14 Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther: Return of the Jewish Remnant from Exile Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are the last three books classi ed under the historical section of our English Old Testament The rst two report the ful llment of the earlier prophecies that after seventy years of captivity God would gather His people and bring them back to the land of Canaan (e.g., Jer 29:10-14).1 Thus, the historical portion of the Old Testament ends on a bright note The restoration of Israel, in their regathering to the homeland of Canaan, was important for various reasons For Israel, it showed that God had not forgotten His promise to Abraham concerning the land of Canaan (e.g., read Gen 13:15 and note the strength of the phrase “forever”) Hence, the relocation of a returning remnant Hope for a missionary outreach to Gentiles was stirred up in the revival of true worship, for a key mission of Israel was to show heathen nations of the world what true worship of the true God was And then, the restoration was directly related to the life and ministry of the coming Messiah, in the renewal of the Messianic promises For example, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Zion were some of the geographical places woven into the promises concerning Jesus’ coming In about four hundred years Jesus would be born of the seed of David in Bethlehem, not in Babylon The Holy Land of promise, not a land of captivity, was where His people would be dwelling when He would come unto them, “His own” (John 1:11) I PREPARATION FOR STUDY Note the location of these books in the Old Testament canon Chronologically, the group is correctly located in our Bibles, because here are recorded the last events of Old Testament history (i.e., up to about 425 B.C.) But the historical setting of these books is often obscured in the mind of the Bible reader, because the books that follow them (poetical and prophetical books, through Zephaniah) in our present Bible arrangement actually revert back in time Chart 55 shows the chronological setting of these last three historical books (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) 2 The best preparation for the study of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther is a review of the books immediately preceding them: Kings and Chronicles Recall that these latter books record the successes and failures of the two kingdoms of God’s chosen people— Israel and Judah—and of their eventual fall and captivity in foreign lands as a divine judgment for sin The overall account is a classic illustration of the eternal law of returns, a law of cause and e ect The e ect was judgment; the cause was sin When we come to Ezra and Nehemiah, we ... mission of Israel was to show heathen nations of the world what true worship of the true God was And then, the restoration was directly related to the life and ministry of the coming Messiah, in the. .. FOR STUDY Note the location of these books in the Old Testament canon Chronologically, the group is correctly located in our Bibles, because here are recorded the last events of Old Testament history... Chart 55 shows the chronological setting of these last three historical books (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) 2 The best preparation for the study of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther is a review of the books