This Reading Mama

Ep 21: Israel's Captivity & Return Bible Reading Plan

• Becky • Episode 21

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Welcome back to the podcast!

Today, we're sharing our next printable Bible reading plan, which covers the captivity and return of Israel. The history of Israel from this episode can mostly be found in 2 Chronicles as well as Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. We walk you through each book to explain how it fits into the timeline.

We're picking up where we left off in Episode 19 in the storyline of the Bible. If you're new to our podcast, it may be helpful to listen to the previous episodes where we go through the storyline of the Bible.

Previous Bible Reading Plans:



As a quick reminder, join our Podcast+ Membership or login to your membership to download the reading plan, transcript, guided notes, and study tools from this episode!


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SPEAKER_01

Welcome back to this Reading Mama's Podcast. I am Becky. This is Amy. Thank you all for joining us again. A quick reminder that we have the podcast plus membership. We do not have any advertisements on our YouTube videos, and that is so that you are not interrupted while you're listening. It's for your convenience. The membership is only $5 a month. That gives you access to the Bible reading plans like the 31 Days of the Divided Kingdom that we did in episode 19. It also has resources for you to use graphs, charts, other tools that will help you engage with the podcast while you're listening to it, and also things that you can use to teach a Sunday school or even aid in leading a Bible study. So if you become a member, you are coming alongside of us to help teach others why Bible literacy matters. So just a quick run through of the Old Testament timeline that we've been using since the beginning. It goes through the different Bible reading plans that we've created for every month. So the very first one was the beginning, and that you can review in episode two, where we walk through the different aspects of the creation through Joseph. Then the second one is slavery, freedom, and wanderings. That is on episode five. We review Pharaoh all the way through the tabernacle. The third one is the promised land. That is episode 10. We go through Joshua, all the way through Ruth. I really like that one. The cycle of the judges is very interesting. The fourth one is called the United Kingdom. That is episode 15. We walk through the life of Samuel all the way through King Solomon. The fifth one, which was the last one that we did in episode 19, is the divided kingdom. And we went through the civil war, the division of Israel, and then the prophets that God sent to them to warn them. And the one that we do today is captivity and return. And this is episode 21.

SPEAKER_00

So our new reading plan focuses on the captivity of the people in Babylon as well as their return. It's going to take you through the books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and a few of the minor prophets. Today we want to just kind of start by reviewing how we ended on our last Bible reading plan. We ended with a hope in a future. This is from Jeremiah 29. And this is where Jeremiah is writing to the exiles. He tells them to thrive in Babylon, to pursue the well-being of Babylon while they're living there. And he tells them they're going to be there for 70 years, but he also promises a hope in a future for them, that he will restore the land back to them.

SPEAKER_01

In Daniel 1 through 4, we learn about the life of Daniel while he's in Babylon. So the name Daniel means God is my judge. In chapter 1, it talks about how King Nebuchadnezzar told them that they needed to grab people from the royal families and nobility. Daniel was one of those people. He was a young man, he fit all the characteristics he was looking for, one without defect. And he was taught and trained for three years about the language and the literature of the nation of Babylon. And after the three years, he would then go into the king's service. King Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel's name changed to Belteshazzar. And that is because it's actually really interesting, because the names that the people of Israel had involved God in their names. So they would always remember who they were created for and who their God was. But obviously in Babylon, they wanted to try and erase that from their memory, so their names were changed. Daniel had three friends that ruled with him. God gave them knowledge and understanding, and he gave Daniel the ability to understand visions and dreams of all kinds. There were none equal to Daniel and his friends while they were in Babylon. Chapter two talks about Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Daniel's the only one who can interpret it. It is the dream of the large statue that many people know about when you think of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. It goes through the different empires of the world, starting with Babylon. So King Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold, and then it goes to the rest of the statue leading into the Medio-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, which is also known as the Hellenistic Empire. We talked about that in our previous episode about the languages of the Bible, because the Old Testament was translated into Greek after the conquest of Alexander the Great. And then the very bottom part of the statue breaks off into the imperialistic empire, which started with the Roman Empire. Chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar makes an image of himself of gold. I wonder why he did that. He tells everyone they need to bow down to him. So Daniel is not there at this time, but his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are. They do not bow down, they are thrown in the furnace. This is where King Nebuchadnezzar sees what he says appears to be a son of God. He gives God the glory that they come out of the furnace, not even smelling like smoke, and he decrees all to worship their God. However, we see that Daniel has to interpret another dream of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter four, where he dreams of this tree. And it's so sad because Daniel says, Oh, how I wish that this were about one of your enemies, but this is about you. And so it basically takes us through where King Nebuchadnezzar once again becomes prideful, and then God removes him from the kingdom, and he goes through this period where he has to finally confess that God is the God of all. And I do believe I will see King Nebuchadnezzar in heaven. Hmm.

