Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

100 / CORNERSTONE CURRICULUM STUDENT WORKBOOK

• Discern the key elements, cautions, and procedures in investigating the original situation of the text, discovering biblical principles, and making correct applications of the Scripture’s teaching to your life.

A Heart Prepared to Study, Do, and Teach the Word of God Ezra 7.10 – For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Is your heart prepared before God? A glance at the major saints of the Scriptures reveals that our God uses men and women whose hearts have been prepared before him to study his Word, to practice it diligently within their lives, and then be used as his vessel to communicate his truth to others. Perhaps one of the clearest examples of this is recorded in the OT historical book of Ezra which details the return of the Israelites during the post-exilic era back to Judah from Babylon in order to spiritually revive the faithful and reestablish the worship of the Lord in the temple. The worship of the Lord in a way that is appropriate and right is a key theme in all the books of the OT written during the time after Israel and Judah were sent into captivity because of their sin against God. Included in these books are 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi (with perhaps the book of Esther being the only exception). Those who returned were ready and willing to acknowledge their guilt before the Lord, their confidence that he would reestablish them in the land he had given them, and that he and he alone was worthy to be worshiped and able to usher in his kingdom reign through the coming Messiah. Actually, there were three returns to the land of Israel from Babylon, which occurred approximately in the years 538, 458, and 444 B.C.E. This corresponds to the fact that there had been three times that the population was deported to Babylon from Israel in the years 605, 597, and 586 B.C.E. respectively. The returns were led by godly servants of God, the first in 538 B.C.E. by Zerubbabel (Ezra 1-6; Haggai; Zechariah), whose efforts resulted in the rebuilding of the temple. The second return occurred in 458 B.C.E. under the leadership and supervision of Ezra (Ezra 7-10), which focused on the reform and instruction of the people, their spiritual revival , and the need for them to come back to the Lord through the fulfillment of the covenant. Finally, Nehemiah led the third return to the land in 444 B.C.E., whose major concerns dealt with rebuilding devastated Jerusalem’s broken down walls, and with Ezra, to bring God’s people back to the Lord with spiritual renewal and covenant obedience. Many scholars believe that

Devotion page 77 & 2

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