Sermons By Ed

Study Notes Ed Underwood Nehemia: Return from Exile: Rebuild the Walls “Our enemies...knew that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.” (Nehemiah 6:15-16) The fifth major unit within the seventeen Historical Books is referred to as the Post Exilic Period. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther record Israel’s “second exodus,” this one from exile in Babylonia. This mini-exodus that only involved a returning remnant came in three waves. Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple in the first wave of 50,000. After God foiled a Satanic plot to exterminate God’s people in Persia, godly Esther reigns as Queen of Persia. Eighty-one years after Zerubbabel’s return, Ezra brings 5,000 Jews to Jerusalem to rebuild their godly culture. Finally, Nehemiah leads the third and last return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. This was the time when the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi spoke. The chronology of Nehemiah’s time is important: Ezra 1-6 Restoration under Zerubbabel 538-515 First R