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

just want to keep rockin okay all right we'll just keep going I'll pause again what's that work okay great okay that was just the first paragraph the first paragraph cool we'll just keep that there for so I have on the handout the chronology of this period is extremely complicated I'm not gonna walk you through chronology you can look it up if you want to but inside of the box are all of the dates relevant to the events in the book of Ezra Nehemiah so here's from the Edict of Cyrus right here all the way down to Nehemiah's term as the governor of judah which is where the book ends and then here's the persian kings that get mentioned and their different time periods here's one interesting thing if you pick up any commentaries you'll notice the book of ezra nehemiah has all kinds of sections that are out of chronological order you may know this or not but um oh just within the first couple chapters you're reading in the time period of cyrus but then you're gonna skip forward to some events about the founding or the frustrating of the building of the temple in the the next king darius then you're gonna read a long letter written by some guys who want the walls of the city to stop being built and it's like from way for its track from 70 years in the future there's a letter that's been imported here so one here's one thing about the book of ezra nehemiah chronology creating a linear chronology of events is not the foremost goal of this author creating a thematic summary about the drama of the covenant is is the main goal of the author and so that's why chronological charts for Ezra Nehemiah are helpful but even within whole sections you're gonna jump around at different points in the chronology and that's because the author is collected events from different time periods but group them literally into into one section because they share a similar idea are you with me so I recommended I'm happy to do it again I recommended one particular commentary by a guy named Mark the did that get communicated in terms of resources or commentaries ish ok ok here let me just so mark throught Veit they always make the author's name the smallest thing on the page I never understand that but mark thron fate it's in the interpretation series which I don't know of what you think about different volumes some are great some are not so great but Ezra Nehemiah this is a great this is one of the great volumes in this series and what specifically he's attuned to the literary design of the book and he constantly points out at different points where the literary design of the book doesn't follow that nice chronology that I gave you on page one of the notes he's jumping all over it's just kind of an interesting thing to know about the narrative technique of the books is that chronology isn't the highest priority but rather these creating this theological statement about the need for the New Covenant he says that's the driving goal of the whole book so mark throught Veit and just while we're here I'll just give a couple others if you're a history nerd and you're not terrified by Hebrew you had at least have some Hebrew than the word biblical commentary by hugh williamson is the gold standard nobody's done it better and did no stone unturned I'm telling you it's like exhaustive so I love it but it puts many others to sleep and just so be aware have that fact and so thrive eight would be kind of like medium level like you know if you're if your love the Bible and like biblical studies you could do it if you're who Williamson get ready you know it's like going with archaeologist on a dig or something like that and then a volume that you could recommend and that you would also benefit from is Derek Kidd nur's Ezra Nehemiah in the Tyndale Old Testament commentary series excellent the guy is so amazing he also did the Psalms commentaries in this series that are worth their weight in gold brilliant brilliant so Derek Kidner let's see yeah hugh williamson top shelf throught fate medium shelf derek Kidner bottom shelf that's just in terms of accessibility there you go the helpful there you go great okay so we're back here's the general canalla g so I'm here so let's dive in to the first movement of the book I think if we can rock this before our break then that'll that'll be perfect for the flow of the day so this first section Ezra one through Nehemiah seven as I said has these three movements about Temple Torah and walls different leaders this is Ruby Bell Yeshua this is Ezra this is Nehemiah and you'll notice something very interesting about each of these three sections is that the the drama within each part has a similar shape to it so each of these three movements is going to begin with your main character getting commissioned by a Persian king and this Persian king is going to be moved by God in some way to allow this new person a new wave of returned and rebuilding so it's going to be Cyrus here it's going to be artaxerxes and then artaxerxes again at some point of this leader coming in they're going to face opposition and the opposition takes different forms and big again think of this these books are anatomy of a revival that never happened a revival gun wrong and so each of these cycles is going to highlight a different way that things didn't work out and so they all together I think think Paul's view these books are for making us wise these are three different wisdom angles on how leadership towards revival can go wrong and they're instructive for us I think for thinking about our own context on our own our ministries so in the first movement that it's the enemies of Judah who were gonna look at because who these enemies are and how they become enemies in the first place this is really interesting the opposition in Ezra's story is that is not from without it's a problem from within it's a form of religious compromise within the community itself in the Amaya's day it's similar you've got a couple of external enemies who are trying to oppose the rebuilding project in each of these stories the opposition is overcome in some way so the temple they build altar but then the temple has to be stopped and then it's paused for a long time until eventually the king the next King Darius lets them restart here it's Ezra and the people come up with this plan for how to deal with this religious compromise problem and then Nehemiah essentially arms is building parties it's really exciting part of the story but then each of these sections ends also with what I call an anti-climax so how did the enemies of Judah become the enemies of Judah well it's it's worth asking because it's really interesting when you read it as Renea Maya in light of the prophets the solution to the religious compromise is a a widespread divorce decree all of these Israelite men start divorcing their wives and sending them away with their children and dependents and you finish that and you go okay was this a good idea is this God's will kind of I'm here it's Nehemiah ends up rejecting any local help whatsoever because some of the locals are out to get him and so you finished the section and you go well okay I I think that went good I think we returned and we rebuilt and I think the people are gonna be more devout than ever and we have all the external structures to prepare for the Messianic Kingdom but they all are you with me so somebody has intentionally designed each of these three movements to follow this overall storyline so as you think about a class or a sermon series my recommendation would be to do something on the front end about the setup for why you should care about Ezra Nehemiah and second Timothy three and doing something about the prophetic package of hope and the storyline that helps you make sense of Ezra Nehemiah that's where I would start and then I think you at least need to think about a couple classes or a couple of sermons that are going to explore each of these in turn like one or two for each of these so this becomes maybe like six