Ezra 7 & 8

Last week as we looked at Ezra 7 we discovered 5 things in the life of Ezra that set him apart over everyone else which opened up the door for God to accomplish great things through him. Each of the 5 things we looked at need to be applied in our lives as well, and as they are, God transforms our lives and begins to move in powerful ways through us. The 5 things are: Next Slides

We need to Set our hearts to study God’s.

We need to set our hearts to obey what we learn as we study God’s Word.

We need to set our hearts to teach what we have learned and applied from God’s Word to any God places under us. And as we, like Ezra, set our hearts to do these 3 things:

We will experience the Hand of the Lord on our lives. Next:

We need to trust the Hand of God on our lives.

With this as a review, if you haven’t already, turn on your Bibles to Ezra 8, which is page 499 in the pew Bibles.

As we move forward this morning we see what resulted from Ezra’s devotion to these 5 things. Now initially when we think about what the results were, my first thought was Artaxerxes letter of decree, which included the long personal laundry list of requests Ezra provided to the king. While the kings decree certainly resulted from Ezra’s devotion to these 5 things, as I thought about it, I believe something even more significant resulted, particularly from how God moved. We see this in Ezra 7:27-28. Let’s look at these verses together, in these 2 verses we see: Next Slides

Ezra Praises the King of the king. Vs. 7:27-28

Before we look at 7:27-28, let’s jump back to 7:12, which is the beginning of the letter King Artexerxes gives to Ezra, and particularly to how King Xerxes refers to himself in that letter: Next Slide

Ezra 7:12

Ezra 7:12 ESV

12 “Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven. Peace. And now

Now there are a couple theories on what Artexerxes is stating here. One is that he is referring to himself in kind of a god like way, similar to one of the titles that is regularly used of Jesus in Scripture.

While that is certainly a possibility, I think it is more accurately more of a boast of what he and the Persian Empire, under Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and himself had accomplished, namely they had conquered many kingdoms and as a result he was a “king of kings”. In fact if you look at your translation, at least every translation I looked at, the “k” in the first king is lower case. Whereas when you see Jesus referred to as the King of kings in the New Testament, that “K” is capitalized. Additionally, Ezekiel calls Nebuchadnezzar “king of kings” in Ezekiel 26:7 and Daniel refers to Nebuchadnezzar as “king of kings” in Daniel 2:37. Clearly Ezekiel and Daniel were not making claims that Nebuchadnezzar was a god, they were merely pointing out that he had conquered other kingdoms and as a result he was a king of kings.

We have seen Artexerxes refer to himself as a ruler of rulers, as a king of kings, as we read on we see Ezra give praise to the Sovereign Lord as the Ruler over all peoples, the King over all kings. In other words, the only reason Artexerxes is in the position he is in, is because the Hand of the Almighty is on his life. As we reads through the rest of Ezra, we notice that this is the norm for Ezra.

In his commentary on the Book of Ezra, and in writing about Ezra 7:27-28, Robert Jamieson states the following:

“This devout thanksgiving is in unison with the whole character of Ezra, who discerns the Hand of God in every event, and is always ready to express a pious acknowledgment for the divine goodness.”

An outlook like Ezra’s ought to be the goal for all of our life’s.

Let’s look at Ezra 7:27-28: “27 Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, Who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, 28 and Who extended to me His steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage, for the Hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.”

The first thing we notice in reference to the movement of God in verse 27 is that Ezra credits God with the control of the heart of the king. “Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, Who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king”. This declaration matches well with what Solomon wrote in Proverbs 21:1 Next Slide

Proverbs 21:1

Proverbs 21:1 ESV

1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

God controls the lives and actions even of kings.

This thought is echoed in several other different passages regarding several different kings: Next Slides

Nebuchadnezzar-Daniel 4:31-32 & 35

Daniel 4:31–35 ESV

31 While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, 32 and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” 33 Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws. 34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Next Slides

Cyrus-Isaiah 45:1-3

Isaiah 45:1–3 ESV

1 Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: 2 “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, 3 I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

Next Slide

Darius-Ezra 6:22

Ezra 6:22 ESV

22 And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

The point is this, God controls the lives and actions of kings and rulers. This should be a particular comfort to us.

