Since we had such an enjoyable discussion of Esther, there is a lot of good material on Ezra and Nehemiah that we didn't cover today that you'll find a little way into the outline.
1. Introduction
a) Esther
i) We have spoken of how many Jews – estimated at about 80% of those taken into captivity – did not return to Israel after Cyrus allowed the Jews under his control to return to Jerusalem.
(1) Referred to as the diaspora or the dispersion
2. Esther
a) Esther's Hebrew name is Hadassah - name of the largest volunteer Jewish women's organization
b) Diaspora/Dispersion
i) We have spoken of how many Jews – estimated at about 80% of those taken into captivity – did not return to Israel after Cyrus allowed the Jews under his control to return to Jerusalem.
c) People in this story
i) King Ahasuerus (The names of Persian kings were sometimes rendered differently in different languages. Bible Dictionary identifies him as Cambyses, king of Persia, 529–521. Ezra calls him Ahasuerus, a Hebrew name. The Greek names, Xerxes or Artaxerxes, are sometimes used as well) – King of Persia, grandson of Cyrus, who allows the Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem
ii) Queen Vashti: King Ahasuerus made a seven-day feast for the people of his palace. On the seventh day, when he was somewhat removed from a state of soberness, he sent for his wife, the queen, “to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on” (Esther 1:11 ). The Queen refused to come and parade for the inebriated king and his drunker courtiers (see Esther 1:1-12) Queen Vashti loses her crown and Ahasuerus marries Esther.
iii) Mordecai is Esther’s cousin who raises her after Esther’s parents die.
iv) Haman is promoted to be the highest-ranking prince in the court of Ahasuerus
v) Things get interesting after Haman gets his promotion.
d) Reading 1 – Esther 3:2-5
2And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.
3Then the king’s servants, which were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment?
4Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew.
5And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.
i) We see the consequences of the captivity for the Jews
(1) Outside of the land of Israel, they are regarded as a separate people
(2) Haman persuades Ahasuerus to order the death of all Jews in the Persian empire because of this slight by one Jew, Mordecai, because they are the people of Mordecai
(3) We will see this same pattern replicated thousands of times among the Jews of the diaspora, which, after Jerusalem falls to the Romans in 70 AD, will be all the Jews in the world.
(4) The only prior time the Jews were an oppressed people in captivity was before Moses lead them out of Egypt
(5) For Mordecai and the Jews living in the Persian empire, there would not be a Moses, but there would be an Esther
e) Mordecai and all other Jews rent their clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes as a sign of mourning. They begin to fast.
f) Esther, living in the King’s palace, hears about this mourning and learns from Mordecai of the decree of the King to kill all the Jews.
g) The law in Persia was that anyone, man or woman, who comes to the king who is not called by the king will automatically be put to death unless the king extends his golden scepter to spare the person from death.
h) Part of Mordecai’s message to Esther – Esther 4:14 - who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
i) This statement raises the question of foreordination, or, in the case of Esther, who did not hold the priesthood, foredesignation.
ii) Reading 2 – Elder Neal A. Maxwell has said: Premortality is not a relaxing doctrine. For each of us, there are choices to be made, incessant and difficult chores to be done, ironies and adversities to be experienced, time to be well spent, talents and gifts to be well employed. Just because we were chosen “there and then,” surely does not mean we can be indifferent “here and now.” Whether foreordination for men, or foredesignation for women, those called and prepared must also prove “chosen, and faithful.” (See Rev. 17:14; D&C 121:34-36). In fact, adequacy in the first estate may merely have ensured a stern, second estate with more duties and no immunities! Additional tutoring and suffering appears to be the pattern for the Lord’s most apt pupils. (See Mosiah 3:19; 1 Pet. 4:19). Our existence, therefore, is a continuum matched by God’s stretching curriculum (“Premortality, a Glorious Reality,” Ensign, Nov. 1985, 16).
i) Esther sends a message to Mordecai
j) READ Esther 4:16
16Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
k) After three days of fasting, at the peril of her life, Esther approaches the king. He stretches out his golden scepter as a sign that she is not to be killed.
l) The king asks Esther what her petition is and she tells him that she would like to give a banquet for the King and Haman.
m) Haman is honored to come, but orders that a gallows be built so that Mordecai will be hanged on the second day of the banquet.
n) On the second day of the banquet, the king asks Esther what her petition is.
o) Reading 3: Esther 7:3-6
3Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:
4For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.
5¶Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?
6And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
i) The king orders that Haman be hanged on the gallows that were built to hang Mordecai.
3. King Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple
a) Set the Scene
i) After Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 B.C., Babylon declined rapidly in power.
ii) In 539 B.C., Babylon fell to the Medes and the Persians, united under the leadership of Cyrus.