classes or six sermons or something like that and this organization of each section is really helpful because really it's just kind of the same plotline being repeated in three different ways it's about the exciting start the opposition that's faced we overcome the opposition and how do I feel about what just happened like that's kind of the flow and you just go through it three times so what am I supposed to stop talking and oh man oh yeah like a bladder break oh yeah hey guys doing how are you maybe we'll rock for like another 15 or 20 and then just take a quick bladder break because that lots of coffee was consumed this morning I'm sure okay so let's just dive I just want to dive into each of the three of these and do a little more exploration before we stop for lunch does that sound good that's our mission okay so here's the first round of the wheel it's Ezra chapters 1 through 6 and thrive 8 pointed this out but it's true dude Ezra Nehemiah well just the whole Hebrew Bible I just I don't even understand how brilliant these authors are I mean I've been given the Hebrew Bible ago this fall will be my 20 year anniversary of starting to learn Hebrew I've been working at it for a long time and I still feel like I'm swimming in the shallow end of the pool in terms of the literary sophistication and brilliance of these authors and the way they've designed their books and I don't say that to discourage you I say that to encourage all of us to be the somme one person and these texts are designed for a lifetime of meditation the moment I become bored with them is the moment I've actually stopped paying attention to how these books work and so the book of Ezra Nehemiah if you get throm bates commentary he's pointing out all of these really amazing literary patterns of how the stories are designed and chapters one through six is a really great example where the these chapters begin and end with an edict of cyrus and it begins this whole symmetrical frame and once you peel back and you look at it there's two semitic languages it's actually at work here and as there's one through six precisely the first half is in Hebrew and then precisely the second half is in Aramaic and every story has its matching correspondent one in Hebrew has its matching theme correspondent in Aramaic in between each of these so a matches a beam each matches BCE matches see and there's all these unique particular words and ideas that link these two sections are you with me brilliance I have a dear friend of mine he's also a Hebrew Bible prophecy calls the authors of the Hebrew Bible literary ninjas remember Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon remember that it was kind of it's kind of forgotten at this point I mean Hemi you have not seen Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon oh I'm so sorry so you you must you must write it's this kind of mythic mythical world of ninjas and and martial arts masters but the greatest battles happen and they're like dancing on tree tops having these incredible sword battles like going from tree to tree it's about that they've so perfected their skill that they're subtle and they can glide about without being noticed and that's exactly how these books work so anyway my point is that Ezra one through six is exquisite in terms of its literary design so essentially how it goes is you have the Edict of Cyrus you have a list like a straight-up list I would not recommend making this a sermon text because it's a list a census list of the people who returned in the first wave they go back they rebuild the altar they rebuild the temple foundations and have a party we'll look at that text then all of a sudden the enemies of Judas weren't there purposes and so at the center of this is that they have to shut down the temple building because the king of Persia himself says yep stop the program stop the temple rebuilding but through the preaching of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah zerubabbel and his crews start rebuilding anyway and then God turns the heart of the Persian king they discover the Edict of Cyrus that was forgotten and then they finished building the temple and then the crown jewel of this whole thing is Passover they celebrate Passover so it's the people return to the land with the wind under their wings of Cyrus and his edict they show up things go wrong they have to stop and it stops for like 10-15 years and then they just like Haggai and Zechariah are like go guys go just do it anyway and so they do and they start rebuilding anyway and this this huge diplomatic mess but then God moves the heart of the king once again and he allows them to keep rebuilding and then they celebrate Passover when they're done that's the shape of Ezra 1 Ezra 1 through 6 so we've already looked at the beginning hyperlink let's look at free pages update no I don't want that right now so let's yes yes exactly I'm about to I'm gonna get I'm we're gonna do it right now yes so what what text would be the key text for focusing in on the story so if you've done one on the setup and the prophetic package of hope when you dive in to the book we've already read Cyrus's edict here the next paragraph is really key in Chapter one it's the response of the people so the heads of the fathers households of Judah and Benjamin the priests the Levites arose everyone whose spirit God stirred up to go up and to rebuild and it's what did God do to Cyrus he stirred him up this is a great Hebrew image literally means to like wake up so Cyrus woke up one day and this is actually part of a broader policy the Persians when they took over the Babylonian Empire they they let numerous indigenous people groups return to their lands the Israelites were just one of a number of groups and so the Lord stirred Cyrus to wake up one day and become aware of all these immigrants right exiles living in Babylon he finds out their story he says you guys go back so it takes a work of God to move Cyrus to this and you tell me after seventy years of being relocated the people who went the trauma of deportation are right most of them are alive anymore and so the people who there are as removable planted in Babylon and you know we've made some friends here you know and grandpa opened up a shop and it's the family business now and are you with me like they're adapting to like Jeremiah told them to in this letter in Jeremiah 29 plant gardens build houses Hank you're gonna be here for a while and so there has to be an equal movement of God to move least some people to return and rebuild because not everybody did you get a list and in chapter 2 here a list of those who go back and it's you know it's um a few thousand people it's like not insignificant 42,000 people but how many were exiled like way more it's a remnant and as recalls the group that returns and come back a remnant of ancient Israel so even then you have you have a story here of when God begins to move and God's people can discern that he's up to something there needs to be an equal movement of God among God's people for who's gonna throw down for this and become a part of this and so that's what the next paragraph is about and so what they do is they're neighbors all around them give them money to go back there like Persian Babylonian neighbors they're like hey Moshe good luck on your journey yeah you've been a good neighbor of mine you taught me Hebrew words you know here's my golden candlesticks for you to write it's like that kind of thing going on now this is another hyperlink it's another hyperlink can can you think of another time when God's people were exiled and captive somewhere and then God moved in such a way that the people get to go up back into their land and their neighbors are giving them money can you think of that story yeah yeah yeah this is a subtle with gold articles of silver and gold this is what this is the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon ninja stuff where he doesn't say dear reader go read the book of Exodus write chapter 13 but when you do it's