1. Ezra/Nehemiah - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

all right good morning everybody how are you guys great that's great great it's good it's good to be here I had a few mini reunions already with old friends and it's great thank you for the invitation I know you know the leaders are facilitators of this group or the ones who did it but this is great this is my actually my idea of a good time is to sit with a group of like-minded people who are leaders and teachers and local churches and the Bible is open and we're trying to figure out how to help people fall in love with Jesus have a greater devotion to him that's what this is about so cheers Cheers of hours in Ezra Nehemiah on a Thursday yeah yes great well I even though we have two big blocks of a couple hours each there's never enough time so I already have that on my mind right now I think I just want to open up with a word of Prayer and then we're just gonna go for it we got ground to cover you guys with me great yeah let me open up with a word of Prayer Jesus were grateful to be alive today every single one of us here we bring in really different stories things that we left behind this morning to come be here families and friends or roommates church communities coworkers so all of that's going on and we're here Jesus and the Scriptures are open and you said this is a place and a time where you meet with your people and these scriptures are a vehicle through which you speak to us so we want to hear Holy Spirit we trust that you're weaving together all of our different stories into the book of Ezra Nehemiah and back out into all of our stories and so you know what you're doing and so we just want to be perceptive the Holy Spirit so what you're speaking to us what you think these texts have to say to each of our church communities so we ask for wisdom and we give this whole this whole day to you we trust that you will unify us in devotion to your son so we pray in the name of Jesus amen yeah amen amen all right let's see by way of preface okay I still don't know the answer to this question when I got the invitation from Derek and Paul to come do this I don't know who picked Azra Nehemiah whose idea was as her Nehemiah anybody Derek was yours Paul you'll take credit for that yeah way to go way to go and bold loose balls move really for a hint like over when he said it we did first Thessalonians and I was like awesome Oh what incredible saying to get passengers together teaching series awesome this year Ezra Nehemiah which makes me want to do jumping jacks you know but usually it doesn't for most other human beings so right as we Nehemiah so these books have a really interesting role in the Christian Bible they have an interesting role in the history of Christian interpretation of Old Testament Ezra and Nehemiah are not mentioned or highlighted in the teachings of Jesus anywhere so they you know Isaiah Jesus is all over it Psalms Deuteronomy these are cherished books of the Hebrew Bible to Jesus Ezra Nehemiah he just never brings it up what's that do I want to know why oh yes I do actually yes building the wall there you go you're gonna make me stand up here and take the heat for that one yeah right okay yeah no I support the choice I support the choice of Ezra Nehemiah but uh my opening comment is if if the goal of today is that each of you walks away with some vision for how to teach and bring the message of these books into your own church communities that's the goal of today and just a unity and to meet other pastors in the area and so on but that that's my mission is to help explore these books I hope in some greater depth and maybe you've ever considered before and to give you some categories for what their theological messages for God's people but this is not a book that people typically turn to when they're looking for the theological depths of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament and so that's unfortunate I you know I want to kind of correct that there's an incredible incredible things happening here but it is worth noting I'm a disciple of Jesus what parts of the Bible should be really important to me Isaiah Psalms Deuteronomy Genesis see Jesus is constantly talking about these books he never mentions Ezra Nehemiah and they're actually not mentioned by any of the Apostles other than just that the people returned from Babylon and some Matthew talks about that in his genealogy which is your favorite part of the Gospel of Matthew I'm sure that opening genealogy exactly it's actually mind-blowing that genealogy but that's for another that's for another day so Ezra Nehemiah so here's my point is that I want to open just with a comment for why books of the Bible that seem less valuable or actually really important to keep in circulation in the life of a local church community and maybe this might help give you I want you to think about it because if you're gonna do at the sermon series or if you're gonna do a class of some kind of your church you're gonna have to sell people on the idea of why this matters why why should they care about a bunch of Israelite X Isles who returned and had to scrape out a living in Jerusalem after the exile and then it ends with the mass divorces and people breaking the Sabbath and the guy named Nehemiah pulling out people's hair and beating them up on the last page of the book are you with me like why should I care about this book so it serves a vitally important purpose in the biblical drama it has really immense wisdom lots of wisdom to offer a local church community I think but you're gonna have to sell people on it um so let me just first do a couple things one there's gonna be a big set of notes on ezra nehemiah then i'm gonna have up on the screen and that are available to you so let me just first show you how to get those because I'm gonna be working off them you could download them right now and then be work off them to the rest the rest of the day so if we can get the live screen up so if you just go to Tamaki calm and you'll see Western seminary up here in the corner and then if you click on that you'll see lo and behold you guys that uh and in the link for Seattle area pastors Network March thirtieth that is today right yes okay you'll see handouts and I put them both in pages format and Microsoft Word format because I did some cultural exegesis on this place in the country and I think Microsoft people still use it up here I don't know anyway so there's a word version up there for you and that handout is called as we need my literary