Message 4
Scripture Reading: Ezra 7; Ezra 8; Ezra 9; Ezra 10
For God to fulfill His promise, spoken through Jeremiah, that the captivity would last only for seventy years (Jer. 25:11-12; Dan. 9:2), He accomplished two returns. The first return was under the leadership of Zerubbabel, a royal descendant. The second return was under the leadership of Ezra, a priest.
The first return did not need the priestly leadership of Ezra; rather, it needed the kingly leadership of Zerubbabel, a royal descendant who knew how to govern. Zerubbabel governed quite well, taking the lead in building up the altar and the temple. After this, the need shifted from the royal family to the priesthood, to Ezra, a descendant of the high priest Aaron. Ezra was not only a priest but also a scribe, someone who was skilled in the law of God (Ezra 7:6). As such a person, Ezra had the capacity to meet the need.
Chapters seven and eight are concerned with the return of the captivity under Ezra.
The return of the captivity under Ezra began through his request to the king (7:1-10). Ezra must have appealed to the king to give many of the Jews in his empire the freedom to go back to the land of their fathers. As we will see, the king not only granted Ezra’s request but also provided everything he needed.
Ezra’s genealogy in 7:1-5 indicates that he was a descendant of Aaron the chief priest.
The king granted the request of Ezra, a scribe skilled in the law of Moses (v. 6).
Ezra, some of the children of Israel, some of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants left Babylon on the first day of the first month in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king and came safely to Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month according to the good hand of God.
The book of Ezra does not speak of the Spirit of God, but the hand of God is mentioned a number of times (7:6, 9, 28; 8:31). What is the difference between the Spirit of God and the hand of God? When God’s Spirit works inwardly, that is the Spirit. When God’s Spirit works outwardly, that is God’s hand.
Ezra had set his heart to seek and do the law of Jehovah and to teach His statutes and ordinances (7:10). We need to see the difference between the statutes and the ordinances. The Ten Commandments are the main items of the law, but all these commandments have their statutes, which give the details. For instance, the fourth commandment is about keeping the Sabbath. The details regarding this commandment are found in the statutes. The ordinances are statutes to which judgments have been added. When a judgment is added to a statute, that statute becomes an ordinance. Regarding the commandment to keep the Sabbath, there are not only statutes giving the details but also ordinances telling of the judgment that will come upon those who break this commandment. Ezra set his heart not only to seek and do the main part of the law of Jehovah but also to teach His statutes, the details, and His ordinances, the verdicts and judgments.
Verses 11 through 28 tell us about the decree of Artaxerxes king of Persia to Ezra the priest, the scribe.
The king permitted the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites to go to Jerusalem as they willed, with silver and gold and vessels (vv. 12-19). This means that they were permitted to go freely with all their wealth.
The king also permitted the provision for the needs of the house of God out of the king’s treasure house (v. 20).
The king went on to order all the treasurers in the lands beyond the Great River, the Euphrates, to provide whatever Ezra the priest required for the house of God (vv. 21-23).
Next, the king ordered the treasurers not to impose tribute, taxes, or tolls on the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, or servants of this house of God (v. 24).
According to verses 25 and 26 the king authorized Ezra to appoint magistrates and judges to judge the people in the land, to teach them the laws of his God, and to execute judgment according to the law of God and the law of the king. Here the king did something for his own advantage. Without a person such as Ezra, who would have been qualified to maintain a proper order among the people in the good land? In authorizing Ezra to appoint judges and magistrates, the king of Persia was clever, for he knew that the ones appointed by Ezra would execute judgment not only according to the law of God but also according to the law of the king.
Verses 27 and 28 are Ezra’s blessing to God. He blessed God for putting such a thing as this into the king’s heart to beautify the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem, saying that God had extended lovingkindness to him before the king, before the king’s counselors, and before all the mighty officers of the king. Then Ezra declared that he was strengthened according to the hand of Jehovah his God upon him. What the king did for Ezra, he did according to the hand of Jehovah. To some extent, the king, the counselors, and the mighty officers might have realized that God was with the Jews. God’s hand was there, controlling everything sovereignly for the benefit of His elect.
In 8:1-20 we have the genealogical enrollment of those who returned from their captivity back to Jerusalem.
Ezra proclaimed a fast before they left Babylon, to humble themselves before God to seek from Him a straight way for them, rather than to ask for troops and horsemen from the king to help them against the enemy in the way (vv. 21-23). Instead of asking for troops, which the king would have provided, Ezra put his trust in the good hand of God.
Ezra set apart twelve of the leading men of the priests to take care of the offerings of silver, gold, and vessels for the house of God and to bring them to the house of God in Jerusalem (vv. 24-30). This was a serious responsibility, for it involved risk and danger on the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Verses 31 through 34 describe the journey and arrival of the returned captivity.
