Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture- Ezra 7-10 & Nehemiah 1
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: Alright, it's good to see you today. My name is Philip Thomas, Pastor of Journey here in Elgin, Texas. Hope that your week is going well. This is our Journey Through Scripture podcast. We are going chronologically through the Bible. We are going to be looking into Ezra chapter seven through ten and Nehemiah chapter one today. So Ezra and Nehemiah. So now remember the temple has been rebuilt throughout the exile, this this time period. You have a lot going on. So things are being real rebuilt. There's a mixture of ⁓ kind of the people who never went into exile, who were still in the land. You have ⁓ other people who have now come into the land, you have Persians who are in the land. ⁓ remember we ⁓ I think it was on Tuesday we talked about how ⁓ they had halted the building ⁓ of the city ⁓ because some of the the Persian peoples and and Artaxerxes ⁓ was not like. Darius and he said, Yeah, we need to be careful, the this group of people is rebellious. So he kind of put some temporary ⁓ halts on on some of the rebuilding. But ⁓ so there's there's different groups that come back from Babylon or in Persia and and return to the the city at different times. And and so so lots going on here. ⁓ Ezra and Nehemiah are are kind of contemporaries. ⁓ the yeah it's we it seems like that they were there at the same time, maybe but not for very long. We're we're not sure the exact time frame ⁓ here. ⁓ but ⁓ Ezra is a scribe and he he comes back not to rebuild anything structurally ⁓ but to actually st start ⁓ holding the priest to account, ⁓ making sure that the and the people as well. ⁓ that it's not just about giving sacrifices in the temple, that it's about following the law. ⁓ and one thing that's kind of interesting here that you'll you'll you'll kind of notice when it talks about Ezra is just like us today, there are many times it's it's easier to kind of go through the motions of of church or the ritual of church and not really pay too much attention to what the Bible actually says and apply that to the rest of your life. You it's easy to get into the habit of, ⁓ well, yeah, I'd I go to church on Sunday. ⁓ but then Monday through Saturday, are you actually applying scripture to the way you're living your life? ⁓ and our human nature is, ⁓ you know what, it's it's good enough that I I go and participate ⁓ on Sunday. Well, that is what had happened well before this time period. that the people they kept giving offering sacrifices, going through many of the rituals, but they just were not paying attention at all to the book of the law, to to what God had ⁓ given Moses ⁓ in how to actually live out your life. ⁓ if you remember King Josiah, who there was a re revival whenever he kind of came into power, but and one of the key moments of that revival was when they found the book of the law, probably the book of Deuteronomy. And they started read reading it and it was as if they had never heard it before. Right. So what does that tell you? It tells you they were still going about doing the sacrifices and things like that, but they weren't being taught ⁓ what the the law actually was and how they were to live their lives. And so Ezra ⁓ is going to come back and really start trying to teach the people ⁓ to actually live out the law, that it's not enough. just to go to the temple and it's not enough just to have a new temple built. ⁓ that that is that's just one aspect of being the people of God. And so this is just interesting ⁓ to think of that and and that's something that we struggle with today. But ⁓ Ezra chapter seven through ten. So ⁓ Ezra chapter seven verse six says 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. And so when the people went to exile, they no longer had the temple, did they? So they actually started focusing more on the ⁓ the the law of Moses, on the the Bible of their day, which would have been pretty much just the first five books ⁓ of the Bible. And and so there were scribes that started appearing at this time, kind of a group of people who that's what their focus was. They focused ⁓ on the book of the law. Ezra was one of these ⁓ people. Says the king granted him ⁓ all his requests to let him come back. ⁓ verse ten, for Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. And ⁓ and then you see ⁓ the letter That ⁓ Art Xerxes ⁓ gives and talks about the different ⁓ sacrifices that will be made. They have permission to to go. says verse twenty-one, and I, even I, Art Xerxes the king, issue a decree to all the treasurers who are in the region beyond the river, that whatever Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of heaven may require of you, let it be done diligently. ⁓ so he's he's giving lots of ⁓ of authority to ⁓ Ezra. And then it says verse twenty five, and you, Ezra, according to your God given wisdom, set magistrates and judges who may judge all the people who are in the region beyond the river, all such as know the laws of your God, and teach those who do not know them. Whoever will not observe the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily on him, whether it be death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment. So this is kind of interesting. I mean, it it is clear what Ezra's role and responsibility is. It is to go and to spread what the law really is, of how the people are supposed to be living. So verse chapter eight. ⁓ gets into the the heads of the families who are coming back with ⁓ Ezra and they're they ⁓ serve all kinds of different positions within ⁓ the temple. So you kinda read there for the first part of chapter eight, ⁓ verse twenty-one is interesting. It says, Then I proclaimed a fast at the river of Ahava that we may humble ourselves before our God to seek from him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. 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 God is upon all those for good who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against those who forsake him. So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayer. It's kind of interesting. Basically, Ezra they're beginning their long journey, ⁓ it'd be about a four-month journey. ⁓ he he didn't request ⁓ escorts, which he he was coming back with all kinds of gold and silver and things like that. So there was no ⁓ soldiers to protect him. ⁓ and he he kind of said because he told the king that they were going to trust God. And it you you nearly feel that Ezra was like, Man, I sure could use some of some of those soldiers now. But ⁓ he just humbly still re ⁓ calls all the people to fast as they prepare ⁓ to make this long journey. ⁓ and they they are requiring God's provision ⁓ for them and God does provide that. So they return to ⁓ to j Jerusalem and deliver all of the the the orders that have been given by the the king that Ezra has and ⁓ and so they they they are now in in back in Jerusalem ⁓ at the temple. And so then chapter nine goes into one of the first things that Ezra runs into that's a problem. ⁓ again, not a problem with the temple, ⁓ not necessarily a problem with with how they're going about worshiping or doing the sacrifices or anything like that. ⁓ but it's about how they are living. And that was intermarriage. and I I think it's important for us to think about this because we hear