Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we finished our 36 book of the Bible, and it took us seven chapters, but we finally met

Ezra, the man who this book was named after. He's a scribe descended from Aaron the high priest. He lived in Babylon-turned Persia until he left to return to Jerusalem during the reign of King Arta-Zerxes of Persia. Remember King A from the Book of Esther? His full name was Ahashwarus, but he was also known as Xerxes, and Arda-xerxes is the king who came after Xerxes.

So this is all happening after Esther's husband dies.

But a quick sidebar, this new king is almost certainly not Esther's son.

Most scholars don't attribute any children to Esther.

The events starting in Chapter 7 are taking place roughly 60 years after the first six chapters of this

book. Today opens with a letter to Ezra from King Artaxerxes of Persia. He's sending Ezra and a

bunch of other Jews in Persia back to Jerusalem, but he's not sending them back dismissively.

He's sending back anyone who wants to go, and he's sending them with massive blessings and

provisions. He says he'll take care of basically everything Ezra needs.

He also tells Ezra to appoint magistrates and judges who will teach and enact the laws of Yahweh.

And as if all this weren't enough, the king tells him that the temple gets a pass on paying taxes.

This is a really exciting commissioning for Ezra because he's a Torah scholar and he's

going to get to teach the scriptures to all the exiles in Jerusalem. And by most accounts, this will be

Ezra's first time in Jerusalem. He's probably only about 22 years old at this point, which means

he was born in exile. This is a huge assignment with a lot of authority for such a young man. He's not even old

enough to be a priest, but he knows where the assignment has ultimately come from, and he knows where

his strength lies. After he gets the letter from King Artaxerxes, he praises God for putting these plans

into the king's heart, and he says, I took courage for the hand of the Lord my God was on me. The awareness of

God's nearness banishes fear and imparts courage. In chapter 8, they set out on their months-long

journey. It was roughly a 900-mile trip. As he's counting all his men along the way, he realizes

...