Category: <span>Ezra with Select Psalms</span>

When Ezra returned to Jerusalem, the author described him as a man skilled in the law of Moses (Ezra 7:6). In addition, he said, “Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the LORD, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). And the returned exiles needed him. Upon arrival, Ezra was confronted by syncretism among the people. Their lifestyle resembled the previous generations whose sin led to the exile. In fact, the returned exiles had fallen into the same specific form of syncretism their fathers had committed as early as the days of Moses, when Israelite men intermarried with Moabite women. At that time, the Lord’s anger burned against Israel and Phinehas rescued them from the Lord’s wrath (Num 25:1-15; 31:13-17). Now it was Ezra’s turn.

Ezra was crushed when he heard the words of the leaders; the people, led by the priests and officials, had taken foreign wives (Ezra 9:1-2). Ezra was not alone in his despair: “Everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me, because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles” (Ezra 9:4). Ezra’s prayer in Ezra 9:6-15 demonstrated his heart as a leader. He acknowledged that the behavior of the returned exiles was no different than in previous generations—the punishment of which had resulted in the exile (Ezra 9:6-8). But God had been kind to His people. Ezra reminded them saying, “Though we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our slavery. He has extended grace to us in the presence of the Persian kings, giving us new life, so that we can rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem” (Ezra 9:9). Ezra confessed that the people had sinned against the law of Moses, which warned the people of the dangers of intermarriage (Ezra 9:10-13; Deut 7:1-4). Ezra reminded the people that God’s punishment upon them was less than they deserved; they were without excuse before the Lord (Ezra 9:14-15).

Shecaniah joined Ezra in mourning but recognized that God had not yet sent a plague amongst the people nor commanded that the people be executed for their infidelity. Perhaps the brief moment of grace had not yet expired. Ezra thus led the people to renew their covenant saying, “You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. Therefore, make a confession to the LORD God of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the surrounding peoples and your foreign wives” (Ezra 10:1b-11). The problem was so pervasive that it could not be settled in a single meeting. Ezra had to arrange a schedule for these men to come before the family leaders and receive their sentence (Ezra 10:12-17). The priests, Levites, temple singers, and gatekeepers were the first required to settle the matter and in turn all the Israelites who had united themselves to pagan women.

The returned exiles took foreign wives because they had forgotten their special place in God’s plan; their sin was vertical before it was horizontal. While the people had erected a new temple and celebrated the Passover, their moral vision as God’s special people had been lost along the way. Paul confronted the Corinthians along the same lines. They were indifferent to sexual sin in their midst because they had only lightly esteemed their status as God’s special people in Christ (1 Corinthians 5-6)—and he challenged their behavior in light of the sacrifice of Christ, their Passover. Paul’s argument to the Corinthians concerning the immoral brother among them was thus grounded in the storyline of Scripture. In 1 Cor 5:6-8, Paul told the Corinthians that Christ, their Passover, had been sacrificed. They should thus walk in sincerity and truth, moral uprightness.

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, since you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast, or with the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor 5:6-8).

The exiles, with the permission and support of the Persian kings, returned to the Promised Land in phases. In accord with his predecessors Cyrus and Darius, Artaxerxes displayed great benevolence toward the Jews. Ezra was God’s man for the moment—and Artaxerxes knew it. It was in the Persian king’s self-interest to allow the various people groups under his domain at least some freedom of religion. Artaxerxes even gave Ezra silver and gold to purchase animals for sacrifice, and any surplus was to be used at Ezra’s discretion (Ezra 7:16-18). He charged Ezra the priest to regulate life west of the Euphrates according to the law of Moses, appointing judges over those who knew it and teaching those who did not. The punishment for ignorance was severe: “Anyone who does not keep the law of your God and the law of the king, let a fair judgment be executed against him, whether death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment” (Ezra 7:26). Ezra gathered a number of family leaders to return with him, including Levites and temple servants (Ezra 7:27-8.20); he confessed that all these joined him because “the gracious hand of our God was upon us” (Ezra 8:18).