SPEAKER_00

And then in chapter five of Daniel, we see King, and I'm putting him in quotes here, Belshazzar. He's truly not the king. He's Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. His father was the king, and it's believed that his father perhaps was on vacation, even just living in another part of the kingdom at this time. So Belshazzar was kind of put in place as the king. At this point in Babylon, I mean, he's sitting fat and happy. They have this huge wall, this massive wall that surrounds the city. I think it's they said like 86 or something like that feet across. So four chariots could ride on it side by side. It's really tall. They've had no really competition. No one's come in and taken them. So this King Belshazzar is he's pretty confident that nothing's gonna happen. He actually throws this big, huge feast, and the thousands or a thousand people come, important people in the city, and they're feasting. And really what they do is what they're doing is an affront to God. They're really paying tribute to their gods, and they are feasting using gold and silver from the tabernacle that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken when he destroyed Jerusalem. So they're there feasting, and all of a sudden, there is writing on the wall. It knocks King Belshazzar back. He's really, he's just, I mean, can you imagine? A finger just appears and starts writing on the wall. No one can figure it out. So then it says the queen, but I really do think it was King Belshazzar's mother, calls for Daniel. She remembers Daniel. Oh, yeah, there was this guy who could interpret dreams. Let's call him. So Daniel comes in, he kind of gives Belshazzar a what to speaking, like a come to Jesus meeting. He's like, he gives him a little bit of history that Belshazzar should have known. And then he interprets the writing on the wall, which is mene, mene tekul, peres, I think is how you say it. And it really means numbered, numbered, weighed, divided. So essentially, he's he's basically saying, Your kingdom's gonna be taken from you, you your heart has been weighed, you have been found wanting, and your kingdom is gonna be divided. So the Medes and the Persians come in that very night and take over. They actually devise a really cool plan with the Euphrates River, and they come in in an unexpected way and they take over.

SPEAKER_01

In Ezra chapter one, we see where God begins to stir the heart of Cyrus towards his people. I'm gonna read chapter one, verse two of Ezra. This is what Cyrus, king of Persia, says The Lord the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any one of his people among you, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem and Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. That actually went through verse three. But I love how King Cyrus is recognizing who God is, and he's making a national decree about it. So he sends them back into Jerusalem so that they can rebuild the temple. They return each clan to their own town, and once they're settled in their towns, it says that they give freely for the rebuilding of the temple.

SPEAKER_00

And Zerubbabel is the dude that's in charge of rebuilding the temple. We see him mentioned in Ezra 3 through 6. We also know that during this time there was great opposition to rebuilding the temple. And because of that, the people became discouraged. And then we see Haggai, we see him kind of come in in Haggai 1. He says, You're living in these houses, but yet the temple remains unfinished. In Ezra 5, 1 through 2, we're told that Haggai and Zechariah were sent to encourage them to continue to build the temple, and they do.

SPEAKER_01

We learn about Ezra in chapters 7 through 10 of Ezra and in Nehemiah 8. It also talks to us about what Ezra does with the people. So Ezra is a scribe and a priest. He is in Babylon after the first group goes back into Jerusalem. It says that he is a teacher well-versed in the law of Moses. And he is actually living in Babylon under King Artaxerxes, who is a Persian king. And this king writes a letter for Ezra and the other leaders that go back into Jerusalem with him. And he orders all of the royal satraps and governors, so the leaders along the Trans Euphrates trail to provide whatever Ezra says that he needs. And if they don't listen, it's punishable by death. So Ezra makes it back into Jerusalem, and he is responsible for rebuilding the people. So putting them in their place and helping them understand what God had originally decreed for them. So he sets up leaders and he warns in Ezra 8, verse 22 through 23. I'm going to start in the second part of verse 22. The gracious hand of God, of our God, is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him. So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer. I love that it says he answered their prayer. So while while they are there, and Ezra is teaching them about the law, it says that the leaders and the officials have led the people astray by leading them in intermarrying with the other nations. So women of other nations that are around them, this is a detestable sac uh sorry, a detestable practice to the Lord. So all of those who saw how Ezra reacted, because he begins to mourn and they fear what God has said. And so it says they come around Ezra, and Ezra begins to pray. First, he thanks the Lord that there even is a remnant of Israel left. And that shows God's kindness. He reminds them of what God said to them as they left Egypt about not intermarrying with the other nations because they have detestable practices. He reminds them that they were in exile because of the result of them engaging in these practices that God did not want them to do. He asks God to forgive them. The people confess and they separate themselves from their foreign wives. Then Ezra reads the law in Nehemiah 8. And as he's reading the law, the people begin to mourn because the law is revealing to them the sin that they've committed against God. And he says, Don't mourn. You need to be rejoicing. So they celebrate and they even celebrate the feast of the tabernacles. This is really interesting because it is the feast where they have to build the booth so they can remember the time that they were in the desert in the wilderness before they were allowed to enter the promised land and how God provided for them in that time. They had not celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles since the death of Joshua. And so as Ezra's reading the law and they see that they're supposed to be doing this feast, with joy, they begin to do this.