They set out from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, having the hand of their God upon them, who delivered them from the hand of the enemy and from people set in ambush on the way (v. 31).
They arrived at Jerusalem and delivered all the silver, gold, and vessels to the house of God by weighing them (vv. 32-34). This indicates that they delivered this wealth in a very careful way.
Verse 35 speaks of the offerings to God by the returned captivity. As soon as they arrived, they offered burnt offerings and a sin offering.
The returned captivity delivered the king’s decrees to the king’s satraps and to the governors of the provinces beyond the River, and these supported the people and the house of God (v. 36).
Chapters nine and ten are an account of the purification of the returned captives from the defilement of the foreign wives. God had charged the children of Israel, when they entered into the good land, not to have intermarriage with the peoples of the land. At Ezra’s time, not only the common people but even the priests and the Levites had foreign wives.
This purification was initiated by the officials of the returned captives (9:1-2). They accused the people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites of not separating themselves from the peoples of the lands but taking the daughters of the nations for themselves and for their sons, thus mingling the holy seed with the peoples of abominations. They accused the leaders and the rulers of having been foremost in this unfaithfulness to God.
Verses 3 through 15 describe Ezra’s reaction.
Ezra tore his garment and pulled out hair from his head and his beard and sat down appalled with the gathering of those who trembled at the words of the God of Israel (vv. 3-4). Those who trembled at the words of God were the faithful ones.
Ezra then made a thorough confession of the iniquities of the children of Israel from their forefathers’ time to their time, saying that their iniquities issued in the delivery of their kings and their priests into the hand of the kings of the lands and into captivity and shamefacedness (vv. 5-7).
Ezra thanked God for leaving them a remnant to escape and for giving them a peg in His holy place by extending His lovingkindness to them in the sight of the kings of Persia to give them a reviving, to raise up the house of their God, and to give them a wall and to repair its ruins in Judah and Jerusalem (vv. 8-9).
Ezra continued by confessing their being defiled with the uncleanness and abominations of the Canaanites in seeking their peace and prosperity, thus losing the right to enjoy the good of the promised land and to leave it for an inheritance to their children forever (vv. 10-15). Ezra was confessing that by taking foreign wives the people were despising and neglecting their right to enjoy the good land and as a result they were given by God into captivity.
In 10:1-5 we have the congregation’s reaction.
The people reacted by weeping very bitterly for their unfaithfulness against their God by marrying foreign women from the peoples of the land (vv. 1-2).
They also made a covenant with their God to put away all their foreign wives and those born of them, according to the counsel of Ezra and of those who trembled at the commandment of their God (v. 3).
The people encouraged Ezra to be strong and bear his responsibility. Then they swore that they would do according to his word (vv. 4-5).
Ezra 10:6-44 is a record of the final decision. A proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of Israel to gather in Jerusalem within three days (vv. 6-9). Next, the decision was made to separate themselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women (vv. 10-14, 16-17). However, a few of the people stood up against the decision, supported by one Levite (v. 15). Finally, there was a list of all the men who had married foreign women (vv. 18-44).
We have pointed out that Ezra emphasizes the matter of God’s hand. It was by His hand that God gave the children of Israel into captivity. It was also by His hand that God brought the children of Israel back from their captivity to the land of their forefathers. Here we see that the same God did two different things: He gave His people to their enemy as captives and He delivered them from captivity and brought them back to their fatherland. Ezra, a wise man, was clear about this.
Ezra realized that the first return was not perfect, not complete. He realized that there was the need for someone who was skilled in the law of God to help the people to know God not merely in a general way but according to what God had spoken. Ezra had such a capacity, so he volunteered himself to go to the king and to request a decree from the king permitting the Jews to do everything freely.
Chapter one of Ezra tells us that God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation concerning the rebuilding of the house of God (vv. 1-2) and that He also stirred up the spirit of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites to go up to build the house of God in Jerusalem (v. 5). God was hiding Himself, but at the expiration of the seventy years, He came in to stir up the spirit of Cyrus. Cyrus must have been happy that the great empire of Babylon was in his hand, and regarding the Jews he might have wanted to do something that was opposite to what the Babylonians had done. Humanly speaking, Cyrus took the initiative to make the decree. Actually, this was initiated by God in a hidden way. Therefore, the first return from Babylon to Jerusalem was initiated by God.
The second return was initiated by Ezra, a priest and a scribe skilled in the Word of God. Ezra came to the king and appealed to him to grant his request (7:6). From this we see that sometimes God personally stirs us up in our spirit to do something for Him. However, often God is quiet, realizing that it is better that we do something because we have the capacity, as Ezra had. In this kind of situation, God is responsible for the things we do. Whether the things are stirred up by Him or stirred up by us, He will be in them, stretching out His hand to do everything to help us.
