Week 18: 2 Chronicles 29 to Ezra 10

This week's reading schedule is:

• Weekend:   2 Chronicles 29 - 32
• Monday:    2 Chronicles 33 - 36
• Tuesday:   Ezra 1 - 3
• Wednesday: Ezra 4 - 6
• Thursday:  Ezra 7 - 8
• Friday:    Ezra 9 - 10

We'll finish the 2nd book of Chronicles with the kings Hezekiah (good), Manasseh (bad), Amon (bad), Josiah (good), and then in rapid succession until the Babylonian siege: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachinand Zedekiah, under whom Jerusalem falls and the people of Judah taken captive. 2 Chronicles 36:21 always intrigues me: "The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah." The writer of Chronicles, whose vantage point was after the exile, was able to look back to the exile not only as judgment (different from the writer of Samuel and Kings), but also as containing hope for the future. For him the purified remnant had returned to a purified land (verse 22 & 23), and a new age was beginning. The exile was not judgment alone, but also a blessing, for it allowed the land to catch up on its sabbath rests (Lev. 26:40-45, 1 year for every 7 years, so a total of 490 years of not observing the sabbath rests). But God had remembered his covenant (Lev. 26:45) and restored his people to the land.

It is a reminder that God is in control of the big picture of world history, and the small details of our lives as well. The book of Ezra is all about this new hope and restoration, and the challenges that it brings. The beginning of Ezra is identical to the end of 2 Chronicles, showing the continuity of Israel's history. Both Ezra and Nehemiah are great examples of church leadership, and the challenges of building up and maintaining a healthy church, God's people.

Dick