Ezra 2:1-3:13
~25 min read
TRANSCRIPT
As we continue studying the return, considering especially the application of these things to our own service to the Lord today, we come to this description of the return itself, especially this list of the people who returned in terms of their genealogies, followed by a description of the rebuilding of the altar and the temple. And we want to see how this relates to our service to God today. We can see how this relates to the precepts or instructions of God and also the praise of God, the worship of God, rendered unto him. And I think there are two lessons that we can learn here, two related lessons that we can apply to our service to God. We see how we can serve the Lord by maintaining his precepts and by maintaining his praise.
And we begin to see this already in this long list that we have in Ezra chapter 2, this genealogical list. This is something that we tend to dismiss. We tend to ignore these lists are actually quite frequent in scripture, especially in the Old Testament, lists of genealogies and family lineages. And we tend to think that these things are not relevant for us. After all, this has to do with the people of Israel, their genealogy, their lineage, their heritage. But we must keep in mind and remember that this is the word of God. This is written for us, recorded for our learning. These things are written and preserved for our profit. There's something that God wants us to learn here.
And so, we look at this list of genealogies, and we see all the people who returned, the leaders first of all in verse two, those who came with Zerubbabel and Jeshua. Then the priests and then the Levites also are mentioned from verse 40 onwards. And then the Nethinims, the temple servants, and then Solomon's servants from verse 55. All of these would be serving in the temple.
I. Unity & Continuity in the Precepts of God
And there was a concern throughout this list on the genealogy, the lineage, the ancestry. It was very important to them that they knew which families they came from, that they were able to trace their lineage back. So much so that in verse 62, as we read just now, there were those who sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found. And if they could not prove their lineage, if they could not find their names in the genealogical lists, then they were put from the priesthood. They were not allowed to serve and function as priests because they could not prove their right to serve as priests. And this was the instruction of God. God is holy. God has given His precepts, His instructions. It is for the priests to serve Him.
The priests and Levites had specific roles to play in the service of God, in the work of the temple, in the offering of sacrifices, and so on. The priests and Levites had the right to be supported by the offerings of the people. The tithes of the people were given to the priests and to the Levites. We read this, for example, in Numbers chapter 18:8-10, "And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever. This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every meat offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons. In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee." And so on.
Here in Numbers chapter 18, the priest was supported by the offerings of the people. They could eat of the offerings. No one else could. It was meant for them, for their livelihood, for their support. And so here in Ezra chapter 2, when these people could not prove their lineage from Aaron, they could not serve as priests. They could not be supported by the offerings of the people. They could not eat of these most holy things. It was taken very seriously. And that's already something for us to pay attention to and take note of.
There is emphasis here throughout this long list of genealogies on the continuity of the people, on the preservation of their identity. All these people remembered who they were. They kept track of their lineage, they kept track of their family line. This was something important to them. They remembered their family ties, they remembered their hometowns. Again, as we go through the list, we see that all these people knew where they were supposed to be, the land of their inheritance that had been given to them by God, divided to them by lot, divided to their forefathers by lot. They remembered all these things. And then again, as we read in verse one, when they went back, they went “every one unto his city”. They remembered their place, where they were supposed to be. They remembered their role: the priests, the Levites, the singers, the porters, the Nethinims, the temple servants. They remembered who they were, they remembered what they were supposed to do, even after the long period of the exile, seventy years in Babylon. But they did not lose sight of their identity. They did not lose track of their purpose, their role in the service of God. They kept hold on who they were.
Now, this is not easy to do. Seventy years in Babylon, in the natural process of time, with a new generation, in a new place, in a new environment, surrounded by a new culture, it would be very easy for them to just assimilate into the culture of Babylon and Persia, and to lose themselves, lose their identity as Israelites, as the people of God. They would begin to think of themselves not as priests and Levites, because in Babylon, there's no temple. They're not serving as priests, they're not serving as Levites in the same way that they would be in Judah and Jerusalem. It would be easy for them to stop thinking of themselves that way and to start thinking of themselves as just subjects of the Babylonian Empire, subjects of the Persian Empire.
And this is especially significant in light of the fact that we know the Babylonian policy was to assimilate all these peoples. Remember what Nebuchadnezzar tried to do with Daniel and those like him who were taken from Judah. Remember we read in Daniel chapter 1 how Nebuchadnezzar said the best and the brightest of those taken from Judah were to be separated, brought to the palace, given meat and drink from the king's table, taught the language and the learning of the Chaldeans, so that they could be assimilated. They were given new names. Daniel and his friends. So much so that in fact we think of Daniel's three friends in terms of their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those weren't their Hebrew names. Those were the names given to them by the Babylonians. That's how we think of them, but that's not how they thought of themselves.
