"The Prayer of Your Servant" -- Nehemiah 1:1-11

The Eleventh in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

Along with Ezra, Nehemiah is one of the great figures from that period in Israel’s history after the exile (second temple Judaism).  Nehemiah is a remarkable leader–serving for a time as governor of Judah–a Godly man as seen in his prayers and desire for his people return to the proper worship of YHWH.  At the same time, he is a trusted member of the Persian royal court.  Nehemiah stands as one of Israel’s greatest Reformers, and a man from whom there is much to learn.

We return to our series on Ezra-Nehemiah–picking up where we left several months ago, with opening chapter of the Book of Nehemiah.  Frankly, it is hard to make sense of Nehemiah, without some knowledge of the Book of Ezra–which is why I felt it important to tackle both books together, not just the Book of Nehemiah as many preachers do.  The two books of Ezra-Nehemiah circulated together in the Jewish canon for a reason–they are clearly connected and depict the return of the Jews from exile and the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple from two different perspectives.  If Ezra is the more fact-based narrative utilizing a number of official Persian government documents, Nehemiah is a much more personal book–more than half of which is the author’s journal and which is described by one commentator as “some of the most lively writing in the Bible.”  Ezra, he says, was more reserved, while Nehemiah “leaps out of the pages at us.”  A practical and emotional man, in this book we are snooping in Nehemiah’s personal journal, written during a time of great difficulty for the people of God.

As we proceed this time, we’ll begin by answering the questions, “who, what, where, and when,” before we turn to our text, the opening chapter of Nehemiah, which includes “Nehemiah’s prayer.”  As for the “who” question, in the opening verses the author introduces himself as Nehemiah the son of Ha-cal-iah.  The name “Nehemiah” means “the Lord comforts” which is certainly an appropriate name for a man who appears on the scene during a very difficult period in Israel’s history.  The author introduces himself to us as the “cupbearer” of the Persian king Artaxerxes I, who ruled over the vast Persian empire from 464 until 424 BC.  The book opens with Nehemiah pleading with the king to be sent to Judah (the land of his people, the Jews) to help them rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which were in great need of repair so as to protect the now-returned Jewish exiles from attack from their neighbors–who, as we have seen, are angered that the returning exiles will not embrace the pagan rituals of the Canaanites, most Israelites choosing instead to remain loyal to the religion of their fathers.  Nehemiah is appointed governor of Judah, and quickly comes to the realization that his people (the Jews) are in great need of reformation–a reformation of their own hearts.

I have long felt that some of the poorest preaching I have ever heard has been on the Book of Nehemiah.  I say poor not because the preachers of whom I am thinking were bad communicators, or that they were not men of faith.  Quite the contrary, I’ve heard good preachers do remarkable, spell-binding things with the text of this book.  But they do so at the price of missing the whole point.  Nehemiah’s purpose really is as mundane as describing how the city and its defenses were rebuilt because his people were in real danger of attack.  In our day, the temptation is great to see this book as an allegory which applies to modern readers.  Because Nehemiah demonstrates passion and capable leadership, sermons on the book of Nehemiah are often framed as a series of principles for successful “leadership.”  The image of rebuilding the walls far-too often and far-too easily becomes an illustration to us as to how we can rebuild our own fallen lives and go from ruin to recovery.  Even worse, the wall-builder motif has been shamelessly invoked by churches as “biblical” support for fund raising during various church building projects.  Be a Nehemiah– “Help us build the walls of our new church.”

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"Make Confession to the Lord" -- Ezra 10:1-17

The Tenth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

What does it mean to repent?  Many of our contemporaries act as if repentance simply means to say “I’m sorry,” shed a few tears, promise not to commit the offense again, and then go merrily on their way.  In the case of Ezra, given his great sorrow for his people, Israel, repentance is much more than a declaration of “I’m sorry,” followed by a promise to do better.  Upon hearing the news that the Jews were again intermarrying with the pagan “people of the land,” (the Canaanites) Ezra went into a time of mourning.  After all that Israel had endured–seventy years of exile in Babylon, followed by a difficult return to the land, a prolonged struggle to rebuild the temple and the city which had been destroyed by the Babylonians–Ezra could not believe that the Jews had so quickly grown indifferent to the law of Moses.  Before Israel even entered the land of promise, in Deuteronomy 7:1-8, YHWH commanded his people not to intermarry with the Canaanites.  But the Jews disobeyed this command in the generations after they first entered the promised land, intermarried with pagan Canaanites, and now are doing so again.  After Ezra’s repentance–in the form of mourning for himself and for his people–stirred the people of Israel deeply.  Seeing him mourn because of their sin and then pray for Israel, the people too repented, and began ending the sinful marriages in which they had engaged, and looked to YHWH for mercy.  This is the theme of Ezra 10, our passage before us.