In just a few short months we can all expect to be inundated with political commercials as we enter into another election cycle, and of course this election cycle includes a presidential election. One thing is certain, this will likely be one of the, if not the ugliest presidential election in history. For many there will not be a single person running in the end that you really want to vote for. So much of the time it becomes a matter of choosing between the best of the worse and in the end you feel like it is a loose loose election. Rest assured, based on what we see in the verses we just looked at, God is still in control, even if the individual you want in the White House doesn’t end at the 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. We still have a responsibility to vote our conscience, but we have no reason for despair no matter what the outcome happens to be.

By the way, this is about as political as you will ever see me get from the pulpit.

This brings us to the next thing we see in Ezra 7:27-28, and that is: Next Slides

God’s Purpose behind controlling the life and actions of the king:

To Beautify the House of the Lord in Jerusalem.

Vs. 10

2. Vs. 16

By the way, I want you to notice something in regards to what we see in chapter 7 about how the House of the Lord was beautified, in reviewing the list of what Ezra was bringing with him to Jerusalem, you don’t really see anything we might consider necessary for beautifying the Temple. If you go back to Ezra 3, you see some specific items that would add to the outward beauty of the Temple. We see no such list here, yet Ezra is clear that beautifying the Temple was God’s plan here. Taking that into consideration, Next Slides

What did Ezra do to beautify the Temple?

I believe the answer lies earlier in chapter 7, in fact we looked at some of it last week.

What did Ezra do to beautify the Temple?

First, look back a few verses at the last phrase in verse 10, what do you see there?

“and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.”

The first thing we see is that Ezra is to teach those that had already returned, as well as those returning with him from God’s Word. This also includes their obedience to God’s Word. We will see how serious obedience to God’s Word was to Ezra when we look at chapters 9 & 10.

Second, we see in verses 16.

In verse 16 we read: “with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests, vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem.” Guess what, our joyous giving to the Lord brings Him joy, it is a beautiful part of our worship to of God.

Chapter 8

This brings us to chapter 8. In chapter 8 Ezra begins by going through a list of 1514 men who committed to going with him on the 900 mile journey back to Jerusalem. If you include women and children, the number likely approached 6-8,000 people.

The absence of Levites on the Journey to the Temple in Jerusalem.

I imagine things were pretty chaotic for this journey so after about 8 days on the move Ezra decided to stop and asses the situation and review the people that had joined him on the journey. They stopped near a river and camped for 3 days. As they were reviewing the people that were returning with Ezra, it didn’t take long before Ezra noticed something that had to really disturb him. Here they are going back to Jerusalem to do the Lord’s work which included service in the Temple of the Lord, and not a single member of the priestly tribe of Levi had joined them. The Levites were essential workers for the system of temple worship that Ezra was going to promote once they returned to Jerusalem.

Understanding the need of Levites in temple worship, Ezra selected some of the leading men that had gone with him and sent them back to find some Levites so that they could persuades Levites to join them. While this caused a significant delay, it was absolutely necessary.

By the way, I want you contrast the heart of Ezra with the hearts of the Levites.

Ezra was willing to serve the Lord no matter the terms, The Levites only wanted to serve the Lord on their terms.

Ezra had set his heart to study, obey and teach the Word of God. He was willing to sacrifice a great deal to do so. Additionally he was willing to drop everything he had become accustomed to in the Persian Empire, make the 900 mile journey back to Jerusalem, to a city that was still very much in shambles.

While the Levites seemed to want to only serve God on their own terms. We do get the impression from verses 17-20 that these men did perform some sort of service to God in Babylonia, but they showed no interest in returning to Jerusalem.They had grown so comfortable in the Persian Empire that they had to be persuaded to go to their homeland.

