Latest / Scripture Central / Ezra and Nehemiah I Persians Free Israel from Babylon I Handmaidens, Harems, Heroines I Lynne Wilson

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Ezra and Nehemiah I Persians Free Israel from Babylon I Handmaidens, Harems, Heroines I Lynne Wilson · Scripture Central

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  Ezra felt that intermarriage threatened the Israelite
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  covenant. He said it was the holy seed
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  should not have been mingled. These daughters are
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  demonstrating they want to build Jerusalem again to fulfill God's
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  promises to this community. The real problem is idol
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  worship. To solve this problem, Ezra
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  commanded the men to divorce all their foreign wives.
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  The scripture say they wept very sore that the children spoke
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  their mothers languages, not Hebrew.
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  Nehemiah responds with absolute fury.
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  He physically confronts these men for marrying out of the
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  covenant and he makes them swear to create no more marriages with
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  foreigners. And he calls on people again to
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  have divorces. When her marriage was arranged
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  with a priest, the priest did something very unusual.
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  He chose to keep the family. Hello.
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  Welcome back to Scripture Central.
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  I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson, part of the team that wants to build
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  enduring faith in Jesus Christ. As we look at the Old Testament,
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  and today we're in Ezra and Nehemiah, I want to look
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  specifically at the handmaidens and the harems and the heroines.
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  Actually, I don't know how many of those we have.
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  We do have a lot of handmaidens. We have a lot of female
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  servants. We've got, we got a lot of
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  daughters, we got 1 queen and we have unfortunately one false
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  prophet, prophetess. But originally Ezra and Nehemiah
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  were one book. You know, it was divided into 3
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  portions. The rebuilding of the temple in
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  Jerusalem, a religious community being developed and purified,
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  and then the building of the walls in Jerusalem from
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  Nehemiah. And now that's all together in
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  one book of Ezra and one book of Nehemiah.
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  But just as a little bit of background, just to remember
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  where we are, the Babylonian Empire comes in from all the way
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  from about 626 BC to 539 BC. And even though these books are
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  not written by prophets, they're written by scribes and
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  governors. We did have prophets at this
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  time. We've got Jeremiah and Daniel
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  and Habakkuk and Lehigh from this time buried in Jerusalem
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  and Ezekiel right after. And I've got a nice little graph
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  here on my slides as well as in my handout to describe there was
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  the first captivity in six O 5. That's when Daniel was taken in
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  the wealthy. Then there was another group
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  taken from Jerusalem to that's the second captivity.
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  That's when Ezekiel was taken in 597.
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  But the entire temple, Solomon's temple was destroyed in 586.
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  And so the majority of the people that were living in the
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  southern tribes at that time, we're all called Jews, even
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  though there are many tribes are living in Babylon on the ur of
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  Chaldees in Mesopotamia. But Babylon falls to Cyprus, the
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  Persian in 539. And Cyprus is just within a few
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  years is told that you have been prophesied to help us return to
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  our people. Well, he's very thrilled and
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  allows them to go with great pageantry and the first group of
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  exiles return. That's where we're starting.
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  And that's under Zahra Babel's Zerabable leadership.
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  And he is to rebuild the temple. And then about 70 years, almost
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  100 years later, we get Ezra and Nehemiah.
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  And by the time Nehemiah and the walls are finished, it's been
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  100 years period of time from the first returning exiles to
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  the time that the wall is finished under Darius the
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  second. Babylon has a lot of records and
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  so we can go back and date things and get exact dates of
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  when certain people were ruling. We even have some of the
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  archaeology still. Europeans came in and took down
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  the beautiful blue tile ceramic walls of Babylon and they are
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  now available to be seen in the Berlin Museum.
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  They are absolutely gorgeous and you can see them online.
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  You don't need to go to Berlin and get a feel for who they
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  worshipped and what they were worshipped and the, and the high
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  level of civilization and artistry at this time.
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  The first Persian Empire is founded by a Cyrus the Great and
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  he begins this dynasty that goes from about 550 all the way down
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  to 330 BC. And he it, it's included in the
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  Medes. And sometimes the Bible talks
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  about them separately and sometimes together, but
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  historically they, they tended to overlap.
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  But this Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem and
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  rebuild their temple. And as I mentioned, just a
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  couple of years after he's put in power.
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  So at about 5:38 to 5:37, they begin gathering and many Jews
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  choose to go back. He opens up the temple treasury.
