Text: Ezra 3:1-13 | Listen to Message Fear That Conquers Fear One of Bible’s most important lessons on worship is also one of its most overlooked. Ezra 3:2-3 says of the Jews returning from exile, “They built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses, . . . for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands.” After nearly 70 years in Babylonian captivity, the people were finally allowed to return home. But home wasn’t anything like what it once was. Their capital city...

Text: Ezra 1:1-2:70 | Listen to Message Stirring The Heart of A King In 586 B.C., God stirred the heart of the Persian king Cyrus to let the Jews return to their homeland and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Even more remarkably, he commanded his other subjects to financially support this endeavor. It’s especially remarkable because Cyrus didn’t believe in Yahweh – and he couldn’t care less about restoring and preserving the line of the eventual Messiah. Cyrus was just hedging his bets and ingratiating himself to all the gods of all conquered lands in the hopes that he might get...

Text: Esther | Listen to Message God, Are You There? The name of the LORD is nowhere to be found in the book of Esther. The situation – namely, a king’s decree to annihilate all the Jews – seems to indicate that God himself is absent altogether. Sometimes life feels like that. The early chapters of this book introduce us to a woman called Esther and her adoptive father called Mordecai. I say “called” because these were not their real names. In Persian exile, “Hadassah” had been renamed “Esther,” derived from the goddess “Ishtar/Astarte.” “Mordecai” was a derivation of “Marduk,” the...

Text: Ezra 1:1-3; 8:22 | Listen to Message Someone Is Shaping History Let’s imagine you’re a genuine truth seeker and you’re trying to discern whether or not the Bible is trustworthy. Is it really the Word of God – as it claims – or is it merely the product of man? Let’s imagine, too, that you’ve stumbled across these little Old Testament books called Ezra and Nehemiah, and you really want to understand what they mean. Right at the outset of your study, you have questions like: Who is this Cyrus, king of Persia? And why has he issued a decree...