Ezra 7-8 reads like an autobiography. Ezra presented himself as a man dedicated to the law of Moses. The law is mentioned nine times in the book, seven of them in Ezra 7. Ezra was “a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given” (Ezra 7:6); a man who “had determined in his heart to study the law of the LORD, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10); and “an expert in matters of the LORD’s commandments and statutes for Israel” (Ezra 7:11). King Artaxerxes’s letter was replete with references to Ezra as a man of the law (Ezra 7:12, 14, 21, 26). Why this emphasis? This was not primarily so that Ezra would have honor among the people as an expert teacher but so that the people themselves would be mindful of the law. If the Hebrews were going to have any success in Jerusalem, Ezra knew it would only be a result of faithfulness to the law.

The concept of the law of God is a central element for understanding the storyline of Scripture.

(1) Early in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus announced that He came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them (Matt 5:17-18). As the New Testament progresses, it becomes clear that the purpose of the law and the prophets was to point to Jesus, who would institute for His followers a law of love. The evening before Jesus was crucified, just after He washed His disciples’ feet, Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

(2) Paul’s understanding of the law reflected the teaching and sacrifice of Jesus. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to follow his example of unselfishness, which he displayed as one “under the law of Christ” (1 Cor 9:21). Paul wrote that he was free to evangelize Jews by living as a Jew and free to evangelize Gentiles by living as a Gentile. Paul likewise challenged the Galatians—some of whom were submitting to life under the law of Moses and needed compassionate care from those stronger in faith among them—to “carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). It may in fact be the case that Paul understood Christians to be freed from the specifics of the law of Moses so that they could fulfill the law of love in Christ. Paul continued, “For you are called to freedom, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal 5:13-14). Similarly, Paul wrote to the Romans, “The commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment—all are summed up by this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Rom 13:9).

The leaders of the returned exiles wished to provide them with a temple-centered theological vision. For Ezra, rebuilding of the temple so naturally accorded with rebuilding the whole of Jerusalem that he could write about the latter and the former without pausing to dip his pen. But Ezra recorded that those rebuilding faced sharp political opposition.

The non-Jewish inhabitants around Jerusalem opposed temple construction (Ezra 4:1-5:5). Initially “the enemies of Judah and Benjamin” (Ezra 4:1) proposed to join in the work; what better way to defile the construction than from within? Yet Zerubbabel and company saw through the scheme of their opponents, answering with devotion both to the Lord and to the Persian king who had authorized their work. The early opposition described here anticipated the difficulty Ezra and Nehemiah would later endure while building the wall around Jerusalem (Ezra 4:6-23). Re-establishing Israel’s system of worship at the temple in Jerusalem would not be for the fainthearted. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah “prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them” (Ezra 5:1) and the people continued the work.

Those who initially opposed construction, seeing that their attempts to frustrate construction of the temple had failed, took their case to Tattenai, the governor of the region. He in turn inquired as to who gave the Jews the authority to rebuild their temple. In Tattenai’s mind, if the Jews were slowly working toward a theocracy independent of, and potentially in rebellion to, Persia, then the project demanded his closest attention.

Ezra recorded that the Jewish elders were forced to appeal to Darius (Ezra 5:6-6:13). He was the Persian ruler after Cyrus, the king who had originally commanded the Jews to return and build the temple (Ezra 1:1-4). Darius searched the records of the Persian kings and ruled in favor of Zerubbabel and his cohort (Ezra 6:1-12). Darius went a step further than Cyrus. He decreed, “The cost is to be paid in full to these men out of the royal revenues from the taxes of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that the work will not stop” (Ezra 6:8). Darius declared that the people should continue to make sacrifices, even praying for him and his sons (Ezra 6:9-10), and threatened execution upon any who interfered with the work (Ezra 6:11-12)!

With the seal of the king to back their work, the returned exiles completed the work and dedicated their new temple to the Lord (Ezra 6:14-22). They were yet encouraged in the work by the work of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. When the temple was completed, “the Israelites, including the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy” (Ezra 6:16).

Ezra noted that the returned exiles celebrated by sacrificing an abundance of animals and by separating themselves “from the uncleanness of the Gentiles of the land” (Ezra 6:21). Ezra’s statement provides a window for observing Scripture’s storyline. Ezra knew that if the nations were allowed to co-habit with Israel, Israel would be polluted and turned away from worshipping the Lord from a pure heart. Unfortunately, Israel failed just as Moses predicted (Deut 30:1-6). The New Testament records that purity before God is found only in Jesus Christ and is available to all peoples.