it's really awesome let me get yes Exodus chapter 12 so the sons of Israel did according to the word of Moses they requested from the Egyptians articles of silver articles of gold and clothing actly the same phrase from ezra chapter one and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so they let them have their request so they plundered the Egyptians it's the kind of famous part of the story so in highlighting this part of the sequence of events what's what's the narrator of Ezra chapter one doing what's he doing to you to get it he's creating this is how the biblical authors work they create parallels and linkages between the foundation stories usually it's the foundation stories in Genesis and from Exodus and actually the reason I'm pointing this out is because this is in terms of main themes and Genesis excuse me and Ezra one through six I'm on the handout here so I've already talked about the Jeremiah hyperlink at the beginning and all the significance of that so this is point two in main themes the narrator has depicted the return from exile as a new Exodus so this is a long process of return not everybody returned but there's all these little details in Ezra 1 through 6 that this is a part of the fulfillment of the new Exodus in the return of God's people just look just look at all the things that happen it's so wonderful so you you already were prepared for this by the book of Isaiah that said when God brings comfort to his people and brings them back he's going to build the highway you know the valleys will be made high and the mountains will be brought low and we'll make a highway for God and his people to return so look at this so you have the people get articles of silver and gold it's precisely what happened in the Exodus story in Ezra 1:11 the phrase is used in the narrator that the exiles who are brought up out of Babylon to Jerusalem which is precisely the sentence is built on the key line that gets repeated all throughout the Exodus story which is the people who I bring up of Egypt into the Promised Land so to come up out of Babylon into the Promised Land is like the ancient Israelites who came up out of Egypt into the Promised Land the whole section of the book one through six culminates in the celebration of what ancient feast Passover for goodness sakes which is about what it's about the Exodus in Chapter two the exiles all get together in Jerusalem once they're back and they give a free will offering to contribute to the rebuilding of the temple what did Moses have the leaders of Israel do the moment they got out of Egypt into the wilderness they all gave a free will offering to build the tabernacle so the whole point here is that we have high hopes we have the Edict of Cyrus the people come out and we're like this is it the new Exodus it's it's the fulfillment of all of our dreams and that's a big part of the setup so I think that first if you're gonna have the Edict of Cyrus you need to have the first response of what the people do which is the second half of chapter one here that would be my recommendation the second half of chapter one which isn't thrilling reading material but what makes it exciting is the second Exodus stuff and the showing the patterns that work in history this is a big part of how all the books of the Bible work but Ezra Nehemiah to that what does it mean think about what it means for for these books to say that the Exiles plotting back on the road to Jerusalem is a a reenactment of the Israelites you know marching out of Egypt and going up to the promised land like what does that do to you psychologically but starts to mess with you and it starts to get you thinking the way that the prophets of the Bible think which is in these patterns of history and that when I'm supposed to see my life as yet another chapter of the reenactment of the biblical trauma and so when God does what he does in the world it usually involves confronting injustice and evil and freeing his people and so it's inviting the exiles to see themselves as a part of a new chapter of the biblical story and then they it all culminates in the rebuilding of a temple and the celebration of Passover which is what God's what followers of Jesus do every time they gather and they take the bread in the cup isn't it that's exactly what's happening we're saying but with these symbols that we are part of this drama and we ourselves are a part of the new Exodus people in the new Exodus story that's how that's how these narratives work and so that's why the new Exodus thing is a big deal here which leads on into the next main theme here and this would I think you could do this in a whole message or a whole class but just to watch when God's people are rebuilding their identity they've been in exile in a foreign land they need to come back and rediscover who they are how do they do it and if you read in chapter 3 they just systematically go through and they the first thing they do is they rebuild the altar this isn't as we chapter three and just watch how it works so they come back they gather as one one man in Jerusalem Yeshua the high priest the removal they all get together what's the first thing they do they rebuild altar so they and an altar is going to be this place where they bring their tokens of gratefulness to God and then it's the place where their sins are covered I mean think like this the sacrificial system hasn't been operating for Jen a couple generations now so we're restoring the way that we connect to God we're retelling the story of how he's given us a means to cover for our sins so that he can dwell with us it's the place where we bring what we have is gifts of gratefulness to God it's the first thing they rebuild then they celebrate the feast of booths they set up their liturgical calendar so that their lives are structured by the biblical story and so they see them like this is like Christmas and Easter and Pentecost and all these kinds of things the same it's the same it's the Christian liturgical calendar but these are ways that God's people remind themselves of the story that they're living after that they yep they celebrate Tabernacles they yeah this is cool they where's that line in 3:11 they after the altar then they come together and they start laying the foundations of the temple that's the next thing they do and then they start building the choirs all the choirs of the Levites and then they establish worship as a part of the rhythm and then there's this quote from this famous line it gets repeated all throughout Psalm 136 and so on praise the Lord for he is good his love endures forever and they shout with a great shout and they praise the Lord because the foundation was laid so this becomes this where's the wisdom here the wisdom is what the God's people if you're a covenant people you need some strategies for helping remind you and your people of your identity who you are in the world why you exist what are we here for why did God do what he did for us and so how do you help a group of people maintain that identity when there's Babylon and Persia all these other kingdoms out there and they have their own story and identity they want to write force on the covenant people and so what do they do they rebuild they focus on rhythms of worship they focus on River and rhythms of the gathering they focus on rhythms of gratefulness and offerings they focus on the calendar they focus on worship hey guys done I mean this isn't particularly innovative you know what I mean gather regularly to worship God well that's an idea you know so I understand that but this is important I think it's there's wisdom here that should at least force us to think creatively again we can't generate revival but we can't get in the way of it I think in one way of getting in the way of it is to not have patterns in our lives as individuals in a community that are retelling the story of Jesus and the kingdom when we lack patterns for a group of people I may not I don't know it's hard to follow Jesus isn't it and the moments the moments