Purity and Identity God is holy, and he made a covenant with Israel to establish a holy nation (Exod 19:4-6; Lev 19:2). Israel’s identity as God’s people required purity in worship and in social relationships. God knew that if his people mingled with their pagan neighbors, they would be drawn into their detestable worship practices (see Num 25:1-9). Their failure to maintain purity and their assimilation to the surrounding cultures ultimately led to their destruction and exile (2 Kgs 17:5-23). When Ezra wrote to the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem, one of his main purposes was to remind them of their need to remain pure in their beliefs and commitments. After arriving in Jerusalem, Ezra found that the people had intermarried with pagan foreigners, even though doing so was not permitted in God’s law (see Deut 7:3-4; Josh 23:12-13). As a result, their identity as God’s holy nation was in danger of disintegrating once again (Ezra 9:1-2). To impress on his readers the need for separation from these foreigners, Ezra recounts how those who first returned to Jerusalem refused to cooperate with the pagan people living around them (4:1-5). These people claimed to worship the sam...

Completion of the Second Temple The dedication of Israel’s second Temple on March 12, 515 BC, was the most significant event in the lives of those who returned from Babylonian exile. Now they could worship and praise God in the same way their ancestors had worshiped before the Exile, and God’s requirements for covenant relationship with him could be fulfilled. The high priest could go into God’s presence to sprinkle the blood once a year on the Day of Atonement for the nation’s sins. After seventy years of estrangement from God, the covenant community was now restored. This joyous event did not come without difficulty. With God’s help, the returned exiles overcame sixteen years of opposition from the people who had inhabited their land and from Persian officials. Although their enemies made every attempt to discourage them, the Israelites completed the job of rebuilding the Temple and reestablishing worship through patience, persistence, and strong prophetic encouragement (Ezra 5:1-5; 6:14). The dedication of the Temple demonstrates that God can accomplish his will through a small group of people who set their priorities on pleasing him and who trust him to provide the res...