Bible In One Year Day 273 (Nehemiah 3, Zechariah 14, Proverbs 20: 23-26)

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Agape Bible Study 
Nehemiah 3 

Nehemiah 3:1-32 ~ A Record of the Builders and How the Walls Were Rebuilt

Chapter 3 describes the reconstruction of about 45 sections of wall from the north side of the city and moving counterclockwise. Nehemiah organizes the people into forty-two groups from eight classes of society to work on various sections of the ruined walls, employing chief priests, Levitical lesser ministers, princes, nobles, guild representatives (goldsmiths, perfumers, merchants), rulers of provincial districts, people from other cities (Jericho, Tekoah, Gibeon, and Mizpah), and ordinary citizens of Jerusalem. It was a cooperative effort, but the plan worked because of the Lord's support. Yahweh listened to their prayers and blessed their efforts.

A list of the numbers of workers assigned to different sections of the wall:

1. The northern section had eight work assignments (3:1-5).
2. The western section had ten work assignments (3:6-13).
3. The southern section had two work assignments (3:14-15).
4. The eastern section had twenty-one work assignments (3:16-32).

For the East Wall, the builders seem to have built an entirely new wall, and this may explain the large numbers of workers.

Nehemiah names ten city gates beginning in the city's northern wall. The list of gates in Chapter 3:

1. Sheep Gate
2. Fish Gate
3. New Gate
4. Valley Gate
5. Dung Gate
6. Fountain Gate
7. Water Gate
8. Horse Gate
9. East Gate
10. Muster Gate

The location of gates and other sites mentioned in Chapter 3:

1. The Sheep Gate was likely named for the sheep market located there. It was probably also called the Benjamin Gate because it led into the tribal lands of Benjamin north of Jerusalem and was known in New Testament times as located near the Pool of Bethesda in the northeastern corner of Jerusalem ( Neh 3:1, 32; 12:39; Josh 18:11-28; Jer 37:13; 38:7; Zech 14:10; Jn 5:2).⁴
2. The Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel were in the northwest part of the wall. The "hundred" may have referred to its height in cubits, its number of steps, or a military unit (Dt 1:15). Both towers were associated with the citadel by the Temple (Neh 2:8). The Tower of Hananel was probably the predecessor of the Antonia Fortress built by King Herod in the 1^st century BC as the military barracks for Jerusalem's Roman garrison.
   Towers could be circular or square stone structures and served as military watch posts (Neh 3:2).
3. The Fish Gate was on the west side of the city (Neh 3:1).
4. The Old Gate was probably the gate to the extended Second Quarter of the city (Neh 3:6; also cf., 2 Kng 22:14).
5. The Broad Wall was part of the western quarter of the pre-exile city (Neh 3:8).
6. The Furnace Tower, also called the Tower of the Ovens or the Angle Tower, was located in the western wall probably near the bread baking district (Neh 3:11, 19; 2 Chron 26:9).
7. The Valley Gate in the eastern wall had a long stretch of wall between it and the previous gate, (Neh 3:6). Nehemiah records eight separate sections of the wall completed before coming to the Valley Gate and another long stretch of wall of 1000 cubits before coming to the Dung Gate (Neh 3:13-14).⁵
8. The Dung Gate was in the southern wall and led out to the Hinnom Valley. The Septuagint calls it the Cheese Gate, and it was later known as the Gate of the Essenes (Neh 2:12; 3:13-14; 12:31). It got its name because refuse was hauled out of the city through this gate to the constantly burning trash heaps in the Hinnom Valley.
9. The Fountain Gate was in the southeastern wall and completely rebuilt. It was the gate nearest to the Pool of Siloam (Neh 3:15; 12:37).
10. The Pool of Siloah/Siloam (also called Pool of Shelah) near the King's garden in Jerusalem and one of the chief water sources for the city, bringing water from the Gihon spring on the southeastern slope of the city by an open canal to the Lower Pool, the pool of Siloam (Is 22; Neh 3:15). King Hezekiah significantly improved the water-supply system by building a tunnel to bring the water to the pool (2 Kng 20:20; 2 Chron 32:30). In the New Testament, the pool of Siloam was the site where Jesus returned vision to the man born blind (Jn 9:7-10).
11. The City of David was the first settled site of ancient Jerusalem on Ophel hill on the southeast side of the city and where David had his palace and administrative center (Neh 3:15; 2 Sam 5:9f).⁶
12. The "graves of David" refers to the tombs of the Davidic kings, although only King David was buried within the city walls (1 Kng 2:10; 2 Chron 21:20; 32:33; Neh 3:16; Acts 2:29).
13. The artificial pool was an old, no longer used reservoir that drew off water from the Gihon pool and was filled in by King Hezekiah when he built his tunnel system for delivering the water from the Gihon (2 Kng 20:20). The House of Champions or House of Warriors was once the barracks of the bodyguards or "mighty men of King David and the Davidic kings (2 Sam 16:6; 23:8-39; Neh 3:16).
14. The Angle, mentioned in verses 19, 20, 24, and 25, was a defense structure of the city built by King Uzziah when he fortified the city by constructing towers at various gates (2 Chron 26:9). The Angle seems to have been located along the east wall somewhere near the Water Gate and near the city's armory.
15. The King's Upper Palace by the Court of the Guard refers to Solomon's palace that was north of the City of David and below the Temple Mount; the Court of the Guard was the barracks for the Davidic king's bodyguards (Neh 3:25).
16. Biblical historians debate the location of the Water Gate, but most believe it was close to the City of David and near the Gihon spring, both on the southeastern side of the city (Neh 3:26). It must have opened on to a large area since Ezra's reading of the Law took place there (Neh 8:1, 3, 16; 12:37).
17. The Ophel was the southeastern ridge of Jerusalem overlooking the Kidron Valley on the east side of the city and the site of the original City of David (Neh 3:26-27; 11:21; 2 Chron 27:3; 33:14).
18. The projecting tower may have been a large tower whose ruins were discovered by archaeologists on the crest of the Ophel hill.
19. The Horse Gate was in the wall leading from the palace of Solomon and facing the Kidron Valley on the east side of the city across from the Mount of Olives and was the entrance to the royal stables (2 Chron 23:15; Jer 31:40; Neh 3:28).
20. The East Gate led out to the bridge that crossed the Kidron Valley and on to the Mount of Olives. It is the gate Jesus will use to enter the city from the Mount of Olives whenever He visited the city and stayed in Bethany. Christians call it the Golden Gate. In 1517, the Muslim ruler Suleiman the Magnificent sealed shut the East Gate because, according to the prophet Zechariah, it is the way the Messiah will return in His Second Advent (Zech 14:4-5; also see Ez 44:3 that prophesizes the gate will be closed until "the prince" comes to enter it). The gate from Jesus' time is buried below the current gate.
21. Hall of the Temple slaves was living quarters for the palace servants.
22. Hall of the Merchants was a resting/inn place for merchants and their animals who traveled to Jerusalem with their goods.
23. Muster Gate, in Hebrew the Miphkad Gate, meaning the "inspection gate," may have been the gate leading into the Temple complex (Neh 3:31).

Nehemiah 3:33-35 ~ Opposition to the Reconstruction and Ridicule by Judah's Enemies

Nehemiah's opponents believe it will be an impossible task for him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem because they have neither the expertise nor the best materials to build a solid wall. They have underestimated Nehemiah and his God!

Nehemiah 3:36-38 (4:1-6) ~ Nehemiah's Prayer and Rebuilding the Wall Continues

Nehemiah's response is to go to God in prayer, asking for protection from their adversaries and justice for his people. He wants their enemies to experience the curses they heap on the covenant people and for them to pay for their insensitivity to the struggles of the exiles in their captivity and return to Judah. Nehemiah and the Jews did not dwell on their problems, but steadily continued rebuilding the wall until it had reached half the planned height because "the people put their hearts into the work."