Even though the Babylonian policy was to assimilate them and to cause them to think of themselves as Babylonians, they did not lose sight of their identity. They still thought of themselves as Israelites. They still remembered who they were. So that at the time of the return, they could say, "This is my lineage, this is my heritage, this is my family line, this is my inheritance in the land of promise, this is my role in the service of God in the temple." God preserved them, just as God preserved the temple vessels. But there was a responsibility for them to guard themselves and to keep hold of their spiritual identity. And that meant keeping the precepts of God.
The two things are linked and tied together: their identity and the precepts. Both had to be kept. If they lost hold on God's precepts, God's law, God's instructions, then they would lose their identity as well. Again, that's why it was so important for them to guard the priesthood. They couldn't let just anyone serve as priest. They had to keep to God's rules. Only those whom God has appointed, whom God has authorised, could serve as priests. It wasn't up to them to loosen the requirements or the restrictions, to close one eye, to compromise. They had to keep to God's precepts.
And again, we see this also in Daniel and his three friends. Remember again Daniel chapter 1. “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat” (Daniel 1:8). In other words, he purposed in his heart to maintain his identity by keeping to the law of God, by keeping God's precepts. He had to keep himself pure from the king's meat because that was not in keeping with the law of God, the dietary laws that God had given to Israel, which was part of their identity. In order for Daniel to maintain his identity, he had to keep those laws. That's part of what it meant to be an Israelite. He had to keep himself separate, keep himself holy, and keep himself pure.
So also here, at the time of the return, they had to keep to all these rules and requirements which God had given. They could not afford to bend or break these rules. Humanly speaking, it's very easy for them to do that, especially now. It's a new generation. They're coming back to start again. It'd be very easy for them to say, "Well, we're just starting again. We need all the priests we can get. If these people want to serve as priests, they say that their lineage is a priestly lineage, sure, they can't prove it, but why not let them in? We need the help." But no, they were not going to compromise on this. They had to keep the law of God in every detail. Again, God is the one who had determined who could be a priest and who was not a priest.
And there was a very strong warning against usurping the role of a priest. Remember in 2 Chronicles how even the king, King Uzziah, wanted to offer incense, which was not his place. That was the prerogative of the priests, to offer incense to God. He wanted to do it. But even as a king, he could not. It was a sin against God. Remember how the priests withstood him, and when he was angry, he was struck down with leprosy because he had presumed to take on a role that was not his to take. And all of this is a lesson for us. If we want to serve the Lord, to carry on that witness until the Lord returns, we have to remember who we are. We have to maintain our identity, just like the Israelites there in Babylon in the time of the exile.
So again, we also are, as it were, strangers in a strange land. We're surrounded by the world, surrounded by what is not of the Father but is of the world. As the Apostle John reminds us, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, these things are not of the Father, they're of the world (1 John 2:16). And the world does not want us to remain separate. The world wants assimilation. The world wants conformity. But just as these exiles now returning to Jerusalem, so also for us, we must commit ourselves to keeping the law of God, to maintaining our identity as God's people. Just as the law was Israel's wisdom in the sight of the nations, so also the law of God for us today. This is the perfect will of God, and it is that which forms our identity.
Remember how the Apostle Paul reminds us, "be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). Not to be conformed, but to be transformed, and to preserve that identity. New creatures in Christ, obedient to the law of God, going His way, not the world's way, obeying His will, not conforming to the world.
Of course, now it is no longer a national identity that we have, as the people of Israel had. No more civil laws like the law of Israel, no more the dietary laws. The church now is composed of people from all nations. But there is still the law of God. There is still the moral law, there's still God's instructions and precepts for how we are to serve Him, how we are to live our lives in this world. And we must be careful and committed to keep those precepts as part of our identity. It's part of how we remember who we are. When we keep to the law of God, we cannot give way to this increasingly modern trend of dismissing God's law as something outdated, old-fashioned. This is from the past, now we are progressive, now we are modern, we're moving on from these old things. But we cannot give into that tendency. We must stick to the law of God just as it is written, and we must keep His precepts and observe the things that He has commanded us to observe.
And perhaps one very significant way that we do this is when we keep the Sabbaths. This is a very clear distinction and separation between those who belong to God and those who belong to the world, isn't it? What we do on Sunday, what we do on the Lord's day. To the world, it is just another holiday. To the world, Sunday is the best time to go out, to enjoy, to enjoy the things of the world. But for us, it is the Lord's day. For us, it is a day set aside to rest in the Lord, not in ourselves and our own pleasures and conveniences, but to remember Him, to worship Him, to think of Him, to spend time with Him. That's something alien to the world, but that's something central to us, part of our identity as Christians, as God's people. How we keep the Lord's day is very much a part of our identity as Christians, and it's something we have to be careful to observe. We cannot compromise, just as these roles in the time of Ezra could not afford to compromise.