With this sermon we complete our time in the Book of Ezra.  We will pick up with the Book of Nehemiah when I return in mid-August.  And then we will turn to the Book of Daniel.  In the final chapter of Ezra, the account resumes where there narrative left off in chapter 9:5.  “And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God.”  Ezra’s prayer follows in verses 6-15, the tone of which can be seen in verse 6, Ezra’s first petition.  “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.”  Why is Ezra in a state of mourning?  Why is he too ashamed to lift up his prayer to YHWH?  What is the great sin which his people have committed?

As we saw last time, before the Israelites entered the promised land, YHWH gave the Israelites clear and explicit instructions that his people were to wipe out the Canaanites (all of them), that the Israelites were to destroy all Canaanite religious shrines, and finally, that the Israelites were not to intermarry with pagans.  We noted that the prohibition not to intermarry with the Canaanites was a theological prohibition–not a racial one.  Moses married a Midianite.  Aaron’s wife was a Cushite (Nubian/African).  Joseph married an Egyptian woman.  Even Israel’s greatest king, David, had Gentile ancestry.  The reason why God forbade intermarriage is not that the Canaanites were of a different race than the Jews.  The reason is that the Canaanites were of a different religion than the Jews–they were pagans, worshiped all kinds of so-called “gods,” in and through pagan rituals (often tied to nature), with some of the Canaanites even practicing child sacrifice.

The Jews struggled with this attraction to Canaanite ways from the very time they entered the promised land–the Canaanites were much better at convincing Jews to become syncretists (to add the pagan “gods” to the worship of YHWH), than the Jews were in convincing the Canaanites to worship YHWH alone as the true and living God.  Since YHWH is a jealous God, demanding that his people worship him and him alone, any worship of idols or pagan gods violates the terms of the covenant YHWH made with Israel at Mount Sinai.  After much long-suffering patience with his people–who are like an adulterous spouse who continually seeks other lovers–YHWH’s covenant curses came upon Israel in the form of defeat by enemies and then exile from the land.  The northern kingdom (Israel) was defeated by the Assyrians in 722 BC, before the southern kingdom (Judah) was defeated in 587 BC by the Babylonians, with substantial numbers of Jews taken to exile in Babylon–their return serving as the occasion for the writing of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

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"O LORD, the God of Israel, You Are Just" -- Ezra 9:1-15

The Ninth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

Ezra has been sent to Jerusalem by Artaxerxes, the Persian king, on a fact finding mission.  Ezra has been given everything he needs by the king to successfully fulfill his mission.  But Ezra is also a priest who descended from Aaron, and a man skilled in the law of Moses.  Ezra was well-known for his zeal for and expertise in those commandments which YHWH gave to Israel through Moses.  Ezra must walk the difficult line between fulfilling his mission for Artaxerses–reporting back to the king the status of the Jews in Jerusalem–while at the same time becoming the de-facto spiritual leader of the Jews.  It is not long after his return to Jerusalem that Ezra becomes aware of Israel’s shocking indifference to the law of Moses, and accordingly, calls the nation to repentance.  The Persians desire that the Jews and their pagan neighbors, the people of the land, live in peace with one another.  Yet as a Jew and someone zealous for the law of Moses, Ezra knows that if the Jews become too close to their pagan neighbors, it might just be the Jews’ undoing as a people.

Ezra has been in the Jerusalem area about four months, when he is informed that a long-standing threat to Israel’s existence as YHWH’s covenant people has once again reared its ugly head.  Failing to learn the painful lesson taught them by YHWH–many of the Jews were exiled from the land of Canaan for seventy years because of the people’s disobedience to their covenant with YHWH–Ezra is told that the Jews have not completely separated themselves from the people of the land, and are, in fact, intermarrying with them.  As someone skilled in the Law of Moses, Ezra knows how serious this offense is.  New of this sends him into a time of deep mourning and repentance–the theme of our sermon this time. 