(1) Reading 4 – President George Albert Smith wrote: When Cyrus was about fifty years of age, after subduing many peoples and small nations, he appeared with his army before Babylon, the then greatest of all cities, with its impregnable walls, 91 meters high, and its mighty gates of iron and brass. Instead of attacking the walls he diverted the Euphrates River that flowed through the city and used the channel under the walls by which to enter Babylon. (George Albert Smith, "Origin of Man and Prophecy Fulfilled", Liahona, Jan. 1980, 39)
(2) Cyrus was much more tolerant of the religions and cultures of conquered peoples than the Babylonians had been
b) Isaiah
i) Over 150 years before the birth of Cyrus, Isaiah issued a prophesy that must have greatly puzzled the children of Israel
ii) Reading 5 – Isaiah 44:28, 45:1-5
28That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
CHAPTER 45
1Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
2I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
3And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
4For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
5¶I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
(1) A prophesy addressed directly from the Lord to Cyrus
iii) When Cyrus took over Babylon, he would have met the prophet Daniel who had prophesied to the son of Nebuchadnezzar that “thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting” and “Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians” (Daniel 5:27-28)
(1) Either through Daniel or another source, Cyrus had access to captured records of the Jews and learned of Isaiah’s prophesy naming him specifically
iv) Response of Cyrus
(1) READ – Ezra 1:1-3
1Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of theLord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
2Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
3Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.
(2) Cyrus decreed that the temple in Jerusalem should be rebuilt.
(a) He invited the Jews in his empire to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, and
(b) he returned the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar’s troops had stolen from the temple.
4. First Exodus to Jerusalem
a) Not all the Jews left Babylon at the same time
b) Zerubbabel and Jeshua led the first group of Jews back to Jerusalem
i) Found Samaritans were occupying the land
(1) Samaritans were descendants of Israelites who had escaped at the time of captivity and had intermarried with Assyrian and Babylonian colonists whom the kings had sent to occupy the land.
ii) Samaritans had a request
(1) Reading 6: Ezra 4:1-2
1Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel;
2Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.
iii) Response of the Jews to the Samaritans
(1) READ Ezra 4:3
3But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.
iv) Reaction of the Samaritans
(1) Reading 7 – Ezra 4:4-5
4Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,
5And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
(a) Verse 4 – Weakened the hands
(b) Reading 8 – Brother Andrew Skinner has written: "The phrase used in Ezra 4:4, which says the Samaritans 'weakened the hands' of Judah, reflects a Hebrew idiom which means to cause someone to lose heart and become discouraged. . . . . Thus, in their spiritually and emotionally weak state, the Jews, having little resolve, allowed harassment from the Samaritans to hinder their work on the new temple for several years." (Studies In Scripture, 4:342-343)
c) We see here the source of the negative feelings of the Jews toward the Samaritans
i) They had violated Mosaic law by marrying outside of the tribe of Israel
ii) They actively impeded the rebuilding of the temple
iii) This is why Christ’s actions regarding Samaritans were so shocking to the Pharisees
(1) Parable of the Good Samaritan
(2) The Woman at the Well was a Samaritan
d) Also see resistance to the building of the temple
i) READ - Brigham Young said “We never begin to build a temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring” (JD vol. 8, 355, 356).
5. Haggai and Zechariah
a) After many years of no work being done on the temple, the Lord raised up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah
b) Reading 9 – Ezra 5:1-2
1Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.
2Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.
c) Haggai gets the work moving forward again by calling the people to repentance
i) READ – Haggai 1:3-8
3Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your acieled [paneled] houses, and this house [the temple] lie waste?
5Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; aConsider your ways.
6 Ye have asown much, and bring in little; ye beat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that cearneth wages earnethd wages to put it into a bag with eholes.
7¶Thus saith the Lord of hosts; aConsider your bways.
8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the ahouse; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
d) The Samaritans and some provincial governors continued to cause problems, but Darius, the grandson of Cyrus, decrees that the temple will be built without further interference
6. Ezra Leads Another Group of Jews Back to Jerusalem
7. Nehemiah Goes To Jerusalem - Leads the People In Rebuilding the Walls
a) Nehemiah was the cupbearer for King Artaxerxes of Persia. This was a position of great trust and responsibility, requiring Nehemiah to ensure that the king’s food and drink were safe. Even though Nehemiah was in a position of importance in Persia, he cared about his people in Jerusalem and sought to help them when he heard of their difficulties.
b) King Artaxerxes sends Nehemiah to Jerusalem with authority to rebuild
c) No walls around Jerusalem
d) Nehemiah persuades the discouraged Jews to rebuild the walls
i) READ Nehemiah 2:17-18
17¶Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth awaste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
18Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.
ii) Again, there was opposition to this construction
iii) Nehemiah had to set guards to protect those who were building the temple walls
iv) When two of the opponents of the rebuilding asked Nehemiah to come for a meeting, he replied:
(1) READ Nehemiah 6:3
3And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?
8. Ezra Reads The Scriptures To The People
a) After the walls were complete, the people requested Ezra to read "the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel" (Nehemiah 8:1)
b) Most of the Jews had been in captivity so long that they had never heard or read the scriptures.
c) Reading 10 – Nehemiah 8:2-3
2And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
3And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.
d) The Response of the People
i) READ Nehemiah 8:6,9
6And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
SKIP
9¶And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.
e) People Entered into a Covenant
i) READ Nehemiah 10:29
29They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;
9. Ezra Restored the Law
a) Ezra, known as “the Scribe,” is an extremely significant figure in the story of Israel. An Aaronic priest, he was among the returned exiles determined to rebuild Zion. In later generations, he has come to be highly regarded among the Jews as the one who restored the lawful pattern of worship to the Jewish people. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, “Ezra was worthy of being the vehicle of the Law, had it not been already given through Moses. It was forgotten, but Ezra restored it.”
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