II. Unity & Continuity in the Praise of God
And then also we see here how they were careful to maintain in the praise and the worship of God. This is again something where we must resist the modern trend to be progressive, to change, to update, to try and keep up with the times. And here in Ezra chapter 3, again, put this in context, remember that the people are coming back to nothing. There's nothing there in Judah, in Jerusalem. The cities are gone, the temple is gone, the altar is gone. If they want to, they can do things differently. They can rebuild in a different place, they can rebuild in a different way, they can come up with their own new ceremonies, their own new feasts, their own new observances. It's a blank slate as it were.
And yet we find that they were concerned to revere God just as it was before. They didn't change anything. They rebuilt the altar, they rebuilt the temple, as we will see later on. Also here, the foundation of the temple according to all that had been written before, so that the worship and the praise of God could continue just as before.
And I think we see this even in the time that was chosen here in Ezra chapter 3:1. We read that all this was done “when the seventh month was come”. The seventh month was an important month in the religious calendar of Israel. It was the time of the blowing of trumpets on the first day of the month, the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the month, and then the Feast of Tabernacles on the 15th day. And they kept the Feast of Tabernacles – verse 4 of Ezra chapter 3 – “as it is written”, not in some new way, but just as it was written. They kept it in precisely the same way, according to the same word and the same law. And it seems that they deliberately arranged for all these things to coincide with the seventh month so that they could keep this Feast, the Feast of Tabernacles.
This is no longer just their land. They are surrounded by hostile enemies. We'll see more of their opposition in the next chapter. But in all their praise and worship, they are concerned to go back to these same old traditions that God had given. They didn't take it upon themselves to invent some new feast which they felt would be more appropriate to their times. They kept the Feast of Tabernacles, and they kept all the same elaborate sequence of offerings just as prescribed in the Law of Moses.
Again, Ezra 3:4, “They kept [also] the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, [they] offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required”. They kept all these things just as it was. Verse 5, they “offered the continual burnt offerings”, all these things that are written and commanded in the Law of Moses.
This goes back to Numbers chapter 28 and 29. Numbers chapter 28:1-4, "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season. And thou shalt say unto them, This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the LORD; two lambs of the first year without spot day by day, for a continual burnt offering. The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even;” together with flour and oil, and so on. This is the continual burnt offering morning and evening, and they went back to that. They searched the Law of God, the Law of Moses, they saw all that was required, and they kept those traditions. They went back to all those offerings, praise, and worship according to the Law of God. Not something new, not something of their own invention.
And then also in the building of the temple, they used the same kind of wood that Solomon had used, the cedar wood. And they sent to the people of Tyre and Sidon, Ezra 3:7, “to bring cedar trees from Lebanon” in order to rebuild the temple. And even in their praise of God, they went back to the Psalms to praise God. Verse 11 of Ezra chapter 3, "they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel." That's an echo of the Psalms, if we think of Psalm 136.
This may have been one of the Psalms that they sang on that occasion, praising the goodness of God, for his mercy endures forever. That's the refrain of this Psalm, the chorus of this Psalm. "O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever" (Psalm 136:1-3). To praise the enduring mercy of God, the covenant mercy of God, they used the words of the Psalms to praise and worship God. They went back to the traditional instruments of worship.
Ezra 3:10, “And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.” This was the manner of worship that David had instituted and brought in way back. Just as the first temple was going to be built in the next generation by Solomon, they went back to this manner of worship, traditional worship.
This was centuries ago by that point, and yet they went back to it. They were not changing, they were renewing, they were maintaining what had been done before. And very importantly, as they were building and rebuilding the altar and the temple, they were careful to maintain this praise of God. They did not neglect the praise of God. Ezra 3:11, "And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; … And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD”.
They did not neglect this praise while they were building the house because it was a house of praise, a house of worship. All of this was a fulfillment of God's promise in Jeremiah 33. Jeremiah 33:10, "Thus saith the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast, The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.”
This is precisely what they were doing. This prophecy is fulfilled. They're back in the land, the captivity has returned, and the praise is maintained. “… the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever” (Jeremiahs 33:11b). They were careful to maintain this praise of God. And this also is a lesson for us, a reminder for us. Our service to the Lord, our duty to the Lord, involves praise. We are called to praise the Lord, to worship him. That's part of how we serve him.