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  He gets all the things that the his predecessors had stolen or
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  taken from I I think stolen's appropriate from the temple, the
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  gold and the and the different instruments that were used
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  inside. And Cyrus gives them back to
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  this group of returning Jews. Now there are three periods
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  where the Jews actually leave the Babylonian area or the UR of
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  Chaldees and go back to the Promised Land.
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  But this first one is the largest, but it's still only
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  42,000. Well, the numbers are actually
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  counted exactly. When the remnant returns, we
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  have 42,360 3 Israelites. These are males and females and
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  children. And then they have 737 servants
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  and singers. You know, they're exactly
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  numbered. They know who went.
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  And now we're not told in the scripture if this servants and
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  the singers had a right to choose to accompany their
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  masters or if they just all came as part of the household.
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  I assume studying a little bit about servitude and slavery at
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  this time that everyone was required to go if your master
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  was going. But however they got there,
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  these officials counted each returning refugee, male and
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  female, and they counted more than the people.
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  So if you count up the servants and these free men and women,
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  you've got about 50,000. And then they list 736 horses,
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  245 mules, 435 camels, and the animal of choice, 6720 donkeys.
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  You've got an enormous amount of of animals to accompany and help
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  carry all these things for these almost 50,000 people.
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  The people that returned, I was very interested to see how
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  carefully they named and numbered the servants that were
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  returning to Judah. The female maids were among
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  these, of course. And it let me know that the
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  social class all needed to work together to rebuild this temple
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  and city. It wasn't going to work if you
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  just brought back the elites. You needed those who are going
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  to help in the kitchens and in the lifting the rocks and the
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  stones and and with the children.
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  And so these female servants likely perform very important
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  duties, you know, in addition to just a number.
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  They came because they were needed, and their return to this
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  devastated homeland, even though they lived a much more
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  comfortable life in Babylon, required an enormous sacrifice
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  by the time they got to Jerusalem.
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  And as I thought about the British Saints coming to Utah
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  and being sent out in the desert, you know, it was a
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  horrendous sacrifice for them. I feel the same about this.
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  You know, they've been in captivity about 70 years.
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  They want to go back and fulfill God's purposes.
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  They want to fulfill God's covenant, but it is hard work.
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  I've got one more graph that's very helpful.
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  These three groups of return from the exile, the first one
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  after the 70 years of captivity, is Zerubbabold's responsibility
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  to rebuild the temple. And we've got at least two
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  prophets during this time, the prophecies of Hagia and
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  Zechariah. And we'll get into those when we
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  get to the prophets. But then there's about a 60 year
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  gap before we have the next group under Ezra.
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  Oh I should have also remembered that Joshua was the high priest.
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  So Zerubbabel was in charge of building the temple, but the
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  high priest was in charge of running the temple.
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  So this this group of 50,000 returnees.
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  Now, if you count how many people were taken, this is just
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  a small portion. Some people have estimated only
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  6% of the Levites returned and they're the ones that we
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  numbered the most carefully. So very few considering the
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  overall picture. Many chose to stay and live in
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  Babylon. And the next group that came out
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  was a very small group with Ezra.
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  We're told that number in the scriptures, it's 1000, 1/2 I
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  think, and then there's a 12 year gap.
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  And then Nehemiah is called as the governor to rebuild the
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  wall. And then Nehemiah goes back and
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  forth and on his second return we have the prophet Malachi
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  prophesying. Then we've got about 400 years
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  without prophecy in the scriptures of the Christian
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  Bible. Now the Jews claim a lot of that
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  intertestamental period as wise people giving wise counsel, and
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  they're in the Apocrypha and they are listed in things like
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  the Maccabees and Judith and then Sera, and some of them
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  claim to have wisdom, but nobody claims to be a prophet during
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  that time. Among these 50,000 that are
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  returning, a family is described that I'm very interested in.
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  It's both in Ezra and Nehemiah, which tells you that they're
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  very important to the text, and it also tells us what the author
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  wants to emphasize. The fact that he is including
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  this extremely unfortunate family is is pointing to what
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  the authors are trying to say. So I'd like you just to pause
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  and look a little closer at Ezra chapter 2, verse 61 and Nehemiah
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  Chapter 7 verse 63. They talk about generations
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  before a wonderful woman from the family of Barzilia, who is a
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  Gileadite, and they came from the very wealthy, honored
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  family. They were very loyal supporters
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  of King David. And when her marriage was
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  arranged with a priest, the priest did something very
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  unusual. He chose to keep the family name
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  of his wife instead of his own priestly name.
