Calvary Church is dedicated to doctrine, and we want you to experience the life change that comes from knowing God's word and applying it to your life.

So we explain the Bible verse by verse, every chapter, every book. This is expound.

Let's open our Bibles to Ezra, chapter 9.

Now a thousand years before the events in the book of Ezra, the children of Israel were in

captivity to the Egyptians for 400 years until God delivered them through

what we call the Exodus and brought them into the promised land. But in more recent times,

the children of Israel had been captive once again, this time for 70 years, not in Egypt,

but in Babylon, which has now been taken over by Medo-Persia.

And after 70 years, there is a second exodus back into the land of Israel, especially Jerusalem. So Ezra and Nehemiah and Zerubababal,

these three figures that approximate the same time dimension, are a part of what we call the second exodus and it was this second exodus

after babylon that really shook them to their core they're not perfect but by and large

they get cured from idolatry again Again, they're not perfect, as we will see, and are often reminded of,

that's why I like reading the Bible, because it's not a bunch of perfect people. It's people like

you and I, and we see ourselves reflected. But when it comes to the idolatry that wholesale the nation had practiced, they're done with that.

So there were three exiles we have been telling you about. Three times the Babylonians came against Jerusalem Jerusalem and each time took people away.

605 BC, number one, 597 BC, number two, 586 BC, number three.

And that last time is when they destroyed the temple and burned the city with fire.

As there were three exiles from Jerusalem to Babylon, there are three returns.

One under Zerubababal, one under Ezra, and one under Nehemiah.

Nehemiah, we've been studying on the weekends.

It just so happens that we coincide with the book of Ezra on Wednesday nights.

Now, under Zarrabba Bell, just under 50,000 people returned.

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