Rebuild It

Ezra

Ch1      King Cyrus issues a proclamation (538 b.c.) allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem.

Ch2      About 50,000 people, along with two hundred singers, return.

Ch3      They build an altar, celebrate the Feast of Booths, and lay the temple’s foundations.

Ch4      Opposition forms and the building permit is pulled.  (Connects to time of Esther)

Ch6      20 years after the start, the temple is completed.  Passover is celebrated.

Ch7      About 60 years later the priest Ezra arrives with the King’s Platinum Plus credit card.

Ch9      Intermarriage with the people of the land has compromised matters.  Ezra’s prayer.

Ch10    Confession, renewal of the covenant, and acts of repentance.

Nehemiah

Ch1      13 years from Ezra 7 (446 b.c.) Nehemiah receives news about Jerusalem’s wall.  Confession.

Ch2      With King’s permission, Nehemiah visits Jerusalem, inspects its walls, casts a vision.

Ch4      Opposition to Jews rebuilding the wall.  Prayer for protection.  Action plan.

Ch5      Division among Jews from economic disparity.  Nehemiah forbids usury, gives generously.

Ch6      Plots against Nehemiah advanced by enemies outside and in.  The wall is finished.

Ch8      In heavy rain, Ezra reads the law; Levites explain it.  (v10) “The joy of the Lord is…”

Ch13    Nehemiah returns some time later to find the covenant broken and bad behavior resumed.

Haggai

Ch1      (v5, v7) “Consider your ways.”  “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”  (Connects time-wise with Ezra 3)

Ch2      “Work, for I am with you.”  (v9) “The latter glory of this house shall be greater…”  The Lord says of Zerubbabel, “I have chosen you.”  Zerubbabel will also be like a signet ring.

Conclusion:  Nehemiah 9:31, “Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.”

“The latter glory of this house” and John 2:19-21