With the retuning Exiles also came people who could not prove their Israelite heritage. While, as we saw yesterday, descendants of Gentiles could be counted as Israelites by faith, we also need to note the importance of property rights in Old Testament Israel. If a man could not prove his lineage, he could not lay claim to the property allotted
We saw last week that the LORD not only provided the material means to re-establish Temple worship, He also provided the priests and Levites who would lead and support that worship. Starting at Ezra 2:43, we see that He provided other support staff, as well. Since Ezra has just mentioned the Levite singers and gatekeepers, we might be tempted to
Today, we continue with the count of people returning to Judah from the Babylonian Exile. Verses thirty-six through thirty-nine tell us about the priestly houses. During the Old Covenant period, only descendants of Aaron the brother of Moses were allowed to be priests in God's Temple. By the 530s B.C., it had been nearly nine-hundred years since Aaron and his
Today's reading is one of those which readers in our time may find "dry" or "dusty." This is largely because the names of people listed here have little meaning for us. We do not know these people, and, for the most part, we can find out little or nothing about them from the rest of the Bible or any other
Today's reading lists eleven leaders of the Jews returning to Jerusalem and Judah from the Babylonian Exile. While little is known concerning most of these men, two of them, Zerubbabel and Jeshua, will be key figures in the rebuilding of the Temple. (We should note that the Nehemiah and Mordecai listed here cannot be the same as the men of
Nearly nine centuries before the events recorded in this passage, the LORD had rescued the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. In Exodus 12, we learn that (as God had previously promised) the Egyptians not only sent the people of Israel on their way, but gave them great wealth in gold, silver, jewelry and clothing. Following the Edict of Cyrus, the
Cyrus united the Medes and Persians into one kingdom around 560 B.C. Over the following decades, he expanded that kingdom into a mighty empire. By 539 B.C., he controlled territories on three sides of the Babylonian heartland. As the LORD had declared through His prophets (including Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel), Cyrus conquered Babylon. It is likely that godly men, such
We are now going to be studying Ezra using notes written by Rev. Daniel Hemken. Starting in 605 B.C. and culminating with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 B.C., the people of the Kingdom of Judah were taken into captivity in Babylonia (in modern-day Iraq). In Jeremiah 29:10, however, we
The last four verses of the letter contain some final greetings from Paul both to the church in Colossae and also to that in Laodicea. As was quite common in the time of the early church, believers in Laodicea met for worship in a private house. One of the believers, Nympha opened her house for the public meetings
The final two companions sending greetings to the Colossians demonstrate a rather dramatic contrast; Luke the loyal and faithful companion and Demas who proved to be a faithless friend. Luke had frequently accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys (Acts 16:10-17), and had been a regular source of comfort to him and encouragement to him. As