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  So generations later, they're now back, they're coming to
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  Israel and they want to help in the rebuilding of the temple.
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  However, it causes serious problems because they don't have
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  a record that he came from the priestly family that was allowed
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  to work on the temple proper. Things like the the the
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  sanctuary, that altar has to be worked on only by the priest.
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  Well, these authorities excluded him from temple service and he
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  has to completely abandoned his priestly genealogy because they
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  don't acknowledge with his name changed.
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  This tells you what they're trying to emphasize in these
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  chapters. Even though this is at the early
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  part of Ezra, we will hear later on in both of these books an
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  attack against anyone who is not blue blood.
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  It's rather interesting in conjunction with the book of
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  Esther right next door where a woman is allowed to marry out of
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  the covenant. And but this, this isn't even
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  out of the covenant. It's just marrying the ironic
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  and a Judaic tribe and which happens all the time.
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  That isn't a problem. I mean, just look at Solomon.
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  There's plenty of them with Solomon.
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  But this one is interesting because it suggests the
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  priesthood line was not done by genealogy but by name.
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  And I realized that many people were illiterate at this time.
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  It was very difficult. Anyway, interesting story, Very
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  sad story that's included there. Another group that came back are
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  these singers. Now, do you remember Claire back
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  with Moses, Sister Miriam? And we talked about all the
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  women who are using the tambourine and singing and
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  dancing. And we've seen lots of female
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  singers ever since we began reading from Miriam on down.
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  But these singing women were considered important enough that
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  they that the officials specifically counted them in
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  their census and mentioned them as the female singers and the
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  male singers restoring proper worship to Jerusalem that
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  required it was skilled musical instruments.
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  And these men and women who have been chosen to help are
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  performing at the temple ceremonies, at the festivals, at
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  the community gatherings. They're providing worship that
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  has been in the past was part of Israel real service.
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  I don't know while they were in exile if they were able to
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  continue this, but their willingness to leave Babylon and
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  return to this devastated homeland really demonstrates
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  their dedication to re establishing the authentic
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  worship in Jerusalem. I think it's it's wonderful,
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  especially since I'm a musician and rather favor musicians
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  myself. This is an exciting part of the
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  story for me. But as we move forward after the
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  period of Zerubbabel on to the building of the wall, twice in
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  our account, Ezra 9 and Nehemiah 10 and 13, we hear about these
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  daughters of Judah. So these Israelites, remember,
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  you're called from Judah sometimes even if you're from
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  other tribes who are marrying foreign sons and vice versa.
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  Some foreign daughters are marrying sons of Judah, but the
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  bottom line is they are marrying across the covenant.
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  And so we've now been there for for decades.
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  But between this Babylonian exile and the return to Judah,
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  these these Israelite tribes have been engaged in interfaith
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  marriages, which is causing a lot of problems from a modern
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  perspective. Looking at this, I want to step
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  back and say, but the Jewish daughters had very little choice
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  in the selection of their spouse.
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  You know, they can't divorce. They can't choose.
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  Everything's arranged for them when they're very, very young,
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  from birth until age 12 1/2. But Ezra discovers that among
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  these interfaith marriages, some of the people who are doing this
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  are ironic priesthood holders. And he gets furious.
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  The priesthood lineage has got to remain pure.
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  Their concern was not ethnic. It's religious.
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  It's purity in the temple, but he goes beyond that.
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  I think they go to an extreme that from my history, my
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  perspective is a little concerning, but I want to walk
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  in their shoes and look at from their perspective.
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  And what Nehemiah and Ezra are concerned about in their records
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  is that there is idolatry coming in.
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  The real problem is idol worship.
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  And so to solve this problem, Ezra 9.
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  This is this is crazy. And verse 2, he speaks out
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  instead of asking them to be converted and doing missionary
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  work. And instead of these great
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  examples we had in the past of Rahab, and then even David's
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  grandmother Ruth marries Boaz and they're both converted
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  strong women. Instead of those two examples,
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  Ezra felt that intermarriage threatened to the Israelite
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  covenant and he said it was the holy seed should not have been
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  mingled with unholy. And so Ezra commanded the men to
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  divorce all their foreign wives. Now as I mentioned, this seems
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  harsh, especially in Babylon when a Jewish maid is about to
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  marry the king. You know, this is this is the
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  same time period of of Esther that we'll talk about it next
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  week. But to save her people, she does
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  this, or the Lord opens a doorway for her to do this.