We serve him not just by doing things, building houses and so on, but we serve him by worshipping him. When we sing praise to the Lord, we are serving him. And as we see here in the example of Zerubbabel and the people, this praise and worship is not for us to reinvent. We praise God acceptably when we praise him in fear and reverence, in conformity with his Word. It is worship in spirit and in truth. It is worship according to the precepts and traditions that God has given to us, that have been handed down to us.
And as we see here also in Ezra, this traditional worship, it's not dull, it's not lifeless. In fact, it is full of joy. Here in Ezra chapter 3:11, “And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD.” This was lively, enthusiastic, joyful worship. It was traditional, but that didn't make it dull, that didn't make it lifeless, that didn't make it dry or boring. Sometimes our tendency today is to think that when worship is dull, we need more modern innovations. We need livelier instruments, we need different kinds of music, we need flashing lights, we need smoke machines. Who can be dull when there are smoke machines? But that's not where the excitement, the enthusiasm comes from.
Our praise and worship of God is lively, not because of all these external things, not because our emotions are being manipulated, but because we are praising Him with understanding. Because we know Whom we are praising and worshipping. We know the Lord. We know His works. His mercy endures forever towards us. We remember His covenant, that He is our God. We remember how He has redeemed us by the blood of His only begotten Son. We know these things, and then we worship Him.
And even though we use the same old hymns, the same old Psalms, the same old instruments, there is liveliness and freshness because we know what we are doing. It is by faith with understanding, and that's where the enthusiasm comes from. That's how we maintain the praise of God. Not by continually infusing new things in order to make the worship more lively. That's a false kind of liveliness. That's an artificial kind of liveliness. But the newness, the freshness comes from our understanding and our experience. The mercies of God are new every morning. And so when we praise Him for His mercy endureth forever, that praise is new every morning because our experience of His mercy is fresh every morning.
Every morning we remember anew what great things the Lord has done for us. We praise Him with thankful and joyful hearts, full of understanding. Worship in spirit and in truth. That's true emotion. That's true enthusiasm. And it comes not from what is new, that is to say, invented, injected by man. It comes from the same old God, the same old truth, the same old manner of worship. And that's what we see here in Ezra chapter 2 and chapter 3, how careful the people were to maintain all the old precepts, all the old praise. They were going back to renew, they were going back to these same old things. There was nothing dull about it.
Now, this chapter ends really on quite an ominous note. As you see at the end of chapter 3, Ezra 3:13, "the noise was heard afar off." There were enemies. Remember, in the land, the land was not empty. Yes, it was desolate, devastated. The cities were destroyed. Jerusalem was in ruins. The temple was no longer there. But there were enemies around. People had been brought in by the Assyrians and so on, and they had resettled some of the places surrounding Judah and Jerusalem. And there was fear in the hearts of those who returned. We see that already in Ezra 3:3, “fear was upon them because of the people of those countries”. And again, in verse 13, the noise of their shout, the noise of their praise “was heard afar off”. Plans were being laid against them. And we will see in the next chapter, in Ezra chapter 4, the opposition begin in earnest.
And this again is something for us to take note of. When we stick to God's ways, there will be opposition from the world. When we try to maintain the precepts and the praise of God according to what is written, there will be opposition from the world. The world wants to move on from God. The world doesn't want to be tied down to the Word of God. The world wants us to conform to it. They're not happy to have strangers and pilgrims in their midst. People who, by their very way of life, call out to them of an everlasting kingdom, a heavenly kingdom, a heavenly country that is not of this world. There will be opposition. But again, we can see here from the example of those who returned under Zerubbabel that this focus on the precepts of God and the praise of God gave to them a great unity and a great continuity to their service.
And perhaps in closing, we can focus on these two benefits, these two secrets to keep in line with our theme that we can learn for our service: the unity and continuity that we have in serving the Lord that comes from going back to His precepts and maintaining His praise. In the same way, we see here how the people were united in the work of the Lord. Again, they came back knowing who they were, they came back knowing what their roles were in the service of God. They knew their place. They knew their town. They knew their lineage. They knew how they were to serve in the temple, the priests, the Levites, the Nethinims, and so on. They each had their role, and the service of God involved all the people. And they knew what they were supposed to do.
They were united in serving the Lord, each in his own particular place. And it's the same for us also in the church. Each one has his or her own place in serving the Lord in the church. There is a place for me, there is a place for you. It's not the same place. We're not all doing the same thing. But we're all serving the same God. There is unity in that.