design and main themes feel free to use it there's just my notes from my Western seminary class that I take students through there you guys with me okay so there is that want you to know about that and then I think okay so to talk about Ezra Nehemiah let's talk about Jesus it's always a great place to start [Music] think about the favorite place I like to go to when I'm trying to orient anybody they have no biblical knowledge they have some biblical knowledge I'm trying to help somebody create a category in their mind for I'm a disciple of Jesus if you read the teachings of Jesus he talked about the Bible a lot doesn't he his Bible and his Bible consists of what was this what is Jesus's Bible so this is the Hebrew Bible and it's what we call the Old Testament the first three quarters of your English Bibles so this matters to Jesus he's constantly talking about quoting from it explaining who he is and what he's doing in his kingdom of God movement he's always talking about himself in relationship to these texts that we call the Old Testament so when Jesus the Risen Jesus has that epic Bible study this is in Luke chapter 24 verse 44 and he has that epic Bible study that you just wish you could have been the fly on the wall for it but it's happening over a broiled fish this Bible study right because they think he's a ghost and then he's like hey I'm hungry you know they her stomach gurgle and he gets out some fish and he eats it and then he's you know Luke Luke painted the scene do you think has fish in his mouth you know this is what I told you guys well I was still with you everything had to be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses in the prophets and in the Psalms now just a quick reminder if you don't know this already that's that three part o description what Jesus describes his Bible in three parts as the Torah of Moses the prophets and the Psalms he isn't just picking randomly a handful of books that he just likes the most he's talking he's talking about the whole a Bible his Bible which the standard way of describing the Hebrew Bible in Jewish literature in this period Jesus does it but the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls do all kinds of different Jewish texts do it in this period when they refer to the Bible they refer to it as having a three-part shape and the first two parts have pretty common term that most everybody uses the Torah of Moses and then the prophets and then the way that the third section gets described in Jewish literature Jesus calls it the Psalms there's another author also named Jesus who was a wisdom writer he lived about a hundred years before Jesus he wrote a book called the wisdom of Ben Sira the in the in catholic bible and he talks about the torah of moses the prophets and the other writings it's the third section in jewish tradition they've come to be called the cat Devine which is the Hebrew word for writings and you can see Ezra Nehemiah is right down in the last section there's three narrative books that close out the Hebrew Bible in the traditional Jewish order and Daniel and then Ezra Nehemiah Chronicles are right there Ezra Nehemiah up until around the eleven hundreds was always written on one scroll it's a single literary work it was divided up into two separate books in the medieval manuscript tradition but it's one book did you guys know that you should know that that's vitally important because you never want to teach one without the other it would be like just reading the second Lord of the Rings book without reading the first two the third he with me it just would it doesn't make any sense so don't do that always treat it as one book and then and then Chronicles so Jesus when he hears my point when Jesus says he's talking about you guys why were you so surprised what just happened in his kingdom of God mission is death his resurrection all of this was what the storyline of the Bible was moving towards and what is the Bible for Jesus it's the the three-part Hebrew Scriptures and he said all of it must be fulfilled so in Jesus's mind every all of the Bible what we call the Old Testament somehow in some way every single book fits in to a storyline that is pointing towards what Jesus did in his life his death in his resurrection what he doesn't mean is that every book has predictive messianic prophecy what he's talking about this conception that the biblical authors themselves had that all of these books fit together and they're telling one overall story and they all are pointing forward but they point in different ways the way is that the mom's point ahead to the messianic King is somewhat different than how Genesis does it and somewhat different than our Exodus does it or lamentations or Ezra Nehemiah so I helpful analogy that one of my early professors gave me for thinking about the variety of ways that the Old Testament points to Jesus is to think about the Chronicles of Narnia and who who is other than that you have the children think about the the seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia you have the the Pevensie children but then the dominant single character who makes everything cohere and who you could argue the character who all of these stories of narnia are about is who is Aslan now there's Aslan appear on every page no does he even appear personally in every chapter of every story no does every page mention his name no but without without a shadow of a doubt every single part of every book in every chapter in every individual page fits into a story that unites all seven books as about whom are you with me here and the way right the way that the last battle reveals wisdom about Aslan is very different than you know the voyage of the Dawn Treader or so on and in each book contributes and highlights something different about Aslan's character and so on and I think it's very similar to how we need to think about the Hebrew Bible when Jesus says something like that all of this needed to be fulfilled we need to have a much broader category set of categories in our mind than just like Psalm 22 the suffering they pierced my hands in my feet that's awesome like that's incredible actually what's happening in Psalm 22 that's worth a whole day too but but the way Ezra Nehemiah does it is different than how the Psalms do it it's different than how the book of Genesis does it and so it makes every book of the Old Testament so you just have to kind of be ready to have a new set of category shaped by every book of the Hebrew Scriptures for how they point forward to the suffering