It was about this same time that God sent the prophet Malachi, who likewise called the Jews to repentance because of the same reason–a number of Jewish men were marrying pagan women (Canaanites).  Some of the Jewish men were even divorcing their wives in order marry pagans!  In chapter 2:10-16, the prophet laments,

    Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.  May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!  And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.  But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

The record of Israel’s history in this regard has not been good.  Marital infidelity became a powerful metaphor for Israel’s spiritual condition–YHWH’s chosen people began seeking other gods.  It was Israel’s failure to drive out all the Canaanites when they first entered the land of promise during the days of Joshua, which led to the terrible days depicted in the Book of Judges, followed by YHWH directing the Assyrians to defeat the northern kingdom (Israel) in 722 BC, before Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and took a large of Jews into exile to Babylon in 586 BC.

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"That We Might Humble Ourselves Before Our God" -- Ezra 8:15-23

The Eighth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

Erza–a man skilled in the law of Moses and a priest who descended from Aaron–was commissioned by the Persian king Artaxerxes to take a second group of Jewish exiles to Jerusalem.  This was to be an official fact finding mission for the king.  The others returning to Jerusalem with Ezra had not left Babylon with the earlier group of Jewish exiles several generations earlier for reasons unknown to us.  The journey was a difficult one–four month’s duration and nine hundred miles.  Chapter 8 of the Book of Ezra recounts Ezra’s journey from Babylon to Jerusalem to fulfill the mission assigned to him by the Persian king, and which fulfilled YHWH’s purposes for his people.  But from a theological perspective, the scene described by Ezra throughout this chapter is that of a second Exodus, a theme which surfaced earlier, in chapters 1-3 of this same book.  Apparently, as Israel’s prophets foretold of Jewish exiles returning to the land of Canaan, successive generations of Jews living in exile in Babylon sense the call to return home to Israel.  Those Jews going with Ezra are depicted as an “ideal Israel” in miniature, making the long and difficult journey through the desert to join their brothers and sisters who, several generations prior, had already made the same journey to that land in Canaan promised to them by YHWH.

We are continuing our series on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and we are taking up Ezra’s account of a second group of Jews returning from their exile in Babylon to Jerusalem in 458 BC.  Some sixty years have passed since the end of chapter 6, and the opening of chapter 7, which recounts Ezra’s appearance on the scene the same year.  In the first six chapters of Ezra, we saw that upon their return to the Jerusalem area the first group of returning exiles began the task of rebuilding the altar and conducting sacrifices according to the law of Moses.  Despite the efforts of their pagan neighbors–the people of the land–who made a sustained effort to keep the Jews from rebuilding, Jews finally completed rebuilding the temple 516 BC.  The Jews were back in their land, they were one nation, but remained under the control of the Persian empire.  While the second temple stands in continuity with the temple built by Solomon, things were not the same.  The focus of Ezra chapters 7-10 shifts away from Israel’s past glories, toward the hope of the messianic age.

This shift can be seen in Ezra 7, as Ezra’ account of the Jews returning home to Jerusalem in 538 BC, and completing their temple (in 516), fades into the background in light of the need for reformation and renewal within Israel.  Despite returning to their land and rebuilding their temple, the Jews once again face the perpetual struggle they have faced since first entering the promised land in the days of Joshua and the conquest, about seven hundred years earlier.  How do the people keep their covenant with YHWH, when so many of them find themselves drawn to the paganism all around them?  Although the people have been back in the land for several genrations, by the time of Ezra, a number of the Jews have intermarried with pagan Gentiles, and many are starting to adopt pagan ways of thinking and doing.  Now that the leaders of the first generation of exiles have died off (Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Haggai, and Zechariah), God raises up Ezra and Nehemiah, who play important roles in Israel’s immediate future.

