Knowing Your People: Ezra Nehemiah 3

Introduction

We sometimes take the wrong lesson from St. Paul’s warning about endless genealogies. “Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do” (1 Tim. 1:4). “But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain” (Tit. 3:9). How are we to reconcile these warnings with the fact that we just heard, as the very word of God, a pretty long list of names? And all Scripture is God-breathed, and is profitable for instruction (2 Tim. 3:16-17). God gives us such things so that we might rank and prioritize them.

The Text:

“Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city . . .” (Ezra 2:1-11).

Overview:

The return from exile here is marked by the return of 42,360 people, along with about 7,000 servants (vv. 64-65). This meant that the beginning of the return had a population of about the size of Moscown and Pullman put together. We are not going to spend a lot of time on each of the names (obviously), but we still need to consider some of the lessons from the fact of the names. When they returned, they apparently returned to their ancestral cities (v. 1). In the first wave, we find some familiar names: Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, and Mordecai (v. 2). As discussed earlier, in a short chronology, this presents no problem at all. The children of Adonikam were bad (v. 13), but somebody had a baby later and fixed things (Neh. 7:18). Keep in mind that the people are reckoned here by both home towns, and by the names of ancestors.  The priests are reckoned separately (vv. 36-39). The Levites are also recorded separately (vv. 40-58), and notable among them are the singers, descended from Asaph (v. 41). They also had the problem with a group who considered themselves priests, but who could not prove it (vv. 59-63). Not only did the Levites have trained singers, but there were several hundred singers (men and women both) among the servants (v. 65). The Nethinim are temple servants (v. 70). And thus it was that they all settled into their cities (v. 70).

Understanding Genealogy:

We said earlier that we have to understand genealogy rightly, that we had to rank and prioritize these issues alongside the other scriptural issues we are dealing with. In the earlier quotations from Paul, note the company that genealogies are put in—fables, foolish questions, contetions, and striving about the law. Paul is addressing the tiny-souled person who is a gnat-strangler. If they get into family history, they are sure to find the ancestor who came over on the Mayflower, and not find the seventeen horse thieves. And with regard to the Mayflower, such a person just needs to realize that immigration law was much looser then.

How are we to understand the importance of genealogy here then? Before the coming of Christ, blood lines were important, not because racial purity was important, but rather because the promises of God were so important. This theme is played out in the Old Testament over and over again. Tamar knew that the Messiah was going to come from Judah, and she wanted to be in the line that gave us the Messiah. Ishmael would have done, if God had promised differently—but He had not. Esau would have done, had God not determined to show us that His word and His will are paramount (Rom. 9:11). Keeping track of who was who was important because Israel was expectantly awaiting the Christ. God had promised Him in a certain line, and in order to know that the promise was fulfilled, you had to keep track of that line. That racial purity was not the issue, but rather covenant faithfulness, we need only look at Rahad, and Ruth, and others who came into the line of Israel. The members of Abraham’s house (all the servants and householders) who were circumcised at Abraham’s command provided the stock from which Israel grew (Gen. 17:23). In other words, there were Jews who did not have a drop of Abraham’s blood in their veins. The issue has always been covenant and promise, not racial purity.

Now That Christ Has Come:

The Church in the Old Testament had a different orientation than we do. They were looking forward in faith and expectancy, while we are looking back in faith and gratitude. They slaughter the bulls and goats, and looked for the future city. We are the future city, and we simply rejoice with the bread and wine. This difference between longing and expectancy and thanks and gratitude shows us the appropriate demeanor we are to have about things like family history, and the connectedness of “our people.” There is no way to emphasize the Incarnation as we do without coming to realize the glory of particularity, and this will have applications to your family line. As you study your family history, you will have two possible grounds for gratitude, and perhaps both of them together. You will realize, first, what God saved us out of. And secondly, you may be privileged to rejoice in God’s covenant faithfulness to your family through many generations of faithfulness. These generational promises are not abrogated in the new covenant; they come to a glorious fulfillment.

Why This Matters:

Later in the book of Ezra, we are going to deal in some detail with the mandatory divorce decree issued by Ezra. We have to get clear in our minds now the fact that this had to do with covenant lines and the detestable practices of the pagan women (i.e. their refusal to convert), and not with racial purity as such. Had these women followed the example of Rahab and Ruth (“your God will be my God”), then divorce would not have been the solution. The modern multiculturalist secularist wants to preach “intermarriage as salvation.” This is bound to provoke (and has already provoked) a right-wing reaction that says all forms of racial or ethnic intermarriage is an abomination. To this we reply that all intermarriages are lawful (not necessarily a good idea), but they are only lawful to the extent that the intact blood lines of the Old Testament were lawful, i.e. to the extent that they preach Christ. The issue is always the covenant.

The Role of Music:

In Babylon, the Israelites had been taunted for a song. They had replied that they could not sing under the circumstances (Ps. 137). But now, returning to a ruined Jerusalem, with not much to sing about seen in the rubble, they brought their singers with them. There were several hundred men and women for the choir among the servants, and there were 128 descended from Asaph. Just the Levitical singers alone comprised about 17 percent of the total number of Levites who returned. The work of music is not incidental to reformation. The singers were not there just to have someone to sing when the work was complete. Their singing was part of the work of rebuilding itself. God inhabits the praises of His people, and He uses their worship of Him as one of the means to enable them to worship Him.

Our situation is comparable. As we labor in the work of reformation, we want always to look to Scripture to see what this kind of labor looks like.