Bible Study #92 The Writings Series-Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 & 2 Chronicles (Bible Study With John Ogwyn)

"This evening we are wrapping up the Old
Testament. We are right at the very conclusion
of the Old Testament, wrapping up this section
of the Writings. The books of Ezra and
Nehemiah, as well as Chronicles, have already
been covered in one form when we went through
an earlier Bible study on the historical survey of
the Old Testament. However, I want to cover
these books this evening in a little different way
because these were the books that marked the
conclusion of the third section of the Old
Testament, the Writings section.
These books are what are called “postexilic.”
That just means “after the exile.” The exile was
one of the major events in the history of God’s
dealing with ancient Israel. It was certainly a
major event in the history of the Jewish people.
Basically, they would rank the Exodus and
then the exile in terms of the major events that
define them.
The exile was the captivity that Nebuchadnezzar
brought about. He invaded Jerusalem and Judea
in 604 B.C. He took some of the leaders and
some of the young princes of the children of the
noble families back to Babylon as hostages. He
took some captives and exacted a heavy penalty
or tribute—a yearly tax that was to be paid.
Things went along for several years. Then, when
he decided that the king of Judah that he had left
on the throne wasn’t paying up as much tax as he
should or as frequently as he should, he came
back in 596 B.C. and put Zedekiah on the throne.
In general, he did some other things. He finally
came in, completely destroyed Jerusalem and the
temple and took the whole nation into captivity..." Read More!!