Books of the Bible

The best way to know Jesus is by reading the Bible. The best way to read the Bible is in context. The best way to get the context of a part of the Bible is to read the entire chapter and book that the verse is located in. This is where many cults will get false teachings, by taking a sentence or two out of its context. This area will have overviews of different books to help you in your study of the Bible.

Ezra
Haggai
Zechariah

Zechariah wrote this book during a time when the Jewish people were discouraged. They had returned to Israel after 70 years of captivity in Babylon with great expectations, but the building of the temple had been stopped by the King of Medio Persia and the neighboring lands. Zehariah was commissioned by God to prophecy to the people about God's plan for the nation in the immediate future and in the last days.

God used numerous visions to show Zechariah his plan.

The second shortest book in the old testament, Haggai is best understood when read with Chapters 1-6 of Ezra and all of Zechariah. Haggai was written in around 520 BC just 15 years after the Jewish people were allowed to return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon. In 536 BC, the Jews were allowed to return by the Persian king Cyrus. The next king in line was convinced by the local non-Jewish people in Israel that he should stop the building. From that time, approximately 525 BC to the time of Haggai's prophecies, the Jews had stopped building. They were instead working diligently on their own homes and forsaking the work of building God's house, the Temple of God.

At the beginning of Haggai's prophecy to began rebuilding the temple, it was actually illegal in the land for the Jews to follow the Lord's command. The previous king, Cambyses had made a decree to stop and the new king Darius had not changed it yet. Haggai's prohecy hit hard to the Jewish people. He explained that they had famine in the land because they did not build the Lord's house. The leaders, Zerubbabel and Jeshua listened to the prophecies and Haggai and began the rebuilding again.

Once the people obeyed God, He opened the door with the king, and the current king, Darius, made a new decree that the building should continue, and even that the non-Jewish people in the land should take their taxes and direct them to the building also. To better understand Haggai, again, I recommend reading the first 6 chapters of Ezra, and I also recommend studing the other prophet that encouraged the Jewish people at the same time as Haggai, the prophet Zechariah.

Other reading that will open your insight into the time era would be Daniel, which occurs just prior to Haggai, and Esther, Nehemiah and the second half of Ezra, which happens just after Haggai.

Ezra covers a long period of time from the declaration of Cyrus for the Jews to return from captivity to their homeland of Israel to rebuild the Temple in 536 B.C. all the way to the declaration of Artaxerxes for the Jews to build the walls of Jerusalem in 440 B.C. Ezra is actually split up into two sections, Chapter 1-6, which detail the rebuilding of the Temple, and Chapter 7-10, which detail the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

The author of the book according to tradition is Ezra. He was in charge of the return of the Jews from Babylon in 460 B.C. He along with Nehemiah returned to build and secure the walls of Jerusalem from intruders. Other books in the Bible that should be read along with Ezra are Esther, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah.

Section 1
The beginning of Ezra is one of the most amazing prophecies in the Bible. Cyrus here declares that the Jews may return to rebuild the temple. This was actually prophecied in Isaiah 44 and 45 almost 200 years prior to this. It is likely that Daniel showed Cyrus these writings, which then inspired Cyrus to worship the One and Only God. It is clear from this declaration that Cyrus had a firm belief in the God of the Bible. Almost 50,000 Jews returned at this time to rebuild the temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel.

Section 2
The second section of Ezra from Chapters 7-10 occurs about 100 years later. This is the era when Ezra was alive and returned to Jerusalem under the decree of Artaxerxes. There is an interesting tie between Artaxerxes, Esther, and Nehemiah. Esther was the step mom of Artaxerxes. She married Xerxes, Artaxerxes Dad, when he was in power. When you read the book of Esther, you find that she had an amazing life and saved the Jews from destruction. Esther's step-son likely looked up to his step-mom and offered to allow the Jews to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city. Nehemiah was the cup-bearer of Artaxerxes and also asked to return to rebuild the walls when he saw that his people were in trouble back in Israel. Ezra had returned with 2,000 Jews to Jerusalem under the decree of Artaxerxes 13 years before. This amazing time shows the wonderful hand of God in restoring the Jews to their homeland.