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  But it's interesting that in Jerusalem, they're living it one
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  way, and it's interpreted completely different in Babylon.
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  So the crisis demonstrates to me that the marriage covenant
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  requires faith on both sides, but it can be enacted
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  differently at different times under different leadership.
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  But I just want to remind you that Ezra and Nehemiah are not
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  prophets. They are scribes.
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  They are what we would call an attorney or something.
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  They are governors. You know, that's it's a very
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  different situation here. Who's leading the show?
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  But God has given the commandment to preserve family
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  and the national spiritual identity.
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  So I appreciate that they're probably doing the best they
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  know how to do at the time. Moving forward now to Ezra 10,
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  these women are part of a massive congregation that
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  gathers at Jerusalem. Ezra wants to publicly mourn
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  about the loss of this covenant purity and this inner marriage
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  between the Israelites and idol worshippers.
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  And so the women are there and active participants.
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  The women at this moment are part of a national repentance.
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  They're showing that they are included in the religious
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  gathering. They they they care about the
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  covenant and the covenant violations and the the scripture
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  say they wept very sore. This is really wonderful that we
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  see this. I think the people are weeping
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  are the people who are going to be kicked out of the families,
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  but they may be weeping further senses.
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  But the fact that these quote UN quote required divorces would
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  separate innocent children and parents is is tragic.
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  But the fact that the text wants to say that the men and women
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  are all making this vow together is is powerful.
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  Now, Ezra aimed for accountability for the entire
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  community. And that's why, of course, the
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  women have to share not only emotionally in, but in the
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  spiritual loss to this nature nation.
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  So they're going to go through a repentance the best they know
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  how. And in his mind, it is requiring
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  divorce. I think he's out of line.
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  When we get to the book of Nehemiah in chapter 2, there's
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  another woman, the queen of our taxes.
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  This is now the Persian queen. She's unnamed, but it says that
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  she is sitting right there next to her husband.
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  And when Nehemiah is requesting permission to return with
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  another group of Israelites or Jews to Jerusalem to rebuild its
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  walls. And I think this is interesting
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  that her presence is specifically noted during this
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  important political decision. You know, I think it might
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  suggest that either she had influence in the King's court,
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  that Nehemiah wanted to say both king and queen were united in
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  carrying this out because the the Persian queen sometimes held
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  considerable power. It's a little bit different than
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  it is in other countries, but they could sway royal decisions.
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  And we even know who this queen was.
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  If it were the right king, then it's Queen Damaspia, so he gets
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  permission. The third group gets to return
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  back. It's not very many a number, but
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  we're told that one of the people who has an important role
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  here is a man named Shalom and his daughters are working
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  alongside their father to repair this wall.
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  This is very unusual. They're the only women we've
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  ever heard of in the text or this 100 years of trying to
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  rebuild. A lot of women are there.
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  A lot of women are helping, but we are not told that they're
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  doing the this job. Now.
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  It's interesting because this Shalom, it was a ruler over half
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  of Jerusalem, which makes his daughters, I think, a woman of
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  status. But we don't know if they're
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  physically lifting the stones and helping in this
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  reconstruction, or he just doesn't have sons.
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  And he says no, these daughters are running the show.
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  They're directing it. They're they're helping in many
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  ways. Now to rebuild a Stonewall is
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  going to be extremely physically difficult, even with donkeys and
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  horses helping you. But these daughters most likely
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  were committed to the project, not just because of their dad's
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  position, because they wanted to help restore Jerusalem.
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  You know, we don't know about the family dynamics, but as the
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  text mentions this, I assume that these daughters are
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  demonstrating and transcending just physical labor, that they
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  want to build Jerusalem again to fulfill God's promises to this
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  community. I I think it's pretty exciting
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  and moving on into Nehemiah. By chapter 4, we get some other
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  information that these Israelite wives and daughters faced severe
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  economic oppression after leaving Babylon and coming back
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  to Jerusalem. During the time that walls are
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  being constructed, there's a lot of attacks against Jerusalem.
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  These women are hungry. They're not able to even provide
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  enough food for their families because the men are busy
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  working. And there's a very sparse
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  farmland and the water sources, you know, that's just a few of
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  them. And even though it's been
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  decades and decades, they still are being exploited.