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"The Hand of the LORD My God Was on Me" -- Ezra 7:1-10

The Seventh in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

Enter Ezra–the key figure in the next four chapters of the book which bears his name.  The year is 458 B.C.  The second temple was completed some sixty years previously, and sacrifices were being offered since that time according to the law of Moses.  A priest in the genealogical line of Aaron, and also described as a skilled “scribe,” Ezra is among the first of a long line of Jewish biblical scholars who are devoted students of God’s law–men who later came to be known as “scribes” during the days of Jesus, four hundred years later.  Some have described Ezra as the “secretary of state for Jewish affairs,” since Ezra was commissioned by the Persian king Artaxerxes to leave Babylon, travel to Jerusalem, and report back to the king about the current state of affairs regarding the Jews and their progress in rebuilding their capital city and its defenses (walls).  Upon his arrival in Jerusalem, Ezra began a series of reforms including a renewed devotion to the law of God, renewed focus upon prayer and fasting, as well as insisting that the Israelites end the practice of intermarrying with the pagans around them.  With his arrival in Jerusalem, the scene in the Book of Ezra shifts from its focus upon the temple to a focus upon the law of God as the people of God return to the pattern so well established throughout Israel’s history–times of revival (in this case the Jews returning to the land and the rebuilding of the temple), followed by times of unbelief and apostasy, as many Jews seek to make peace with their pagan neighbors, many more intermarry with them, and some even adopt their pagan practices.

We are the midst of a series on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and this morning we come to Ezra 7.  In the previous chapters, we have considered the author’s account of that period of Israel’s history in which the Jews are back in their land, living as one people, with a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, and facing many of the trials and tribulations which the people of God have struggled from the time they first entered Canaan back in the days of the conquest.  How do the people of God maintain their faith in YHWH and their loyalty to him, when the pagans all around them seek to entice them away from worshiping and serving the true and living God?  As a man who can trace his ancestry back to Aaron (Israel’s first high priest), Ezra is well qualified for his role as a reformer of sorts, seeking to renew his people’s love for YHWH and their commitment to his covenant–specifically, the law of Moses.  Israel many be back in the land of Canaan, but they live under Persian control, and the leadership of the nation naturally passes from the first generation of post-exile leaders, Zerubbabel and Jeshau (Joshua), to an increased role for the high priest, who now leads the people in both religious and political matters.

Since the days when Israel first returned to the land because of the decree of Cyrus in 538 BC, a whole series of Persians kings have come and gone.  Cyrus’ successor Darius (who was featured prominently in earlier chapters of Ezra) died in 486 BC.  Darius was replaced by his son Xerxes, who ruled over the vast Persian empire from 485 until his death in 465 at the hand of one of his own bodyguards.  Xerxes’ son, Artaxerxes–who is king in the days of Ezra–ruled until he died 424 BC.  Given the upheaval and intrigue within the Persian royal dynasty, it is important for Ezra to remind us six times in chapters 7-8 that “the hand of God” orchestrated all of these things for the benefit and preservation of his people.  The Persian kings come and go, but God’s providential purposes remain the same.

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"Great Joy" -- Ezra 6:13-22

 The Sixth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

When the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem in 587 BC and destroyed both the city and the temple, everything changed for Israel.  The surviving inhabitants were forced to endure a humiliating captivity in Babylon.  While in captivity, they found themselves under the domination of the Persian empire which defeated the Babylonians.  Cast from their land because of their disobedience to their covenant with YHWH, those Jews who returned to Jerusalem in 538 to rebuild their temple find themselves facing a new reality.  The land which they once ruled, is now part of the Persian empire, with a well-established system of Satraps and local governors in place.  Although the Persian king, Cyrus, had decreed to free the Jews from their captivity and return them to Jerusalem to rebuild both the city and temple, the Jews were no longer free to self-govern–they are accountable to their Persian landlords.  To add insult to injury, the returning exiles must live adjacent to the so-called “people of the land”–a mixture of Canaanites, apostate Jews, and transplanted Assyrians.  Israel’s neighbors will do everything in their power to disrupt whatever progress the Jews make in rebuilding their city and their temple.  Through his prophets, God promised his people that they would return to their land, rebuild Jerusalem, and their temple.  If God is to keep his covenant promise to his people and restore his temple, he must do so through a small remnant of Jewish exiles now returned home, and by demonstrating his sovereign power over the Persian king (and his successors), and this despite sustained opposition from the people of the land.  Everything changed for Israel in 587 BC.