where I actually feel the most faithful the most full of faith as usually involves other people who are followers of Jesus and it's usually when we're worshipping or when we're doing something to follow Jesus together and I'm Michael yes yes this is who I am this is what I'm about are you with me so you're in ministry you know this is really important but we become so rote and facilitating those rhythms right can become such a rigmarole that you forget how powerful those rhythms are or we feel the need to reinvent them all of the time and so I so I understand the different philosophies and whatever it's the big room different philosophies of ministry but I think we'd all agree that these rhythms play a crucial role don't they in some way and so that's precisely the first thing that the people do is reinstitute these these rhythms of worship so for my money first message teaching would be here on the hyperlink and the prophetic package of hope and the first thing would be maybe the end of chapter 1 and this section of chapter three and this is about how God's people rebuild their identity when they enter a new moment in an uncertain future and they have to remind themselves of who they are but and I would do the end of chapter excuse me the end of chapter three I'm gonna call that one be sorry the end of chapter one call it one be and then this stuff about the rebuilding and the rhythms our worship from Chapter three hey guys gun cool all right so hooray go team it's all gonna work out rosy right so here is this interesting story in Chapter four now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the Exile were building a temple to the Lord their God now you've you've never heard of these people this is the first time they're introduced in the story and who the enemies of Judah and Benjamin are is a category of characters in the book that are that list is gonna grow there's gonna be all these different characters you're gonna meet who represent these enemies but they're just talked about as a group right here and look how they introduced themselves they approached the rubyville and the heads of the father's household and they said to them hey can we help you build the temple listen just like you we worship your God we're the people who sorry we've been sacrificing to Yahweh the God of Israel for a long time here we've been in this land since Sr hadn't the king of Assyria brought us here hyperlink some of you were like oh yeah I was just reading that story yesterday so do you remember that it's significant significant this is when there were two waves of Exile one for the Northern Kingdom one for the southern kingdom who were the bad guys who took out bable who are the bad guys who took out the northern kingdom Assyria so that hyper link takes you to second Kings 17 where that story is told and it's it's how long the narrator pauses the story gives a long sermon on why the northern tribes were taken out by Syria they were idolatrous they allowed social injustice and so on but then this is really fascinating story at the end it says after the northern tribes were hauled off into exile this is the second Kings chapter 17 the king of Assyria brought people from all over the ancient Near East Babylon coos ah ah waha massa Farva him and he settled them in the cities of Samaria in the place of the sons of Israel they they possessed some area they lived in it cities and when all of them first arrived they didn't know about the God of Israel so therefore the Lord sent Lions among them and killed some of them so well so bizarre there's actually a literary ninja thing happening here with the Lions that appeared in first Kings chapter 13 was actually brilliant what's happening but anyway the whole point is bad things start happening in the land and the people start asking well what's the god of the nation that we just got moved into around here maybe we should pay attention to that god but bizarre nonetheless so here's what they say the nation's whom you've carried away into exile here in Samaria they don't know the custom of the god of the land's there's all the Lions hurting people and so we don't know the custom of the god of the land so the king of Assyria says oh yeah let's go get it some Israelite priests bring them back and they can teach the people how to worship Yahweh and what they do however is worship Yahweh along with all their traditional gods and so on it's just right syncretism and so these are the people it's the ancestors to collect great-great-great-grandchildren of these people groups that approach ezra right here and as at the beginning of ezra after four and these people are going as you read through the course the story they're going to become the enemies of Judah why well let's keep reading what is rooh Bevelle and Yeshua's response to them so ruble and Yeshua the rest of the heads of the father's household said to them you have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God we ourselves together will build for Yahweh the God of Israel just like Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us and so how do you how did the people of the land then feel in response so and so the conflict begins so you just have to pause and you just have to say how am I supposed to take this how are you supposed to read that if you just read the stories of Ezra you could just say well it's true like Cyrus didn't tell all these other people groups to rebuild the temple did he know he told the the exiles who were coming back and he gave them the permission and the resources to build so the ruble and yeah sure they're just following orders and they meet some people who were polytheists and but they think they can worship Yahweh too but that's the way I've compromised so they say no you have nothing to do with us and unfortunately that creates conflict that would be one way of reading it isn't it be one way you're gonna read on into the next chapter and you're gonna find out which prophets were hanging out with zerubabbel and Ezra Nehemiah Haggai and Zechariah and those are just little hyperlinks there that the narrator saying dear reader go reread Haggai and Zechariah get it all in your head and read this book in light of those books of the Hebrew Bible and Zechariah specifically has multiple places I'll just point out - Maria says things like this so he's in the thick of trying to encourage exiles to rebuild and so he says things like this zechariah chapter 2 verse 10 sing for joy be glad o daughter of zion i'm coming to dwell in your midst it's the prophetic package of hope return rebuild new temple nations messianic kingdom many nations are going to come and join themselves to the lord in that day and become my people that's when i'm going to dwell in your midst that's when you'll know that the Lord of Hosts sent me to you the Lord will possess Judah as his portion in the land he'll choose Jerusalem be silent all flesh for the Lord has aroused from his holy habitation so now you tell me the author of Ezra Nehemiah intends for you to have a text like this in your mind and when you read that story that you just read in Ezra chapter 4 with this text in your mind had what how do how do you supposed to read that are you with me you're supposed to think was this a missed opportunity right was this a moment where they created unnecessary enemies so I included in that folder where you got these notes on my website to download I think it was a paper that I had at least sent out maybe some of you read it by a Hebrew Bible professor at Multnomah down on Portland named ray Lubeck called Ezra Nehemiah reconsidered there you go so he he was the first one to point this out to me many years ago and then he wrote that as an academic paper it kind of summarized his take and he III think he's right I'm compelled by it still this many years later that if you just read as rhenium ayah by itself you walk away thinking these bad guys are just bad guys beginning to end and it was good that was a rubber ball isolated themselves but but when you read