messianic King his resurrection the coming kingdom of God and so on so that's just my first point Ezra Nehemiah it fits into the story that's being fulfilled in Jesus but how it does that you have to not come with preconceived notions you just have to let the story itself create create the categories so that's the first thing I would say about why as Rene Maya is really important the other one would be a passage that you guys and gals know well I hope but it's in Paul's second letter to Timothy and it's where he's talking about how to methey issue needs to keep his local church community rooted in the scriptures talks about the public reading of Scripture teaching from the preaching from it just simply reading it aloud he's dealing with false teachers and Ephesus who are preying on vulnerable women in the church and it's just a mess Ephesus is not doing great right now and so one of Paul's strategies is to keep telling Timothy keep people connected to the scriptures it's like this lifeline that will keep people in the right story and with the right identity so in this famous passage in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 is this beautiful statement about the scriptures it's in verse starts in verse 14 but as for you Timothy continue in what you've learned and what you've become convinced of because you know from those from whom you've learned it how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures know again think in terms of like dates and timelines here so when Paul's writing this what body of text can possibly be hidden in his mind right now do the do the Gospels if he's writing this somewhere you know in the late 50s with people debate about this he's writing in the 50s somewhere do all four Gospels exist on one scroll together like just yes and most most maybe one but most of the Gospels probably don't even exist yet in written form in oral form they're spreading everywhere so he's not talking about the Gospels he's not talking about the book of Acts are you with me what's he talking about talking about the Old Testament the Jewish Scriptures and so look what he says just look what he says about the Old Testament what if you just read the Old Testament in your local church community you know those from whom you have learned it what will you walk away with what do you learn about life or whatever what are the Hebrew Scriptures do to you well first of all they're able to make you wise what's the purpose of the Bible according to Paul one of his main purposes is to make you wise why is about what will make you wise with relationship to the salvation the great act of salvation that is available by what means through trust faith giving your allegiance to whom to the Jewish Messiah who's that Jesus of Nazareth so the Hebrew Scriptures give you wisdom for knowing that you need to be delivered and that the whole world needs to be delivered by giving its allegiance and faith to the Messiah Jesus Paul thinks apparently this is should be your immediate take away from spending an hour to reading the Old Testament are you with me this is true of how people grow up learning the Old Testament in our church communities well there you go so and then look what he says mm-hmm all Scripture is god-breathed and he's a coined a word here Sal News Sal news das got God and then Newton knew Stas which is a adjective formed off the word pneuma spirit God spirited and this has this gets into the role of the spirit in the Old Testament narratives and prophets that when God wants to speak to his people he always does it through a human mediator starting with Moses and on down and so to say that their God breathed is talking about a divine human unity that they're a divine and human word through these human texts God speaks to his people their God breathed and what is what what can you do with the text like the Old Testament well you teach people it tells you things you never knew before it gets in your face rebukes people it gets in your face about the things that you say you believe but don't actually live consistently with write it corrects you it points out the really screwed up ways that you think about yourself and God and other people and then it forms you to become a new Jesus style kind of human being trains you towards right relationships with God and others so that you can get on doing good work loving your neighbor and serving the poor this is what the Bible has according to Paul and the book of Ezra Nehemiah is part of your Bible so the book of Ezra Nehemiah apparently this we should all walk away from today more wise with regard to how the Jewish Messiah Jesus of Nazareth has done a great act of salvation for us and what we need to do is respond and trust and faith that he can do what he he can do for me what he has done for the whole world hey guys doing there you go so those are just two ideas for how to sell people the book of Ezra Nehemiah but this this is a classic one there's a reason why this is such a well-known passage of scripture about the scriptures they're really amazing notice all of well sorry this is a whole other thing but notice all of the things Paul doesn't say the Bible is for think about all of the things the Bible gets used for and then just say uh since you're saying the Paul doesn't mention any of those here what he mentions is forming wise people who know that they need to be saved and who know that that salvation is available by giving allegiance to the Jewish Messiah Jesus okay there you go that's my apologetic for why the book of Ezra Nehemiah should be on the docket at some point in a local church community because they contribute to just like the Chronicles of Narnia they contribute to the overall story being fulfilled in Jesus and these books will mess with you Ezra Nehemiah will mess will mess with you and every person in church community if we open it and read and learn from it together okay there you go that's my preface you're kind of you already came here you didn't need to be sold on this or any ayah but because you're here but all the same okay here's what we're gonna do we're going to my goal is to kind of walk through the main movements of the story of Ezra Nehemiah there's there's five big ones and there's an overall plotline it kind of gets recycled the same plot gets recycled three times here in the first main section of the book which is Ezra one through Nehemiah seven then there's another movement here in the middle that involves both as in Nehemiah and then there's the tragic anticlimax of the whole book that leaves you