As we continue our series on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we come to Ezra 6, the first half of which recounts the official response from the Persian king Darius (Cyrus’ successor) to a letter sent to the Persian royal court by the local governor, Tattenai, requesting a search of the state archives to see if the Jews were telling the truth–that they had returned to the land upon the decree of Cyrus, who also decreed to fund the rebuilding of both the city and the temple.  The second half of Ezra 6 (vv. 13–22) describes how work on the temple–which came to a halt in 520–got underway again, with the second temple finally completed in 516 BC, during the sixth year of the reign of Darius.  

The completion of the rebuilt temple marks a major turning point not only in the Book of Ezra, but also in the history of Israel.  Throughout the first six chapters of this book, Ezra is recounting events which occur nearly sixty years before his own return to Jerusalem in 458 BC to help ensure that now that the temple has been rebuilt, Ezra’s people, the Jews, continue the purposes for which God has called them–to be his covenant people and a light to the Gentiles–and that the Israelites living after the exile not repeat the sins of their forefathers which led to them being cast from the land of promise (Canaan) in the first place. A rebuilt temple not only ties the Jews to Israel’s previous history, the construction of a so-called “second temple,” opens a new future to the Jewish people.  Ezra and Nehemiah will play a role in this.   

For us, as readers and students of this book, the rebuilding of the temple brings to an end the first twenty-one years of Israel’s history after the people are back in the land (after returning from Babylon).  This chapter also brings to a close the Ezra’s account of those years when Zerubbabel and Jeshua (Joshua) led the people in rebuilding, preparing us for the accounts of Ezra (from chapter 7 to the end) and the Book of Nehemiah.  To quote one writer, Erza chapter 7 and the Book of Nehemiah are “a lifetime away” from the events of Ezra chapters 1-6.  As just mentioned, Ezra arrives upon the scene in 458, some sixty years and nearly two generations after the events took place which he has been recounting associated with the exiles returning home and rebuilding their temple.

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"They Began to Rebuild the House of the Lord" -- Ezra 5:1-17

The Fifth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

The Jews in Jerusalem are discouraged.  Hauled-off into captivity to the city of Babylon some seventy years earlier, only to have their Babylonian captors defeated by the Persians, the Persian king, Cyrus, then ordered their resettlement back in their original homeland, even giving them the funding to rebuild their temple, and their capital city of Jerusalem.  Absent from the area around Jerusalem for these seventy-years, and with the city and the temple desolate, Israel’s neighbors to the north are relieved.  The Jews, who were both a religious and military power, are no longer a threat.  But these same neighbors are quite disconcerted to hear that the Jews have returned to their land to rebuild, with both the funding and the blessing of the Persian king.  Upon their return, the Jews begin rebuilding the altar and foundation of their temple, they have begun offering sacrifices to YHWH, and celebrating the feasts required by the law of Moses.  At first, their neighbors to the north–the people of the land–offer to help.  When the leaders of the now-returned exiles, Jeshua (Joshua) and Zerubbabel, see through their ruse, and reject their offer, the people of the land begin an eighty-year long period of hassling the Jews, threatening them, bribing local officials, and doing everything in their power to stop the Jews from rebuilding.  As a consequence, the people of Israel have become discouraged, and work on the temple has come to a halt.  But God will send two prophets to encourage his people, and remind them of his promise that the temple will be rebuilt, and the walls of the city restored.  Meanwhile, the people of the land, are determine to stop the Jews, and a local official, perhaps unknowingly, will take up their cause.  

We left off last time in 520 BC, when the work of rebuilding the temple ceased.  In the last verse of chapter 4 (v. 24), Ezra told us that “then [i.e., in 520 BC] the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.”   Cyrus’ decree, which returned the Jews to the land and funded the temple had been issued in 538.  There had been two years of good progress, until things slowed down, and the work finally stopped in 536.  The rebuilding of the temple stopped because of reasons recounted by Ezra in verses 4-5 of chapter 4. “Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.”  After the foundation of the temple was laid and the alter rebuilt in 536 BC–a time of great joy–the Israelites grew very discouraged.  According to Ezra, it was about this time that Israel’s neighbors to the north began their non-stop campaign of harassment, bribery, as well as inciting political intrigue among their Persian landlords, putting great pressure on the Jews to stop rebuilding both the temple and the city of Jerusalem.  The Jews grew discouraged and the work ceased.