Ezra Nehemiah as part of the hyperlinked Hebrew Bible you start to view their response is a little more ambiguous are you with me and so the question would be what I think the question here is about when God's people go about rebuilding their identity what's the posture that they should have towards people around them with other identities and other stories and there are it's hard to know their motives like when they say let us build with you it could be political opportunism yeah it could be a danger towards religious compromise because they're gonna want to introduce the worship of other gods in this temple once they finish helping us or it could be that this is a genuine opportunity for people who don't give their allegiance to the God of Israel alone but they will convert to that and discover the joys of God's love and grace and so this was a missed opportunity that's the view that I take and I think that it's a powerful kind of matching teaching to this here it's about as God's people rebuild their identity what is their relationship help me think of a phrase I don't want to use the word outsiders but why not well I mean it's it's technically religiously sociologically true they're outsiders to the Covenant people cohabitate errs yeah here I'm just gonna put neighbors neighbors how do you relate to your neighbors and it's hard to discern the motives of your neighbors in forming partnerships but we at least get a case study here of what leading with an offhand approach does it creates enemies and it forces you to think of Oh was those was that necessary or unnecessary and was that a missed opportunity and I think it takes wisdom I'm not saying that Ezra Nehemiah is always saying make partnerships galore no matter what your value system is I think that's what it's saying but as the story raises the question as tension that God's people will face when they're in a new place and a new time rebuilding their identity how they relate to neighbors and that it requires great wisdom here just one follow up because there are a couple good questions about it and it's the focal point if if you're gonna think about doing a message or teaching on the thing we just talked about the neighbors the question is if these people have innocent motives why and if I think the biblical authors are literary ninjas why do they introduce these characters as the enemies doesn't that lead us to say oh the narrator wants me to view this request as having ill motives you know malicious motives or something like that so I think there's a so here's the two roads you could go down one road would be to say there introduces the enemies because the narrator knows is he's introducing this as a set of characters in the story of Ezra there's gonna be other enemies in the story of Nehemiah there's going to be other enemies and so we're creating the category of there's a group of people who are going to be opposed to the people rebuilding so you could take it as this is we're evaluating these people from the very beginning the time we introduced them they are the enemies and everything they say or do is about opposition it could be that it's a neutral introduction if authors if the author is living long after Ezra Nehemiah who's framed the whole book together and so the author is telling the story of the return of the Exiles and so it could be that the author is saying dear reader there was a group of enemies that spanned this whole time period how did they become the enemies here's the story and then that story is what you what you right here so it's a it's a genuine ambiguity later on in the story itself in verse four the narrator calls them the people of the land and this is very actually here can we get the the Bible my screen up on the screen look at Nehemiah excuse me Ezra for verse four or just get it in front of you they're called the people of the land do you see that term so you already if you've read through the book of first and second Kings you you know this term you've come across this term before and what's interesting is that the people of the land can refer to other non Israelites living in the land but there's about twelve uses of the word about a dozen uses of this phrase to refer to Israelites and they were land owning Israelites in the kingdom of Judah and many of whom were not exiled so these this term can refer to the people who got imported under the king of Assyria a long time ago this term can also refer to Israelites who never were exiled they just remained in the land are you with me so we the land was not completely emptied at Israelites go read again the the narratives of the Exile of Jerusalem and Judah in second Kings and it tells you that there were people who remained in the land not everybody came out of Babylon to go back to it and so once you come back to it you just have a cultural melting pot in the land of Judah you've got the people who were imported by the kings of Assyria you've got Israelites who never left and you have the Israelites who returned and all of them are gonna have a difficult time getting along so they're called the enemies in this first point and then they're called the people of the land afterwards so I think it's a genuine ambiguity I think the author knows that Zechariah said what he said about the nations coming to participate in the rebuilding of the temple and maybe um you know you might not want us you could slant this how you teach the story in terms of these people were just innocent you could slant the story of these people had malicious motives or you could just say it's hard to tell sometimes isn't it and so when God's people are rebuilding their identity there's this balance between circle the wagons you know and because there is an element of which if we're setting ourselves apart as the Covenant people to become a blessing to the nation's you have to maintain your identity in some way and they do it through rebuilding their identity through worship and these rhythms but at the same time they're it takes wisdom to know how tight to keep the boundary lines when it comes to how you partner with neighbors and to me I just think that's such an interesting and relevant question that every generation has to ask themselves and this story is a perfect story to raise that set of issues and to talk about the unintended consequences that can happen hey guys did great ok so that's I mean we could talk about Ezra 1 through 6 a lot more but we won't we have to move on we get to the next iteration of the theme and so we are gonna have Azra be introduced to Ezra and he's going to come rebuild the religious identity of the people by calling them to faithfulness to the Torah so he's rebuilding the community through the Torah was rubber ball was rebuilding the altar and the temple and the people's identity so dude Ezra Ezra 7 through 10 what on earth so many cool things going on here first of all he's introduced to us in Ezra 7 and he's a boss he just comes onto the scene after these things and the reign of artaxerxes king of Persia oh by the end of chapter 6 and by the beginning of this right here that's a little notice to tell you addy reader about 50 years just passed between the inning of chapter 6 in the beginning of chapter 7 two decades and Ezra you have a szura son of Sariah you get this long genealogy and you're like really is this really necessary yes it's necessary and it's awesome throat baits points this out it's this brilliant little symmetry where you have Ezra as the first element Aaron the brother of Moses as the last element then you have the seven priests before that just after the destruction of the temple matched by the seven priests before the destruction of the temple and at the center is the priest whose name matches Ezra's name Azariah who was the priest the Solomon appointed in his temple so you spell here so I will do this real quick so as raw well that's in Hebrew that it's that's a good transliteration of it but Azariah in Hebrew is essentially just as rrah with ayah on the end are you with me