wondering what on earth God's gonna do to save his people so that's the shape of the book so we're gonna both in this block of time and then in the afternoon block we're just gonna I just want to walk through who point out significant things in each one and then each in the notes each one of these sections has a concluding set of main themes going on in this section and those main themes I think or I'm offering them to you launching points for main ideas for sermon series or class ideas and so that's our mission is to kind of walk through the book put stuff out you guys with me great okay so before we look at charts or do anything I just invite you to open or turn on your Bible to page one of this incredible work that we call Ezra Nehemiah and we're gonna read and then because I'm guessing the chronology and main events of the post-exilic period just aren't on the tip your tongue at 9:38 our Thursday morning we're gonna watch a bio project video that'll help kind of get us in in the mix here but let's read the first paragraph now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of jeremiah the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus the king of Persia so that he sent a proclamation throughout all of his kingdom and he put it in writing and dear reader here it is here's a summary thus says Cyrus the king of Persia do you usually open your Bible looking for royal edicts of pagan kings yes it's not something you read on every page of the Bible but here's one the Lord Yahweh right when you see Lord all caps that that's the translators telling you it's the Covenant name of the God of Israel Yahweh Yahweh the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth he's appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah whoever there 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 Yahweh the God of Israel that is the God who is in Jerusalem every survivor at whatever place he may live let the men of that place support him with silver and gold with Goods and cattle together with freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem hey guys done now many of you are Bible nerds that's why you're here so you have to make every effort to take off your Bible nerd glasses and put on the glasses of just a normal mentally healthy person right a person who doesn't spend all their time actually I think a healthy person does think about the Bible a lot but that's right my point is that's not normal you're not normal if you care if if if you don't need anybody to explain all of these details to you you're not No all right so what when you open up a text and it says and in the first year of Cyrus okay an ancient king king of Persia I think I've heard Persia in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of jeremiah i think is there a book in the bible with that title i think so the lord stirred up Cyrus king of Persia oh that's cool and he said a proclamation throughout his kingdom oh I guess I care about that I don't know are you with me it's just like who are these people why is this happening why are we talking about jeremiah right so here's my point the book of Ezra Nehemiah begins assuming you know so much like it's the deep end of the pool in terms of the biblical drama and storyline so here's gonna be the one of the first challenges you have in introduced saying a local church community in to these books is it's really it's like opening up the last volume of the Lord of the Rings and just start reading when people don't really know what happened in the first two or they might have a very genuine knowledge or you be with me that's kind of what's happening so that's your first challenge in your first mission is where are we in the biblical story why are we talking about Cyrus why are we talking about Jeremiah to fulfill the word of the Lord by Jeremiah well what did Jeremiah say when did he say it yeah so you're gonna have to find a way to do all of that so here's what I'm gonna do right now in this moment just because it'll save me a lot of time and it can do in seven minutes what would take me 30 minutes to do if I just talked which is to show the Bible project video in the Book of Jeremiah and if you watch it recently I'm sorry you're gonna have to watch it again but it'll it does everything The Book of Jeremiah does everything to set up the storyline of Azrin Nehemiah so I'm just gonna throw up here and I think we can just watch it here gets ready cap the book of the Prophet Jeremiah Jeremiah was an Israelite priests who lived and worked in Jerusalem during the final decades of the kingdom of southern Judah he was called as a prophet to warn Israel about the severe consequences of breaking their covenant with God through their idolatry and injustice and he even predicted that the Empire of Babylon would come as God's servant to bring this judgment on Israel by destroying Jerusalem taking the people into exile and sadly his words became reality jeremiah lived through the siege and destruction of jerusalem and witnessed the exile personally now this book came into existence in a really interesting way chapter 36 tells us that after 20 years of Jeremiah's preaching in Jerusalem God called him to collect all of his sermons and poems and essays and commit them to writing which Jeremiah did by employing a scribe named Baruch who wrote down and compiled all of this material into a scroll now Baruch also gathered lots of stories about Jeremiah and he linked all the pieces together and so this is why the book reads like an anthology a collection of collections it's all been arranged to present this prophet as a messenger of God's justice and grace so the book begins with God calling Jeremiah to be a prophet and he's given a dual vocation he will be a prophet to Israel but also to the nations and his words will both uproot and tear down but also plant and build up in other words he's going to accuse Israel and warn them of God's coming judgement but he also has a message of hope for the future now this opening perfectly summarizes the first large section chapters 1 to 24 it's a collection of Jeremiah's writings from before the Exile and the core idea here is that Israel has broken the covenant with God and violated all the terms of the agreement they made that are written in the Torah and in the number of ways they've adopted the worship of all kinds of Canaanite gods building idol shrines all over the land and jeremiah develops the metaphor of idolatry as adultery and uses the language of prostitution promiscuity unfaithfulness to describe how Israel