I must admit that Ezra has never jumped out of the pages of my Bible but the book landed on my door mat so I thought I'd give him a chance. How glad I am that I did. Even though Ezra only appears near the end of the book named after him, it opens your eyes to how the Israelites were not living by God's law but by how they thought God's law should be. Ezra made the people want to change, want to learn and enabled others to learn. It made me think how I listen, learn and read the Word instead of just picking the good bits out of it. Like other books there are parts to study and discuss. An interesting read especially when we compare our lives today with the lives of the Israelites out of the Old Testament

?Ezra ? Encountering God?s Revival Man? is part of Day One Publications Face to Face Series, a set of books providing character studies of important Bible figures and perhaps a refreshing look at stories and situations with which we have become so accustomed, that we lose sight of the important points being made by the Bible writers. The character of Ezra is an interesting one as the first six chapters of the ten in the Book of Ezra, the figure of Ezra is not mentioned at all. There is evidence to suggest though that Ezra is being prepared fully in this period by God for his role as a prophet and preacher and later on as the author points out, this bore great fruit in the way that he devoted himself to studying the law of God, applied this understanding to his own life and had the responsibility of teaching these decrees, laws and guidance for living to the people of Israel. This is a fascinating and thrilling book filled with rich description of Ezra?s life situation, the applications we can draw into our own lives and has many very useful illustrations of the author?s experience. It would prove useful as a study guide for groups to read into the Book of Ezra further as being divided into eleven parts, each with discussion points and questions to increase understanding, makes it an achievable and satisfying read. I would commend this greatly for two reasons. It is a great character study of a figure that has many lessons for believers living in the modern world and it is an inspiration to us to read ?the lesser Prophets? alongside our more familiar regular readings.