Name: 閱讀經文。以斯拉記-尼希米記 (Read Scripture: Ezra-Nehemiah)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T06:56:46.000Z
Duration: 8 min 37 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

In most modern Bibles, these books are separate,

基礎被動語態

but that division happened long after it was written.

It was originally a unified work written by a single author

The story is set after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and it's temple

And this book picks up about 50 years later

and tells the return of some Israelites to Jerusalem

and then what happened when they rebuilt the city and their lives there.

Specifically, the book focuses on 3 key leaders who led the rebuilding efforts

You have Zerubbabel, then Ezra and then Nehemiah.

And the books' design focuses on the efforts of each leader.

Zerubbabel leads a large group of people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

Then about 60 years later, Ezra arrives in Jerusalem to teach the Torah and rebuild the community,

and then he's followed by Nehemiah who leads the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls

And these three stories are designed to be parallel,

each begins with the king of Persia prompted by God to send the leader to Jerusalem

and then each leader encounters opposition in their efforts

which they then overcome but in a way that leads to a strange anti-climax in each of the three parts.

Let's back up and see how it fits together.

So the story begins with a decree from Cyrus, the king of Persia,

and he's moved by God to allow the exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

And the author says this fulfills a promise made by the prophet Jeremiah

that the exiles would one day return to Jerusalem.

Now this fulfillment should trigger our hopes in the many other prophetic promises

We have hope for a future Messianic King from the line of David.

We have hope for a rebuilt temple where God's presence will dwell with His people.

Hope for God's kingdom to come over all the nations and bring His blessing just like He promised Abraham

And so it's with all these hopes in mind that we read on into the story of Zerubbabel.

He represents the generation born in Babylonian captivity

and he leads a wave of Israelites returning to Jerusalem.

After they settle there, they rebuild the altar for offering sacrifices and later the temple itself.

The foundation laying ceremony and then the temple's final dedication- these are key moments.

The past stories of the tabernacle and temple's dedication should be in our minds,

this is when the fiery cloud of God's presence is supposed to descend.

He's dwelling with His people and it doesn't happen.

And so while some people are happy about this new temple

the elders who had seen the previous Temple of Solomon they cry out in grief.

It is nothing like their glorious past or their hopes for the future.

And its right here that we get the first story of opposition and it's very odd.

So the grandchildren of the Israelites, who were not taken into exile,

they had been living in Jerusalem all along,

they come to offer help with the temple rebuilding and Zerubbabel refuses.

He says you have no part in our temple and this of course generates a conflict

which Zerubbabel overcomes but it's very strange

because the prophets had envisioned that the tribes of Israel would all come together

along with all of the nations to participate in the worship of the God of israel

So this is an anti climactic moment to say the least.

In the next section we zoom forward about 60 years and we're introduced to Ezra

he's a leader among the exiled Israelites in Babylon and he's a Torah scholar and a teacher,

and so he gets appointed by Artaxerxes king of Persia to lead another wave of people back to Jerusalem

and Ezra wants to bring about spiritual and social renewal among the people.

and again we come to another anti climatic moment in the story.

Ezra learns that many of the exiled Israelites that had come back

they had married non exiles who had been living around Jerusalem.

Some of them were non-Israelites and almost certainly some of them were.

Ezra then appeals to the commands of the Torah

that Israel was supposed to be holy and separate from the ancient Canaanites.

And he then says that the people living around Jerusalem are like the Canaanites

So  Ezra offers a prayer of repentance and it's very heartfelt

but then he rallies all the leaders and enacts this divorce decree

that says all these marriages should be annulled, the women and children sent away.

And then the decree is only partially carried out when given a list of some of the men who divorce their wives.

The story is very strange for a number of reasons,

First of all, God never commanded Ezra to do any of this.

It was the leaders of Jerusalem who led Ezra to make the decree,

Second, the contemporary Prophet Malachi, he did say that the exile should care about purity

but he also said that God was opposed to divorce

and so the mixed results of the decree this all fits into this pattern

which leads us to the next section about Nehemiah.

He's an Israelite official serving in the Persian government

and when he hears about the ruined state of Jerusalem's walls

he prays and then get permission from the Persian king Artaxerxes to go and rebuild the walls.

The King even gives them an armed escort and all these resources.

So after arriving in Jerusalem he begins the building project

and he too, faces opposition from the people who had already been living around Jerusalem.

Once again we face a tension in the story.

that the New Jerusalem of God's kingdom would be a city without walls.

that people from all nations would come and join the covenant people.

But Nehemiah seems to operate with the opposite vision.

He informs the people surrounding Jerusalem that they have no part in Jerusalem.

And this of course provokes them to hostility and so well

Nehemiah carries out his vision for the city with integrity and courage.

They have to build the city with armed guards to protect them.

We keep wondering, could this whole conflict have been handled differently?

And this all leads to the conclusion of the book in two movements.

Ezra and Nehemiah combine forces to bring about a spiritual renewal among the people.

They gather all the exiles together for a festival,

they read and teach the Torah to all the people for 7 days,

and then they celebrate the ancient feast of tabernacles