Five books, though not all beside each other in the arrangement of the Books of the Bible, all tell of one time. Put an arrow on your chart, pointing to the time just before the Lord Jesus came to earth. Then write in the names of these five books — Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. These five books tell of the time of the return of a small number who had a heart for the Lord, and were willing to leave the prosperous life in Babylon. The kingdom of Judah, 2 tribes only, had been carried away captive to Babylon just before BC 500, for 70 years.
Chapters 1-6 These chapters are a history of what had happened about 70 years before. Ezra wasn’t born at that time.
Let’s go back as to why Israel was taken captive. It was because they had turned away from the Lord. So the Lord had called on the head of the first and greatest of the world empires, Babylon, to take away Judah out of their land. They had now been 70 years in Babylon.
V.1-4 Cyrus was then the head of the 2nd world empire, Persia — Iran, today. He offers to let any of the captives of Israel to return to Jerusalem. He would pay all their expenses. What a God of mercy, love and power we have!
V.5-11 King Cyrus did an amazing thing. He told the captives to take back to Jerusalem all the vessels of the house of the Lord which the other king of Babylon had stolen 70 years before.