Ezra Bible Study – Introduction
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Ezra Introduction
This Week’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 36
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The Book of Ezra begins in the first year of King Cyrus’ reign. As you’ll notice in the first few chapters, it’s written in a third person narrative. About halfway through, however, it switches to first person and Ezra is introduced into the story.
While Ezra deals with the rebuilding of the temple, Nehemiah talks about the rebuilding of the city and its walls. The three books, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are symbolic of the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life. We’ll talk about that a little more in chapter 7.
As we focus on Ezra in particular, we see a parallel to the purification of one’s heart: The process that David talked about when he prayed,
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10, KJV)
The purpose of the 70-year captivity was to do this very thing. It was a process of refining and trying their faith so that they might turn away from their sin and return to the Lord. According to Dictionary.com, the word purify means, “To make pure; free from anything that debases, pollutes, adulterates, or contaminates, or to free from foreign, extraneous, or objectionable elements.” This definition of purification is especially evident further on in this study as we’ll see in chapters 9 & 10.
The Book of Ezra has a focus on two main characters who lead the return from captivity.
The first is Zerubbabel (chapters 1-6) followed by Ezra (chapters 7-10). Ezra is a type of the
Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, which means that he typifies the characteristics of the Holy
Spirit in many ways. In fact, the name Ezra means “help” and the Holy Spirit is said to be our
helper. As we go through this study, we will point out some of those characteristics and their
parallel to the Spirit at work in our life. We’ll see how he grieves, how he leads, how he teaches,
and how he makes intersession for the people in prayer.
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