This brings us to an important lesson we need to understand: Next Slides

God Sets the Terms of our Service to Him, Not Us.

We need to pattern our service to the Lord after Ezra, not the Levites we see in chapter 8.

Let’s look at verses 21-23 together now. I’ve entitled these verses: Next Slides

Who Needs and Army When You Have Jehovah Sabaoth? Vss. 21-23

“21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. 22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The Hand of our God is for good on all who seek Him, and the power of His wrath is against all who forsake Him.” 23 So we fasted and implored our God for this, and He listened to our entreaty.”

Did you pick up what happened here? Ezra had been boasting to King Artaxerxes about how great his God was, now God had put Ezra and all those with him in a place where they had to really trust in their great God.

This journey they were about to go on was very dangerous, and they were bringing with them about:

24 1/2 tons of Silver, 7,500 lbs of Gold, not to mention the silver vessels, the 20 bowls of gold and all the other items. Word had to spread about all they were bringing with them. There is little doubt they would likely face attack. But because Ezra had boasted of the greatness of his God, he didn’t want to diminish the greatness of his God by asking for soldiers to accompany them. So they spent some time in fasting and prayer seeking protection from Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts.

While that may not have been the Name for God Ezra was using at this time, there is little doubt this name was used in many of their prayers during this time of fasting and prayer. It had become a pretty common name the Israelites used for God since the days of David. Actually before David had become king. This is the name David used when he faced Goliath. Do you remember the scene? It starts in 1 Samuel 17:45. “45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

1 Samuel 17:45-47

By the time the days of fasting had ended, Ezra and all of those with him were able to make the journey with confidence in the Lord of Hosts.

This brings us to the next key truth for us today. Like Ezra and his companions, much of the time we are in over our heads in this world we live in. Also like Ezra, and particularly as we put to practice the truths we learned in our study last week (1.Setting our hearts to study God’s Word. 2. Setting our hearts to apply what we learn as we study God’s Word. 3. Being willing to teach what we have learned and applied from God’s Word to any God placed under us.) Next Slides

We Can Trust Jehovah Sabaoth in the Battles We Face.

Now let’s move to the last section of Ezra 8, I have entitled this section: Next Slides

Protection in Accountability. Vss. 24-34

English Standard Version Chapter 8

24 Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their kinsmen with them. 25 And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God that the king and his counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered. 26 I weighed out into their hand 650 talents of silver, and silver vessels worth 200 talents, and 100 talents of gold, 27 20 bowls of gold worth 1,000 darics, and two vessels of fine bright bronze as precious as gold. 28 And I said to them, “You are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your fathers. 29 Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel at Jerusalem, within the chambers of the house of the LORD.” 30 So the priests and the Levites took over the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

31 Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way. 32 We came to Jerusalem, and there we remained three days. 33 On the fourth day, within the house of our God, the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed into the hands of Meremoth the priest, son of Uriah, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites, Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui. 34 The whole was counted and weighed, and the weight of everything was recorded.

Here we see Ezra exhibiting Godly wisdom. Not only did he divide all of the valuable items they were bringing with them, but he weighed each item and recorded everything. Ezra understood that accountability always brings with it protection.

That brings us to the last key lesson for us this morning, which you see right now on the screen.

There is protection in accountability. That is one of the reasons why we have so many small groups here at Liberty Chapel. These small groups provide an added level of accountability we don’t get from just attending church on Sunday mornings. We study the Bible together, share prayer requests and praises, come alongside one another during hard times. Visit one another in the hospital....the list goes on and on of the great things that take place in our small groups. If you are not a part of one, you need to be.

As we close out our time time this morning, let’s review the key applications for this week:

As God moves in our life’s, we need to give Him the praise and glory He deservers.

We need to understand the fact that God is in control, and trust Him.

We need to know that our time in God’s Word and our faithful giving to further His work brings Him great joy.

We need to acknowledge that God Sets the Terms of our Service to Him, Not Us.

We Can Trust Jehovah Sabaoth in the Battles We Face.

There is protection in Accountability.