Agape Bible Study
 Zechariah 14 

Chapter 14

Chapter 14:1-21 is the last prophecy in the apocalypse of Zechariah. It foretells the cosmic events produced in the second advent of the Davidic Messiah. When He returns, time becomes unified in one continuous day, and the earth is transformed in its leveling of the Holy Land and abolishing the occasions for and memory of idolatry and divination (stars and seasons, Gehenna and Tophet, Mount of Scandal, etc.). Also, there will be a unifying of religion to believe in the One God who will be "all in all." Verses 1-5 describe the end times battle continued in verses 12-15. Between these passages is a description of the new order in the new Age that is unending.

Zechariah 14:1-5 ~ The Eschatological (End Times) Battle

The "Day of Yahweh" is a day of divine judgment for the nations that surround Jerusalem with their armies. The Book of Revelation Chapters 16-19 describes the same event in a battle near Megiddo called the Battle of Armageddon (mount Megiddo) when the Christ will arrive to defeat the forces aligned with the Antichrist to restore the Davidic line and establish the new Kingdom of God on earth.

Question: What three acts of violence will the attackers inflict on the citizens of Jerusalem?
Answer: The capture of the city, the houses looted, and the women sexually abused.

Zechariah records the Divine Warrior will intervene, arriving to touch down on the Mount of Olives (Verses 3-4). The result is a major seismic event forming an extraordinary rift that emerges as the weight of the feet of Yahweh touching down will split the Mount of Olives in half with one divine foot on each side of the rift. The newly created valley will allow for Yahweh's people to escape. This rift is not the existing Kidron Valley that is parallel to the Mount of Olives since the Kidron turns eastward just south of Jerusalem and extends as far as the Dead Sea. Directly across from the Mount of Olives are the walls of Jerusalem. The gate in the wall by which Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm/Passion Sunday was closed off with stones by the Muslims sometime after they conquered the city in the 7^th century AD to prevent the Christian Messiah from reentering the city and fulfilling the prophecies in Zechariah and Acts Chapter 1. The entrance to the Eastern Gate remains closed, but will not stop the return of the Messiah, the great earthquake and the resulting rift will announce the coming of Yahweh the Divine Warrior!

The only mention of the Mount of Olives in the Old Testament is in Zechariah 14:4 and 2 Samuel 15:30 when David escaped from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, weeping as his rebellious and ungrateful son entered Jerusalem. However, the "hill east of Jerusalem," where the Mount of Olive stands is where King Solomon constructed pagan shrines for his foreign wives (1 Kng 11:7-8; cf. 2 Kng 23:13), and it is probably the same location as the site of the sacrifice and burning of the Red Heifer (Num 19:1-22). The ashes of the Red Heifer were the essential ingredient in the purifying water used to cleanse persons and objects defiled by human death. In the New Testament, the greater power of Christ's blood that cleanses every believer in Christ of dead works (Heb 9:13-14) surpasses the Old Covenant ritual purifications. The ritual of the Red Heifer and other New Testament events all point to prophecies of judgment associated with this mountain.

Zechariah Lesson 4 listed passages in the New Testament that were associated with the Mount of Olives and Jesus' ministry. However, during Jesus' ministry, passages referring to the Mount of Olives are often associated with judgment. 

The Mount of Olives forms a ridge running north and south for about 2 miles (3 km) across the Kidron Valley east of Mount Moriah and Jerusalem. Zechariah 14:4 predicts in the eschatological future (end times) that Israel's enemies will launch a final battle against Jerusalem that will end with the return of the Divine Messiah to fight for His city. His feet will touch the Mount of Olives and cause a split in the mountain that will run from east to west. This divide will form a valley and an avenue of escape for the people of Jerusalem from their enemies (verse 5).

Jasol is the rendering in the Greek Septuagint that is Azal in Hebrew and possibly means "very near," suggesting the way of escape will be made easy. Or, if it is a place name, it may refer to some place near the western extreme of the valley, the limit to which the ravine of the Mount of Olives will extend. The prophet Amos mentions an earthquake during the reign of King Uzziah (Amos 1:1), and Isaiah 6:4 may allude to the same event. Earthquakes are frequent occurrences in the region which lies along the great Rift Valley extending from the upper Jordan River down to the Gulf of Eilat and along East Africa.

There are six earthquakes recorded in Scripture:

1. The quake at Mount Horeb/Sinai for Elijah's benefit (1 Kng 19:11).
2. The earthquake Amos refers to (Amos 1:1).
3. The quake in the reign of King Uzziah (Zec 14:5).
4. The shaking of the earth at the time of Jesus' Resurrection (Mt 28:2).
5. The earthquake God initiated to free Paul and Silas from prison (Acts 16:26).
6. The event mentioned by Isaiah as a form of judgment from God on the enemies of His people (Is 29:6).

Details about the events immediately preceding the final great battle in the Book of Revelation include:

• great earthquakes (Rev 6:12-17; 8:5; 11:13, 19)
• a comet or asteroid (Rev 8:10-11)
• partial eclipses that are both solar and lunar (Rev 8:12)
• a plague of locusts (Rev 9:3-11
• the death of one-third of all humankind
• blood flowing for 200 miles (Rev 9:15; 14:20)
• a page of foul and painful sores (Rev 16:3)
• the death of every living thing in the sea (Rev 16:3)
• the transformation of all rivers and springs into blood (Rev 16:4)
• total darkness (Rev 16:10)
• the drying up of the Euphrates River (Rev 16:12)

Only then will the forces of evil, the Antichrist leading the rulers of the whole world, and the Messiah, the rider on the white horse (Rev 19:11-14) meet for battle at Armageddon, mentioned for the first and only time in the Bible. These events are examples that support the Biblical testimony that all natural phenomena (earthquakes, wind, storms, rain, hail, celestial events, etc. are under divine control and are part of God's sovereignty in ruling the world in righteousness.

The coming of Yahweh with "all the holy ones with him" in Zechariah 14:5b suggests divine warfare and has elements of St. Paul's prophecy in 2 Thessalonians 4:16 and events in the Book of Revelation. Paul describes the Lord returning with a full complement of saints and angels, and in the Book of Revelation, "The Word of God" and the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, come to defeat evil in the final battle (Rev 19:11-16, 19-20:3). 

Zechariah 14:6-11 ~ The Events on the Day of Yahweh's Judgment

In 14:6-7, the sun displaced by the glory of God recalls the same imagery in Isaiah 24:23; 60:19-20 and Revelation 22:5. The eternally flowing "living waters" imagery in 14:8, already mentioned in 13:1, that flow from the Temple of God that is the new Jerusalem recalls Jesus' promise to the Samaritan woman in John 4:10-14 and 7:37-39 and the waters John describes in the Book of Revelation 7:17; 11:15, and 21:23.

Zechariah 14:12-15 ~ The Plague of Destruction

The translators have placed verse 15 after verse 12 since they believe the sense of the passage required this adjustment. In these passages, "Jerusalem" becomes a symbolic image of God's covenant people and His restored Kingdom. The curse-judgment will be lifted from "Jerusalem" and directed toward her enemies. Those who choose to fight against God's holy covenant people will suffer the same fate as those Israelites who broke faith with Yahweh after entering the Promised Land.

Question: What did God warn would be the fate of those Israelites about to enter the Promised Land who abandoned their covenant with Him in Deuteronomy 28:20-22?
Answer: They would not prosper, all their works would accomplish nothing lasting, and they would be struck down will diseases.

Zechariah 14:16-21 ~ The Temple of the Lord After the Return of the Messiah

Verses 16-21 describe the new age beyond the "Day of Yahweh" when the remnants of other nations will come to the Lord God and keep an annual pilgrimage like the Feast of Shelters/Tabernacles/Booths which celebrated the dedication of the desert Sanctuary and God's covenant with His holy people (Lev 23:39-43).