so Ezra just means help it's the Hebrew noun for help and then Azariah here at the center means help and then yah which is the short-form of Yahweh the Covenant name of God Yahweh helps where Yahweh is help so it's not great so he's introducing you to Azra as the he's like the super high priest he's the super Aaron and he's the super he's like the super Moses and so he's gonna come back and he's going to do all the things that Moses did he's going to teach the Torah he's gonna lead the lead another wave of people through the wilderness the second the new Exodus stuff the volumes turned up to 11 in this section there's so much second X new Exodus stuff happening here so he's introduced and he's a scribe of the Torah we're told I mean look at this he's a scribe skilled in the Torah of Moses that the Lord had given the King granted him all he requested because God's hand was on him do we like this guy he's the psalm 1 person he's we like him were immediately predisposed to like him by how he's being introduced introduced here this is in the notes and I you know I don't know how this preaches but it's kind of cool just to show you there's a all these little details in Ezra's story are connected to the same new Exodus thing here so he times his departure from Babylon to be the first day of the first month hyperlink to Exodus 12 verse 1 now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt this month the day that you go up out of Egypt this month is the beginning of the months for you it is to be the first month of the year for you so Israel's religious calendar got reset to the to the exodus is the is the new year marking their religious new year and lo and behold what day did Ezra pick to start his movement out of Babylon the first day of the first month were you with me it's brilliant it's it would be like it would be the equivalent of saying starting a new political party in America and having your like launch ceremony on July 4th or something like that that would be the equivalent here it's very intentional symbolism here so he times is departure from Babylon to coincide with the Exodus then there's that strange little story of like he gets he gets a little bit out of sidon he's like wait where are the Levites we'll have any Levites it's a really odd part of the story and so we like he stops everything and he's like we need to get some Levites and so he said this message and they go get these like they get like 39 Levites or something or all who would show up and then they get then that okay now finally we can go there's like what is going on here okay well who's absolutely crucial in carrying the temple vessels when the Israelites are wandering through the desert his Levites so he's even making his entourage on the way back from Babylon mimic the people wandering through the wilderness on their way to the to the Promised Land he also gets sponsored by the treasures of the Persians just like the first wave did oh this is cool in chapter 8 verse 21 they pray that God they humble themselves to pray that God would give them oh yes there's a new American Standard translates his phrase a safe journey this as our 821 any other translations everybody has safe journey everybody has safe journey any footnotes new American Standard gives you a little footnote at least a straight way a straight path literally in Hebrew a straight path we humbled ourselves to seek from God a straight path anybody the ninjas are at work ninjas are at work here yeah where else do you read about a straight path Isaiah 40 comfort comfort my people exile is over it's all paid for clear the way makes literally make straight the way for the Lord in the wilderness make smooth the debt in the desert a highway for our God so what he's praying for is that the path that they'll go on on the way out of Babylon is precisely the path that Isaiah announced would happen on there are you with me it's brilliant it's so good the moment he arrives in Jerusalem he has just a three day campout rest which is precisely what Joshua and the Israelites did after they crossed the Jordan into the land the first thing as we does is get commissioned to appoint these judges and rulers who were going to implement the laws of the Torah it's exactly what Moses his father-in-law said he should do remember that story remember Jethro this is like Moses I know you're my son-in-law this potentially awkward relationship but here's what I think he should do right anyway it's great and then last but not least if you read the list like it reads like another one of these census lists and Ezra Nehemiah but if you count up how many families he takes with them this 15 two of them have priestly lineages one of them's a descendant of David and then 12 other families 3 and 12 3 and 12 hi done 3 what's the 3 what is the 3 a symbol of Abraham Isaac Jacob and then what's the 12 twelve tribes 3 and 12 you guys you guys look at the shape of the orange section of the prophetess and the Hebrew Bible the middle section is called the prophets you get Joshua judges Samuel Kings it's Israel's story from the point of view of the prophets that's why it's in the prophets and then you get the books the poetic books of the prophets themselves and how many are there was three and twelve do you see it there's three ninjas ninjas I tell you I tell you I'm not joking okay so here's the whole are you with me this new Exodus so again this is just how biblical authors think they're always they're always framing and designing stories after the pattern of the foundation stories in the Torah it's like the foundation stories give you the main template for everything that is to come and that's why the story of David and Bathsheba I just noticed this recently the story of David and Bathsheba he goes out on his balcony he sees her he desires her he takes he sees he desires and he takes anybody anybody it's precisely the vocabulary of Genesis 3 when Samson see is the Canaanite woman that she's good to the eyes he desires her and he takes her when taken when taken yeah in the book of Joshua right after Jericho he sees this nice Babylonian Cape and he saw that it was desirable and he took it so this is how the biblical authors write they're constantly giving you little clues so that you hyperlink the stories back to the stories in the Torah and then you ponder you meditate and you think about their relationship and all of a sudden you realize like the story of human rebellion and sin oh it's really just one story happening and it just gets repeated in all these these different ways but that's also true of the Exodus the Exodus story is like gives you the template for what salvation is in the Bible and then every time in the stories to come that the authors want to say hey dear reader this was an event in history that was a part of the covenant salvation story they'll retell it in a way to do all to link it up with all these Exodus hyperlinks and that's precisely what we're what's happening here so it's not just like Bible nerdness it's this is a really important way that the Bible views history and I think it encourages us to view history in the same way and it's what I was saying earlier when we take the bread in the cup what are we doing we're re-enacting a Messianic Passover meal and saying we are a part of the exodus generation and we God raised up a deliverer for the universe when it was languishing in slavery to sin and decay and are you with me so this is these are just cool little clues but they're a part of how the Bible's messing with your mind and teaching you how to view history and how to think about your own life story so there you go that's the new Exodus stuff with Ezra that's awesome the next thing that Ezra does is Institute the Torah he's trained in the study of the Torah he comes back he's commissioned to investigate how the people are being organized and he's commissioned to do it according to the law of his God that's what he's told to do so he's about rebuilding identity through the Torah so you could say this this perhaps