March 4, 2008

Zerababbel, Ezra and Nehemiah. These are some of the prophets we talked about today. As we began to study the book of Ezra, we talked about the history of the people.
I asked the students how they would react if someone came up to them and told them that they were in a book that had been written 200 years before - about them. Some said surprised, others wouldn't believe it. This is what happened to King Cyrus.
After the people of Judah had been in captivity for 50 years to the Babylonians, the Babylonians were defeated by the Persians and Medes. King Cyrus became king and was very tolerant of other religious worship. After reading the prophecy (Isaiah 44 & 48) about himself, he agreed to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem and to build their temple.
We talked about who the Samaritans were, and read about them in the BD. As we understood who they are, it was easier to understand why the Jews didn't want their help. We talked about how the Lord also uses good people outside of the gospel to further his work.

The students divided into groups and wrote letters to the returning Jews. They wrote letters of advice - what advice they would give to these people who were returning after 50 years of captivity.

Afterwards, we played team football. I asked questions and the students searched through Ezra 1-10 to find the answers. Whichever team got the answers right got to move forward 10 yards.
We finished up class talking about the theme which we were able to see within this book, and within the other books of the OT. When we marry outside the covenant, entire nations are destroyed. The Lord warns over and over again, but we repeatedly see that when we don't follow the Lord's counsel, we lose blessings.

After some class discussion - we decided that we will be having class at 8:00 tomorrow and Thursday due to finals and school starting late.
Tomorrow we will go over Nehemiah and Esther on Thursday.