Lesson 83-86 – 1st and 2nd Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah

Return from Exile

• What are 1st and 2nd Chronicles?• Let’s go through the song…• After today, we are at the end of the Old

Testament (chronologically)

Israel in Exile

• This is their lowest point since slavery in Egypt.

• They have lost their lands, their leaders, their God.

• Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10– After 70 years, they will be given another chance

• The Lord will always remember His people, but it will always be in His own time.

How does the Lord do it?• Through any of His children who are

open to His guidance.• The other day…• How would it feel to find your name

in a book 200 years old? What would you do?

• Isaiah 44:28, 45:1• Cyrus was the king of Persia, who

had just overtaken Israel from the Babylonians.

• Ezra 1:1-4 – What was his response?

The Jews have to start over

• Why can we call them Jews now?– The 10 tribes are lost– Just the tribe of Judah, Benjamin, and most

Levites remain• The first group of the Kingdom of Judah return• They must now build back up two things

1. The temple of the Lord2. Their own spiritual lives

Step 1

• Ezra 3:1-4,6• What is their first step?– Sacrifice. Which represents what

again?– They needed to accept God again

and the Atoning sacrifice of Christ that would come.

– At this point, Isaiah had already prophesied of Christ, so they should know more deeply what that will mean.

Step 2• Ezra 4:1-4

– The Samaritans pretend like they want to help, but instead “weakened the hands of the people of Judah”

• Nehemiah 6– At this point the temple was built, but Nehemiah

wanted to build back the walls of Jerusalem– Sanballat was the governor of Samaria, tried to

lure Nehemiah into a “meeting” and then stop him from completing the walls.

– Even threatened to tell the King the Jews wanted to revolt

• There was opposition to the building of the temple and the righteousness of the people. They had to overcome both to continue on the path to righteousness

Step 3

• Now that the temple is done, after they had rebuilt their lives, what did the Jews need to do?– Endure to the end

• How?– Ezra 5:1-2– Ezra 8:21-23– Nehemiah 1:9-11– Nehemiah 8:1-3– Nehemiah 10:29-31

God Heals the Hopelessly Broken

“For a number of years I found relaxation in carving and painting songbirds, at times spending a full year on a single carving. . . . Once, I had a newly finished carving on the back seat of a car driven by Elder A. Theodore Tuttle. He hit the brakes suddenly and the carving was thrown to the floor and damaged. “Elder Tuttle felt terrible, supposing he had ruined a year’s work. When I waved aside his apologies, he said, ‘You sure don’t seem to be upset about it.’

President Boyd K. Packer

Nehemiah 8–10

God Heals the Hopelessly Broken

“To reassure him, I said, ‘Don’t worry. I made it; I can fix it.’ Actually it had been broken and fixed many times while Iwas working on it.“Later, Brother Tuttle likened that experience to people with lives broken or badly damaged—supposedly ruined withno hope of repair—who do not know that there is a Maker, a Creator, who can fix any of his creations no matter how hopelessly broken they seem to be” (Boyd K. Packer, “The Play and the Plan” [address delivered at a CES fireside for young adults, May 7, 1995], 7).

President Boyd K. Packer

Nehemiah 8–10

“Hopelessly Broken”

• Sometimes you might feel this way, you may feel captive to your situation, whether brought upon by yourself or by others.

• Sometimes the Lord will let us be torn down so that we can rebuild the right way.1. Recognizing the Atonement of Christ2. Overcoming opposition3. Enduring to the end

Notebook Ideas

• When have you felt that you needed the help of the Lord the most? What did you do to find it?

• How can we avoid needing to rebuild in the first place? Are the steps the Jews took to rebuild the temple only for when things are broken?