How do we know that God is real and that He interacts with people and nations?
Ezra says we only need to follow the story of the release and return of his people, the Jews, from their seventy years of captivity in Babylon. He begins his journal with the startling proclamation of Cyrus the Great, the Persian conqueror who allowed the Jews to go home. He introduces us to Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel, and others with strange names who encouraged the Jews along the way, letting each tell his on story.
Finally, Ezra, too, goes to Jerusalem armed with sweeping powers from King Artaxerxes I, to put the religion of the Jews back on course. The restoration of the temple was to be Israel's consummate symbol of resurrection. But Ezra is met by a population both apathetic and disobedient to God's law that forbids Jews to intermarry with non-Jews.
The story Ezra tells is truly one of grand scale. God interacts with kings and commoners, with servants and leaders, with Jews and their enemies to accomplish something greater than just their release from captivity.
Thoroughly researched, the author includes information from II Chronicles, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah and Malachi to create an easy-to-read narrative.