Ezra 10

Actions have consequences.

The men who married Canaanites, even though the law said not to, chose to act a certain way. Now they were dealing with the fallout from those actions. It was as true then as it is now: you get to choose your actions, but not the consequences of those actions.

Ezra 9

Why was intermarriage a sin? Why would God even care who his people married? Because they were meant to be different. They were meant to be separate. In short, they were meant to be his.

So are Christians better than everyone else? No, but we are different.

Ezra 8

Ezra writes that he was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers because he had claimed that God would protect the returnees.

But are we not worse? We also make extravagant claims, but instead of being ashamed to rely on temporal power, we revel in it. The disconnect between what we say and what we do is disturbing, but it's worth considering.

Ezra 7

Jerusalem was a four-month journey from Babylon, and that was making good time. If you don't believe me, look at verse 9, which says he left Babylon the first day of the first month and got to Jerusalem the first day of the fifth month, "because the hand of God was with him."

That says a little about how big the Persian Empire was.

Ezra 6

Again, Tattenai wasn't a bad guy.

Once he got his answer, he shut up and got out of the way. The rest of the chapter tells about the dedication of the temple and what it was used for.

Ezra 5

There's a difference between being an enemy of God and just doing your job.

In previous chapters Sanballat and his cronies proved themselves enemies of God. They were willing to use anything, including physical violence and bald-faced lies, to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem. By contrast, Tattenai the governor asked for information, and when he didn't get what he wanted he wrote the emperor. That was just doing his job.

Ezra 4

Sometimes unbelievers want to be a part of God's work, for their own reasons. When they're (rightly) rejected, they often take it personally, causing trouble and hindering the work instead of helping it.

That's still no excuse for not saying no. 

Ezra 3

Notice what they did as soon as the altar was done.

They sacrificed to God. They thanked him for what he had done, and praised him for who he was. Most importantly, they did it his way,according to what he himself had given his law to Moses.

Ezra 2

This long chapter is almost entirely made up of a list of names and numbers. A good many came back, but it was still only a tiny fraction of those carried off. These were the good Jews, those who trusted God to keep his promises.

Always remember, these were the good ones.

Ezra 1

Not only were the Jews allowed to return, but their neighbors paid for it.

Cyrus, predicted by name, was the king who allowed the exiles to return and gave back what Nebuchadnezzar stole. His decree allowing them to leave also encouraged their neighbors to give to them, and the neighbors did so, generously.