The Historical Books (Part 2 )
Key Word-Settled
After the 70 years of captivity God allowed a small “remnant” of Hebrews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the land.
The Hebrews have been there for 70 years. They got used to that way of living, and therefore, many of them do not wish to return to their old lives before they were led away into captivity. Also, there were many people that were born there and they didn’t had the same background up bring as their ancestral.
God allowed some of these people to return in 3 different waves:
538 BC, Zerubbabel led a group of people to return to Israel to rebuild the Temple.
In 457 BC, Ezra led a second group of people to return to Israel to rebuild the People.
In 445 BC, Nehemiah led a third group of people to return to Israel to rebuild the Walls.
However, shortly after the people returned to their homeland, they began to backslide from God...again.
So God sent prophets such as Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi to help keep them straight.
Not all Jews decided to travel back home. Many remained in Persia. This is where the story of Esther takes place. (Babylon was defeated/ conqueror by another world power call the Persia. ) So, the story of Esther tells the story of the Jews who choose not to return back to in the land.