would be the focus of the rebuilding in Ezra what did they rebuild do you remember they rebuilt the altar and then the altar allows them to reinstitute what so we're talking about like structures and rhythms right that's what they do to read identity what is Ezra bring along to rebuild identity the Bible the Bible is his tool for reforming identity and rebuilding the people's identity they do religious rhythms as a community Ezra represents this renewal of commitment to the Scriptures as the cut the terms of the Covenant so you know is is this a class or a message where it's about the Bible I know this sounds innovative I know but it's about it's it's reflecting on when God's people enter new when certain times when we need to be reminded of who we are we have rhythms for how we operate as a community and one of those key rhythms is that these texts play a central role in who we are and the reading on them meditating them singing them talking about them when you get up and when you lie down like this is really an important part of who we are and finding creative ways to do that and as we're gonna see I think the the matching part to this is Ezra discerns there's a problem he finds out about a problem in the community and he creatively interprets Scripture to speak to this new problem that's the that's the next part here so something like that and you know I don't know what you do with the new Moses stuff is just awesome and you should know about that but okay so that's the - he is and that's what he does I want to camp out on this for okay perfect yeah this is great this is about the the mixed marriages and the divorce decree so I'll kind of set the table for it here are the key challenges and dealing with this text in the story and this will provide great lunch conversation so here's when Ezra comes back and he gets into town and everybody hears about it this isn't as for chapter 9 the leaders the princes approached me and said the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands there's that term again according to their abominations those of the Canaanites the Hittites the parasites the Jebusites the ammonites the Moe Knights Moabites the Egyptians and the M writes okay what does that mean what actually has been done well some of the people of Israel the priests and the Levites have taken some of the daughters of the people of the land as wives for themselves and their sons so that the holy race or any other translations their holy race is the new American Standard yes yeah literally in Hebrew it's holy seed it's the word for descendants so that the holy seed is intermingled with the people of the lands and indeed this isn't just you know the average Israelites it's the princes and the rulers who were the foremost in this and what is this response he tears his clothes apart and he pulls out some of his hair and he's appalled and then everyone else who's really bothered by this news gathers together and Ezra offers one of the nine prayers in the Bible there's three prayers that happened in Chapter nine of these books after the Exile so after nine Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 9 they're all prayers of corporate prayers of confession and it's this long prayer of like oh no you know the new Exodus is repeat itself and we're the wilderness generation and we are repeating the guilt of our ancestors and from the days of our fathers are you with me and need to SCO's off off the whole thing repenting we haven't been following the Torah and so what is the solution the solution comes from a guy named Chuck and ayah and here's what he says to Ezra we've been unfaithful we've married these non Israelite women from people of the land but there is yet hope for Israel let's all make a covenant to send away these wives and their children according to the counsel of my lord Ezra and all of us here who support this idea because we tremble at the commandment of our God and let it all happen according to the Torah and that's all what they do they all take an oath there's two guys who don't like this idea they're introduced down here in verse 15 Yonatan the son of AA Sahel and Yahoo Ziya the son of tikva and mesh Alam and sha beside they don't like the site they think it's a bad idea but they don't win the day and then you get a long list of all of the offenders and the people say let's just go group by group let's get judges just create a committee they create a committee and they interview each person and then we're given a long list and the people actually say listen can we get a committee on this because the day that they all gather and the squares raining really hard and so they're like we're not it's cold and it's rainy and this is a really complicated mess so let's make a committee so they make a committee and then here's the list and then that's the end of the desert section hey guys done okay so let's talk let's not be open-minded what are we supposed to make at this so here's what's going on here hugh williamson who's has the top shelf no stone unturned he is commentary on this section it's long but it's excellent I learned so much here's what he says here's the problem as they see it the substance of the confession is that some members of the religious community their spiritual leaders had both married not kept themselves separate from and adopted some of the religious practices of the rest of the Palestinian population these who who are these people of the land these would have been oh no excuse me that's wrong who are these leaders who have married with non-israelites these would have been Jews whose families previous returned from exile in the time of shesh Bursar's Rubel together with those who never went into exile and they threw their lot in with the returnees from Babylon when they arrived there's a little detail and Ezra 621 that in the time of zerubbabel the sons of Israel who returned from exile and all those who had separated themselves from the impurity of the nation's to to seek the Lord God of Israel they had the Passover meal together so we've got a group of Israelites but then also these others who have separated themselves and here the point is a trace it's about religious practices but there's something unique here in Ezra 9 because it's not just about religious practices anymore is it it's about preserving the race the holy seed so the question is how did we here's some thoughts first of all do you just tell me this will be good Bible trivia you name for me some of the most important Israelite figures who you know we're married to non-israelites Oh Moses that's right Zipporah that's right yeah okay he's one Joseph in Athens yes yeah Bowa has right Joseph Joseph and asuna Boaz any others Abraham remember Hagar the Egyptian okay are you with me and most of those people stories are told in what foundational book the Torah so does the Torah say never marry a non-israelite it doesn't it doesn't what it what does it say here's a good be sure to observe what I'm commanding you this day I'm going this is Deuteronomy excuse me this is Exodus chapter 34 you're going to drive out the ammonites right the mris Canaanites Hittites parasites make no covenant with them or they'll become a snare don't adopt their worship get rid of their forms of worship otherwise you might take some of their daughters for your sons and so on and you'll give your allegiance to their gods so in other words these laws given about not intermarrying with the Canaanites isn't about race as such it's that here's a group of people in the land here are the gods that they worship here's how they worship them you're to do things fundamentally differently so then don't intermarry are you with me the focus is on the religious nature of it so that when you see Boaz marry a Moabite right where you see the first thought will be okay but what's the whole story of Ruth is about how she says your God will become my god and your people will become my people so there's an example where marrying somebody who's not an Israelite isn't are you with me