This is the Bible Book Club podcast, the book of Ezra. Welcome to the club.

Now in the last episode, Ezra finally arrived in his own story as the leader of the second wave of exiles to return to Jerusalem. Now, remember,

a few episodes ago, Ezra had been recounting the history of what happened in the first return,

but in this one, like the first waves of the return, his is a building mission. He has been sent

to build the faith of the returned exiles. Unfortunately, for the Israelites, they are still in a kind of spiritual exile.

The presence of God is absent from the temple.

Ezra is just the man to bring them back into community with God.

He has a very impressive resume.

The favor of King Artaxerxes and Ezra's execution is flawless.

He obtained authority and all the resources needed from the king and gave credit to God.

He organized the exiles who returned and recruited the missing Levites. He prayed for the journey

and upon his arrival, he set about the business for which he was sent.

Now, recall that Zerubibu Boll had led that first wave Heather talked about with over 42,000 exiles,

and that was about 80 years before Ezra's return.

Well, those people have been doing life in Jerusalem and the surrounding towns for a long time.

Our scene opens a few months after Ezra and his new leadership had settled in Jerusalem.

Everything was under control and appeared to be going as planned until scene one, Ezra, makes a devastating discovery.

Ezra chapter 9.

After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said,

the people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites,

have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices,

like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Parasites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians,

...