Fairy Tale Spotlight: Ezra [Book Review]

You know, I was kind of happy to have a short one after "Kings I" through "Chronicles II." That was a lot of depressing chapters to take in one after another. I needed a break. If you are really seriously paying attention to the "Holy Bible" while you read it, all the books up to this point are extremely annoying and depressing. It makes you wonder why God bothered with us at all. But I digress.

"Ezra" is the fifteenth book of the "Holy Bible," and it is traditionally believed to have been written by Ezra himself. He's a main character in the story as well, which I was happy to see. Substance-wise, the book only deals with one or two things before it closes up. I am a bit "meh" with my opinion of this book, and some of it comes from the initial disappointment that this book really had little to do with King Cyrus.

The basic concept of the book of "Ezra" is that now that Israel is owned and dominated by their enemies, it now seems safe to allow them to re-open their House of God. This whole thing was led by King Cyrus followed by his successor, Darius.

The Jews are allowed to return to their homeland and to worship God, although they are still entirely under the control of others. They are not what they had once been. Honestly, I was happy to hear that. After seeing what a complete mess they made of the very idea of a kingdom, I didn't want them to be in charge of a bowling alley.

The only snag that occurs in the book is that Ezra, who is assisting in the transition, finds out that many of the Jews have married strange women. This was actually the downfall of Solomon in an earlier book. He makes it clear that they have to separate from these women and confess all of their sins before they can be properly returned to their land. A whole system is then put into place to make sure this happens to all of the Jews, and then they can return.

The best thing about Ezra was that he personally found and read the laws given to Moses and entirely dedicated himself to them and to teach others of those laws. Unlike with most Jews, those laws actually meant something. Good for him!

I hate to say it, bit I found it very cathartic at seeing the Israelites humbled. They had been nothing but horrible, spoiled brats up to this book. I don't think they ever get better either. The book of "Ezra" itself feels more like a simple historical book. It is very light on any interesting narrative, but then again, it was only a 40 minute read. It wasn't so bad in that respect.

Still, I think there are probably going to be far better books to come, so I don't really recommend it unless you are a completionist. Time to move on!

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. You can also visit my website at www.tkwade.com. Check out my books! Thanks!