The Oracle is positive for the Gentile nations because they will be able to find relief in the Lord's presence (Is 19:16-25). According to the Book of Revelation, the de-creation of the earth of humankind will be followed by a new era with a "new heaven and earth when a Final Judgment Day will take place with the resurrected dead judged according to their works (Rev 20:11-15; 21:1-8). All the Gentile nations are invited to be part of the new order, even the Egyptians, the historical enemies of the covenant people.

All the nations that had been enemies of God's people will participate in the sacred life of Jerusalem as the embodiment of the Kingdom of the Church of the people of God in the New Age that follows the Messianic Age. Even the bells worn by the warhorses as well as bowls and cooking pots will be ritually purified and called "Holy (or Holy) to Yahweh," The phrase "Sacred to Yahweh" was engraved on the golden plate worn by the anointed high priest on his miter (Ex 28:36-38) as a reminder of his consecration to God's service. In the New Age, everyone and everything will be consecrated to God's divine service. The end of this passage concerns: Yahweh's defeat of Israel's enemies by altering the created order, the acceptance of Yahweh's sovereignty by the survivors of those enemies, and the sanctity of the heavenly beings that have accompanied Yahweh in overturning nature to produce a new world order.

Zechariah's final prophecy affirms that Yahweh, God of Israel, is and will remain the one who controls the course of human history. These verses anticipate the gathering of all nations to the new Jerusalem Kingdom of the Messiah with the exclusion of "traders," in Hebrew "Canaanites," referring to those who refuse to worship Yahweh as the One God who will be denied entrance to His kingdom like God ordered the original Canaanites to be cast out of the Promised Land. The term "Canaanites" represented anyone who was morally or spiritually unclean and could not be included among the chosen people of God.

These final chapters culminate in a vision of God's ultimate victory over the people throughout history who continued to persecute His covenant people and resist His divine will to bless humanity (12:1-9). The Divine Warrior will return and bring all humanity to justice (14:1-21). Zechariah's final oracle celebrates the King's return and ultimate victory over evil, fulfilling not only the purpose of Christ's first advent but also the necessity of His second. Thus, all peoples of the earth who bow to God's sovereignty will be welcomed and sanctified to become fit to serve as worshipers in the new Jerusalem Sanctuary that is the center of worship for all humanity when "that Day comes."

In the Book of Revelation, the last Bible book, the Resurrected and glorified Christ's servant, John, like Zechariah, will receive visions and oracles concerning the return of the Messiah in glory. The victorious Christ will defeat Satan's last grip of power over the earth, bring the Final Judgment to all human beings, and create a new Heaven and earth with an eternal Jerusalem as the center of worship. In Hebrew, the word for "salvation" is y'shuah that comes from the Hebrew root yasha which means "to bring into a large, wide, open space." Through God's gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, that is precisely what Yahweh has prepared for humanity. His covenant people will inherit the new creation which will be given to them as the new Eden of one covenant family. This event is the last vision of St. John in the Book of Revelation: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea" (Rev 21:1). It is what Jesus tells St. John in Revelation 21:5, "Behold, I am making the whole of creation new."

Jesus will speak of faithful Zechariah son of Jehoiada son of Barachiah in a homily during His last week in Jerusalem, warning His generation: you will draw down on yourselves the blood of every upright person that has been shed on earth, from the blood of Abel the holy to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar (Mt 23:35-36). The inspired writer of 2 Chronicles recorded Zechariah's martyrdom: The spirit of God then invested Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said, "God says this, ‘Why transgress Yahweh's commands to your certain ruin? For if you abandon Yahweh, he will abandon you.'" They then plotted against him and, at the king's order, stoned him in the court of the Temple of Yahweh. Thus King Joash, forgetful of the devotion which Jehoiada father of Zechariah had displayed on his behalf, murdered his son, who cried out as he died, "Yahweh will see this and avenge it" (2 Chron 24:20-22). As Jesus' condemnation showed, Zechariah spoke prophetically!

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 273 The Canonicity of the Deuterocanonicals

CHALLENGE: “Why should we think the deuterocanonicals are Scripture?”

DEFENSE: Multiple lines of evidence support this conclusion.

The deuterocanonicals are seven books (Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Sirach, Wisdom, 1–2 Maccabees) and parts of two others (Daniel, Esther) considered canonical in the Catholic Church and many Eastern Orthodox and other Eastern Christian Churches but not in the Protestant community.

They were included in the canonical tradition represented by the Septuagint, the major Greek translation of the Old Testament. Where the Septuagint was translated is unclear. The traditional account links it to Alexandria; another possibility is Palestine, “because only a Palestinian origin could have generated sufficient prestige for the new translation” (Yale Anchor Bible Dictionary, s.v., “Septuagint”).

It was so prestigious that it was the version of the Old Testament overwhelmingly quoted by the authors of the New Testament. Although they could have translated from Hebrew or Aramaic versions, they used the Septuagint. According to figures provided by Gleason Archer and G.C. Chirichigno, there are 340 times when the New Testament authors appear to quote from the Septuagint, but only thirty-three times they clearly translate from the Hebrew text (Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament: A Complete Survey, xxv–xxviii).

The New Testament authors overwhelmingly used the Septuagint, which contained the deuterocanonicals. They also alluded to these books (see Day 305), and they never warned their audience against the deuterocanonical books. Consequently, it was natural for the first Christians to regard them as Scripture.

Protestant Church historian J.N.D. Kelly writes that, although some early writers had different views on these books, “for the great majority, however, the deuterocanonical writings ranked as Scripture in the fullest sense” (Early Christian Doctrines, 5th ed., 55). We thus find the use of the deuterocanonicals widely attested among the Fathers.

The reception of these books as canonical was affirmed at various councils, including Rome (382), Hippo (393), the Council of Carthage of 397, and the Council of Carthage of 419. These were local councils, but the canonicity of the books was also affirmed at the ecumenical council of Florence (1442) and infallibly defined at the Council of Trent (1546).

The canonicity of the deuterocanonicals is thus supported by Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist 

Bible In One Year Day 272 (Nehemiah 1-2, Zechariah 12-13, Proverbs 20: 20-22)

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Day 272:  The Call of Nehemiah 

Agape Bible Study 
Nehemiah 1 - 2 

INTRODUCTION

In the Christian canon of Sacred Scripture, the Book of Nehemiah is part of the Historical Writings, coming after the Book of Ezra. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are closely related to each other and similar in style to the Books of Chronicles. 

Historical Background

In 772 BC, Yahweh used the Assyrians as His instruments of justice to punish the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom of Israel for their apostasy from their covenant with Him. The Southern Kingdom of Judah was spared because good Davidic kings led the people to destroy images of false gods and repent their failures in obedience to Yahweh's covenant. However, with the death of good King Josiah in 609 BC, his sons and grandsons became complicit in the people's sins. Yahweh continually warned the people of the Southern Kingdom that continued apostasy would result in conquest and exile, but they ignored the warnings.

In the late seventh century BC, the Babylonians conquered the Assyrians and took possession of the Assyrian vassal kingdoms including Judah. In 605 BC when the Babylonians asserted their dominance over Judah as a vassal state, the Babylonians took the first captives into exile in Babylon. The prophet Daniel was one of those captives along with other boys from royal and noble families. It was the first of three groups of exiles transported to Babylon (also in 598 and 586 BC). However, despite the continued warning to submit to God's punishment for their apostasy and the call to repent their sins and return to God in covenant obedience, the kings and citizens of Judah ignored the warnings.

In 587 BC, the Babylonians, as God's instrument of judgment, conquered the Southern Kingdom of Judah, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple (2 Kngs 25:1-21; 2 Chron 36:14-20; Jer 52:1-30). They took Jews who survived the destruction of Jerusalem and other towns in Judah as captives back to Babylon to begin the prophesied seventy years in exile (Jer 25:8-13; 2 Chr 36:21). It was the third wave of captured citizens of Judah. However, those who remained faithful to Yahweh place their hopes in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel who foretold Yahweh's promise not to abandon His people. The exiles would spend seventy years in captivity in atonement for their collective sins, and then God would rouse the spirit of a Gentile king to free them from captivity in Babylon, and, acting as God's divinely appointed "shepherd," return them to their homeland (Is 44:28-45:7; 48:20-21; Jer 28:10-14).

