SERMON: Old Testament Overview, Part 12: The Final Writings

SERMON: Old Testament Overview, Part 12: The Final Writings

January 03, 2024

Old Testament Overview
Part 12: The Final Writings

This Session:

The Final Writings (Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah)
The Intertestamental Period

I. Introductions

We are (thankfully!) not studying twelve books tonight!
We are focusing this evening on the Post-Exile:
After the Babylonian Empire came the Persian Empire

It is also under this empire that the Jews are finally allowed to return home.

They failed to keep the yearly sabbaths for 490 years (once every seven years), so they were in captivity for 70 years (Jer. 29:10–11; 2 Chron. 36:21)
538 BC — Decree of Cyrus (1 Chron. 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–4)

It is under this empire that Esther comes to prominence

II. Esther

“And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
DATE: 483 BC to c. 473 BC
Between Ezra 6–7
Ahasuerus: King Xerxes I, reigning 486 – 465 B.C.
THEME: Preservation through providence;
OUTLINE:

I. The THREAT to the Jews (1 – 4)

A. Esther becomes queen (1-2)
B. Haman's plot against the Jews (3-4)

II. The TRIUMPH of the Jews (5 – 10)

A. Mordecai's triumph over Haman (5-7)
B. Israel's triumph over enemies (8-10)

This book records the start of the Feast of Purim and the prophesied end of the Amalekites
As full of providence as it is, the name of God is absent from this book (also, no mention of Jerusalem, the temple, the law, prayer)

Is this a message about the spiritual state of the people in exile?
Does this not show us the faithfulness of the Lord?

III. Ezra

“Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, that is of everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:5–8)
DATE: 538 – 458 BC
THEME: Rebuilding the temple and people
OUTLINE:

I. The Return and Reconstruction under Zerubbabel (1 – 6) 538 B.C.
Between chapters 6 & 7, there is a 57-year gap. Esther fits in here.
II. The Return and Reform under Ezra (7 – 10) 458 B.C.

May have originally been one book with Nehemiah
Records the decreed return of the exiles (Ch. 1)
The foundation of the Temple completed with much ceremony (Ch. 3). Zerubbabel and Joshua reject the help of the Samaritans (4:3).
Ezra’s approach to ministry (7:10).
Repentance of the people who had married into paganism (Ch. 10).
KEY DATES:

538 B.C. Cyrus decrees that captive peoples may return.
536 B.C. The first return under Zerubbabel.
516 B.C. Temple completed (6:13ff).
458 B.C. Return and reform under Ezra.

IV. Nehemiah

“They read from the book, from the law of God, explaining [translating] and giving insight [giving the sense], and they provided understanding of the reading” (Neh. 8:4–8).
DATE: ca. 445 – 424 B.C.(about 90 years after Zerubbabel/Joshua)
THEME: Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and Reforming the People
OUTLINE:

I. Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah (1 – 7)
II. Revival of the people under Ezra (8 – 10)
III. Reinforcement of the work under Nehemiah (11 – 13)

Artaxerxes - Persian King who was the son of Xerxes I and Vashti; stepson of Esther.
Often taught as a book on leadership. However, the theological significance is God's sovereign, undeserved faithfulness.

V. The Intertestamental Period

The time between the Old and New Testaments
DATE: ca. 400–4 BC
Noteworthy:

Saw the end of the Persian Empire, replaced by Greece and then Rome
A time without prophets or the visible glory of God
Some history recorded in the Apocrypha (i.e., the Maccabean Revolt)
History predicted in Scripture: Daniel 11

Daniel 11

V. 2 – Three kings (Cambyses, Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspis). A fourth, richer — Xerxes (Ahasuerus of Esther)
Vv. 2–4 — Alexander the Great, who will “do as he wills” for the next decade
Vv. 5–20 — The Grecian Empire

Divided among Alexander’s generals
Daniel focuses on the Ptolemies (south) and the Seleucids in the north.
Covers the various Syrian wars.
Daniel also predicts how these battles will progress and eventually involve the Romans.

Vv. 21—35 — Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 B.C.)
11:36–45 — Shift from Antiochus to Antichrist

Next Time:

New Testament Overview!