this and we're like, well what's wrong with intermarrying? Because we typically think of ⁓ when talk about intermarrying we think of marrying someone of a different race that is that is not the concern here that Ezra has. it it gets pretty complicated. Did do they want to you know continue to ⁓ b marry within the Jewish people? Yes. ⁓ but Was the what was Ezra ⁓ addressing this issue just because the people were marrying people of a different ethnic background? No, that is not the main issue. The issue was they were marrying people of a different ethnic background who also practiced and worshipped pagan gods. So they were marrying and this is what got got the people in trouble beforehand as they intermarried. It wasn't the problem wasn't necessarily marrying someone of a different race. It was marrying someone who has a completely different worldview and value system than you do. Right? And so the the they would marry and then those pagan rituals would start to ⁓ impede ⁓ upon ⁓ their their own lives. And they would start to practice those pagan rituals and maybe they would do both, or maybe the pa pagan rituals would ⁓ become more important than worshiping God. So that's the issue here, and I think it's very important for us to think about, and and that that should be the ⁓ number one thing for for you today, whenever you are looking to who to marry. ⁓ the number one issue shouldn't be, well, am I am I marrying someone in the same socioeconomic and the same ethnic background and the same race as me? Okay. The you should be looking at the values, the world view ⁓ that someone has and ⁓ it needs to line up with yours. Is it going to perfectly? No. But it there needs to be a common understanding. And what Ezra is saying is you need to marry people who have a common understanding that God is there's one God, creator ⁓ of of all, and and and we worship him. And we're not going to open the door to walking down other pagan rel ⁓ religions. And so you you see that, in fact, ⁓ it says the people of Israel, this is in chapter verse one of chapter nine, the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands with respect to the with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. So what was the is the focus there with respect to the abominations? Those were the practices of these groups of people, right? And and not the groups of people themselves, but what they were doing, what they believed. And Ezra certainly believed there there should not be intermarrying ⁓ among them. ⁓ verse ⁓ verse three ⁓ it says ⁓ so when I heard this thing I tore my garment, my robe, plucked out some of my hair of my head and beard, and sat down astonished. So this is he's he's weeping, he's mourning. Because what he has been what is happening, 'cause he knows where that leads. ⁓ says ⁓ in verse ⁓ six, and I said, O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift my face to you, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings, our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the land through the sword, the captivity, to plunder, to humiliation, as it is this day. And now for a little while grace has been shown from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a peg in his holy place. So for we were slaves. But here we are going back again, falling a away from you again. It says ⁓ getting down into verse ⁓ eleven. ⁓ The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land with the uncleanliness of peoples of the land, and their abominations which has filled it from one end of the another another with their impurity. So again it's talking about their actions, the the who they worship. ⁓ says, Now therefore do not give your daughters as wives for sons, nor take their daughters to your sons, never seek their pro peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever. He's saying, do not allow those pagan ideologies to come in. ⁓ chapter ten talks about the the confession of of marriage. He he starts to tell people we've got to do something ⁓ about this. he said ⁓ we have trespassed against God and have taken pagan wives from the people of the land, yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this. Now therefore let us make a covenant with God to put away all these wives who have been born to them, and it kind of goes goes on verse seven, and they issued a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of the captivity that they must gather at Jerusalem, and whoever would not come within three days, according to the instructions of the leaders and elders, all his property would be confiscated, and he himself would be separated as the assembly from the captivity. So they're calling everyone in. ⁓ and saying b basically if you don't come you you forfeit your right to be part of the people of God. ⁓ I mean this is they're taking this very seriously. ⁓ and so the people come and ⁓ they ⁓ basically say it's time to to part ways. And we don't know exactly what that looked like. ⁓ you know, it ⁓ we don't know if it they just completely kicked the the wiv the pagan wives out, how all of that worked or that I'm sure they a lot of it they would allow them to go back to their their family. but this this was tough. I mean this is a you know we look at it ⁓ today and say, ⁓ how you know how wrong that is and harsh that is. ⁓ but they had they had experienced the result of it, right? The pagan influence ⁓ would would override their faithfulness to God i if they did not ⁓ put their foot down and make a stand. And it was that important ⁓ to Ezra and to the to the people. And so that so that again, that's what Ezra is his main role is is to do that, ⁓ to get the the people to follow the law again. And that introduces us to Nehemiah. ⁓ Nehemiah is going to come in and gonna have some of the similar problems, but his main role is that he he is wants to rebuild the wall. To be a protection for the city. ⁓ and so just ⁓ chapter one is pretty short. ⁓ it introduces you to ⁓ to Nehemiah, ⁓ verse three, and it says, They said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity and the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is is broken down and its gates are burned with fire. ⁓ so that so it was that I heard these words, sat down and wept and mourned for many days. And so he hears this and his his heart is moved. Verse eight, remember I pray the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me, keep my commandments, and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest parts of heaven, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have twelve chosen as a dwelling for my name. Now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and the prayer of your servants to desire to fear your name, and let your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cupbearer. So he's gonna go and ask the king if he can go back and rebuild. And is it it's interesting that Nehemiah ⁓ receives this ⁓ message of the distress that is happening? And he feels moved to go and to do something about it. And he's he begins praying and he prays for success. He prays that that God will ⁓ that that that he is doing what he should be doing, and that God will open the doors. And so he goes to the king ⁓ to to request the opportunity to go back and rebuild the wall. So that we will pick up next ⁓ So let's read Nehemiah chapter two through seven. Nehemiah two through seven.