The Persian ruler who conquered Babylon in 539 BC bore the throne name Kores in Hebrew, Kyros in Greek, and Kurash in Persian. His name in English translations is Cyrus, meaning "shepherd," and he fulfilled Isaiah's 8^th century BC prophecy in Isaiah 44:28-45:4, I say of Cyrus: My shepherd, who fulfills my every wish; he shall say of Jerusalem, "Let her be rebuilt," and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid" (Is 44:28). King Cyrus immediately issued an official decree magnanimously authorizing the return from exile and extended certain privileges to all peoples displaced from their homelands by the Babylonians, including the citizens of Judah. Led by Sheshbazzar, a descendant of King David and a prince of Judah (Ezra 1:8), the remnant of God's covenant people returned to their native land. The Persian rulers who succeeded Cyrus allowed and even encouraged the return of the Jews to their homeland, generously offering their financial support and political protection. However, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin that formed the Southern Kingdom of Judah did not return as a free and independent people. They returned under Persian rule as citizens of the Persian Province of Judah.

Persian Kings of the Achaemenid Dynasty who ruled Judah:

1. Cyrus II the Great ruled from 559-530 BC and conquered Babylon in 539 BC
2. Cambyses II, son of Cyrus the Great, ruled from 530-522 BC
3. Bardiya, son of Cyrus the Great or imposter, ruled 522 BC but assassinated by Persian nobles
4. Darius I, son of Hystaspes (a kinsman of Cyrus), ruled 522-486 BC
5. Xerxes I, son of Darius I, ruled 486-465 BC (husband of Esther)
6. Artaxerxes I, son of Darius I, ruled 465-424 BC
7. Xerxes II, son of Artaxerxes I, assassinated in 424 BC by Sogdianus
8. Sogdianus, son of Artaxerxes I, ruled 424-423 BC and assassinated by Darius II
9. Darius II, son of Artaxerxes I, ruled 423-404 BC
10. Artaxerxes II, son of Darius II, ruled 404-358 BC
11. Artaxerxes III, son of Artaxerxes II, ruled 358-338 BC
12. Artaxerxes IV, son of Artaxerxes III, ruled 338-336
13. Darius III, descendant of Darius II?, ruled 336-330 BC, killed by Artaxerxes V
14. Artaxerxes V, probably a son of Artaxerxes II, ruled 330-329 BC and killed by Greek King Alexander the Great

Part One of the Book of Nehemiah divides into two main parts:

1. Preparation to Reconstruct Jerusalem's Wall (1:1-2:20)
   1. Condition of the ruined walls (1:1-3)
   2. Nehemiah's prayer for God's intercession (1:4-11)
   3. King Artaxerxes gives his permission for Nehemiah's mission (2:1-10)
   4. Arrival of Nehemiah in Jerusalem and preparation to reconstruct the wall (2:11-20)
2. Reconstruction of the Wall (3:1-7:5)
   1. Record of the builders (3:1-32)
   2. Opposition to the reconstruction (3:33-38/4:1-6:14)
   3. Completion of the reconstruction (6:15-19)
   4. Reorganization of Jerusalem (7:1-5)

The Book of Ezra recounted the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon, the rebuilding of the altar and the Temple (Ezra 1:1-6:22) and the spiritual revival led by Ezra the priestly scribe (Ezra 7:1-10:44). The narrative in the Book of Nehemiah continues the story by telling us about the reconstruction and resettlement of Jerusalem and the civil and spiritual rebuilding of the covenant people through the deeds of Nehemiah. The focus of Part One of Nehemiah's first mission concerns rebuilding Jerusalem's walls (Neh 1:1-2:20), the restoration of the city that was still in ruins (Neh 3:1-6:19), and the measures he took to repopulate it (Neh 7:1-72).

Nehemiah 1:1-3 ~ Nehemiah Received News Concerning Conditions in Jerusalem

Notice that the narrative is a first-person singular account of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In ancient times, the name of one's father served as a surname. The narrative begins in November/December of the twentieth year of the reign of King Artaxerxes I of Persia (see Israel's civil and liturgical calendar on the Agape Bible Study).Artaxerxes was a son of King Darius I whose generosity to the citizens of Judah is recorded in the Book of Ezra and the grandson of Xerxes I, the husband of Jewish Queen Esther. King Artaxerxes I ruled from 465-424 BC. As the Persian kings counted the years of their reigns, 465 BC was his accession year and year #1 was 464; therefore, the 20^th year of his reign was 445 BC.

Nehemiah 1:4-11 ~ Nehemiah's Prayer

The news the Jews bring from Jerusalem is disturbing, and Nehemiah has a profoundly religious reaction to what he hears.
Question: What is Nehemiah's reaction?
Answer: He mourns, fasts, and prays to God because he realizes that the situation in Jerusalem is a result of infidelity to Yahweh and His covenant.

That Nehemiah "sat down" was a customary posture in mourning and fasting (see Job 2:8, 13). His behavior is consistent with mourning and supplication practices during the exile and Second Temple period. His response is similar to Ezra's grief filled response in Ezra 9:3-15 where he offers mourning rituals, fasts, and confession of sins followed by prayer and also like the actions of the prophet Daniel in Daniel 9:3-20 who prays while wearing sackcloth and ashes, fasts, and confesses the sins of his people followed by a petionary prayer to the Lord God.

Nehemiah begins his prayer with an unusually long invocation in verses 5-6a. Petitionary prayers usually begin with an invocation, often simply with just "Lord" or "God." His long invocation is intended to remind Yahweh of both His power over human events and His obligations to His covenant people to address situations like the citizens of Jerusalem are experiencing.

Nehemiah's Mission in Lesson 2:

1. King Artaxerxes gives his permission for Nehemiah's mission (2:1-10)
2. The arrival of Nehemiah in Jerusalem and preparation to reconstruct the wall (2:11-20)
3. A record of the builders (3:1-32)
4. The opposition to the reconstruction (3:33-38/4:1)

Nehemiah 2:1-10 ~ King Artaxerxes Gives his Permission for Nehemiah's Mission

Since the Persian new year began at the spring equinox (in our calendar on March 20^th or 21^st), it must have been early in the month of Nisan/March before the year changed to the 21^st year of the king's reign and three months as we count after Nehemiah received news of the suffering of his people in Jerusalem (Neh 1:1).

Question: Why didn't Nehemiah name Jerusalem as the city of his ancestors that is in ruins? See Ezra 4:12, 15).
Answer: It was probably because of the notorious reputation of Jerusalem as a city with a history of rebelling against foreign overlords and encouraging its neighbors to join in alliances with them.

Nehemiah 2:11-20 ~ Nehemiah Arrives in Jerusalem and Prepares to Reconstruct the Wall

After three days in the city (two as we count), in verses 11-16, Nehemiah secretly made a nighttime expedition to assess the damaged Jerusalem walls. He did not reveal to anyone his plans to rebuild the walls of the city. He only took his mount and a few men with him, starting and ending at the Valley Gate route around Jerusalem beginning in the northwestern section of the city. However, he did not make a complete circuit of the city walls. He only inspected the southern area. Jerusalem was always most vulnerable on the north, and that is where most enemy attacks took place. Nehemiah ma have known or assumed that the northern walls had been completely destroyed by the Babylonian army of King Nebuchadnezzar about 140 years earlier.