has given their allegiance to other gods Jeremiah also repeatedly accuses Israel's leader the priest-kings the other prophets have all become corrupt they've abandoned the Torah and the covenant which has led to a tragic result rampant social injustice the most vulnerable people in Israelite communities the widows orphans the immigrants were all being taken advantage of in clear violation of the laws of the Torah and Israel's leaders didn't even seem to care so a classic place where all of these ideas come together is in Chapter 7 it's called Jeremiah's temple sermon the Israelites are coming to worship their God in the temple as if everything is just fine but outside the temple they are worshipping other gods and some were even adopting the horrifying Canaanite practice of child sacrifice and so Jeremiah makes his very unpopular announcement the God of Israel is coming in judgment he's going to destroy his own temple and punish Israel by sending an enemy from the north this is an army that God would allow to conquer Jerusalem and as you read on you discover he's talking about the great Empire of Babylon and so this all leads up to a transition in chapter 25 Israel hasn't turned back to their God and so in the first year of babylons new king Nebuchadnezzar God tells Jeremiah to announce that the Babylonian armies are headed for Israel and all of its neighbors to conquer them and take them into exile for 70 years he compares Babylon to a cup of wine filled to the brim with God's just anger at all of Israel's injustice and idolatry and God will make Israel and the nation's drink from this Cup now this chapter is key to the books design because everything that follows is going to focus on babylons coming attack first on Israel in chapters 26 to 45 and then on the other nations in chapters 46 to 51 the section about Israel first contains stories about how Jeremiah begged Israel to turn back how he warned them right up to the last minute but the leaders of Israel kept rejecting him the section concludes with a large collection of stories about how Jerusalem was under siege and eventually destroyed by Babylon and about how Jeremiah was persecuted all through that time and eventually kidnapped and taken against his will to Egypt by a group of Israelite rebels now right here in the middle in between all of these dark stories of disaster and judgement is a collection of Jeremiah's messages of hope for Israel's future so he picks up on Moses's prediction that after Israel had broken the Covenant and gone into exile see Deuteronomy 30 God would not abandon his people rather he would renew his covenant with them and transform their hearts Jeremiah develops this promise and he says that God is going to one day inscribe the laws of the Torah not on tablets but rather on the hearts of his own people he's going to heal their rebellion so that they can truly one day love and follow him fully and so one day Israel will return back to the land and the Messiah from the line of David is going to come and that's when all nations will come to recognize Israel's God as the true God so these chapters are showing that despite Israel's apostasy God is not going to let Israel sin get the final word rather his own faithfulness will bring about the fulfillment of his promises no matter what after this we find the large collection of poems about how God is going to use Babylon to judge the nations around Israel so Egypt Philistia Moab Edom Amman Damascus Hazor but then surprisingly the longest poems are saved for last and they're about God's coming judgment on Babylon itself so although God used this nation to execute as justice God doesn't endorse their violence in idolatry and so Babylon 2 will come under the standard of God's justice and so Jeremiah denounces this nation's pride and injustice as well know Babylon is larger than life in these poems and it reminds us of the image of Babylon all the way back from Genesis chapter 11 Babylon has become the archetypal rebellious nation in their glorification of wealth and war God's going to give this nation over to its own destruction the book concludes with a story taken from the end of the book of second Kings it tells about babylons final attack on Jerusalem how they destroyed the city walls and burned the temple and took the people into exile the story shows how Jeremiah's warnings of judgment from chapters 1 through 24 were fulfilled but then the chapter ends with a short story about the captive Israelite king ahoy kin he's to the line of david and the king of babylon releases him from prison and shows him favor and invites him to eat at the Royal table for the rest of his life and that's how the book ends so it's a little glimmer of hope and this recalls Jeremiah's promises of hope from chapters 32 33 God hasn't abandoned his people or the promise of a future coming King from David's line and so while this book contains a huge amount of warning and judgment the final words conclude with a note of hope for the future and that's what the Book of Jeremiah is all about okay no next one okay so when you okay so when the first word of the book is about King Cyrus what key event that Jeremiah predicted is being triggered we're talking the first words of the book are Cyrus to fulfill Jeremiah its words the so a whole bunch of things yes yeah so first of all let's be aware this is a one of the most common features of how the Old Testament works and we have such a great analogy know with web pages is hyperlinks so the biblical authors are constantly sometimes very subtly sometimes like this very explicitly make a reference to other books of the Old Testament and they're what they are as hyperlinks they assume that you've clicked on it and that you go reread the whole Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Kings you get it all in your head and then you're loaded and locked and you're ready to now read the book of Ezra Nehemiah are you with me that's what that that's what the opening sentence of the book is doing everything that you learned dear reader because you are like the psalm 1 person who studies the Scriptures day and night so everything you learned from your years of meditation on the books of Kings and Jeremiah get bring it all up front and that's what you need to know so when the Book of Jeremiah ended predicting at the end of the 70 years of Exile Babylon would fall Babylon did fall historically by at the hand at whose hands the Medes and the Persians and who was the who was the King to ride in to the city of Babylon and to take the throne