Listen to our bonus season

the study of EZRA

OLD TESTAMENT

IN THIS EPISODE

• Ezra 2:1-2 | Who is Zerubbabel and the other leaders of the return? | 3:20
• Ezra 2:3-62 | We skip over a bunch of names, but still talk about them | 12:25
• Ezra 2:68-70 | The people are crazy generous and then walk 900 miles to get home | 26:10
• Takeaways. | 29:20

INSTANT TAKEAWAYS

1 | Sin is serious business

The entire nation of Israel is in exile because of their sin. Sin has consequences and that’s why we need Jesus. The miracle of God’s grace is that he wants to forgive us and restore our relationship with him. In the past, he did it with the entire nation of Israel and now he does it every day with those who put their faith in him. One of the major themes of Ezra is that the people are focused on following God’s Law. The exile was the consequence of their sin and disobedience. The Israelites now respond by taking sin and obedience seriously.

2 | We have hope because God is faithful

In Ezra 2, the Israelites take a step of faith (actually they walk 900 miles in faith) and God delivers on his promise to restore them to the land. He provides for them through their journey over months and hundreds of miles of travel. At the end of the chapter, this group of Israelites arrives safely in the land. There is much rebuilding still to be done, but they have arrived. They have come home. That is the same God who is with us today. He has fulfilled his promise to redeem us by sending his son, Jesus, to take the penalty for our sin and restore our relationship with God. The work is not done yet, sin still exists in the world, but God has delivered thus far and we can be confident that he will continue to do so because he is faithful.

SHOW NOTES

In this episode, Matt and Neil discuss the first return to the land led by Zerubbabel in Ezra chapter 2. Neil struggles to pronounce some Hebrew names. But really…we talk about why the list of names is important and what we can take away from it. We talk about taking a “step of faith”…well the Israelites walked 900 miles on faith. And we explain the mysterious role of the Urim and Thummim. The story of the Bible can be summarized as God’s pursuit of us. From the Garden to the end of time, God pursues being with his people.