Introducing Ezra (Ezra 7)

Introduction

A. Preliminaries

Good morning. We continue our sermon series in the Book of Ezra this morning. We are in Chapter 7, and there are only 10 chapters so we are more than halfway through.

We will begin with verse 1, in Chapter 7, which you can find on the bottom of page 463 if you’re using the navy blue Bibles in your pews.

Ezra 7:1–10 ESV

Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest— this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him. And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God!

B. An Ezra-cise in Patience

I trust that many of you have seen the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. It is interesting to consider that one of the main plot points of the entire movie is that Dorothy and her friends are trying to track down this Wizard, and arrange a meeting with him, and we don’t actually meet him until the third act of the movie. I’m not sure you’d call the Wizard the main character, but he’s the character for which the movie is named, and he doesn’t actually show up until pretty late in the story.

Well so it is with Ezra the Scribe. We’ve had some significant events happen—the Temple has been rebuilt for heaven’s sake!—and Ezra is nowhere to be found until Chapter 7, which recounts events about 60 years after the Temple has been completed. Sixty years! So enough time for a whole generation to grow up after this Second Temple was dedicated.

Ezra was one of those who stayed behind and did not travel back with the exiles to Jerusalem, but appears on the scene now, sixty years after the Temple is finished. And what we are going to learn later in Ezra is that a lot of trouble followed after that Temple was dedicated. A lot of unfaithfulness took root in those 60 years. So here in the seventh chapter we finally meet Ezra the Scribe, and he makes quite an entrance.

Let’s Pray

Blessed Lord, you have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning—grant us that we may in such a way hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

From The Book of Common Prayer (1552)

C. Transition to Sermon

So the sermon this morning is going to focus on Ezra’s introduction here in the first part of Chapter 7, and what we can learn from it. I want to draw out at least three things from our text this morning:

First, Ezra has Credentials

Second, Ezra has a Mission

Third, Ezra has a Passion

So let’s begin with...

I. Ezra has Credentials

Ezra 7:1–6 ESV

Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest— this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.

So what do we learn about Ezra from these first six verses? Well, that he is a priest, and a descendant of Aaron. And that’s important—you might remember that back in Chapter 2, there were returned exiles who could not properly prove their lineage, and that was a problem for Temple service. To be a Levite, you had to be of the tribe of Levi. So that means Ezra did not appoint himself for this task. He was appointed to it.

We also learn that he’s a scribe, which would have been someone skilled in the art of studying, interpreting and copying the Scriptures. Have you ever tried to copy Scriptures? There’s an entire devotional series today called “Journibles,” and they’re meant to help you learn the practice of hand-copying Scripture. I’ve used them before. They can be very helpful because they really slow you down to think carefully about what you’re reading (and writing!). And what you also learn is that hand copying Scripture takes a really long time! In fact, one writer has estimated that if you were to copy about half a chapter a day, you’d write down the whole Bible in about six and a half years.

Well in Ancient times, they did not have publishing companies or copy machines. They had people skilled in the art of copying texts by hand. These were scribes.

So Ezra is a Scribe. And he’s a priest. And more than that—Ezra wasn’t just a priest. He’s a direct descendant of Aaron! Why does that matter?

So at the start of the Book, we focused on how the people coming back to Jerusalem was a second Exodus. We talked about how Chapter 2 was a kind of census of the people—a second book of Numbers. There’s a second conquest, led by a man whose name sounds like Joshua. And here we have a Second Aaron the High Priest, descended from his line.

This simple fact of a bloodline would have been its own example of God’s Covenant Faithfulness to his people. Telling them “I have not forgotten my promises to Moses and Aaron, and all the way back to Abraham. I have not forgotten my Covenant.”

But it also would have confirmed that what he was hear to do was God’s business, and not his own. He’s not a self-appointed priest or scribe, there’s no such thing.

So Ezra’s credentials are meant to be a strong comfort to anybody in Jerusalem—Our God is still with us, still keeping his covenant promises to us.

So Ezra has credentials, and second,

II. Ezra has a Mission

Ezra 7:7–9 ESV

And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him.

Now, there in verse 9 is the second time in this chapter so far we have read that the hand of God on him (first time was in verse 6). And so the natural question is to do what? Well, answering that question requires a bit of summarizing the next few chapters, because Ezra has come as a reformer. And so if you’ll pardon me for “running a bit ahead” of our text this morning to give you a sense of what’s coming. In short, sixty years after the temple has been completed, the people are starting to drift from faithfulness.

So Ezra comes as a student of the Word, a Scribe of the Word, and as a priest—a minister of God’s laws and directives—to be the Reformer in Jerusalem. And I really think this is where the main story of the Book of Ezra takes place.

You might think the main point of Ezra is “Hey! They got the Temple rebuilt!” And certainly, that’s an important part of the story. But you notice now that the Temple is built and we still have a few chapters left! The story isn’t over. The story of Ezra is about what God does when all the circumstances seem so right for revival and long term biblical reformation, but it doesn’t happen.

And so Ezra comes with the mission of a reformer, and the hand of God is on him to do it.

This is good for us to keep in mind then. I’m going to share something with you that’s going to sound so simple, that it will seem silly. It’s like the opposite of profound.

