The Exodus
When Ezra leads the people in publicly confessing their sins, the Israelites refer to the Exodus as a symbol of God's love and mercy toward his people, and also as an example of the people's t...
Urim and Thummim
In Ezra 2:62-63, the people who couldn't prove their descent from Israel need to wait for a priest to determine their true ancestry using the Urim and Thummim. These were (apparently) stones used t...
The Festival of Booths (Sukkot)
The people suddenly realize that there's a holiday they should be celebrating in the seventh month, and conveniently it just happens to be the seventh month (Nehemiah 8:13-18). The holiday is Sukko...
A New Covenant
When the people swear to a new covenant in Nehemiah 10, they're recommitting themselves to the same values that they'd earlier failed to uphold. They agree to abide by the Law of Moses, to avoid ma...
Fasting for Protection
As Ezra leads a group of exiles out of Babylon and back to Jerusalem, he organizes a fast to obtain God's protection from ambushes:Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might...