Thematically, Chapter 5 is an awkward fit in the book, an insertion that interrupts an otherwise continuous narrative. The subjects that dominated the previous chapters—the wall project and the local opposition—fade to the background in Chapter 5. At some point in Nehemiah’s governorship, Judah went through a food shortage crisis. During that time, the dual problems of hunger and poverty trumped everything else. As the memoir of a leader, the book of Nehemiah shows the full range of obstacles he addressed and successfully handled.

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This week we are studying Nehemiah 4, an extra dramatic passage that is mined more than any other chapter in Nehemiah for application that applies to the lives of believers today. 

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This week we are reading Nehemiah 3. In chapter 3, Nehemiah paused his first-person narrative and inserted an archival record of the Jerusalem wall project. The perimeter of the wall was divided into forty-one sections with a work crew assigned to each. The crews were randomly composed of families, towns, or guilds. 

Though Nehemiah is buried behind the scenes in the passage, his excellent leadership and administrative skills shine through. Also, everything that took place in Chapter 3 is a direct result from the events of the proceeding narrative chapter. 

Nehemiah likely hatched the plan for his approach during his secretive investigation of the walls (2:11-16). The community’s mobilization was a direct result of Nehemiah’s persuasive speech. Nehemiah encouraging the people to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall so they would “no longer suffer disgrace” (2:17). With full hearts, the people responded, “Let us start building!” (2:18). Nehemiah noted, “they committed themselves to the common good” (2:18). That spirit of camaraderie bleeds over into chapter 3’s description of the organized work effort. 

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This week we are reading Nehemiah 2. We left off with Nehemiah on his knees, praying and fasting as he prepared to speak directly to the king on behalf of his people. Three months passed from the month of Chislev when Nehemiah heard his brother’s terrible news to the month of Nisan when Nehemiah finally made his appeal to the king (2:1). 

Why did Nehemiah not immediately take his problem to the king? Afterall, a cupbearer was often in the company of the king, or as often as the king wanted a drink. The memoir does not fill in that detail. Perhaps, this was the first time he had an audience alone with the king and queen. Nehemiah would not have shared his heart in the presence of others. Or the king may have been delayed arriving at his winter residence in Susa, giving Nehemiah more time to pray and plan.

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We finished Ezra and we are now launching our study of Nehemiah. Remember that in the Septuagint and the Masoretic text, Ezra and Nehemiah were originally part of one scroll. They were only separated into two distinct books by early church fathers around the third century who understandably interpreted the introduction in Nehemiah as the start of a new book. 

The original layout told the story of three sequential leaders and their pilgrimages from Babylon to Jerusalem. When a new leader took the reins, the editor jumped forward in time and signaled the start of a new unit. Halfway through the book of Ezra, the editor skipped over sixty years between Zerubbabel and Ezra with the phrase “now after this” (Ez. 7:1). With the close of Ezra’s memoir and the start of Nehemiah’s memoir, the editor skipped over thirteen years by inserting the heading: “the words of Nehemiah” (Neh. 1:1). 

The ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah overlapped each other. While Nehemiah was not mentioned in the book of Ezra, Ezra made an important appearance in Nehemiah 8. When we get to that chapter, we will see how the work of Ezra the scribe complemented the objectives of Nehemiah the governor. Unlike Nehemiah, Ezra did not have an official title. 

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This week we are finishing the book of Ezra which ends with a resolution to the remnant’s intermarriage crisis. Ezra’s emotional reaction to the community’s guilt continued. The narrator wrote, “Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God” (10:1). Most likely, Ezra’s public repentance occurred in the temple courtyard because “a very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him” (10:1). Touchingly, the people did not react to Ezra’s display with cynicism or self-defense. Instead, they wept bitterly alongside him. 

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In our study of Ezra 9 we learn how Ezra’s Torah teaching put the community under the microscope. Ezra brought the law and the law brought conviction. 

Only four months after Ezra’s arrival (458 BCE), Judean officials reported to him that the returnees had a serious intermarriage problem. These informants were quite possibly the judges Ezra appointed when he set up a judicial system for the province (7:25). As new appointees, they took seriously their responsibility to consult Ezra on matters of concern that required judication. Their investigation into the community’s Torah compliance revealed that a subset of returnees “had not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations” (9:1). They accused the laity, priests, and Levites of violating God’s marriage laws. 

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This week we are studying chapter 8, the continuation of the Ezra memoir. Before the caravan of returnees sets out, Ezra recruits volunteers to join him, especially Levites and temple servants. The chapter also describes a bit about their travel preparations and reveals Ezra’s main concern. While the actual journey is not the chapter’s focus, the narrator highlights the particulars of their departure and arrival. 

Once again, the book incorporates a list into the narrative. Ezra is slowly killing us with these lists, but in this case he writes the list in first-person. Ezra introduces the record: “this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylonia, in the reign of King Artaxerxes” (8:1). The first names recorded are two priests, descendants of Phinehas, the priest forever celebrated for his zealous defense of Israel’s purity in the wilderness wanderings. God promised Phineas a “covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites” (Num. 25:13). Later in the book, Ezra demonstrated a Phineas-like zeal for protecting the holy seed of Israel.

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This week we are studying chapter 7, the next phase of the restoration process. The second literary unit is different from the first both chronologically and stylistically. Yet, the plot of the second half followed the same pattern as the first. God, in his sovereignty, prompted a Persian king to authorize a large group of Judean exiles to return to Jerusalem and restore their nation. Sound familiar? 

In round two of the story, the returnees were on a mission not to rebuild the temple but to renew Judah’s commitment to the laws of Moses. Themes of Persian favor, return, temple prioritization, and religious festivals connect Ezra’s first and second units.

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This week we are continuing our study of the book of Ezra, diving into chapter 6. This chapter concludes the story of the first two decades of the people’s restoration to Judah. From the narrator’s perspective, the first half of the book was the “old age,” a lookback at the tale of the founding fathers of restored Israel and their completion of the temple.

Our last chapter, and episode, ended with the Persian officials searching for a document to authenticate the Israelites’ claim that Cyrus gave them permission to rebuild their temple. The Israelites did not have hard feelings about Tattenai’s inquiry. He was doing his job as a provincial leader. Plus, they seemed confident officials could resolve the matter. The community held dear their historical memory of the declaration of Cyrus. Even more importantly, they felt the “eye of their God was upon” them (5:5). 

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