And here it is: We read history as a series of events.

Deep, right?

I mean, how else do you read history?

And fair enough. History is a set of events in the past that we read in the present. But one of the temptations there is that we think whenever there’s a big event in our lives, it means that everything will change.

Sometimes this is true. Big events do change you. Conversion is a moment that changes you. A death of someone dear to you, that can change you. A troubling diagnosis. Getting married. There certainly are big events in life that can change us.

But sometimes—and this is very subtle—we can assume that because there has been a big event, therefore we will be changed.

Because I had a powerful experience that means everything will be different now. Because I got a new job that means life will be so much better now. Because we rebuilt the Temple, that means we’re ok now, we have God’s favor now.

This is actually the very thing the prophet Jeremiah warned would happen.

Jeremiah 7:4 ESV

Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

You can hear the problem in it, can’t you? Jeremiah feared that the rebuilding of the Temple—far from being the event that would lead to better days, would instead become a kind of religious crutch that the people leaned on to avoid the fact that their hearts had not been changed.

So, Grace Presbyterian Church, what is there for us to learn here? You’ve been through some changes in the past five years. COVID was a big change. Our worship has changed. Some of our programs have changed. We recently rolled out a new Mission Statement, and some elements of vision and strategic priorities.

But it’s all for nothing if our hearts are not God’s. If our passions are not guided by His words. If our lives are not transformed by his Gospel. If our prayers are vain mutterings and careless rattling off of words on a bulletin or a screen. We can sing all the Psalms we want, but if the words of God do not ignite passion in the hearts of the people of God, it’s all worthless. This is why we must be a people of God-given, Bible-rooted, Holy Spirit stirred courage. The courage to talk to each other. The courage to love each other. The courage to care well for each other. The courage to reach beyond our comfort zones and bring the Gospel into the hardest places in our family, in our neighborhood, in our city, and well beyond.

Ezra arrives in Jerusalem with his God-given mission, because God’s people have done what God has told them to do. The temple is built. The temple of the Lord! But their hearts have strayed far from him.

So Ezra has Credentials, Ezra has a Mission, and finally,

III. Ezra has a Passion

Look at verse 10.

Ezra 7:10 ESV

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

This is the core of Ezra’s mission (relating back to our second point) but I’ve set it aside as a third point because I want to emphasize it was his passion.

Ezra had set his heart to do three things.

Study the Law of God

Do the law of God

Teach the law of God.

This is a good model for us today as it relates to all of God’s Words. To the law, to the Gospel, to the Old and New Testaments, to the Psalms we sing, to the History we learn, to the New Heavens and the New Earth that we look for with every passing day.

We study God’s word. We act on God’s Word. And we teach it. Not all are called to be teachers, but all are called to share God’s word with those around them.

This is true of adults, and it’s true of children too. Kids, this is a great thing for you to remember. As you are growing and learning all God’s words in the Bible, those words will change you. They will make you want to do them. To live them out. To walk after God in all how he’s told you to live and to love others.

And you will want to share that with people. And if no such desire exists in you to do that, pray for it! Ask God to help your heart to long to share with people what he’s done in you and for you. And how happy you are for your parents. And how glad you are for your family. And most of all, how thankful you are for the cross, where all your sins were forgiven forever.

Because the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we have been given is far better than even what Ezra came preaching. Ezra came as a courageous student of the law. And we should be that too! We should know God’s 10 Commandments and his directives to us, and his commands, and his guidance, and his wisdom. But we have also been given not just his law, but his Gospel. That God took on our skin and bones and blood, so that he himself could bleed and wash us clean not only of our faults and mistakes, but of all our rebellion, all our foolishness, all our silly obsessions, all the ways we are so easily offended. All of the ways we protect and defend our pride. All of the fears that keep us so far from godly courage. He has come to forgive all of it.

And he mediates to us a new and better covenant that speaks a better word even than Ezra would bring, beautiful, and necessary and glorious as that was.

Jesus came with the perfect credentials—son of God and Son of man, Savior of the World, promised Messiah.

He came with a holy mission to recuse his elect people, chosen from the foundation of the world. To save them, and to—over the course of their life—sanctify them, re-creating them more and more into his own image so that they grow in grace and courage and maturity and love and patience and joy.

And Jesus came with a Passion for His own glory and for the salvation of the world. Of every tribe and tongue and nation, to bring in the Gentiles and the foreigners. To redeem those who had forgotten what they were made for. To rescue the ones drowning in sin and misery of their own making. To subdue us to himself. To rule and defend us. And to restrain and conquer all his and our enemies. So that every knee will bow and every tongue confess in heaven and on earth and under the earth that Jesus Christ is the Lord. To the glory of God the Father.

So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Not all the blood of beasts,

On Jewish altars slain

Could give the guilty conscience peace

Or wash away its stain.

But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,

Takes all our sins away—

A sacrifice of nobler name

And richer blood than they.

My faith would lay her hand

On that dear head of Thine,

While like a penitent I stand,

And there confess my sin.

My soul looks back to see

The burdens Thou didst bear

When hanging on the cursèd tree,

And knows her guilt was there.

Believing, we rejoice

To see the curse remove;

We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,

And sing His bleeding love.

In the name of Jesus,

Amen.