Zechariah 12 -13 

Zechariah 12:1-6 ~ The Deliverance of and Restoration of Jerusalem

The word massa (burden) serves to divide the two sections of Zechariah Part II (see Zec 9:1 and Mal 1:1). However, the three formulaic introductions where this word appears each vary slightly from the others:

1. A proclamation [massa]. The word of Yahweh is against Hadrach (Zec 9:1)
2. A proclamation [massa]. The word of Yahweh about Israel (Zec 12:1)
3. A message [massa]. The word of Yahweh to Israel through Malachi (Mal 1:1)

Zechariah 12:7-14 ~ The Restoration of the House of David

Verse 7 is the first mention of the "House of David." Chapters 12 and 13 repeats King David's name 6 times (12:7, 8 twice, 10, 12; 13:1) and "House of David 5 times (12:7, 8, 10, 12, 13:1). The repetition of David' name and specifically "House of David" are to remind the reader that the eternal covenant God made with David and his descendants is still in effect and will come to fulfillment in the return of the Davidic Messiah. Yahweh promised David and the Scriptures continually repeated that the Messianic Redeemer-Messiah would come from the "House of David" to shepherd God's people and rule an eternal kingdom ( 2 Sam 7:16; 23:5; 1 Kng 2:45; 2 Chron 13:5; Ps 89:3-5; Sir 45:25; 47:11/13; 2:45; Is 11:1-5; Jer 23:5-6; 33:14-16; Ez 34:23-24).

Zechariah 13:1-6 ~ Purification of Sin Through the House of David and the End of False Prophecy

The "fountain" is the first of two references in Zechariah to the river of God that flows from the Jerusalem Temple to cleanse the people; also see Zechariah 14:8 where God promised living waters would pour forth from Jerusalem in the Messianic Age (for other references see Ps 46:4; Ez 47:1-12; Joel 3:18 and Rev 22:1-2). In John 4:14 and 7:37-38, Jesus compares Himself to this life-giving flowing stream:

• John 4:13-14 ~ Jesus offered "living water" (Jn 4:10) to the Samaritan woman. When she expressed her surprise, Jesus said: "Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again; but no one who drinks the water that I shall give him will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up for eternal life."
• John 7:37-38 ~ On the last day of the week-long pilgrim feast of Shelters/Tabernacles, Jesus stood up in the Temple and cried out: "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! As Scripture says, 'From his heart shall flow streams of living water.'"

This same imagery appears in the Book of Revelation when a "river of life" flows from the throne of God and the Lamb in the eternal Jerusalem (Rev 22:1-2).

The purifying blood and water of Baptism and the Eucharist, flowing from Jesus' pierced heart, will wash away the sins of humanity (Jn 19:34). And it is the outpouring of God's Spirit on the Feast Pentecost (Acts 2) that will baptize all who believe in Christ in the sanctifying waters of the New Covenant, forgiving all their sins to inaugurate a New Covenant people of God. The Davidic Messiah will be their shepherd-prince forever in a covenant of peace that is an everlasting covenant (Jer 32:40; 50:5; Ez 37:24-28; 2 Pt 1:11).

Zechariah 13:7-9 ~ Invocation to the Sword That Struck Down God's Shepherd

13:7-9 is a continuation of 11:15-17 that was a condemnation of the "good for nothing shepherd" of Zechariah's time. Instead, Yahweh will send "My shepherd." There are several interpretations of the individual identified as God's man:

1. Is he the prophet Zechariah who served according to God's word (cf. Dan 8:16-17)?
2. Is he the Angel of Yahweh (cf. Dan 9:21)?
3. Is he the promised royal, Davidic Shepherd-Messiah (cf. Ez 34:23-24; 37:24), Jesus of Nazareth?

The third option is most likely the reference since Yahweh's shepherd will be rejected and struck down by the people in verse 7b. This individual, in his rejection and suffering, opens the way for the purification and ultimate salvation of the people (see Mt 26:31; Mk 14:27).

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 272 The Use of Religious Images

CHALLENGE: “Catholics use statues and pictures, but the Ten Commandments prohibit such religious images (Exod. 20:4–6; Deut. 5:8 10).”

DEFENSE: The Ten Commandments prohibit making idols, not religious images.

Idols are manufactured objects that people falsely believe to be deities. Their use was commonplace in paganism, and God rightly prohibited the Israelites from making them. However, not all religious use of images is idolatry, and God commanded the religious use of images in the Old Testament.

At one point the Israelites are being bitten by serpents, and God had Moses make a bronze serpent “and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live” (Num. 21:9). Looking at the bronze serpent to be healed was a religious act God authorized. (Nevertheless, when the bronze serpent began to be worshipped as a god itself, it was destroyed; 2 Kings 18:4).

Similarly, God commanded statues of golden cherubim be made at each end of the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant (Exod. 25:18–22). He similarly commanded images of cherubim be woven into the curtains of the tabernacle (Exod. 26:1). When the tabernacle was replaced by the temple, images of cherubim were fashioned on the temple’s walls, its doors, and its veil (2 King. 6:29–35; 2 Chron. 3:7, 14). And there were two giant (15–feet tall) statues of cherubim in the holy of holies (2 Kings 6:23–28; 2 Chron. 3:10–13).

The inclusion of these images on the ark, in the tabernacle, and in the temple indicates their religious function. They represent the inhabitants of heaven, the angels who surround God. In our age, now that humans have been admitted to heaven (Rev. 6:9, 7:14–17), it is natural for statues of human saints also to be placed in churches.

Most significantly, by virtue of the Incarnation, Jesus inaugurated a new age in which God took on visible form. It has been natural since then for Christians to depict Jesus in religious art. This includes the Protestant community, where two-dimensional images of Jesus are common. Adding a third dimension to make a carving or statue does not fundamentally change the situation.

All today recognize that images of Christ and the saints are merely symbols of the individuals they represent (a precursor of modern photographs). They are not idols (see Day 307).

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist 

Bible In One Year Day 271 (Ezra 9-10, Zechariah 9-11, Proverbs 20: 16-19)

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Day 271 Israel's Foreign Wife's

Agape Bible Study 
Ezra 9 - 10 

Chapter 9: Ezra's Denunciation of Mixed Marriages

Ezra 9:1-4 ~ The Elders Reveal the Marriages of Some Jews to Pagans

In Chapter 9, the book returns to Ezra's first-person narrative. 1 Once this was done, or "after these things," either refers to an account of the reading of the Law in Nehemiah Chapter 8 or the penitential service in Nehemiah 9 that came between Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem and the events of Ezra Chapters 9-10. As you will recall, the letter to King Artaxerxes in Ezra Chapter 4 and his response happened after the royal governor's letter to King Darius and the king's letter in Chapter 5. The collection of the events in Ezra and Nehemiah are not always in historical order.

The despised mixed marriages the officials complained about to Ezra cannot be referring to Gentile converts to the faith since the complaint is that the Gentiles who married "the people of Israel" did not renounce their "disgusting practices," a reference to pagan worship and immoral practices associated with their pagan rituals (verse 1). This unclean behavior has contaminated the covenant people, leaving them ritually "unclean" and unfit for worship. The complaint may refer to the problem the prophet Haggai identified when he told the Jews they could not offer "clean" sacrifices if they were themselves "unclean" (Hag 2:14).

The eight pagan groups mentioned in verse 1 were the inhabitants of Canaan before the Israelite conquest. The same pagan peoples are mentioned to invoke the memory of the ancient law as relevant to the current situation in the Jews' return to the Promised Land. 

Ezra 9:5-15 ~ Ezra's Prayer and Confession of His People's Sin to Yahweh

Question: In what two ways does Ezra respond to the news of the Jews' infidelity to the Law? See 9:3-15.
Answer: He responds with mourning (9:3-5) and by offering a prayer of repentance on behalf of his people (9:5-15).

Chapter 10: The People's Response

Ezra 10:1-6 ~ The People Respond to Ezra's Grief

Chapter 10 returns to a third-person narrative. In 10:1-5, a group of elders propose the action Ezra should take to resolve the problem of intermarriage with foreigners. The people who have not engaged in marriage with pagans identify with Ezra's grief.