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  And in fact, it says the Jewish nobles are exploiting the poor.
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  They're they're causing them to be sell their daughters into
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  slavery. So we talked about these
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  horrific situations where the families are selling their wives
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  and their daughters into slavery.
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  So Nehemiah rallies his men to fight for their daughters and
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  wives, and he places the women and children as his primary
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  motive to get these men moving to action.
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  He uses the phrase some of our daughters are brought into
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  bondage already. That's Nehemiah 55.
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  And so he wants to, you know, make this an immediate crisis.
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  These girls have already been sold into servitude, which means
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  probably they are sold into either prostitution or as a
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  concubine or just in in slave labor or, or servitude in a
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  house. I don't know.
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  But he is worried that they are facing exploitation and probably
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  abuse. So Nehemiah, just like Captain
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  Moroni says, let's fight for our women and our children, our
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  wives and our daughters. And he commands these wealthy
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  people to stop charging interest and return the confiscated
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  property and stop abusing the daughters of Judah and the
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  daughters of Israel who have been who are being sold into
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  slavery to these foreigners nations.
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  He also called for a unified community to protect the
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  economic injustices that are coming there.
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  Some of these people who are fighting against Israel at this
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  time include a false prophetess. Her name is no idea and most of
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  our prophetesses in the Old Testament are good women, but
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  she is part of a team that are trying to oppose the Israelite
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  return from Babylon. And you remember the Israelites
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  when the Samaritans came down, they said we want nothing to do
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  with you, stay away. And so these groups that they
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  said stay away from us, this is our land have now gathered other
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  locals around and we are having there's almost as many people
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  guarding as we are building. And then it gets to the point
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  where there's more people guarding than building.
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  Now initially, Ezra said Zuble was very clear in telling the
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  locals, quote, you have no part with us in building this House
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  of our God. Since we are alone.
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  We must build it for the Lord and the God of Israel as Cyrus
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  Arc, the king of Persia has commanded us.
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  That's Ezra 4-3 in the BSB translation.
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  But over the generations now, this retaliation has become
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  worse and worse. You know, you've gathered
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  together not just the Samaritans, not just the Arab,
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  but the Ammonites and the Astrodites, and in particular
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  this female leader, this this prophetess.
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  No idea. And she's part of their
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  scheming. And we're told in in Nehemiah
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  chapter 2 that it failed. But the contention continued.
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  So I wanted to just point out at this point, we do have 5
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  righteous prophetesses mentioned in the Bible.
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  There's Miriam and Deborah and Isaiah's wife and Holda.
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  And then in the New Testament we have Anna.
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  So we've got the couple of bad ones, one in the New Testament,
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  one in the Old Testament. But we still have great women
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  who are serving as prophetesses. They believed in the God of
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  Abraham, but this woman now is being hired to curse and destroy
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  Israel. I also want to mention that we
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  use the word prophetess in the Old Testament and in the New
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  Testament as one who is going to prophecy of the future.
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  But in the Book of Revelation in chapter 19 verse 10, remember
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  they define the gift of prophecy as one who has a testimony of
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  Jesus Christ. And when Joseph Smith was the
• 25:44
  last couple of years of his life, he was taken before a
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  court in Springfield, IL, and they said, are you a prophet?
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  And he said, well, according to the John, you know, according to
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  the Book of Revelation chapter 1910, you know, according to
• 25:59
  John, anyone with a gift of prophecy is one who has a
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  testimony of Jesus Christ. So with that definition, yes, I
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  am a prophet. And under that definition, I
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  think the Bible and the Restoration and many, many
• 26:16
  beyond are filled with a testimony of Jesus Christ and
• 26:21
  the gift of prophecy. So I would like to broaden that
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  definition far beyond these 5 great women.
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  But continuing on now in Nehemiah, we're introduced to
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  another daughter. And now there's a man named
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  Mushulam who arranged a marriage for his daughter outside of the
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  covenant. And unfortunately, this man is
• 26:41
  one of the chief wall builders. He's an important person, but
• 26:45
  his daughter's husband, the way that he's arranged this marriage
• 26:49
  is one of those who are fighting directly against the rebuilding
• 26:53
  of the wall. It's, it's really quite
• 26:56
  surprising that he arranged this marriage.
