Ezra and Nehemiah Insights

I did a recent post here called Holiday Reading.

Here is some great scholarly work about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, with a focus on the “background.”
I was thinking and pondering and praying about the whole “exile thing” for God’s people – over a 2 day period. I knew there was a key for me to find.

And then I came across these thoughts – well worth a read if you have a few minutes. Here is the BIG idea for me… “no matter where you are in life – and no matter how difficult it seems – God’s people always seen to find a way to “prosper.””

The Word is rich in insight – if you go looking for it. This entry is a combo of good daily disciplines – reading a book chronologically as part of a systematic personal study; prayerful reflection; good hermaneutics (eg asking questions of the text etc); revelation; quality biblical tools; journaling; and time.

Yamauchi, Edwin M. “Background of Ezra and Nehemiah” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 4. 569-570. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1988.

In light of the fact that the intellectual and spiritual leaders were the ones who were deported, the Scriptures must reflect the historical situation. As Cowan comments, "There does not exist sufficient evidence or probability of an active, creative group in the land during the exile, although the continuance of some form of Yahwism is not to be doubted." 17
Most of those deported were from the upper classes and from cities. Judging from earlier Assyrian reliefs and texts, the men were probably marched in chains, with women and children bearing sacks of their bare possessions on wagons as they made their way to Mesopotamia.

After some years of initial hardship, the exiles made adjustments and even prospered (Jer 29:4-5). They were settled in various communities, for example, on the river Kebar near Nippur, sixty miles southeast of Babylon (Ezek 1:1-3; cf. Ezra 2:59-Neh 7:61). When the exiles returned they brought with them numerous servants and animals and were able to make contributions for the sacred services (Ezra 2:65-69; 8:26; Neh 7:67-72).

A fascinating light on the Jews in Mesopotamia is shed by the Murashu tablets. In 1893, 730 inscribed clay tablets were found at Nippur. W.R. Hilprecht and A.T. Clay published 480 of these texts in 1898. Additional texts were made available in 1974 by Stolper. 18 The archive dates from the reigns of Artaxerxes I (464-424) and Darius II (423-404).
Murashu and sons were wealthy bankers and brokers who loaned out almost any thing for a price. Among their customers are listed about sixty Jewish names from the time of Artaxerxes I and forty from the time of Darius II. These appear as contracting parties, agents, witnesses, collectors of taxes, and royal officials. There seems to have been no social or commercial barriers between the Jews and the Babylonians. Their prosperous situation may explain why some chose to remain in Mesopotamia. 19

With the birth of a second and a third generation, many Jews established roots in Mesopotamia. Josephus (Antiq. XI, 8 [i.3]) declared that "many remained in Babylon, being unwilling to leave their possessions." In like manner, during World War II Japanese immigrants and their American-born children were deported from the West Coast and placed in relocation camps. Given the opportunity to return to Japan after the war, few of the older Japanese did because of the superior conditions of their new home.

The spiritual life of the Jewish community in Mesopotamia is documented by Ezekiel, who was in exile either after 597 or 586. Ezekiel 8:1 refers to the prophet "sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me" (cf. Ezek 3:15; 14:1; 20:1; 24:18; 33:30-33). Deprived of the temple, the exiles laid great stress on the observation of the Sabbath, on the laws of purity, and on prayer and fasting. It has often been suggested that the development of synagogues began in Mesopotamia during the Exile (but see comments on Neh 8:18).

The trials of the Exile purified and strengthened the faith of the Jews and cured them of idolatry. As Baron comments (p. 105): "The external grandeur of the 55 temples (of Babylon) devoted to the worship of the great gods … doubtless infused many a Judean onlooker with a sense of inferiority and shame. None the less, Jewish survival owes itself, paradoxically enough, not to those who remained at home but to the nationalistic vitality of those living so precariously in Exile."

As Holly Hobbie used to say on the whiteboard next to the phone at the house where I grew up, “bloom where you are planted!”