over the new Empire Cyrus Cyrus so what word of Jeremiah is being fulfilled right here well there's a couple thing this is in your notes this is just diving oh yeah okay sorry No we'll get sorry never mind let's just stay right here so Cyrus is a trigger for that God's word through Jeremiah that Babylon would fall is being fulfilled but then also remember at that center section of Jeremiah it was all about this hope that the Exile wouldn't last forever the God was going to bring his people to return back to the land this is the hyperlink right here at the opening paragraph of the book so the Covenant story is not over with the Exile to Babylon God's mercy has preserved a remnant and he's going to bring them back to the land so they returned and they rebuild notice there's the keywords in Cyrus's edict which is he's appointed me to rebuild a house for him so whoever wants to go up to Jerusalem and rebuild go up and rebuild this is the kind of the these words of Cyrus layout the program really of the whole first third of the book in these sections right here so to return and to rebuild but then the hyperlink activates all these other parts of Jeremiah which link to all the other prophets which is oh well the Prophet said that when the people return and rebuild the the Messianic age and the kingdom of God would come this is like when all of the nations think Isaiah to all the nations come to Zion and say we need the Torah we need to learn wisdom and there's no more war and there's peace we think of Isaiah 11 the Messianic King comes from the shoot of David and all the nations put their hope in him and there's peace and new creation and babies can play with Cobras now okay Isaiah 11 right new creation so that that's what's being activated here by this first sentence this huge I'm gonna call it the prophetic package of hope all of this and so as a reader you're quite excited when you read about this everything's being set up for you to say oh okay the people were rebellious they face the consequences of their sins that's over and done with come I say afford a comfort comfort my people right your sins are paid for God's going to return to let's return and rebuild and wait for the Messianic age that's the first sentence of the book does all of this for you so as you invite people in desert Nehemiah you need to find a way to do that for people because then it turns as they're nehemiah into a nail-biter of suspension of like what's gonna happen next so okay you're gonna be introduced to a number of descendants of the line of David in just the first pages of the book and you're like oh okay the line of David yeah there's still hope is this the person is this the Messianic King they're gonna try and rebuild the temple oh is this the temple to which all the nations are gonna come in the kingdom of God so that all of that's happening here just from this opening hyperlink and then it just sets the stage for the opening huge section again like I said there's three movements or three cycles of the plot here of returning and rebuilding the first and the okay so this gets us to the handout which is just my macro map of Ezra Nehemiah so there's three movements and each of these three movements is there's some part of Jerusalem's rebuilding that's the focus or the community's rebuilding so you've got shesh bazaar that's a great boy name it's a Babylonian name in Bible nerds debate about what exactly it means something about the moon God does something right that nobody really knows Zuba vel is mentioned he's a key important leader and his name means planted in Babylon Bevelle is the Hebrew word Babylon and zu means planted and he was he was born in exile he's part of the generation born in exile and then Yeshua he shares the same name was Jesus so these are the first three leaders mentioned and their whole mission is to lead the people back and they rebuild the altar in the courts of the temple and then they lay the foundations of the temple and then they eventually by the end of chapter 6 finished rebuilding this what's called the second temple that's the first wave the second wave is Ezra he comes along and he is a scribe he's a Bible nerd he's like the ultimate viable nerd and he gets commissioned by the King to come restore religious order to the people of Jerusalem and then you get Nehemiah who comes to rebuild the walls and repopulate the city are you with me it's the first three movements but they all flow out of the opening hyperlink of return and rebuild so we're going to rebuild the temple we're going to rebuild the community by refounding our identity on the Torah on the covenant storyline and the terms of the Covenant and then we're going to rebuild the city structure itself and then there's different figures here so each one of these becomes like a separate book in The Chronicles of Narnia almost where it's it's own little drama being played out with its own characters so this is all about zerubabbel and Yeshua this is all about Ezra this is all about Nehemiah and when you're in each one of these it's kind of like the others don't exist they just are their own little kind of narrative moment and they have each of these sections have their own kind of main themes their own plot conflicts and resolution and the way so we'll kind of look at each of them but they're really cool but then all together it's working towards this larger goal which is once we rebuild the temple and the Torah and the walls the prophetic package of hope is supposed to happen right that's what the hyperlink told us at the beginning and so they're gonna give it all of their gusto to be like yay we're the new people of God we're back in the land we're gonna follow the Torah this time and it's all gonna work great and then NER NER NER NER yeah the book just lands systematically giving it a series of narratives that talk about how the temple is being neglected this is like 50 years on the temple is being neglected people are working on the Sabbath and marrying and doing these marriage alliances with people other families and their gods and that the city walls are being dishonored by people working on the Sabbath sitting up markets and then that's how the book ends there's like what why did I just read that what this the so you here's my point the the whole book opens by activating the prophetic package of hope and then the book systematically sets you up like yeah this really could be the time that this all works out and then it very intentionally I'll show you the author has designed this last section of stories