so the point is is ups through Israel's story to this point it has been about a particular nation right the descendants of Abraham but the boundaries of this covenant people have been very porous all kinds of other people can marry in and become at the Gibeonites right and Joshua and they all right so you have all these other people groups who become a part of the covenant people but now with this move and Ezra 9 we aren't just saying we are holy people we're saying we are a holy ethnicity are you with me so the question is how did that happen how did that move take place and how that happens you can watch it in the story it's you can watch as Rhea's exegesis of the Torah and he's doing what we would call creative interpretation so let me just kind of read this because the it's all about the details here but if you're gonna teach about this text you need to know the details for how this makes sense so here's what here's what's happening in this story there are laws about not instrument intermarrying with the Canaanite peoples from the egg period before the Exile we were just read one of those laws in Exodus 34 and what's what Ezra and the people are doing is equating those ancient Canaanites with their contemporaries that they call the people of the land are you with me there's not a direct connection here it's an exegetical interpretive connection so they are the generation of the new Exodus and they are viewing the inhabitants around them as the new Canaanites so to speak but they are not Canaanites they're the people of the land who are the people of the land that's a very mixed bag there's even some there's even some northerners in there who came down read The Book of Jeremiah northern is realized there's the people who were imported there's Israelites who were never taken into exile there's a lot of people you know among the the land and so the the exiles who come back from Babylon to find themselves not just as a holy people but a holy race and they equate other people land with Canaanites so that's the whole point of this here and and so just watch you can see it right here in verse 2 when the peoples come and they say the people of Israel have not separated themselves from the people of the lands and then they have this lion that's complicated in English I understand but in Hebrew it's fairly clear the people of the lands and then they say according to the abominations of the ancient Canaanites so that little according to is saying the people of the land practice or they have worship what they're doing is similar to or according to what the ancient Canaanites did am I making any sense right here it's an interpretive connection that they're making okay so let me again let Hugh Williams son make it clear so the people of the land their religious practices are said to be like that of the ancient Canaanites it's not saying that these are Canaanites themselves so what we're dealing with is Ezra's interpreted extension of these ancient laws to a new situation we don't have ancient Canaanites around anymore but there's all these laws in the Torah that as was bringing about how we are to be a holy people and so what he's interpretive Lee doing he's creating a principle out of those laws that don't immediately apply to his circumstances anymore but he discerns a principle God's people are to keep themselves distinct and there are times when the boundary lines need to be very clear so that our identity as God's covenant people isn't compromised and here's his solution here's how he applies it in his day and that's what Williamson essentially says the text is really careful to say that the people of the land are not Canaanites the abominations are similar to the Canaanites the people aren't Canaanites themselves and so what I have here in the notes is a long chart of these verses in Ezra 9 with all the ninja hyperlinks attached in parallel columns and you can just see how as R is reading the Torah it's brilliance really remarkable so here's a 0 9 that's on the right and here's all the passages in the Torah and prophets that are getting activated here and you can see the key move happens in Ezra 9 2 where he talks about the holy seed is being intermingled with the peoples of the lands and that phrase holy seed is being adopted from Deuteronomy 7 about don't intermarry with the Canaanites for you are a holy people that just pause right there what's the difference between a holy people and a holy race is that a significant difference yeah that's pretty significant it's fairly significant this intermingling is a hyperlink to Psalm 106 and it's also I think a hyperlink to Leviticus 18 about not wearing clothes of two different kinds and not breeding together two different kinds of species because the word for intermingle is the same letters as breeding together but just in a different order this is ninja artistry I'm telling you anyway that's a whole other thing so you can just go through and you can just see all of the passages in the Torah and prophets that Ezra is drawing upon as a creative application of an ancient law in a new day okay so let me just pause and here's the good lunch conversation and then we'll take a break ultimately as at least I'll share with you my view at the end of the day I think we are to view as I'm reading this text as a follower of Jesus and so the idea of God's covenant people being limited to one seed does this fit anywhere within my framework of the new the people of Jesus know so in that sense I don't read Ezra's nine as telling me to go create a weird cult on a farm land and you know what I'm saying and like we all intermarry so that's not how I hear God's Word through this text but what I'm watching is a really godly person who's discerning listen we have this wisdom from the Torah we have a crisis in the moment and none of these allows precisely match and so he puts on his interpretation hat and he says what would Moses do and he discerns that Moses would say we need we need to enact this law and do all of these divorces and so on so can we blame him I don't think so him does that mean that I need to adopt his model of interpreting the Torah as my model of interpreting the Torah as a follower of Jesus as a follower of Jesus who is my true Norris and how I interpret the Torah Jesus because he said Moses wrote about me and that is fulfilled with me so I think that's the challenge with this text is hearing Ezra 9 as a part of God's Word to me doesn't mean I think just straight up adopting his practice and none of us do it anyway unless you do live in a farm with an intermarriage cult or something like that so so none of us do it and do that anyway so the question is how that's the question what does it mean for this text to be God's Word to you in your church community is there wisdom here when there are cultural situations we don't find any direct precedent for them in the Bible what are you supposed to do and so he that's this is the work of biblical interpretation and hermeneutics to use that fancy word and so this is the task that every generation I think is called to and that's I think the gateway into how to read this text as a word to our own community so we'll come back around this after lunch but there you go how's that for a whopper for lunch conversation what's that please oh yes correct yep yes yep yes correct yeah so that the deeper issue is about the religious practices not being compromised and that's and but Ezra solution is to is to make it a race issue to draw the line there and so I think yeah that's the question though what the wisdom here is there needs to be a distinctive way of life of God's covenant people and how is that best preserved this is how Azra did it and in this moment the Jesus followers did it in many different ways in the New Testament and we're called to do the same today and I think that's the challenge that Ezra nine puts in front of us so we'll follow it up more after lunch but there you go

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Published: Sat Jun 16 2018