• 26:58
  It's with a man named Johanan, who's the son of Tobiah, who's
• 27:02
  this Ammonite who is trying to stop the work of Judah
• 27:06
  returning. So their marriage turns out to
• 27:11
  be a game for the disloyals and a real disaster for those who
• 27:17
  are trying to build the wall. And this poor woman who's just
• 27:20
  part of an arranged marriage is caught in the middle of it.
• 27:24
  And it's another example that the the authors of these two
• 27:27
  texts want to keep speaking out against interfaith marital
• 27:31
  conflicts. And story after story after
• 27:34
  story is brought up about them. The these women are active
• 27:39
  participants when they are part of the covenant, though, and
• 27:43
  that's exciting. I want to read one verse from
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  Nehemiah 8, verse 2. All that could hear with
• 27:49
  understanding were part of the covenant.
• 27:52
  You know, the women and the daughters are part of these
• 27:55
  Israelite assemblies that are trying to build the Kingdom back
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  up to where it was before. But it's a very slow process and
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  it's very hard. I'm thrilled though, that
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  Nehemiah 10/28 is specifically even mentions that the daughters
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  are joining in. Those women who had been getting
• 28:14
  sold out to slavery are now being honored and allowed to be
• 28:19
  part of the voice and part of the commitment to make it work.
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  The text also repeats that old and young women fully
• 28:27
  participated in quote separating themselves from evil and making
• 28:33
  a quote oath to walk in God's law, UN quote.
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  That's verse 28. You know, they celebrated with
• 28:40
  music. There's joy, Jerusalem's
• 28:42
  dancing, and even afar off they could hear the happiness.
• 28:46
  This is Nehemiah 1243. There's unity again and there's
• 28:50
  an essential part of the covenant that it's a community
• 28:54
  that's working together. They're actively engaged in this
• 28:56
  religious instruction and covenant making and celebrating,
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  which is wonderful in opposition to this group of covenant
• 29:05
  makers. We also have the women of the
• 29:08
  foreigners. We've got women of Ashot and
• 29:11
  Ammon and Moab and and Nehemiah. Again attacks these
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  intermarriage problems in chapter 13, verses 23 and 24.
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  And the new challenge is the same one that the old challenge
• 29:23
  was. The children are being born.
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  And it says in our text that the children spoke their mothers
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  languages, not Hebrew. I don't think this is just
• 29:32
  talking about a dialect that's different, you know, because
• 29:36
  they're not really speaking Hebrew anyway.
• 29:38
  They're speaking Aramaic if they came from Babylon.
• 29:40
  Aramaic is the language they're still speaking in the New
• 29:42
  Testament times. That's their Babylonian
• 29:44
  language. The problem is, is the language
• 29:46
  of the covenant. It's their, it's their
• 29:48
  commitment level. You know, I think it suggests
• 29:51
  that these foreign wives have not adopted their covenant
• 29:55
  testimonies of Jehovah. And so this phrase they could
• 29:59
  not speak to the Jews. Language is only a part of the
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  problem. And it really takes just one
• 30:06
  generation of children to solve that.
• 30:09
  You know, you can. Children pick up languages so
• 30:11
  quickly that they would be able to be your translators very
• 30:13
  early on. But Nehemiah responds with
• 30:16
  absolute fury. He physically confronts these
• 30:19
  men for making them marrying out of the covenant, and he makes
• 30:24
  them swear to create no more marriages with foreigners.
• 30:28
  And he calls on people again to have divorces in these mothers.
• 30:32
  Influence affects the tenacity of the covenant.
• 30:35
  And the governor is is very upset about this and as one of
• 30:41
  his examples to ask for it to stop.
• 30:43
  Nehemiah goes back and talks about Solomon.
• 30:46
  He says in verse 26 of chapter 13.
• 30:48
  Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things, even
• 30:53
  outlandish women caused him to sin.
• 30:56
  And unfortunately, that same problem carries on today.
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  And so we end the books of Nehemiah and Ezra.
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  And as I've tried to open up some of the challenges that the
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  women were facing then, I hope you can get on your knees and
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  pray to understand this time period better and see how it
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  applies to us in our day and age.
• 31:17
  Because usually history repeats itself.
• 31:20
  But as one who has found her Messiah, as one who has a
• 31:24
  testimony of Jesus Christ, as one who loves the Scriptures, I
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  hope and pray that you can feel the Spirit of the Lord in your
• 31:33
  scripture study today. In the name of Jesus Christ,
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  Amen.