Message: A Romance in the Days of Ezra

Finally, a book about Noadiah - the final prophet of the Old Testament. Her story compels us to see the days of Ezra and Nehemiah from a new perspective. They were desolate days in Jerusalem. The Jews had killed the beloved prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, but Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah the Persian appointed Governor of Judea, omitted his murder from their glorious records reverberating with Jewish lineage and self-praise. It took the coming of Jesus, the light to the Gentiles, to illuminate the dark acts of the Jews - "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'...upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar." Matthew 23:29-35 Stephen also said of the Jews - Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? We need to see the history of the Jews through the lens of Jesus. When Nehemiah recorded that Noadiah and all the prophets were trying to intimidate him, were his actions right, or was it Noadiah and the other prophets who were right to oppose him? John Thatcher combines a lifetime of Bible study with great insight, to present the closing acts of the Old Testament as a warning to perceive the things that are of God, and the things that are of men.