As we saw last time, the Jews became discouraged because of two related factors.  First, as for Israel’s neighbors to the north–the people of the land–they are troubled by the rebuilding of the temple, in so far as such a temple was dedicated exclusively to YHWH according to the dictates of the law of Moses.  The people of the land who hassle the Israelites were a mix of Canaanite locals, apostate Jews who remained behind during the time of captivity, as well as Assyrian exiles transplanted to Samaria from areas captured by the Babylonians.  Now the entire region was under Persian political and military jurisdiction.

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"We Alone Will Build to the Lord" -- Ezra 4:1-24

The Fourth in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

We have all heard stories in the news about someone who desires to build a massive home, gets all of the necessary permits, and the starts construction.  The neighbors, who have smiled and waved everyday for years, seem to be perfectly okay with the project.  They never said a word when the matter came before the city council and a public hearing.  But once the building got underway and it became apparent that the home’s second story would block the neighbor’s view, suddenly a lawsuit is filed, an injunction issued, and building stops, until months or even years later when the matter is finally resolved.  We see a similar episode in our text, as the Israelites, who have the permission and blessing of the Persian king to rebuild their temple, now discover that their neighbors to the north–who even offer to help the Israelites with the work–are actually conspiring to stop the rebuilding project dead in its tracks.  Their efforts reach all the way to the Persian royal court and Ezra’s initial reports of progress give way, instead, to an apparent end to efforts to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple.
 
As we continue our series on the books of Ezra-Nehemiah, we move into Ezra 4, where we learn that the initial progress in rebuilding the temple, about which we read last time, has now come to a sudden and unforeseen halt.  Israel’s adversaries lobby for a work stoppage and succeed.  Last time, we read in chapter 3 of the how the altar was rebuilt at the temple site, and the daily sacrifices were re-instituted.  Under the leadership of Jeshua and Zerubbabel, once again the Israelites celebrate their historic feasts according to the law of Moses.  These feasts played a significant role in Israel’s history and, in part, established their identity as the people of YHWH.  

Just as Israel’s history took an unexpected turn when the Israelites were set free from their Babylonian captivity by Cyrus in 538 BC, then returned home and began the work of rebuilding their city and their temple, Israel’s circumstances change unexpected yet again.  The work on the temple comes a grinding halt.  In fact, everything of which we read from here on in both books of Ezra and Nehemiah will be framed in terms of an eighty year conflict instigated by Israel’s neighbors, lasting until Ezra himself appears on the scene in 458.  In chapter 4:1-5, 24, Ezra informs us that effort to rebuild the city and the temple will face strong opposition until the temple is finally completed about 516 BC.  In verses 6-23, Ezra jumps ahead in time to give background to the reader regarding the numerous complaints about Israel which came before the Persian court, even after the temple was completed.  Motivated by unbelief, and characterized by political intrigue among the local population and the Persian kings, the entire account of the struggle to rebuild the temple and the city–especially the city’s walls–must be seen in light of the backdrop of Satan’s continual efforts to thwart the purposes of God as depicted as a war in heaven in Revelation 12:1-12, our New Testament lesson.

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"The House of God" -- Ezra 3:1-13

The Third in a Series on Ezra-Nehemiah

At Christ Reformed Church, we often focus upon the fact that God keeps his promises–we do this because we focus upon redemptive history as the basis for our teaching and preaching.  Redemptive history is the outworking of God’s plan to redeem sinners, unfolding across time in the pages of Holy Scripture.  God promised to redeem his people from sin and the curse immediately after the fall of our race into sin (cf. Genesis 3:15), and throughout the Bible we see a series of such promises find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.  In Ezra chapter 3, we witness one of the great moments in the story of our redemption, when 42,360 Jewish exiles return to Jerusalem from Babylon, fulfilling God’s promise that his people would be exiled from the promised land, only to return seventy years later.  When the Israelites do return, they begin rebuilding their temple, their  capital city (Jerusalem), and then seek re-establish themselves in the land given them by God.  The books of Ezra and Nehemiah recount this tumultuous period in Israel’s history.