to just tell you how each of these Reformation 's didn't succeed and then the book ends and so you just have to stop and ponder to be like why did why did this just happen to me why did the book of his Ernie might happen to me apparently there's some value in the storyline of the hero Bible to say the after the return after the exile happened God's promises through the prophets that the people would return and rebuild that that was part of the fulfillment of the big covenant storyline leading up to the Messianic kingdom of God over all nations this these events part of the fulfillment but are they the ultimate fulfillment of that storyline no and so the question is why not like what went wrong and I think that's when we ask the question what went wrong with this Reformation to put the question like that I think gets us to the heartbeat of what as an EMI is about Ezra Nehemiah tells a story of well intentioned godly leaders who are awesome I mean they they actually do a good job given the circumstances that they're in to try and lead a structural renewal and a spiritual renewal among the people but ultimately the book is saying they were unsuccessful and could because part of the prophetic package my goodness part of part of Jeremiah's prophetic package of hope just I'm kind of do the whole book in just a couple minutes here to tantalize you remember in the in the poster of Jeremiah it's the very center section of the book it's the only I called it the only bright spot of Hope in the book what are those chapters in Jeremiah 32 33 Bible nerds call this the book of consolation in Jeremiah 32 33 and at the central poem of the book of consolation that's at the center of the Book of Jeremiah is a poem that is quoted at length by multiple authors of the New Testament it's called the New Covenant poem behold the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah it won't be like the Covenant that we hashed out on Mount Sinai with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt that's the covenant with me that they broke even though I was like a husband to them this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days which for Jeremiah is the after the said the seventy years of Exile I'm going to put my Torah inside of them I'm going to write the Torah on their heart I will be their God and they will be my people and when that happens when the the terms of the Covenant the terms of the Covenant relationship are so becomes so second nature what was he talking about when obedience to God and to his his calling and to the unique way of life that he singled out his covenant people for when obedience to those covenant terms become so second nature you could say that it's written on your heart and when that day comes my job will become unnecessary which is a Bible teacher because they're not gonna need Bible teachers because everyone's just gonna have it woven into their psyche and to their all of their desires all of their longings all of their value system right it's all interwoven with God's will and so you don't need Bible teachers saying hey you know what you should really know Yahweh's will for your life and follow him because everybody's just gonna know me and they're just gonna do it and that is the day when I forgive their sins and remember their sin no more this is the center poem of the book of consolation at the center of the Book of Jeremiah it's amazing and there's a reason are you with me there's a reason why this is really important there's a reason why the author of Hebrews quotes almost this whole poem at length there's a reason why almost every line of this poem you can find underlying different teachings of Paul in his letter to the Galatians in his letter to the Romans the ants because Jesus Paul all the apostles believed that through the life and the death of resurrection of Jesus through Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit they believed that this was happening these events took place that through Jesus the New Covenant people were being formed but this is something we were already waiting for this hope is what the first sentence of Ezra opens up with you hoping for so to return and to rebuild for the Messianic Kingdom but ultimately Jeremiah said if that's ever going to happen what the people are going to need fundamentally is new hearts a new heart and some of you might know what Suzy Ezekiel who was a contemporary of Jeremiah he has a parallel to this because he also saw this need what happened what how did he put it not the Torah on the heart how did his II keel put it he talked about actually yeah this is Ezekiel's phrase right here right so Jeremiah says the Torah written on the heart Ezekiel in chapter 36 talks very similarly I'm about I'm gonna bring you back from the nation's return I'm gonna bring you back this is Ezekiel 36 verse 24 Ezekiel was training his whole life to be a priest he never got to be one because he got hauled off to Babylon but he talks and he thinks like a priest that's why the Book of Ezekiel so weird some modern Westerners that's because it's permeated with ancient priestly terminology and imagery so when he thinks of this renewal and cleansing of the people he thinks of the priests who would do for people impurity rituals in the temple I'll sprinkle clean water on you you'll be clean I'll cleanse you from your filthiness and from your idols moreover I'll give you a new heart and a new spirit inside of you so Jeremiah says the Torah inside of you Ezekiel says just actually that old heart is just not going to work so there's a we all have a value system that we have and that were raised with nature-nurture that whole thing and that value system is based on a set of values of what's most important in life about Who am I and what am I here for it's a whole story about who are we why are we here what matters in the world and as eco de says you just need to remove entirely that old value system and be given as a gift a divine gift in a whole new set of longings and a whole new value system he calls it the new heart and the new spirit because that old heart is stony I'm gonna give you a soft heart and and who who's going to be the agent of the renewal of the human heart a spirit so Jeremiah didn't say the word spirit there but of course he assumes it so this is a really key part of the prophetic package of hope is the new heart and Jeremiah 31 is all about that Ezekiel 36 it's all about that the work of the Spirit to bring the New Covenant so that when the people do return and rebuild the temple they'll actually