Ezra and Daniel - two very different characters, but each on their own way committed to God’s cause.
The kingdoms of Egypt and Syria
Daniel 11:5-20
The evil king of Syria
Daniel 11:21-24
He will invade Egypt
Daniel 11:25-30
The Remnant returns (49,897) 536 BC
The abomination that causes desolation
Daniel 11:31-35
Prophecy of the Antichrist
Daniel 11:36-39
His final hour
Daniel 11:40-45
The end times
Daniel 12:1-13
The list of the returning exiles: the men of Israel
Ezra 2:1-20
Those from various towns
Ezra 2:21-35
The priests
Ezra 2:36-39
This is our first taste of apocalyptic - a particular type of Biblical writing that is deliberately hard to understand. As I see it, it is deliberately written in code so that enemies will not be able to make sense of it. So, all these references to the King of the North, and the king f the South would makes sense to people at the time, but are very hard to disentangle now. I haven’t got the time to delve through a commentary and read what experts have done, trying to fit different pieces of history against these words, so it all washes over me. A sense of tumult, deceit and lust for power, with fortunes swinging back and forth, and little Israel (described as the Beautiful Land) caught in the middle of it.
Ezra couldn’t be more different. He’s a dry, precise keeper of records - very reminiscent of the Chronicler. Perhaps he was in fact the Chronicler, and spent his time in captivity re-writing Israel’s history. Reading the roll call of the returnees, there’s no sense of triumph, or relief - no sense of anything really, the list is recorded without emotion - just a calm factual statement of who went back to Jerusalem. At least with Ezra in command it would all happen in a very orderly way. The only thing that strikes me is how few there are - Cover to Cover helpfully adds up the numbers for me and there’s less than 50,000. Back in the days of Moses when he was mustering the tribes for war, each one of the tribes could provide twice that number of fighters.
The kingdoms of Egypt and Syria
Daniel 11:5-20
The evil king of Syria
Daniel 11:21-24
He will invade Egypt
Daniel 11:25-30
The Remnant returns (49,897) 536 BC
The abomination that causes desolation
Daniel 11:31-35
Prophecy of the Antichrist
Daniel 11:36-39
His final hour
Daniel 11:40-45
The end times
Daniel 12:1-13
The list of the returning exiles: the men of Israel
Ezra 2:1-20
Those from various towns
Ezra 2:21-35
The priests
Ezra 2:36-39
This is our first taste of apocalyptic - a particular type of Biblical writing that is deliberately hard to understand. As I see it, it is deliberately written in code so that enemies will not be able to make sense of it. So, all these references to the King of the North, and the king f the South would makes sense to people at the time, but are very hard to disentangle now. I haven’t got the time to delve through a commentary and read what experts have done, trying to fit different pieces of history against these words, so it all washes over me. A sense of tumult, deceit and lust for power, with fortunes swinging back and forth, and little Israel (described as the Beautiful Land) caught in the middle of it.
Ezra couldn’t be more different. He’s a dry, precise keeper of records - very reminiscent of the Chronicler. Perhaps he was in fact the Chronicler, and spent his time in captivity re-writing Israel’s history. Reading the roll call of the returnees, there’s no sense of triumph, or relief - no sense of anything really, the list is recorded without emotion - just a calm factual statement of who went back to Jerusalem. At least with Ezra in command it would all happen in a very orderly way. The only thing that strikes me is how few there are - Cover to Cover helpfully adds up the numbers for me and there’s less than 50,000. Back in the days of Moses when he was mustering the tribes for war, each one of the tribes could provide twice that number of fighters.
Israel is tiny.
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