Ezra-Nehemiah

Weeks 7-8

2/11/2026

Winter 2026

• Central Passage: Ezra-Nehemiah

• Check out the Middle School Sunday School Resources page for other resources on books of the Bible. Note: the Ezra-Nehemiah handout will be available eventually.

Ezra-Nehemiah

Ezra and Nehemiah are some of my favorite books in the Old Testament. The two were written as a conjoined work, likely written entirely by Ezra with Nehemiah contributing some first-person perspective. They are post-exile books, meaning that they take place after King Cyrus permitted the exiled Jews in Babylon to return and rebuild the temple (Ezra) and Jerusalem’s wall (Nehemiah).

A Second Exodus or an Underwhelming Return?

This book is bittersweet in the story of redemption. God had promised that His exiled people would return to their land (Isaiah 40:3-5; Jeremiah 27:22; 29:10-14; 33:14-18), so when Cyrus issues his decree (Ezra 1:1-4; cf. Isa 44:28-45:1), these ancient prophecies inspire a fresh hope for redemption. This event would be even greater than the Exodus from Egypt! But only 15% of the exiles return to Jerusalem, hardly comparable to the Exodus under Moses.

Furthermore, they rebuild the ruined temple so that God’s presence would come to His people once again. Ezra, the scribe and priest, even comes to instruct them on temple worship. It seems that their exile had chastened them to proper obedience and worship of their covenantal Lord. Spiritual reform was finally happening! And a knowledgeable Jew would remember reading about the scene from 2 Chronicles 5:11-14 when God overwhelmingly filled His temple at its consecration. So, for this second temple, which is vastly more unremarkable and crudely constructed compared to Solomon’s temple, they dedicate the temple with sacrifices and great joy. Ezra 6:22 notes that God had made them joyful in their hearts…but at the second temple consecration, God’s presence remains silent and unperceived.

This is the cycle for all of Ezra-Nehemiah. Excitement and anticipation grow for a joyous post-exile Israel, but there are still troubles. God’s people still wait for His fulfillment. Yes, Ezra-Nehemiah’s postexile regathering and rebuilding are partial fulfillments of Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s promises, but they are incomplete and underwhelming.

This cycle repeats after the temple dedication. Nehemiah returns with funding from the emperor to rebuild the Jerusalem walls (another crude construction), but they face persecution and ridicule from their scoffing neighbors. In Nehemiah 8, Ezra comes to read the law before the returned exiles, and they should have received it joyfully, but they fearfully mourn instead (Neh 8:9-11).[1] Nehemiah 12:27-43 contains the climax of joy, with the words “joy” or “rejoice” being repeated five times in Nehemiah 12:43. But then the priest Eliashib, who is to guard the temple, dedicates one of the storage rooms to the wicked Tobiah to use for his schemes (Neh 13:4-8). As a result, the Levites, who have no inheritance because the LORD is their inheritance (cf. Deut 10:9), do not receive their due portion from the sacrifices (Neh 13:10). Furthermore, when Nehemiah notices people working on the Sabbath, he shuts the gates of the city to keep the merchants out, but the merchants set up outside the gates for the people to come to them to do business anyway (Neh 13:15-17, 20). And finally, Nehemiah discovers that many Jews had married foreign, pagan women in neighboring towns (Neh 13:23-24). So Nehemiah responds forcefully and violently (Neh 13:25-27), and the book ends with Nehemiah’s desperate plea for God to look upon his efforts of reform and continue to dispense mercy and not judgment.

Isaiah 40:3-5 prophesies about a time when God’s royal procession would lead His people once again through the desert in a greater glory-displaying Exodus. Jeremiah 33:14-18 prophesies that a righteous Branch will spring up for David to justly and righteously rule the promised land once again. Salvation, security, a permanent kingly rule, and a permanent priestly ministry of making sacrifices on behalf of God’s sinful people will never be lacking. Clearly, this post-exile scene is not the final fulfillment. The frustrating cycle of Ezra-Nehemiah, from hopeful reform to underwhelming circumstances and even sinful responses, forces the reader to ask: Is this all there is to God’s plan?

Concluding Thoughts

In the Hebrew version of the Old Testament (the Tanak), Ezra-Nehemiah is the second-to-last book. 1-2 Chronicles immediately follows and closes the Old Testament canon of Scripture, providing the answer to the above question: God has not forgotten David and His descendants. Thus, the Tanak ends with anticipation of its messianic fulfillment. Post-exile Israel needed to wait for God to advance His story of salvation to the point in history when a man named John the Baptist would be the Isaiah 40:3 voice in the wilderness. And Jesus would be God leading His people out of the spiritual exile and into His kingdom,[2] occupying His eternal place on the throne, and offering an everlasting atoning priestly sacrifice on our behalf.

Ezra-Nehemiah becomes a book of letdown and anticipation. It becomes a reminder that the best of God’s plans is yet to come. In this waiting period of restoration, we wait for Jesus in faithful obedience. We adopt the same posture of Nehemiah that saturates every action in prayer.[3] We hunger and thirst for righteousness, knowing that we will be one day satisfied. We endure a world of exile, knowing that Jesus will fully call us out of exile and into His presence one day. We persevere by God’s gracious, joyful protection (Neh 8:10) and respond with dutiful, anticipatory faithfulness to His wise, life-giving instruction.

Sources

Merrill, Eugene H., Mark F. Rooker, and Michael A Grisanti. The Word and the World: An Introduction to the Old Testament.

Williamson, H. G. M. Ezra-Nehemiah. The Word Biblical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 1985