(1) Even at the outset of Jesus’ ministry, He challenged those who complained about His hospitable association with the unclean. After Matthew was converted, he gave a banquet for his friends. When the Pharisees observed Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, they were infuriated that He—a religious leader—had not followed the pattern that Ezra and the ancestors had established (Matt 9:9-13//Mark 2:15-17//Luke 5:29-32). “The healthy don’t need a doctor,” Jesus retorted, “but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).

(2) At the outset of Paul’s ministry, he confronted those who argued that Jews should separate from Gentiles, even those in Christ. Paul wanted the Galatians to understand that Christian spirituality is not based on adherence to laws of separation but the outworking of love and truth by the Spirit for those who belong to Christ. So when Peter came from Jerusalem and led Barnabas to separate from the Gentiles at meals, Paul opposed him publicly saying, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?” (Gal 2:14).

In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, the prophet Jeremiah announced that the Babylonian empire would soon overtake Judah, removing the people from the land for seventy years (Jeremiah 25). After Nebuchadnezzar’s first raid on Judah (2 Chron 36:9-10), Jeremiah sent a letter of encouragement to the exiles, affirming his prophecy of a seventy-year captivity followed by a return to the land (Jer 29:4-28).

Jeremiah’s prophesy of the conclusion of the Babylonian captivity was noteworthy for Ezra (Ezra 1:1-4). But King Cyrus of Persia may have had his own agenda in allowing the people to return. Having just conquered the Babylonian empire, Cyrus granted the Hebrews favor in hope of gaining their loyalty. God used this prudent politician to display His sovereignty and mercy over His people and the nations.

Ezra and Nehemiah described the origins of the post-exilic religious and political reforms of Judah. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem several years before Nehemiah and they shared a common worldview with the Chronicler. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah were also active during this time of restoration, each exhorting the returned exiles to be faithful with the opportunity God had given them.

Ezra recorded that the people got right to work on the temple (Ezra 1:5-11). In what must have seemed a miraculous turn of affairs, all who returned were actually funded not only by their family members remaining in Babylon, but also by the Persian king. Cyrus even “brought out the articles of the LORD’s house that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:7) so that they could be taken back to the city of David. Zerubbabel led a company of Israelite men (Ezra 2:3-39), Levites (Ezra 2:40), singers (Ezra 2:41), those who would be gatekeepers (Ezra 2:42), temple servants (Ezra 2:43-58), and even those who wished to serve at the temple but were prohibited because their ancestry could not be documented (Ezra 2:59-63). Ezra 2 concludes with a placid scene: “The priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, and some of the people settled in their towns, and the rest of Israel settled in their towns” (Ezra 2:70).

The peace would not last. The initial paragraph of Ezra 3 introduces the dramatic motif that would carry through Ezra and into Nehemiah. The non-Hebrew inhabitants of the land opposed the returned exiles’ efforts to build the temple. Despite this threat, the Hebrews “set up the altar on its foundation and offered burnt offerings for the morning and evening” (Ezra 3:3). Beyond this, they celebrated the Feast of Booths (Ezra 3:4; Lev 23:33-43), appointed all Levites twenty years and older to supervise the construction (Ezra 3:8-9), and sang a familiar anthem of praise to the Lord: “For He is good; His faithful love to Israel endures forever” (Ezra 3:11; 2 Chron 5:13; 7:3).

Despite the joy of the occasion, “many of the older priests, Levites, and family leaders, who had seen the first temple, wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this house” (Ezra 3:12; Hag 2:1-5). Why? Because it was of common stature in comparison with Solomon’s great edifice; their God was great, and in their minds, this temple did not do Him justice (2 Chron 2:4-6). Ezra captured the jumbled emotions saying, “The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from that of the weeping, because the people were shouting so loudly” (Ezra 3:13).

On the whole, Ezra portrayed the people as more excited than discouraged; hope was in the air. The New Testament authors looked back at the returned exiles’ hope as if it were none. Despite the fact that the temple had been rebuilt and the sacrifices could continue, those who returned yet lived in the days of shadow, before the substance, that is, the Messiah, had come (Col 2:17). Concerning the effectiveness of Christ’s unique self-sacrifice in redemptive history, the author of Hebrews wrote, “Now every priest stands day after day ministering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:11-12).