Message 2
Scripture Reading: Ezra 1:1-5
In this message we will give an introductory word to our life-study of Ezra.
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are the last three books of the history of God’s chosen people in the Old Testament after 1 and 2 Chronicles. These three books all are related to God’s chosen people in their captivity. The first two cover in a public way the return of God’s people from their captivity (cf. Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi), and the last one presents to us a pattern of how the hidden God, in a secret way, takes care of His chosen people in their captivity.
The writer of the book of Ezra was Ezra, whose name means “help” or “helper.” He was a descendant of Aaron (7:1-5), a priest and a scribe skilled in the law of Moses (vv. 6, 11-12). There are three Ezras in the Bible: one was a priest who returned with Zerubbabel (Neh. 12:1), one was a descendant of Caleb (1 Chron. 4:15-17), and one was the writer of this book.
Regarding the time of writing, the contents of this book cover a period of about eighty years, from 536-457 B.C.
It is very important for us to know the contents of the book of Ezra. This book gives us a record of the two returns of the children of Israel from their captivity. The first return was under Zerubbabel, a descendant of the royal family of David (chs. 1—6). Zerubbabel should have been the one to succeed the throne of David, but he was appointed to be the governor of Judah by Cyrus. The second return was under Ezra, a priest as the descendant of Aaron (chs. 7—10).
It is significant that Zerubbabel was of the royal tribe (Judah) and that Ezra was a descendant of a priestly family. The priests took care of God’s speaking, and the kings took care of God’s ruling. All that God has been doing is mainly in these two matters of speaking and ruling.
The book of Ezra stresses the return of the children of Israel from their captivity. This return is crucial in four points.
The children of Israel were called by God and separated by God unto Himself as His testimony. Their captivity had annulled this purpose. The return of the children of Israel from their captivity recovered the purpose of God’s calling of them.
As a people, the children of Israel were supposed to be a testimony of God. In what way was Israel to be a testimony to God? If we would answer this question, we need to see that the law given through Moses was called the testimony (Exo. 25:16, 21) because it is a portrait of God. As the Giver of the law, God is portrayed in the law according to what He is. In particular, the Ten Commandments are God’s testimony. The ark was called the ark of the testimony (25:22; 26:33), and the tabernacle was called the tabernacle of testimony (Num. 1:50, 53).
The Ten Commandments, inscribed on two tablets of stone, are divided into two groups of five commandments, like the ten fingers on our two hands. Each group of five commandments is divided into four plus one.
In the first group, the first three commandments are concerned with God and charge us not to have any god other than God, not to worship idols, and not to take the name of God in vain. God must be the unique God to us.
The fourth commandment concerns the keeping of the Sabbath. The real significance of keeping the Sabbath is that we must stop ourselves in order to be one with God. Those who do not keep the Sabbath may gain a day for themselves, but they lose God. The commandment regarding the Sabbath is also related to God. Thus, the first four commandments are all concerned with God.
The fifth commandment, concerning honoring our parents, ranks our parents with God and points to God as our origin. Our origin is our parents, and the origin of our parents is God. When we honor our parents, we honor God. From this we see that honoring our parents is a very significant matter.
The second group of five commandments is concerned with our relationships one to another. These are the commandments not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to lie, and not to covet. How wonderful our society would be if there were no killing, no adultery, no stealing, no lying, and no coveting. Our community would be a marvelous place if everyone was loving, pure, truthful, and helpful. A people who keep these last five commandments would surely be a real testimony of God, testifying that their God is the God of love, purity, sympathy, and truthfulness. Such a people would surely be God’s particular people, God’s elect, separated unto Him and sanctified to the uttermost.
After the man created by God became fallen, mankind fell lower and lower until, at Babel, they became rotten to the uttermost. God gave up the created race after Babel. Then He called Abraham and gave his descendants the law as the testimony of God. He expected that Abraham’s descendants would be a people who had only Jehovah as their God, who rested with God in oneness, who honored their origin, and who loved one another in purity and honesty. Such a people would be the same as God in expression. They would be the many reproductions of God on earth testifying of the one God in heaven. This was God’s purpose in calling the children of Israel and separating them to Himself. But the children of Israel failed God, breaking every one of the Ten Commandments and becoming the same as mankind.
The testimony of God is that we have one God and no other gods, that we stop ourselves in order to be one with God and to enjoy Him and have Him as everything, and that we honor Him as our origin, which is signified by our parents. Israel was carried away into captivity, and God lost such a testimony. They were called by God for the purpose of being His testimony, and their captivity annulled this purpose. But the return of the children of Israel from their captivity recovered the purpose of God’s calling of them.
In order to have one testimony, God always kept the children of Israel together in a narrow piece of land, not allowing them to become too great in number. They were a particular people in a particular place, and they were in oneness. But the captivity scattered them, some to Assyria, some to Egypt, and most of them to Babylon. This caused them to be divided and thus to lose their oneness as a people for God’s testimony. Their return from their captivity to the unique ground of Jerusalem (Deut. 12:5, 11-14) recovered this oneness. However, as we will see, in their return elements of the captivity returned with them.
God brought the children of Israel into His promised good land through His redemption and salvation that they might partake of the good land and enjoy it as their portion in God’s economy. Because of their failure, they lost this portion of the good land in their captivity. Their return from their captivity recovered their enjoyment of the portion of the good land promised by God.
Those who are in today’s denominations do not stress the enjoyment of Christ, and the denominational people are not taught, instructed, and directed to enjoy Christ. When I was with the denominations, I did not have any enjoyment of Christ. Only after I left the denominations did I begin to enjoy Christ.
Those who are in captivity are away from the good land, away from Christ. The Israelites who were captives in Babylon were away from the good land. Likewise, the Christians in the denominations are kept away by many things from the enjoyment of Christ. They have the name of Christ but not the enjoyment of Christ. If they would have the enjoyment of Christ, they must leave their captivity and come back to the proper ground where Christ, the good land, is.
God intended to have His house built and His kingdom established on the earth through Israel’s participation in and enjoyment of the good land. There would have been no way to accomplish this unless the children of Israel returned to the good land from their captivity.
Where is God’s house and His kingdom today? Satan, the enemy of God, has usurped the earth. He has kept the earth as his house and as his kingdom. This has caused a great problem. Why does God need a people today? God needs a people because He wants a house where He is the Father and a kingdom where He is the King. The Lord needs His house and His kingdom in order to carry out His eternal economy. This is the reason God needs a return of His people from their captivity. God needs a house and a kingdom, and for this He needs the recovery.
All the foregoing crucial points are types typifying today’s recovery of the church life, which is a recovery out of the church’s captivity in the great Babylon (Rev. 17:1-6) back to the unique ground of God’s choice.
The book of Ezra has two sections: the return of the captivity under the kingly leadership of Zerubbabel (chs. 1—6) and the return of the captivity under the priestly leadership of Ezra (chs. 7—10).