be faithful to God and then they'll be ready to receive the Messianic Kingdom over all nations and so on so that essentially the book of Ezra Ezra Nehemiah is a case study when well-intentioned leaders do everything in their power to prepare for a revival and it doesn't happen and so how are you supposed to interpret your failure is it really your failure what is it that needs to happen in a community of God's people so that the renewal of the heart and the revival actually happens and I think the argument of the book of Ezra Nehemiah is you can you can do everything to get ready for it but ultimately the renewal of the human heart isn't something that we can generate in each other it's just something that we have to receive as a gift there was a I don't remember where I don't know if Tim Keller said at first but he's the one who said it and it stuck with me is that the church can never generate revival but it can definitely get in the way of and prevent revival from happening and there's something like that is I think the main message of the book of Ezra Nehemiah so there's a whole book of the Bible what I'm telling you is there's a whole book of the Bible that is an anatomy and an analysis of a revival gone wrong and it's not because the leaders are inherently bad they're just they're a mixed bag who were doing their best in the circumstances and this is very different I I wasn't raised in churchianity so I don't I didn't have any exposure to Ezra Nehemiah until I was you know learning how to read the Bible on a deeper level but I became aware of this long tradition at least in American churchianity of Ezra Nehemiah being the books of the Bible you turn to when you launch a new ministry initiative and your church or like a new fundraising campaign or right and and you can do Google searches on it now it's very easy like Ezra Nehemiah leadership principles and and there's all of these books and literature's and Bible studies that's turning to Ezra Nehemiah is like the blueprint for how to lead your people to whatever the next thing and ice always seemed very strange to me because it seems that that's actually not it's not just that you're not understanding the book of Ezra Nehemiah it's that you're using the books of Ezra Nehemiah to do the precise opposite of what they're intended to do are you with me because the whole book is just like listen you can do your best but it might not work out in fact it probably won't work out the way that you want it to and why is that well it's because of this problem of the human heart that we've been studying since page 1 of 0 Bible which is the the intent of the human heart is distorted all of the time so that even our best efforts become frustrated and so you finished Ezra Nehemiah and I think we should get on our knees and say holy spirit come renew my heart we want to be people who whose hearts are so aligned with your will that we can be a vehicle your spirit to work in our city and in our community and so on so there you go that's in a nutshell that's what I think the the way that Ezra named Maya fits in and so it assumes that you know a whole bunch and it also is just a big neon sign pointing forward to dear reader don't you wish we were in a age where the Holy Spirit was transforming hearts of people and don't you wish that the Messianic King would come one day and start building his kingdom over all nations like that's how it points forward and so it doesn't do it through like predictive prophecy it does it through the nature of the story can contributes to the unfinished storyline of the Hebrew Bible that Jesus says he fulfilled okay let me just pause right there can we do Q&A just processing okay thoughts or reflections at this moment I know it's kind of a bigger room so only the extroverts will speak up but I need it I also need a drink of water so thoughts or reflections just on the whole and then we'll just kind of dive into some of the individual parts hi yes yes yep correct yeah oh yeah yeah you're talking about Jesus's Passover meal with the disciples hey Jeff Oh Cheers yeah yeah I can repeat it but if you want to okay sorry it's Luke 22 it's 23 22 is it in the 40s I always forget there's the garden oh so it's in 22 here it is here we go yeah this is Gia this is a hyperlink to Jeremiah 33 in the Gospel of Luke yep 22 20 yeah so when he talks about the cup he's also activating Jeremiah what chapter do you remember the cup chapter of Jeremiah is the hinge of Jairus chapter 25 where he predicts that the cup of God's justice on Israel's covenant rebellion is going to be poured out and they're gonna drink it and so Jesus is saying I'm going to drink the cup of Israel's failure for covenant rebellion and thereby Oh pay a VOC pave paved the way open the way to the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 yep so that's just a big bold hyperlink to the whole Book of Jeremiah just get it in your mind Jesus says and then make sense of my words in light of it yes yeah yeah because I I spent a lot of time here is that when Jeremiah said this is the new covenant I mean the Jewish people knew about the covenants of God they knew the company got me but Noah Abraham and Moses there was a Davidic covenant but they didn't know what this new covenant really was so for my my understanding there were hundreds of years of wondering what is this new covenant where we know the tour is written on parchment with the ink but God's gonna write it on our hearts and then when Jesus says this cup is the new covenant is like the sign of the other covenants was rainbow circumcision Sabbath of tabernacle of praise but this covenant I'm writing on their hearts it's gonna be within them yes and and so I think Jesus saying Jeremiah is I'm fulfilling that that prophecy from Jeremiah and the Covenant this cups the sign of the Covenant it's my blood yes and I just get really excited about that yeah you should yeah yeah I agree with you I think that's exactly exactly what Jesus is doing anyway yeah and it's exactly what doesn't happen in the books of Ezra Nehemiah you don't have a moment like this in Ezra Nehemiah it's like they get ready for the party but then the surprise guest doesn't show hot where I which is the holy the Holy Spirit in and through the Messiah right and so Luke's that's precisely what all four Gospels are about is finally the the surprise guest is here to make the party become a rager yeah yeah

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 65min 25sec (3925 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 02 2018