EZRA 7 – 8 PART 5
In last weeks lesson, we learned that the children of Israel had neglected building on the house of the Lord, but Haggai and Zechariah stirred the people and they got busy and built the house of God and they had the backing of King Darius. They were unified and focused on the task at hand.
As we enter into chapter 7 a great deal of time has passed. After King Darius died, Xerxes I began his reign. This is the king that is found in the book of Esther, which means the events of Esther took place between chapter 6 and 7. The next king is Artaxerxes I, and this is the king who was reigning in Chapter 7. So, approximately 58 years have passed between chapter 6 and chapter 7. I do want to mention that scholars are divided on which Artaxerxes this is because some believe that it was Artaxerxes II and that is the case then there is 117 years between these 2 chapters. Personally, I believe its talking about Artaxerxes I.
Chapter 7 introduces us to Ezra and as we will see, the
children of
Ezra 7:1 Now
after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of
Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, 2 the son of Shallum, the son of
Zadok, the son of Ahitub, 3
the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, (meh-ray-yawth) 4 the son of
Zerahiah, (zera-hi-uh) the son of Uzzi,
(uhz – eye) the son of Bukki, 5 the son of Abishua, the son of
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest -- 6 this Ezra came up from
Babylon; and he was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, which the LORD
God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request, according to the
hand of the LORD his God upon him.
As we will see in just a minute, the return of Ezra happened in the 7th year of the king in 458 B.C. These first 5 verses give us a brief genealogy, which shows that Ezra was a descendent of Aaron, which means that he was qualified to be a priest and to teach the people about the Law of Moses.
Ezra was living in
Through the providence of God, Ezra had managed to influence
the king and this king was willing to send Ezra to
Ezra 7:7 Some
of the children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the singers, the
gatekeepers, and the Nethinim (neth-uh-neam) came up to
These verses briefly
describe the 4 month 900 mile journey from
10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to
seek the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and
ordinances in
These characteristics
should be found in every Gospel preacher and Christian as well. Notice, the
first thing that he did was to prepare his heart. If you are going to commit
your life to something, you must first prepare your heart to do so as Jesus
said,
Matthew 6:21
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Whenever you determine in
your mind that you are not going to let anything get in your way of
accomplishing your goal, then you will have the foundation that you will need
to accomplish your goal. Ezra goal was to seek the Law of the Lord. Again, this
should be the goal of every single Christian.
There are far too many
Christians today who have not prepared their hearts to seek the Law of God and
because of this many are allowing false doctrine and man-made traditions to
sneak into the church. There are also many preachers today who have not
committed themselves to the Word and they are not defending the truth. Instead,
they just let things happen and they go with the flow, so they don’t have to
worry about losing their jobs or having to deal with people who are offended by
God’s truth.
Another important thing
that Ezra did was he practiced what he preached. It’s one thing to seek the law
of the Lord and it another thing to do it as James said,
James 1:21
Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with
meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and
not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Christians and preachers
alike must do more than just study God’s Word, they must make it part of their
every day lives. If we find ourselves knowing what the Scriptures teach and
then we don’t do what they say, then we are no better off than the Pharisees
and Scribes of Jesus day.
Finally, we see that Ezra
taught the Law of the Lord to the Jews. He was willing and able to leave the
comforts of his home and take the dangerous journey to Jerusalem so that he
could preach the whole council of God to the people, and we will find out Ezra
did not compromise God’s truth in any way and he had some difficult lessons
that he had to teach that would affect the lives of many of these Jews. But if
they were going to be serious about doing it God’s way instead of their own,
they would have to conform to the truth.
Again, this is area that
many Christians and preachers are failing at today. We are allowing ourselves
to be influenced by our society that we should just all try and get along and
just overlook the sins of others for the sake of unity. If we want to be like
Ezra and be pleasing to God, we have to stop compromising God’s truth and
tolerating those who continue to live in sin. While it may be easier for us to
avoid teaching the truth and to fellowship with those that are practicing evil,
its not going help us or the sinner to get to heaven and it will cause God to
be disappointed with us.
That’s why it’s so
important that we stand on God’s Word and that we teach the whole council of
God, even if goes against what society says is acceptable. I hope each of us in
this room take this one verse to heart and everything that goes along with it
because until you are willing to set your heart to seek the law of God and to
do it and teach others you are not going to be the faithful Christian that you
should be.
Next we will read the
letter and decree that Artaxerxes gave to Ezra.
Ezra 7:11 This is
a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave Ezra the priest, the scribe,
expert in the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of His statutes to
Israel: 12 Artaxerxes, king
of kings, To Ezra the priest, a scribe of the Law of the God of heaven: Perfect
peace, and so forth. 13
I issue a decree that all those of the people of
The king offered a great
deal of kindness to Ezra and like King Cyrus he was making sure that the
children of
First, Ezra was given
permission to lead a group of willing Jews back to
Second, Ezra was allowed
to offerings from
Third, Ezra would be
allowed to get more money from the king’s
treasury as needed.
Fourth, the king exempted
the workers in the house of the lord from taxes and he made a decree that
anyone who went against the law of God would be punished.
Everything this king was
doing for Ezra and the Jews can be summed up with verse,
23 Whatever is commanded by the God of
heaven, let it diligently be done for the house of the God of heaven. For why
should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?