It is easy to imagine the overwhelming and simultaneous sense of joy and loss the people of Israel felt when they returned home to Judah and began to survey what remained of their beloved city and its temple.  We can understand the sense of loss they felt upon returning to their homes and finding everything in ruins.  We understand the joy they felt when they first began to see progress at the temple site.  We can imagine the hope of loss restored, and the rekindling or their faith brought about by witnessing YHWH’s covenant promises come to pass before their very eyes.  In their story, we too find hope in the midst of our own struggles and difficult circumstances as we witness, in the people of Israel, now back in their land, God keeping promises made to his ancient people (Israel).  God’s people will possess the land promised to them once again, they will rebuild their city and their temple, and then they will once again worship YHWH (the true and living God) in his temple as a testimony to the pagan peoples around them.  Ezra’s account reminds us that God always keeps his promises made to his people–even when the circumstances seem to indicate otherwise.

As we continue with our series on the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we come to Ezra 3 and the account of God’s exile people, back in their land, struggling to start over after seventy years in captivity.  Their nation had been divided centuries before, and scattered families from both kingdoms (the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah) remained in the land to greet the exiles when they returned.  But even as those who remained in the land greeted them, so did the realization that their magnificent temple, “the house of God” which was originally built by Solomon, now lay in ruins.  Their beloved city of Jerusalem was desolate and sparsely populated since most of the city’s inhabitants had been rounded-up and hauled off into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar.   

Things were a far cry from the glory days when Israel’s kingdom (under David and Solomon) extended as far to the northeast as the River Euphrates (in what is now Iraq), as far east as the Arabian desert (Jordan), and as far to the southwest as the River of Egypt (Gaza).  In 587 BC, the southern kingdom of Judah, fell to the Babylonians, who took between twenty-two and two hundred thousand Jews into captivity in Babylon.  But as Ezra reports, there has been a complete reversal of fortune.  In 538, the Persian king Cyrus–stirred by YHWH’s mighty hand–set free the captive Jews, who, with Cyrus’s help, returned to the promised land in what Ezra describes as a second Exodus.

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"Everyone Whose Spirit God Stirred Up" -- Ezra 1:5-2:70

The Second in a Series of Sermons on Ezra-Nehemiah

I think it fair to say that no one reading this would mention Ezra chapter 2, if asked to identify your favorite chapter in all the Bible.  Why is a chapter which contains a detailed list of the family names of the 42,360 returning exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem, included in the Book of Ezra?  Why is this list repeated in the Book of Nehemiah (chapter 7).  Why does Ezra include an exact count of all the bowls, basins, censers, and other implements to be used in the rebuilt Jerusalem temple, which were to be brought back to Jerusalem, years after they had been taken from the temple by Nebuchadnezzer?  Why all the detail?  Ezra is a priest, not an accountant.  He is not a store clerk doing inventory.  Well, we will address the question of why such detail is important as we turn to the balance of Ezra chapter one (vv. 5-11) and all of Ezra chapter 2, our text.

In the opening four verses of Ezra, we read of a decree issued in 538 BC by the Persian king Cyrus, declaring that those Jews who had been held captive in Babylon (under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, whose empire Cyrus had defeated the previous year) were being sent home by Cyrus to restore and rebuild their capital city (Jerusalem) and its temple, identified by Cyrus as “the house of God.”

    In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

Several things should jump out to us as we read this decree from the Persian king.  The first is that Erza refers to several prophecies from Jeremiah, which foretold of Israel’s exile and return to the land.  Last time, we considered several similar prophecies from the prophet Isaiah, but it is important to consider the remarkable prophecy mentioned by Ezra and found in Jeremiah 25:11–12.  Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry took place from about the time of Josiah’s reform in 620 BC (and recounted in 2 Chronicles 34) until the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587.  Through the prophet Jeremiah, YHWH told his people, “this whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.  Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.”  A similar prophecy is found in Jeremiah 29:10. “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”  Cyrus’ decree in 538 BC, indicates that the seventy-years of Israel’s predicted exile are now blessedly over.  God’s people will be set free, and will directed by a pagan king to return to the promised land in what amounts to a second Exodus.  They will even be given the support necessary to rebuild.

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