SPEAKER_00

This kind of makes me think of you were talking about how they were in the wilderness. In a way, being in captivity, they were in the wilderness again, and God had brought them back. That's just really cool. Then we have Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a cupbearer in Persia, and he gets news from Jerusalem that the wall is not built. You know, it was destroyed as well. So in Nehemiah 1 through 6, we see him come and he helps to rebuild the wall. One thing I love about Jeremiah, although I do love Jeremiah. One thing I love about Nehemiah is that he is so quick to take his burdens to the Lord. He's quick to pray, but he's also quick to take action. He's not one of these who would have a, for example, a family member who's a who's a non-believer and be praying, Lord, please send someone to give them the gospel. He's going to do it himself. Like he realizes God has a part and he has a part. And I love how he, when there's opposition, because there's a lot of opposition, he says to the people, don't be afraid of them about the opposition. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord and fight for your countrymen, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. And as they're building, it says, From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half held spears, shields, bows, and armor. And even further down in chapter four, it says, And I, my brothers, my servants, and the men of the guard with me never took our clothes off. We each carried our weapons even when we were washing. So he's serious business here. Don't mess with Nehemiah. So it's really cool that even though there was opposition, the wall was completed within 52 days. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01

In Nehemiah chapters 9 through 10, it walks us through the national repentance that took place under Nehemiah. Nehemiah leads them into fasting and the confession of their sin, and then they swear an oath to follow the decrees and the commands that the Lord has given them. While they are in this moment of fasting and confession, Nehemiah walks them through their history of how God took them out of Egypt, brought them into the promised land, and all the way back into exile and back into their land so that they can remember how faithful and kind God has been to them.

SPEAKER_00

And then we have the scattered. So not every Jew returned back to Israel. Many of them remain scattered. We see that Daniel, Daniel never returned. Esther became Queen Esther. She was one of the ones. So these are people who kind of assimilated into their the culture, the Babylonian culture. The story of Esther is just really awesome to me. God is not mentioned. His name is not mentioned in the book of Esther, but his providence is all over it. And I love that the story, I love telling the story to, especially to teens who think they kind of, I know the Bible. And then they're like, Well, do you know the story of Queen Esther? My kids were like that last year. And I was, they were like, No, we know who she is, but tell us the story. My favorite part of the story is where the king can't sleep. And they're like, Well, let's read you your, you know, kind of a bedtime story of your kingdom. And he realizes Mordecai has saved his life. And I just love how God uses all of that. But essentially, the king is tricked, kind of like King Darius is tricked during the time of Daniel and the Lion's and he's tricked into signing an edict, basically, that allows for the annihilation of the Jewish people. And because he is a Persian king, the law was once you've made a law, you can't go back on your law. So Queen Esther is able to reveal to him he has signed in this law and it's going to be annihilating her people, the Jews. We realize Haman's the one that came up with this plan. He is executed on the same gallows that he builds for Mordecai. So then what the uh king does is he signs into law that the Jews can fight back. And so we have the festival of Purim that is developed during this time where the Jews were allowed to fight and God gave them the victory over their enemies. Pretty cool. Esther, even though people may not know the storyline of Esther, the probably the most popular verse from Esther would be Esther 414, where Mordecai says, if you don't, it's something like this. This is the Becky version. If you don't rise up and do something, our deliverance will come from another place. So Mordecai's basically saying, God's going to rise up and protect us. I'm not worried about that, but who knows that you have been put in this position for such a time as this?

SPEAKER_01

And then we enter into what is known as the period of watching and waiting. It's a period of approximately 400 years. They are watching and waiting for the prophesied Messiah, the Savior that would come. There are prophecies in the Old Testament that are very detailed in how the Messiah would come into the world, where he would be born, how he would be born into the world. And so some of those prophecies are found in Zechariah and Malachi. So I'm going to read some of those to you. In Zechariah 9:9, it talks of Jesus riding on a lowly donkey or of the coming Messiah. It didn't say Jesus in the Old Testament. John 12 15 confirms that the one that was prophesied about is Jesus because that's how he comes into Jerusalem when it is Palm Sunday that we celebrate today. In Zechariah 13, it talks about how the shepherd is going to be struck and the sheep will be scattered. Malachi 3, verse 1, talks about the messenger that's going to prepare the way. That's pointing us even to John the Baptist. And in Mark 1, he confirms who Malachi was talking about. Isaiah 53 goes into detail about the suffering servant. So you can see all through scripture that they know he's coming, they know how he's coming. But as we continue to read in in the New Testament, they don't understand, they don't want to accept that he has to suffer, even though it says that he's going to. In John chapter 5, verse 39, Jesus says to them, You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me. So this is a warning to us as well. It's not enough just to read and know what the scriptures say. You have to believe it.

SPEAKER_00

Amen. And the exciting news is drumroll. No, don't really. You can go ahead, drum roll. Very nice. We now have completed our six reading plans for the Old Testament, all the way from Genesis to 2 Chronicles, Ezra to the captivity and return. And so the next reading plan we will do will begin in the New Testament. That's exciting. So let's be determined as Ezra to read, do, and tell the word of the Lord. Amen.

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Becky Spence

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