This shows how this king
had a great respect for God and how he wanted to do everything in his power to
make sure God was pleased. He understood that if someone opposed God that they
will face his wrath and he didn’t want this to happen to him. It also
interesting that he decreed that anyone who didn’t know the Law of God must be
taught it. Everything was working perfectly for the Jews and they had
everything they needed to be pleasing to God and Ezra gives his thanksgiving
for the Lord in our next verses,
Ezra 7:27 Blessed
be the LORD God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this
in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in
Jerusalem, 28 and has
extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the
king's mighty princes. So I was encouraged, as the hand of the LORD my God was
upon me; and I gathered leading men of
Ezra knew that God had a
hand in all of this and since he knew the Scriptures well, he also could know
that God was fulfilling His promises. This caused Ezra to thank God for all
that he done and it encouraged him to press on and continue to remain faithful
to God because he knew that no matter what obstacle may lay ahead that God
would be with him and help him.
This is the same
confidence that you and I can have today because God is always there for us and
through His providence, He will help us to overcome the hurtles in our life.
Just like Ezra, we should thank God everyday for what He has done for us and for
what He is going to do for us.
Ezra 8:1 These are
the heads of their fathers' houses, and this is the genealogy
of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of King Artaxerxes:
In chapter 8, we have
more details about their 4 month journey to
Ezra 8:15 Now I
gathered them by the river that flows to Ahava (a-hah-vuh),
and we camped there three days. And I looked among the people and the priests,
and found none of the sons of Levi there.
16 Then I sent for Eliezer, (el-ih-ee-zur) Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib,
Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, leaders; also for Joiarib (joy-uh-rib) and Elnathan, men of understanding. 17 And I gave them a command for
Iddo the chief man at the place Casiphia, (kuh-sif-ih-uh) and I told them what they should say to
Iddo and his brethren the Nethinim (neth-uh-neam) at the place Casiphia (kuh-sif-ih-uh) -- that they should bring us servants for
the house of our God. 18
Then, by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of
understanding, of the sons of Mahli (mah-leh) the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, (sher-uh-bigh-uh)
with his sons and brothers, eighteen
men; 19 and Hashabiah, (hash-uh-bigh-uh) and with him Jeshaiah (juh-shay-uh) of the sons of Merari, his brothers and
their sons, twenty men; 20
also of the Nethinim (neth-uh-neam),
whom David and the leaders had appointed for the service of the Levites, two
hundred and twenty Nethinim (neth-uh-neam). All of them were designated by name.
These Jews were held up
for 3 days at the river and Ezra noticed that there wasn’t any of the sons of
Levi there. Only the Levites could be priests so he wanted to make sure they had
some go with them. Ezra had word sent to Iddo of Casiphia for him to send him
some Levites and some Nethinims (neth-uh-neams).
The Nethinims were slaves and they did a lot of the manual labor for the
priest.
Ezra 8:21 Then I
proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, (a-hah-vuh) that
we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us
and our little ones and all our possessions.
22 For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of
soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had
spoken to the king, saying, "The hand of our God is upon all those
for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those
who forsake Him." 23 So
we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.
It was customary for the
Jews to fast to show their humility before God and to show their desire for Him
to answer their prayers. There were many enemies that could attack this group
of Jews and take all their possessions and this was real concern for Ezra, but
he wasn’t about to ask the king to send soldiers to protect them after he claimed
that God was powerful and could take care of them. This took a lot of faith and
trust in God for them to do because not only did they have a chance of losing
their possessions, they also putting their little ones that is their children
as stake. Verse 23 jumps ahead in time and lets know that God did answer their
prayer and they had a safe passage to
We must learn to put our
faith in God like Ezra did. To many times we rely upon ourselves and others
when we should rely upon God.
Ezra 8:24 And I
separated twelve of the leaders of the priests -- Sherebiah, (sher-uh-bigh-uh) Hashabiah, (hash-uh-bigh-uh) and
ten of their brethren with them -- 25
and weighed out to them the silver, the gold, and the articles, the offering
for the house of our God which the king and his counselors and his princes, and
all Israel who were present, had offered. 26 I weighed into their hand six
hundred and fifty talents of silver, silver articles weighing one
hundred talents, one hundred talents of gold,
27 twenty gold basins worth a thousand drachmas, and
two vessels of fine polished bronze, precious as gold. 28 And I said to them, "You are
holy to the LORD; the articles are holy also; and the silver and the
gold are a freewill offering to the LORD God of your fathers. 29 "Watch and keep them until
you weigh them before the leaders of the priests and the Levites and
heads of the fathers' houses of
This was a huge amount of
treasure and Ezra was putting it into the hands of these 12 priests and 12
Levites. This was accordance with the Law found Nub. 4 because these priest and
Levites were supposed to be the one that transported items like this that were
for the house of God. This just shows how careful Ezra was being in following
the Law of Moses.
Ezra 8:31 Then we
departed from the
We are not given much
detail of what happened on their journey, but we do know that God protected
them and they arrived safely. They handed the treasure over and it was weighed
and written down. Then these Jews sacrificed animals on that day, which was for
all 12 tribes of
In conclusion, I want to
share with you how Matthew Henry summed up this event and how it applies to us
today.
"The expressions here used, direct our attention to the deliverance
of sinners from spiritual bondage, and their pilgrimage to the heavenly