Sometimes when we play sports, especially in school PE – I don't know whether you call it PE here, physical education – sometimes the class has to play a game and they have to split up into teams. And of course, the most athletic ones are always picked first. The same people are always picked first. And then there's always those few at the end who everyone knows are not very good, so they're just sort of there as token participants.
I remember once I was playing a football (soccer) game. This was in the Army, so we had to split into teams. I obviously was not very good, so I was told this. This was my instruction: “Whenever you get the ball, just give it to that guy.” That was my job. That's because I couldn't do anything. So just give it to that guy, and then he will take care of things. So basically, I'm useless. I have nothing to do. I have nothing to contribute to the team.
But the work of God is not like that. There are no people who are just sort of useless and left out. There's no one to whom God says, "Well, you just sit there and don't do anything." Everyone has a role. Everyone has a part to play. Everyone has something to contribute. And it's a real contribution. It's not a token thing because these gifts don't come from us, they come from God. God has given to us these gifts, distributed them by His will, and each one has something to contribute, a part to play, a role to play. And again, the honour, the privilege comes not from what we do, but from Whom we serve, because we are serving the Lord. Everything that we do in His name is worthy, honourable, a privilege. And there is unity in that. That's part of God's wonderful design for the church—that everyone has something to contribute, no one is useless. No one can say, "Oh, there's nothing for me to do."
There is, at the same time, no one can say, "Well, I'm the best, I have all the gifts, I can do everything, I don't need anyone else." All of us have something that we need, and all of us have something that we can give. It's God's design for the church that brings us together in unity. We need one another, and we can help one another. We are all brought together in this, in serving the Lord together. And this, when we keep to the Word of God, when we observe His rules and His requirements, when we conform our lives to His word, then we have this unity in serving the Lord.
And then also, we have this continuity. We serve the Lord according to what is written – the same God, the same covenant, plan, and purpose, the same unfolding plan of redemption. We have continuity in serving the Lord. Just as these people here in the time of Zerubbabel, see how many times they were careful to maintain what is written? They went back to what is written, they kept the worship according to what is written in the law of Moses. This is centuries, a thousand years after Moses wrote the Law, and yet they're still concerned to keep every detail, all the feasts, all the sacrifices. They didn't say, "Oh, these things are old-fashioned, this is not applicable, times have changed, we're coming back from exile, this is the time to revamp, to start something new." No, they went back to what is written.
And it's the same for us. We have the same words, the same abiding authority that gives continuity to our witness, the same plan of redemption based on good traditions and examples of godly men. Just as they kept the worship after the ordinance of David, king of Israel, so also for us. We go back to these good traditions of worship, hymns that were written long ago but are still so relevant, helpful, encouraging, and instructive for us. We go back to these things, and that gives us great continuity. Of course, it is not that we elevate tradition on the same level as Scripture, but we also are not so quick to repudiate what is old and what is tradition and denounce everything as old-fashioned. Where we have good biblical traditions, we keep them, and that is a help to us in serving the Lord. We stay true to what has been passed down and entrusted to us, and so we have unity and continuity built on the unchanging precepts of God and leading us to constant and consistent praise and worship of God. And that will be a help to us as we seek to be profitable servants to the Lord. Let's close this second message with a word of prayer. Let's pray.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we thank You again for Your Word and for these reminders. We thank You for the great privilege that we have, that You have called us to serve You and even to praise You. We ask once again that You would help us not to take these things for granted, but also to remember and to be grateful for these good traditions that have been handed down to us, that we may be careful to maintain Your precepts and to praise and worship You in spirit and in truth, according to Your Word. We pray You would help us to serve You in this way, just as we have learned from those people long ago in the time of Zerubbabel. We ask once again that You would speak to us by Your Spirit to teach us these important lessons. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
THE BOOK OF EZRAMessage 1: Privilege and Promptness in ServiceMessage 1: Privilege and Promptness in ServiceEzra 1:1-11
Message 2: Precept and Praise in ServiceMessage 2: Precept and Praise in ServiceEzra 2:1-3:13
Message 3: Perseverance and Protection in ServiceMessage 3: Perseverance and Protection in ServiceEzra 4:1-5:5
Message 4: Prudence and Providence in ServiceMessage 4: Prudence and Providence in ServiceEzra 5:6-6:22
Message 5: Preparation and Perspective in ServiceMessage 5: Preparation and Perspective in ServiceEzra 7:1-28
Message 6: Purpose and Prayer in ServiceMessage 6: Purpose and Prayer in ServiceEzra 8:1-36
Message 7: Piety and Penitence in ServiceMessage 7: Piety and Penitence in ServiceEzra 9:1-10:44