Ezra 10:7-17 ~ The Proclamation and the Commission

Ezra calls for a Sacred Assembly that every exile throughout Judah and Jerusalem must attend. Anyone who refused to appear in Jerusalem within three days was to forfeit all his property and suffer the penalty of being excommunicated from the community.

Ezra 10:18-44 ~ The List of the Guilty

Ezra 10:18-44 is a list of the 113 men who married pagan women but submitted to Ezra's ruling and sent their wives and children away, probably back to their communities in Babylon. That is 113 men out of c. 29,000 families of returned exiles. Notice that the problem even existed in the family of the High Priest Jeshua (verse 18). The four priestly families are the same as the families listed in Ezra 2:36-39, and seven of the lay families listed in 2:3-35 and 8:3-14.

Zechariah 9 - 11 

The focus of Chapters 9-11:

Chapter 9 is a poetic prophecy that promises Yahweh the Divine Warrior's judgment on Israel/Judah's enemies and describes the arrival of a humble royal Savior to Jerusalem, riding a donkey, and inaugurating an era of peace.

• Chapter 10 is a poetic prophecy that describes Yahweh the Divine Shepherd coming to visit His "flock" and bringing the blessings of restoration to His people.
• Chapter 11 begins as a poetic prophecy and condemnation against Judah's Gentile neighbors and then continues in a prose condemnation against the failed shepherds of the covenant people in Zechariah's times in a poetic prophecy of disaster for those leaders who abuse God's people.

Historical dates relevant to this lesson:
Persian King Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek Ionian cities of Asia Minor in 547 BC
Zechariah's last dated vision and series of oracles was in 518 BC
Ionian Revolt against Persia in 499-493 BC
Greco-Persian Wars from 499 to 449 BC
Conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great began in 334 BC
Death of Alexander the Great and division of his kingdom in 323 BC
Maccabean Revolt against Greek Seleucid Kingdom in 167-160 BC
Judah's independence and rule by Hasmonean priest-kings 160-63 BC

Zechariah 9:1-8 ~ Yahweh the Divine Warrior Brings Judgment on Judah's Enemies

The oracles of Zechariah Part II in 9:1 and 12:1 and Malachi 1:1 begin with the Hebrew word massa, derived from the Hebrew root ns' meaning "to bear," "to carry," or "lift up," suggesting a "burden" but which can also be translated as "proclamation" or "oracle" as the New Jerusalem Bible translates the word in 9:1 and 12:1 but as "message" in Malachi 1:1. These three examples are the only places where this word appears in Scripture associated with the word of Yahweh. The use of massa in these three places causes some Biblical scholars to view the Book of Malachi as an appendix to the Book of Zechariah Part II.

The oracle in 9:1-11:3 is in poetic form and describes Yahweh the Divine Warrior King coming to bring judgment against Israel's enemies and to restore His covenant people. The oracle concerns Aramaean, Phoenician, and Philistine cities and alludes to a future conquest interpreted as an act of Yahweh's judgment in advance of the Messianic Age.

Zechariah 9:9-10 ~ The Arrival of the Messianic Royal Savior

This part of the oracle describes Yahweh as the Divine Messiah, entering Jerusalem as a humble king who will banish war and establish peace for not only His people but "peace to the nations" in an "empire" that will stretch from sea to sea," from the River Euphrates "to the limits of the earth." In verse 9, the Hebrew has "upright" or "just" [tzaddyik] in the sense that the Messianic king is the receiver of God's saving justice in his vindication of his people and his protection of them.

"Daughter of Zion" refers to the faithful of Jerusalem and the Old Covenant Church (also see Zec 2:10; Is 12:6; 52:2; 62:4; Mic 4:8; Zeph 3:14-15). The triumphant Savior King arrives "humble and riding on a donkey," an entry demonstrating his peaceful intentions. On Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the 1^st century AD, the crowds would have recalled three passages in Sacred Scripture: Jacob-Israel's blessing for this son, Judah, Solomon riding into Jerusalem as his father, David's, successor, and Zechariah's prophecy of the humble royal Savior.

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Zechariah 9:11-17 ~ The Restoration of Israel

The "blood of your covenant" refers to the sacrificial seal of God's covenant relationships that began with the animals God sacrificed to cloth Adam and Eve after they fell from grace in the Garden Sanctuary of Eden. It was a covenant ritual that continued in every covenant God formed with individuals and in the corporate covenant with Israel at Sinai and into the New Covenant in Christ Jesus (see the connections between blood and covenant in Ex 24:4-8; Mt 26:28; Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; Heb 9:17-22; 10:29; 13:20).

Question: How does the New Covenant in Christ Jesus continue under the "sign of the blood of the covenant"? See Mt 26:28; Lk 22:20; and 1 Cor 11:25.
Answer: The New Covenant is sealed in the blood of Jesus on the altar of the Cross and in the Cup of His Blood in the Eucharist.

Zechariah 10:1-2 ~ An Invitation to Ask for Yahweh's Blessings

When the covenant people return to Him in obedience, and He gives them victory over their enemies, then they can ask Him to reinstate the covenant blessings stated in Leviticus 26:3-13 and Deuteronomy 11:13-14 and 28:1-14.

Zechariah 10:3-12 ~ The Divine Shepherd's Visitation to Bring About Judah's Deliverance

In the Bible and the writings of other cultures in the ancient Near East, "shepherds" are the civil rather than religious leaders (2 Sam 5:2; Is 44:28). However, after the Jews returned from exile, there was no Davidic king to govern them, and the role of the high priest and the senior chief priests was expanded to fulfill religious as well as civil judgments. For example, instead of a king, the reigning high priest became the presiding judge over the highest court in the land, as High Priest Joseph Caiaphas was at Jesus' trial before the Sanhedrin (Mt 26:57-66).

In Scripture, Yahweh is the "Divine Shepherd" (Ps 22:1; 80:1), Jesus the "Good Shepherd" (Jn 10:11-16), and the Resurrected Christ the "Divine" and "Chief Shepherd" (1 Pt 2:25; 5:4). The "shepherds" and "he-goats" abusing His people are the foreign kings and their governors (see Is 44:28; Jer 25:34ff; Nah 3:18; see Dan 8:5-8 where a prophecy that refers to Alexander the Great calls him a "he-goat" and his four generals who divide his empire the "four little horns" of the he-goat (Dan 8:8b-12). A he-goat is also the sin sacrifice for a ruler, and Jesus will judge between the sheep and the goats in the Last Judgment in Matthew 25:31-46.

Zechariah 11:4-16 ~ The Wicked Shepherds

This section on the shepherds ends with a Messianic prophecy in Zechariah 13:7-9 in the second oracle of Zechariah Part II. In verses 4-14, events are reviewed allegorically, and God's providence is vindicated. Returning to events in Zechariah's present, God gives him pastoral charge over a people who have not appreciated the covenant blessings Yahweh wanted to confer on them and have not practiced the good behavior He instructed them to observe.

Since they have failed in the call to live in righteousness, God will, therefore, impose a wicked shepherd over them in punishment for the people's return to their former injustices. 

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 271 Jesus the Rock

CHALLENGE: “Peter can’t be the rock in Matthew 16:18 because Scripture says God is the rock (Isa. 51:1). Further, Peter describes Jesus as a stone (1 Pet. 2:4–8). Therefore, Jesus must be the rock.”

DEFENSE: This challenge does not understand the way metaphors work.

Although Isaiah does refer to God as “the rock from which you were hewn,” there is nothing about this passage indicating that only God can be described as a rock.

If only God could be described as a rock then Jesus could not have given Simon bar-Jonah the nickname Cephas/Peter/Rock (John 1:42; Matt. 16:18). The fact that Jesus bestows this nickname means that the metaphor of a rock can be used to refer to non-divine individuals, so we must ask what metaphor is being used in any given passage. 

When Peter refers to Jesus as a living stone, he uses the normal Greek word for stone: lithos. The fact that he uses this rather than petra or petros (see Day 282) indicates a different metaphor is being used than when he gave Peter his nickname.

