Ezra - The God Who Rebuilds

This is a simple overview of thee transitions for the Israelites from the book of Ezra. The story tells the way God enables them to rebuild the Temple - and also the city of Jerusalem. This same God wants to rebuild us. The three ideas are: (1) God's presence extends beyond the Temple to the City (and by implication in outward direction to the whole world); (2) Israel shift from being an elite spiritual leader driven religion to being a religion based around community leadership; (3) Judaism shifts from being an oral based religion to scripture based.