they raised was not the Temple; it was their own heart. It didn’t begin with their construction project. It began with the work of the Holy Spirit in them. They returned to Jerusalem. That was the will of God for them. That’s where God wanted them to be. They restored the worship of Jehovah God.

• In Ezra 3, they rebuilt the altar and began sacrificing again. 
• In Ezra 7, they return to the Word of God.

Read Ezra 7. You will find a record of Ezra simply reading the Bible. He stood up before the people and read the Scripture. Notice the reverence with which it is read and responded to. There’s a great message here for us: God wants to use His Word in our lives. God wants to speak to us and we must respond to the Word of God.

Returning to God’s Word

Notice Ezra 7:10: “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” I would challenge you to read the next book (Nehemiah) chapter seven; study this reading of Scripture and how God used it mightily. Friend, if you want to return to God, let the Holy Spirit work in your heart through God’s Word.

Read the Bible. God’s Word will restore and renew and revive things like nothing else can do. And so in chapters 1-6, you have Zerubbabel coming back to rebuild the walls of the Temple. Then in chapters 7-10, you have Ezra coming back and restoring the worship in the temple. It’s beautiful to read Ezra’s prayer of confession, him getting his own heart right with God, and then praying for the nation around him.

The great message is that we must return to the Lord. I challenge you today to find a quiet place to get along with God, to open the Scriptures, and let God speak to you. Ask the Lord to search your heart. The prayer of the psalmist: “Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  You need God’s Word today.

Remember that Ezra was a scribe. The first time the word scribe is used in this way is found in this book – it means “teacher.”

God wants to teach you today. God wants to show you yourself and Himself through His Word. Once you have allowed the Word of God to search you, spend some time in confession. It was Mr. Moody who said, “Keep short accounts of sin with God.” Sometimes we permit our sins to pile up until we struggle to identify them all. We must allow God’s Word to search us. 

Returning to Confession

Every day we must have a time of confession. We must have a period where we allow God to search our hearts, and then we agree with God. We come to him confessing our sin and crying out to the Lord. Friends, this is the way to return to God. Do it daily. If you return to the Lord daily, you’ll never go very far.

If you return to God all through the day, you won’t find your life drifting. Do you know how people get so far from God? One day at a time, one step away at a time. And so the key is staying close to the Lord. Stay today as close to God as you possibly can. Thank God our God is a God of restoration.

He’s a God who changes us from the inside out, and who works to keep us close. But my friend, we must cooperate with him. Ezra’s name means “help” or “helper.” It is both a prayer and a promise. Yahweh, Jehovah God, will help you. He will help you to have fellowship with him again. The Lord will help you to say no to sin. He will help you to stay close to God.

We must want His help. God’s not going to force that upon us, but we must cry out like Ezra and the returning captives. Dear Lord, we need you. God, I want you to help me. I want to be right with you.

G. Campbell Morgan observed: “During the seventy years, through the process of suffering, He prepared a remnant to return and rebuild and hold the fort until He, the true seed and servant, should come.”

As we have noted, the great message of the little book of Ezra is returning to God. Never forget that we are returning to the God who came to us. Do you need to return to God today? Do you know anyone that needs to return to God? Would you use it to minister to them? Challenge them to look to the Lord and to cry out to God in repentance and faith and say, “Lord, I want to be right with you again.”

God will restore, but His people must return. Make today the day of returning and restoration in your life.

No one is safe on the outside until they’re settled on the inside. Most cities, like most Christians, fall from within. Your relationship with God is more important than any other relationship. Don’t start by building some exterior walls for people to see. Start with your own heart – return to the Lord.

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Resource: Revival Praying 

Revival Praying

Resource: Ezra Visualized