Metaphors are not just used in a single way. Protestant scholar D.A. Carson notes: The objection that Peter considers Jesus the rock is insubstantial because metaphors are commonly used variously, till they become stereotyped, and sometimes even then. 

Here [in Matt. 16:18] Jesus builds his church; in 1 Corinthians 3:10, Paul is “an expert builder.” In 1 Corinthians 3:11, Jesus is the church’s foundation; in Ephesians 2:19–20, the apostles and prophets are the foundation (cf. also Rev 21:14), and Jesus is the “cornerstone.” Here Peter has the keys; in Revelation 1:18; 3:7, Jesus has the keys. In John 9:5, Jesus is “the light of the world”; in Matthew 5:14, his disciples are. None of these pairs threatens Jesus’ uniqueness. They simply show how metaphors must be interpreted primarily with reference to their immediate contexts (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Matt. 16:18).

Carson also notes: “In this passage Jesus is the builder of the church and it would be a strange mixture of metaphors that also sees him within the same clauses as its foundation” (ibid.).

The challenge thus uses a simplistic understanding of how metaphors work and forces metaphors used elsewhere in Scripture into the text of Matthew 16:18.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist 

Bible In One Year Day 270 (Ezra 7-8, Zechariah 7-8, Proverbs 20: 12-15)

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Day 270: God's Favor with Ezra 

Agape Bible Study 
Ezra 7 -8 

The events recorded in the Book of Esther took place between Ezra Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Esther's Jewish name was Hadassah, but she received the Persian name Esther when she became the wife of Persian King Xerxes I (called Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther), the son of King Darius I who permitted the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. Esther is one of several heroines in the Bible chosen by Yahweh to move forward His divine plan for the salvation of His covenant people. She stands in the company of Miriam, the first prophetess and the sister of Moses and Aaron, Rahab the Canaanite heroine of Jericho, Jael, and Judith who killed a wicked enemy, Hannah the mother of the prophet Samuel, and Mary of Nazareth, the mother of the Messiah. Esther was a Jewish maiden who courageously saved her people from the destruction planned by Haman, a wicked Persian courtier who conspired to issue a royal decree to massacre the Jews living in the Persian empire. The city where she lived, Susa in Persia, was the city where Nehemiah served in the court of Esther's stepson, King Artaxerxes I.

Ezra 7:1-10 ~ The Pedigree and Mission of Ezra

"After these events" refers to the previous chapter and the rebuilding and dedication of the Jerusalem Temple. Ezra was moved by God to travel to the community of returnees in Jerusalem and teach the Law. With the permission of Persian King Ahasuerus, he assembled a group of people willing to make the journey with him. Twice we are told that the hand of Yahweh his God was over him (verses 6 and 9). God gave Ezra His help because his heart was right with God: For Ezra had devoted himself [set his heart] to studying the Law of Yahweh so as to put into practice and teach its statutes and rulings (verse 10). 

Ezra's qualifications for the mission:

1. He has an excellent pedigree in the Aaronide and the Zadokite line of chief priests.
2. As an expert in the teaching of the Law of Moses, he possesses the necessary authority and enough preparation as a chief priest to properly conduct Temple liturgical services.
3. His expert understanding of the Law of Moses provides an authoritative link to the pre-exile past and for interpreting, explaining, and applying the ancient laws to a new context in which there is no Davidic king but instead, it is a Persian king they must obey.

Ezra 7:11-20 ~ The Order of Artaxerxes Commissioning Ezra's Mission

Chief priests generally did not become trained scribes. Their duties were leading Temple worship, teaching the Sacred Scriptures, instructing the people on the precepts of the Law, judging conditions that might be contagious diseases requiring quarantine from the general population like leprosy (Lev 13-14; Num 5:1-4; Mt 8:4; Lk 17:14), and overseeing ritual purification for contamination from that which made a covenant member ritually impure and unable to attend worship (Num 19:11-22). However, chief priests living in pagan lands without Temple duties were often employed by their overlords in other professions since they were educated in reading and writing. Ezra probably held an official position as a scribe of Persian King Artaxerxes in the Persian province of Babylon, advising the Persian government on how to work with the Jewish communities (verses 6 and 11).

Ezra 7:21-24 ~ The King's Orders to the Royal Treasurers of the Province of Transeuphrates

This order repeats the previous command of Artaxerxes' grandfather, Darius I, in Ezra 6:8-10. The king commands the royal governor of the province of Transeuphrates ("Beyond the River") to fully cooperate with Ezra and his mission. Verse 23 suggests the Persian kings believed their generosity would result in blessings on their family and their empire. 

Ezra 7:24-26 ~ The King's Final Instructions to Ezra

Question: In verses 25-26, what additional powers did the king gave Ezra?
Answer:

1. Ezra will have the authority to appoint magistrates and scribes in all the Jewish communities in the extended province of Transeuphrates.
2. He is to enforce that everyone must obey Persian law and the law of Yahweh.

The "law of the king" refers to imperial law of Persia, which all Persian subjects had to obey. The Persian legal system permitted the observance of both local law and imperial law.

Ezra 7:27-28 ~ Ezra's Prayer

From verse 27 to the end of Chapter 9, there is a change of narrator with Ezra speaking in the first person. In Ezra's prayer, he gives credit for his mission to Yahweh, "who moved the king's heart" just as He "roused the spirit" of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1). He would have seen leading the return as a fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah (Is 40:3-5; Jer 31:8-9).

As a faithful member of the covenant, Ezra praises Yahweh. He sees the good things God has done for him and his people. He blesses God, acknowledging that God, the source of all blessing, has once again intervened in the lives of His people. Ezra, in his restoration of the covenant people, prefigures Jesus. Jesus' mission was also to restore the covenant people. 

The Catechism teaches: "Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other. The prayer of blessing is man's response to God's gifts: because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the One who is the source of every blessing (CCC 2626). The two fundamental forms express this movement: our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father; we bless him for having blessed us; it implores the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father; he blesses us" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2626-2627).

Ezra 8:1-14 ~ Ezra's Register of the Returnees

The list begins with the two priestly families who are the descendants of Aaron: Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, and Ithamar, the fourth son of Aaron and the father of eight of the twenty-four priestly classes (1 Chr 24:4). The descendants of Phinehas belonged to the Zadokite line and the only line represented in the list of chapter 2 and Nehemiah 7. The descendant of Ithamar belonged to the dispossessed line of the traitor Abiathar who did not support Solomon as David's choice to succeed him as King of Israel and was, therefore, excluded from the Temple (1 Kng 2:27). The name of his descendant on the list indicates the reconciliation of the two rival priestly families which, in the Second Temple, shared the priesthood of the "sons of Aaron." The Zadokites, however, maintained their preponderance with sixteen orders compared to the Ithamarites with their eight orders (1 Chron 24:4).

Ezra 8:15-20 ~ Ezra's Examination and Instruction to the Returnees

The covenant people living in pagan lands had made homes for themselves, had married pagan women and were hesitant to return to Judah. The people of the ten northern tribes had settled in Assyrian lands for three centuries. In his book, Antiquities of the Jews, the first-century AD Jewish priest/historian, Flavius Josephus, wrote that the ten northern tribes of Israel, deported by the Assyrians in 732 (from the Galilee) and 722 BC were still living beyond the Euphrates and did not return with Ezra (Antiquities of the Jews, 11.5.2). Biblical evidence of their continued existence appears in the Book of Tobit.

Ezra 8:21-23 ~ Ezra Proclaims a Fast

After the destruction of the First Temple, fasting became an important religious observance that continued in the Second Temple period. It was generally accompanied by prayer and confession (see Esther 4:15-16; Dan 9:3-4; Neh 9:1; Zech 7:1-7; 8:18-19; Mt 6:16-18; 9:14-15; Mk 2:18; Lk 18:12).

Ezra 8:24-30 ~ Ezra Appoints the Priests and Entrusts Them With the Temple Vessels

Ezra appoints the priests and entrusts them with the Temple's vessels. In verse 28, he reminds the priests that they, like the sacred vessels, are consecrated to Yahweh. Also, the consecrated status of these vessels entails the responsibility to take special care of them and to ensure that they do not lose their sacred status by becoming contaminated by the profane to make them ritually unclean.

Ezra 8:31-36 ~ Ezra Leads the Return to Jerusalem

Ezra ordered the departure from Babylon on the first day of the first month of Abib/Aviv (7:8). But they didn't start for Jerusalem until the twelfth, after recruiting Levites to accompany them (8:31). The twelfth day of Abib was just before the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread (Abib 14^th and 15^th- 21^st); they started on their journey confident that the hand of God was over them, protecting them from enemies. Ezra and the caravan arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month of Ab/Av, in the seventh year of King Ahasuerus' reign in 458 BC (7:7-9). It is the same month the Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple in 587/6 BC, and the returnees would have seen their return on this month as part of Yahweh's divine plan.

Agape Bible Study 
Zechariah 7 - 8 

Zechariah 7:1-3 ~ Prelude to the Fifth Oracle: A Question and Answer about Fasting

The oracles in 7:1-8:23 were two years later in November of 518 BC. The oracle in 7:1-14 is in three parts with each section beginning with "the word of Yahweh Sabaoth was addressed"

1. a prelude setting the year and the event that initiated the oracle (verses 1-3)
2. a condemnation of the insincere fasts and feasts of a people unwilling to listen to the voice of God through His prophets (verses 4-8)
3. an exhortation to practice mercy and justice and a reminder of the exile that was the result of their failure to obey God's commandments.

Zechariah 7:4-14 ~ The Fifth Oracle: An Answer to the Delegation and a Survey of the Past Seventy Years

In parts 2 and 3 of the oracle, Yahweh gives a review of the past seventy years as He begins to answer the question of the delegation from Bethel in 7:3. The fasts in verse 5 were in memory the destruction of the Solomon's Temple (2 Kng 25:8-10) and the assassination of Gedaliah, the Jewish appointed Persian governor and friend of Jeremiah (2 Kng 25:22-25; Jer 39:14; 40:5-16; 41:1-18; 43:6).

The Oracles of Zechariah in Chapter 8:1-8
Zechariah 8:1-17 contains seven oracles Yahweh addresses to the covenant people. The five poetic oracles in 8:1-8 and the two prose oracles in verses 9-17 concern the restoration of Zion (verses numbered according to the NJB but may be numbered differently in other translations). The words "Yahweh Sabaoth says this" introduces each oracle (verses 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 14) except for the second oracle that is introduced by "Yahweh says this" (verse 3): Oracle #1 = 8:2; #2 = 8:3; #3 = 8:4-5; #4 = 8:6; #5 = 8:7-8; #6 = 8:9-13; #7 = 8:14-17. Oracles 1-5 are a collection of prophecies focused on what Yahweh describes as an age of peace and happiness because His Divine Presence is in Zion, dwelling among His faithful covenant people. Oracles 6-7 present a warning and an exhortation in verses 16-17 concerning pleasing Yahweh by living in righteousness.

Zechariah 8:1-8 ~ A Hymn of the Restoration and Salvation of Zion
1 The word of Yahweh Sabaoth came as follows:
Oracle #1: 2 Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I have been burning with jealousy for Zion, with furious jealousy for her sake.

Oracle #2: 3 Yahweh says this: I am coming back to Zion and shall live in the heart of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called Faithful City and the mountain of Yahweh Sabaoth, the Holy Mountain.

Oracle #3: 4 Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Aged men and women once again will sit in the squares of Jerusalem, each with a stick to lean on because of their great age. 5 And the squares of the city will be full of boys and girls playing there.

Oracle #4: 6 Yahweh Sabaoth says this: If this seems a miracle to the remnant of this people (in those days), will it seem one to me? Declares Yahweh.

Oracle #5: 7 Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Look, I shall rescue my people from the countries of the east and from the countries of the west. 8 I shall bring them back to love in the heart of Jerusalem, and they will be my people and I shall be their God, faithful and just.

Zechariah 8:9-17 ~ Continuing Oracles for Zechariah's People in the Present

Oracle #6: 9 Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Take heart, you who today hear these promises uttered by the prophets since the day when the foundations of the Temple of Yahweh Sabaoth were laid, that the sanctuary would indeed be rebuilt. 

The last series of oracles are in prose. The prophets the people "today" are Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the prophets of the return from exile and the last prophets until the mission of St. John the Baptist, the last of the Old Covenant prophets.

Oracle #7: 14 For Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Just as I resolved to ill-treat you when your ancestors provoked me to anger and did not relent, says Yahweh Sabaoth, 15 so now I have changed my mind and intend to treat Jerusalem and the House of Judah well. Do not be afraid! 16 These things are what you must do. Speak the truth to one another; at your gates, administer fair judgment conducive to peace; 17 do not secretly plot evil against one another; do not love perjury; since I hate all this, Yahweh declares."

Yahweh continues to focus on covenant traditions, stressing truth and justice as the basis of a newly restored faith community to avoid the covenant curse-judgments and to reap the benefits of covenant blessings (see Zec 7:9-10; Mic 6:12; Eph 4:25). He warns them a second time (see 8:13) in verse 15 not to be afraid but to trust in their God and Divine Father so long as they live in righteousness. The city gates in verse 16 were where the community gathered to hear grievances, where elders made judicial decisions and pronounced punishments for crimes against individuals and the community (see Ruth 4:1-2). In 8:17, God warns against sins that could damage the covenant people's relationship with Him again, listing the same wrongdoings mentioned in 5:3.

Zechariah 8:18-19 ~ An Oracle Answering the Question of Fasting
This passage is the first of three oracles (verses 18-23) promising a joyous future for Judah in her restored relationship with Yahweh. He now answers the question of the Bethel delegation in the prelude to the fifth oracle in 7:1-3. The answer is "no," they do not need to keep the fasts associated with Judah's national disasters and the Babylonian exile. They need to be joyful in their return from exile, their repentance of the sins of their ancestors resulting in Yahweh's forgiveness, and the restoration of their covenant with Yahweh, and the rebuilding of the Temple which is God's dwelling place among His covenant people.

Zechariah 8:20-23 ~ Two Oracles on the Prospect of Salvation in the Messianic Age

These oracles point to a future time when worshiping the One, true God will spread beyond Judah/Israel. At that time, many peoples and nations will seek Yahweh and want to hear the testimony of His covenant people as they search for a relationship with God.

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 270 The Concept of Sola Scriptura

CHALLENGE: "Catholic apologists misrepresent the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura ('Scripture alone'). It merely means that Scripture contains everything necessary for salvation."

DEFENSE: This is not how the teaching is understood by most Protestants, who apply it to all Christian doctrine.

Salvation-based explanations of sola scriptura are sometimes found in popular-level writings of Protestant apologetics, but they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Anglican Articles of Religion state: “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation” (art. 6).

Those who define sola scriptura in terms of what is needed for salvation presumably mean Scripture contains all truths of soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), which is a subset of theology in general. Saying we should be able to prove all truths of soteriology by Scripture alone is a more modest claim than that we should be able to prove all theology this way. It is thus a more defensible claim, and one with which Catholics could potentially agree.

However, this is not how sola scriptura is generally understood or applied. Even the Articles of Religion indicate a broader application, for they say that nothing that can’t be proved by Scripture is an article of faith—the faith as a whole being broader than the subject of salvation.

A more typical formulation is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith: “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture” (1:6).

Here sola scriptura is said to cover everything necessary for “salvation, faith, and life”—with faith and life including doctrinal and moral theology. 

The broader use of the concept is also confirmed by experience, which shows Protestants regularly ask the question “Where is that in the Bible?” on theological subjects in general, not just on soteriological ones. 

This broader understanding, however, is a more expansive and thus less defensible claim (see Days 5 and 16).

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist