Ezra the Priest

So I'm starting off with a question, and I wonder... I don't have time to get your answers, but I'm sure they might vary a little. But have you ever wished you could have lived in a different time in history? You know, a lot of times people think of that. You might romanticize about the days of chivalry, when daring knights competed in jousting competitions, to win the favor of fair maidens. Or if you're an outdoors type, you might wish you could have been among the pioneers, moving west across an untamed land. I think of this. When I was a teenager, I remember one of my friends looked at me once. He said, You know, Frank, we were born just a little too late. What do you mean, a little too late? Well, he had a high opinion of us, so this was his words, not mine. But he said, You know, with our brains and our work ethic, if we'd have been born shortly after World War II, when the economy was expanding, we could have been captains of industry and built great companies and gotten rich. I don't know if that was true at all or not. But I do remember looking at the state of the United States, its economy, and sort of the general feeling in the country at that time, in the mid to late 70s. Many of you remember what it was like. We were sort of disheartened after Watergate and Vietnam. The economy was stalled badly with inflation and two energy crises. And in the church, we tended to perceive that the big days of the work were past. Christ's return would be soon. That was exciting. But we were wondering, it's like, wait a minute, 75 has passed and we're still here and we're not sure what's going on, but we don't have that rapid growth that was going on in the 50s and 60s. So, some of the excitement had cooled off. Now, I will say it's a good thing that I didn't let myself settle down and just accept that, well, I've been born too late. I missed it. And I'm not meaning to hold myself up as an example. Actually, this way of thinking came to my mind after I started putting together the sermon. And I was looking around for an example to use for the introduction, and I thought, well, why not talk about myself? I won't forget that, at least. But I want to look at the life of someone in the Bible who often plays an underappreciated role. And I say underappreciated not because he's not known, but because we might not appreciate how much he did in putting the Bible together and in the history of God's people. So, today I want to consider the life of Ezra the priest and his work. And think a little bit about what we can learn from him. Now, most of us are familiar with the name Ezra because there's a book in the Bible named after him. And scholars do believe that Ezra is the one who wrote that book, and not that one alone. In the Jewish format of the Bible, Ezra and Nehemiah were actually put together in one scroll, and Ezra is believed to have written both of those, and also both 1st and 2nd Chronicles.

He lists his genealogy in an abbreviated form we think in Ezra. He was directly descended from Aaron the priest, meaning he was not only a Levite, but Ezra was a priest. I will say, though, he wasn't the high priest. Only one person at a time would be the high priest, just like only one person at a time can be king. And then the king's oldest son generally becomes the next king, and so on that way. But without turning there, you can turn there if you want, but we're going to look at some other Scriptures first. In Ezra, chapter 7 and verse 11, he calls himself Ezra the priest, the scribe. Earlier in that chapter, in verse 6, he calls himself a skilled scribe. That's funny. When I typed that out, I didn't realize it'd be hard to say skilled scribe.

But I do know that in the older King James Version, it says a ready scribe. And I like the way that rolls off the tongue. Ezra was a ready scribe. A scribe in that time was someone who could read and write, but more than just being literate, it was someone who was trained at reading and writing well enough to produce legal documents.

Remember, of course, there were no word processors, not even Xerox machines or anything like that. It was all handwritten, and it was a high profession. And someone who was a Levite, who was a skilled scribe, would even be able to produce copies of the law, and even copies of the Bible. Ezra was a skilled scribe.

We don't have documented proof, but most traditions say that Ezra was the one who did the most of canonizing the Old Testament. And in case you're wondering, that doesn't mean he loaded the Bible in a canon and shot it off, but it means he decided which books of the Bible or which books and scrolls would be part of the Bible and which ones would not. Now, I don't think for a moment that he did that arbitrarily.

In the same way that God inspired the writers to produce what became part of the Bible, I think he inspired Ezra, and perhaps others with him, to decide which writings were part of the Bible. It was always God's decision.

And I'm describing something that today we consider very notable. That's something big. He was making copies of the Bible and putting it all together.

But that's looking back in hindsight. I wonder if a trained scribe at that time would have thought, eh, that's just part of the job.

And would Ezra, when he was a young man, would he have ever looked back at the history of his country and of his religion and thought, I was born too late. Think of the things I missed.

We can think of all that happened in God's work before Ezra had a chance to participate in it.

To do a brief survey of history of, obviously, he wasn't around when God created Adam and Eve. He wasn't alive at the time of Noah's flood. Never got to talk to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.

And when God called Moses and Aaron to lead the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and then, after 40 years of wandering, laid them into the prom... well, I should leave Moses and Aaron behind as Israel did, and Joshua led them into the Promised Land, still, there was no Ezra then.

Although I doubt that he ever looked back on those events and said, oh, I wish I would have been there. Maybe because he studied them so much, he knew what had happened.

But I consider, knowing that he was a trained priest, there are some things that I can't help but think he might have looked at with longing. One of them, if you want to turn with me to the book of 2 Chronicles. As I said, he's considered to have written these books. 2 Chronicles... we'll start with chapter 2, just for one verse.

Because the priesthood centered around the activities first of the tabernacle, that was built when the children of Israel first came out of Egypt, later that was transferred to the temple. And building the temple was, to put it bluntly, a big deal. 2 Chronicles 2 and verse 1 says, Then Solomon determined to build a temple for the name of the Eternal and a royal house for himself. I don't want to talk about the royal house for himself. But we'll remember Solomon's father David wanted to build that temple, was very excited about it, and God told him, David, it was good that you wanted to do this, but you've shed too much blood. You've been involved in too much warfare. You'll have a son who will be a man of peace. He'll get to do that. And he did. The next several chapters describe that building project. I want to move ahead to chapter 5, when it's completed.

So 2 Chronicles chapter 5, and we'll read a few verses here.

So all the work that Solomon had done for the house of the Eternal was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated, the silver and the gold, all the furnishings. He put them in the treasuries of the house of God. Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all of the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel and Jerusalem, that they might bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Eternal up from the city of David, which is in Zion.

Of course, the city of David is in one place, and basically part of Israel where they put up a temporary tent to house the Ark of the Covenant. The most sacred thing, it was a symbol of God's throne that was there on earth. Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with the king at the feast, which is in the seventh month.

Actually, there were a number of feasts in the seventh month. But it says, all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the Ark. They brought up the Ark of the Tabernacle of Meeting, and all the holy furnishings which were in the Tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up. So imagine, this is one of those times where the priests say, thanks Levites, we're going to take it from here.

They put it on their shoulders themselves, and marched up to bring it into this magnificent new temple that was built. And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with them before the Ark were sacrificing sheep and oxen that couldn't be counted and numbered from altitude. And then the priest brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Eternal to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the carabin.

I'll leave it there, but just imagine, among those priests would have been at least one of Ezra's direct ancestors. He could look back and say, that was my grandfather's grandfather, or however it was. I would think that for a priest, that would be a point in history they would look at and say, ah, to have been there for that.

I would have loved to have seen it, to take part. You know, it's hard for me to think of that, but imagine, one of the things I consider as a colonial historian, or I think if someone were a lawyer, they might look back in American history and think of the year 1783, when the Founding Fathers gathered in Washington and spent that summer writing the Constitution.

They might say, I wish I could have been there, I wish I could have heard what was said. Or take it a different route. I'm drawing up analogies of things we might consider. If you're a baseball player, or even a good softball player, or like me, a not so good softball player, but you still like to play. And if you've ever heard that legendary story of the time when Babe Ruth held out his bat and pointed, called his shot, and then followed up by hitting a home run right to that spot, wouldn't a ball player have loved to have been there on the field?

Maybe that's a small inkling of how Ezra might have felt, looking back, reading this, and thinking, ah! There's a bit more, the dynamic prayer that Solomon said. Let's turn to chapter 7, 2 Chronicles 7. Solomon uttered this moving prayer to God, asking him to devote this temple and to always look to it and hear the prayers.

And it says, When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifice, and the glory of the eternal filled the tabernacle. The priests couldn't enter the house of the Lord for the glory of the Lord that filled the Lord's house. All the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the eternal on the temple. They bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshipped and praised the eternal, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endures forever. And the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the eternal.

King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep. That's hard for me to even imagine. Talk about, I think of it, I've seen some thanksgiving dinners where there's a lot of food spread out, but this is a feast for the nation.

And the priests attended to their services, the Levites, with instruments of music of the eternal, which King David had made to praise the eternal, saying, His mercy endures forever. Whenever David offered praise to the ministry, the priests sounded their trumpets opposite them while all Israel stood. And it goes on from there, and I just think, Wow! Fire from heaven, a feast for the nation, the glory of God filling the temple.

I could see Ezra thinking, Ah, I would have loved to have been there for that. But he wasn't. Was he born too late? There's some other things that happened, some great revivals. Let's turn ahead in the book of Chronicles 2, or 2 Chronicles, forgive me, to chapter 34. 2 Chronicles 34, we'll skip ahead and look at a couple of the great revivals, because Israel, unfortunately, didn't always continue the enthusiasm and the devotion to God's way that they had when God sent that fire down from heaven to consume the offering.

2 Chronicles 34, beginning in verse 8. In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, the he here is, I lost my place, Josiah, one of his great, the king Josiah, who took the throne at eight years old, and then as he grew older, wanted to turn this country back to the proper worship. He purged the land and the temple. He sent Shaphan, the son of Azalea, and Maisia, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Jehoahaz, I forgot about all these names in here, the recorder to repair the house of the Lord is God. And they came to Hilkiah, the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the doors had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin, from which they brought it to Jerusalem.

So this high priest had a chance to renovate the temple. They gave him a huge budget and said, fix it up. You know, any priest would want to be able to be there for that. I'm sure that was wonderful. It inspired this great religious revival.

And something happened in the process of it that's even more. Down in verse 14, when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Eternal, Hilkiah found the book of the law of the Lord, of the Eternal, given to Moses. He found this scroll, and he opened it up and realized, this is the book that Moses wrote, all of the law. It's right here. It's been here all this time.

Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan, the scribe, I found the book of the law in the house of the Eternal. And he gave the book to Shaphan, and Shaphan carried it to the king, bringing word saying, all that was committed to you, and I'm going to stop there, but they're saying, we found the book of the law. And this inspired a huge religious revival. They went out destroying high places and idols and false altars that shouldn't have been on high places. And the country turned to God in a way that they hadn't. And again, I could see Ezra.

Now, and remember, Ezra was a refugee, an expatriate who was growing up in what was then the Persian Empire, far from his homeland, studying these writings and thinking, ah, back in Jerusalem, what a time when they did that. And thinking, I missed that. What's going to happen in my lifetime? Well, some other things did happen between those events in his lifetime, some of which he probably would not have wanted to be there for.

As I said, he's in a distant land. He probably didn't mind not being in Jerusalem when the Babylonian armies surrounded it. And under Nebuchadnezzar's armies, they beat down the walls. They destroyed that temple. But he might have looked back and wished he'd been born about 80 years sooner than he was when Cyrus, the Persian emperor who had conquered Babylon, made a reversal of one of their major policies. The Babylonians had conquered peoples and then relocated them, shipped them out to somewhere else and took the people from that place to another one. But the Persians said, no, let's let people return to their homelands. Let's respect their native religions.

I'm turning ahead again in 2 Chronicles to chapter 36. 2 Chronicles 36. Let's read beginning in verse 22. You'll notice we're at about the end of the book. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the eternal by the mouth of Jeremiah, the prophet... or it doesn't say the prophet, I just put that in myself, might be fulfilled. The eternal stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all the kingdoms and also put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, all kingdoms of the earth, the Lord God of heaven, is given to me.

And he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? May the Lord is God be with him and let him go up. That's where the book of Ezra begins. In fact, I'm not going to reread it, but Ezra chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 quotes the very same proclamation. But it's interesting, I thought of this as I first started putting the sermon together, and when I started doing the research, I found something that just didn't occur to me until I was looking at it in these terms.

And one of the things is that Ezra the man does not appear in Ezra the book until chapter 7. A lot goes on before Ezra even appears in this story. More than half of the book contains official documents and lists. Much of what narrative it does have occurs years before Ezra is on the scene, before the young man Ezra is ready to take action. And we'll notice, actually I want to turn to Ezra chapter 4, as we work our way through some of this history, that for a time, the people who are struggling to re-establish worship of their God, struggling to build a new temple to replace the one that the Babylonians had destroyed, they struggled against a lot of opposition.

And the surrounding peoples didn't want the Jews to build that temple, and they worked with the government, and eventually they were successful. They'd sent letters to the government back in Persia, and let's notice the response that they got, beginning in verse 17. So I'm in Ezra 4, verse 17. The king sent an answer to Rehom the commander, to Shimsheh the scribe, to the rest of the companions who dwell in Samaria, and to the remainder beyond the river, peace and so forth. I always wonder if they wrote so forth officially in the letter, or if just when Ezra was copying it, and he said, well, I'm not going to copy all that stuff.

But to get down to the meat of the letter, it says, The letter which you sent to us has been clearly read before me, and I gave command, and a search has been made, they searched their archives, and it was found that this city, that this city they're talking about is Jerusalem. Jerusalem, in former times, has revolted against kings. Rebellion and sedition have been fostered in it.

There have also been mighty kings over Jerusalem, who ruled over all the region beyond the river. From Persia, they're saying they reigned all the way into our territory, and tax and tribute and custom were paid to them. So now give command to make these men cease, that this city may not be built until the command is given by me. Take heed that you do not fail to do this.

Why should damage increase to the herd of the kings? And when this copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehom, and Shae the scribe and all their companions, they went up and hasted Jerusalem against the Jews, and by force of arms made them cease. Thus the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem, ceased. And it was discontinued until the second year of the reign of Darius, King of Persia.

It seems, in a lot of ways, a shame that God's people would be intimidated by the government saying, no, you can't do that work. A mere government of men stopped God's work. But it's easier for us to say that now, we live in a land where freedom of religion is written into our constitution. It wasn't always that way. And it's a little scary to think it might not always be that way. We could easily face times in the future where the laws of the land will work against us, not for us.

If in the future, when we face persecution and threats from the government or other forces, I hope we won't react like the people in Ezra 4, but I hope we will react like the people in Ezra 5. It's not a long time that passes, but some time does. And we see God took a hand. He sent some messengers. Chapter 5 and verse 1, Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Edo, prophets prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. Now, this is one of the clearest instances of different books of the Bible intersecting.

So we know that these two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, came to the people of Jerusalem at this time. And we can find out what they told them by turning to the books that have their names. We'll come back to Ezra later. You can mark it, but it's not that hard to get to. I want to go to Haggai chapter 1. Haggai... I go back and forth whether to say it Haggai or Haggai, or I could shorten it to Hag, but that doesn't sound right. But Haggai 1 and beginning in verse 3, let's see what God told the people about his attitude of them not working on the house of the Lord, the temple.

So in 1 verse 3 it says, But you don't have enough, you drink, and you're not filled with drink, you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages, earns wages to put it in a bag with holes.

He's saying, look, you're getting by, but you're not being blessed. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountains and bring wood, and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it, and be glorified, says the eternal. Let me stop there for now. This tells us... we'll want to remember, God is in heaven. He doesn't need any building that we would build for him. He told that clearly to the men who wanted to build a building.

But here it says he takes pleasure in it, that he's glorified by the works of man when we do the right thing with the right attitude. And so we should want to have that attitude.

I'm going to go back to Ezra, chapter 5, and see what happened as a result.

I told you to keep your fingers there, but I didn't do it myself. That's okay to give us time. Let's go back to chapter 5, verse 2. As a result of this message from Haggai the prophet...

Actually, we read verse 1, here in verse 2. So Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jehazadak... By the way, Zerubbabel was the governor, and Joshua was the high priest. So we're not talking about Ezra. He's not here. But they rose up and began to build the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.

And the prophets of God were with them, helping them. I think the original King James might be where it says they were with them, strengthening them. Because part of me said, well, okay, they're there with them. I'll bet you there were also quite a few workmen helping them. Because it's good to have people that know what they're doing. I was talking to some of the fellows downstairs about some of the improvements in the building here. And saying, yeah, if you have the right materials, you know what you're doing and the right tools, things can get done quickly.

I've done a lot of work projects where I didn't have the right tools and I didn't know what I was doing. And I did make something happen quickly. I made a big mess.

But these men didn't do that. They completed the temple.

And it was clear... Yeah, I forgot. I wanted to go back to Haggai. Last time. But as they built this, it was going to be good. But it was clear this fabulous temple was not going to measure up to what they'd had before. To one of the wonders of the ancient world, the Temple of Solomon's day. And God comments on that in Haggai 2.

So Haggai 2, beginning in verse 1.

Yeah, Haggai is right after Zephaniah and right before Zechariah.

And the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the Word of the Eternal came to Haggai the prophet, saying, Speak now to the Rubble, the son of Shaltiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehazadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. So not only the leaders, but to all the people. And say, Who's left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? Meaning, how many of you are old enough to remember the temple that the Babylonians destroyed? And how do you see it now? How do you see this building you're just finishing? In comparison with it, is it not in your eyes? Is it nothing? Just, you know, this isn't the same, is it? Yet now, be strong, Zerubbabel, says the Eternal. And be strong, Joshua, the son of Jehazadak, the high priest.

Be strong, all you people of the land, says the Eternal. And work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Hosts. That was reassurance for right them. God says, I am with you. Keep going. Do it. It's going to be alright. And He promises something more. A reassurance for the future, down in verse 7. It says, I'll shake all nations. They'll come to the desire of all nations.

And I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord of Hosts. And the silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Hosts. And the glory of this latter temple will be greater than the former, says the Lord of Hosts. And in this place, I'll give peace, says the Lord of Hosts. And we know that this was a reference to the fact that Jesus Christ Himself in person was going to come to that temple.

The temple we read about in the Gospel accounts was this temple. So although they didn't have fire come down from heaven, and the Shekinah glory filled this building so that they were driven out from it, there was something greater ahead.

But getting back to the person of Ezra, we can consider again, He came along after this.

Joshua was the high priest who oversaw building the new temple and dedicating it. Ezra might have, he could have, and I want to stress there's no record that he ever did, but he could have perhaps felt a little sorry for himself, missing out on these big events. You know, that great rebuilding project, when people did great things to serve God, and to serve God's people.

Now, again, was Ezra born too late? Did he miss, you know, were the best times already over?

Well, I want to look at a parallel in our time. One of the reasons that moved me to this, because it's possible that young adults, you know, in the church, or even those who aren't yet adults, today, could they ever think that they were born too late? That the big things are all behind?

I thought of that possibly coming across the minds of younger people today, partly because of looking at Ezra and thinking of him as an example. But also, you know, I've served at summer camps over the years, and now teaching at ABC, there's something I've heard others say in the past, and I found myself saying it. We'll refer sometimes to what we call the heresy of the 90s, or the great division, and stop ourselves and say, oh, you were too young to remember that, or you might not have been around that. Especially when we're dealing with, at summer camp, it could be a 14-year-old, you know, what happened in 1995 might as well have happened during the Civil War.

And, you know, our youth might say, yeah, okay, well, I miss that excitement. And what I was thinking is they might say, yeah, I missed the troubles, but they could also say, yeah, but I missed the starting over, all that excitement that happened. Just the same way Ezra might say, yeah, they just finished building that new temple, but I wasn't there for it.

You know, and that's where I relate, looking back to my introduction. I came into the church after the excitement of the 50s and 60s.

Back then, I grew up hearing stories about the church growing in size by 30% every year.

When I came into the church, the growth had slown to very little.

Now, the church was big compared to today.

And I wonder if what I experienced as a teenager was sort of like for Israel having Solomon's Temple once it was built. Yeah, nice temple. You know, I'm glad it's there. Glad someone built it, but, you know, I didn't take part in it.

Of course, I do remember that trouble has happened in what we call the good old days as well. You know, I'm old enough to remember what we call the receivership. And yeah, I was there during that crisis of the 90s, you know, and had to make a personal stand. But I wasn't one of the elders that got to go to Indianapolis, to that conference, where they made a stand and said, we're going to build a church, you know, we're going to form a new organization. We're not going to give up.

If I sometimes look with a little bit of longing at that, how much more might our teens or young adults, you know, they might look at those events with the same distance that I feel for the church, you know, when it was the radio church of God.

Maybe the same as Ezra might have felt about the work of building that second temple.

You know, he might say, yeah, that's cool and all. I'm sure glad it got done. But yeah, I missed it.

I would say, so, you know, those of you who are teens, young adults, were you born too late?

Is there nothing left to do but sit around and wait for Christ to return?

I hope that's not the attitude of many. Actually, I hope it's not the attitude of any in the church today.

And we might consider, look at the life of Ezra a little further to see that we shouldn't see it that way.

Let's begin looking at Ezra's life and at the work he did from the place where he introduces it. Now, I do want to go back to Ezra. I've got my Bible open to Haggai again.

Ezra, Chapter 7. All those events about starting the temple, stopping the temple, upset, difficulties. Ezra, Chapter 7.

No. I said Ezra, but I'm looking at Esther.

Ezra 7 and verse 1. Now, after these things in the reign of our Dzurksis, King of Persia, Ezra, the son of Saraiiah, and there's a whole list of sons of, which I'm not going to read.

But, as I mentioned, this is an abbreviated genealogy showing that Ezra was descended from Aaron the High Priest.

Down in verse 6, this Ezra came up from Babylon and he was a skilled scribe. As I said, a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.

Here's a hint that when Ezra left Babylon, and I'm not going to read through all the account of him leaving, but he determined to go to Jerusalem. And it wasn't just his idea. The hand of God was upon him. He felt moved by God to go and participate in this work.

And that's one thing that tells us it's never too late to be doing what God directs us to do.

Let's look at verse 10. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the eternal and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.

So despite the fact that so many big jobs had already been done, Ezra prepared. He probably studied and worked very hard to prepare. And it lists three things that he prepared his heart to do.

First, to seek God's law. That tells me he studied it. He learned it inside and out, frontwards and backwards.

And number two, to do it. He went beyond having head knowledge. Even though he had a lot of head knowledge, he put it into practice. And he studied how it works in experience and in real life. He had the firm proof that God's way works.

And number three, to teach it.

Being able to teach and committing to teach God's law was a high calling. And I would say it is a high calling within God's work.

Ezra's story clearly shows us that whether or not the temple is already built, and I'll remind you that 2 Peter 2 verse 5 tells us that the church of God is the temple.

Whether or not the temple is built, there's a need for people to carry on and to continue.

To seek God's law. To do God's law. To teach God's law.

That's one reason I'm in my personal position. I'm absolutely thrilled to be having an opportunity to teach at Ambassador Bible College, because I get to focus on God's law and on the future of the church at the same time.

But doing that also, as I said, makes me look at people of that age. And again, we could sometimes say, are we at an in-between stage? In-between crises? Of course we're usually happy when it's in-between crises. So we might describe it that way. But if that was the case for Ezra, he wasn't just sitting around and watching the world go by, and waiting for Messiah to come.

He played a huge role in preserving and passing on the knowledge of God's Word.

If he was the one responsible for canonizing the Old Testament, that alone was a huge job, a long-term accomplishment. But that's not all that Ezra did. We can turn to the last chapters of the book. We see him working with leaders of Judah to correct a dangerous practice that it developed. In Ezra 9, there's a description of the people there, and they're starting to intermarry with people of different religions.

And they use the term there, pagan wives. In chapter 9 and verse 3, he says, When I heard this thing, I tore my garment. This is Ezra writing in first person. I plucked out some of the hair of my head and beard, and I sat down astonished.

Down in verse 5, At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting, and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, and said, Oh my God, I'm too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to you, my God. For our iniquities have risen higher than our heads. Our guilt has grown up to heaven. And this example moved the people of the land to want to correct this error. It sort of shows the power of one man making a stand to influence people, to stand up for what's right. In chapter 10, in verse 1, Now while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God, a very large assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him from Israel, for the people wept very bitterly. And it goes on to describe their efforts to end marriages with people of other nations. Now this is something said in a culture at that time.

Because I'd like to point out, of course, at that time and place, people of other nations were automatically people of different religions who didn't understand what we would call Christianity. That's funny, I don't think the people of ancient Israel called the religion Christianity, but they were devoted to God, to his law, and to a coming Messiah. We have the same thing, only instead of Messiah, we say Christ, which is the Greek form of the word. And I'll mention in the past, we've used this passage to teach against interracial marriage for that reason. But now we look at the stance and say, well, no, this was more about the foreign wives, so to speak, leading Israel away from the true religion. Among those who were called pagan, for one thing, was a woman of Moab and Ammon, and those people were of the same race as Israel, descended from Lot, Abraham's nephew.

And I don't want to go into that more there, just to say that Israel led his people in what was a pretty big accomplishment at the time, turning and not letting themselves be led away from God after they just got sort of on track. But what comes up in the next book, I think, is much bigger. And in it, Israel works very closely with Nehemiah, who is the next governor. Well, I'm not sure if he was the next one, but he followed Zerubbabel.

I'm going to turn to Nehemiah chapter 8 while I try to... I was just going to be thankful. I don't have to say it's Zerubbabel too often. In class, it always comes out as Zerubbable, and I get some extra bubbles in there, but...

Let's turn it Nehemiah chapter 8.

It says, So Ezra the priest...

Keep that in mind if you think the sermon's going along. And before the men and women, and those who could understand... and those who could understand, in the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

And Ezra the scribe stood on the platform of wood, which they'd made for the purpose. Beside him at his right hand stood a list of people. And I wanted to read... Actually, I got ahead of myself. I want to drop down to verse 8. And verse 8, And that's what I would consider to be giving a good sermon. Reading from the book and trying to give some understanding and explain what it means. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest, and scribe, and the Levites, who taught the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God. It was the first day of the seventh month. It was the Feast of Trumpets. And they realized that. This day is holy. Don't mourn or weep, for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. And they said, Go your way. Eat the fat. Drink the sweets. Send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared.

This day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. I could just stop there because I love that phrase. The joy of the Lord is your strength. There is a time when we humble ourselves and we repent before God. There's also a time when he says, Rejoice! The joy of the Lord is your strength. Know your calling and what God has in mind for you. And Ezra played a part in opening that understanding to the people.

And then turning back, this time began a reawaking of religious zeal, to devotion, to obeying and worshipping God. Ezra certainly hadn't come along too late. There was so much ahead, and he got to play this huge part. I'll turn to chapter 10 of Nehemiah. You can tell we're getting to the end of... Well, no, we're not quite to the end, but...

Nehemiah 10, beginning in verse 13.

Okay, I'm not sure if I wanted chapter 10 in verse 13.

Yes, I wanted 11 verse 13.

No, that's not what I wanted either.

Boy, don't you hate when this happens?

13 verse 13, no.

It's probably back in chapter 8.

Yeah, when Mr. Call shows up and says, I had Frank this led a congregation of wild goose chase through the book of Nehemiah because he lost his place.

What I'm getting at is when they discovered that it was the Feast of Tabernacles, and that they should dwell in booths for the special feast.

Yes, it is chapter 8. Yeah. On the second day, the heads of the Father's houses and the people with the priests and the Levites...

Ha! Mr. Call left me a pen. I'm going to change this. I plan on giving the sermon next week.

So don't tell anybody how embarrassed I was at this point.

But it says, The Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe in order to understand the words of the law. They found written in the law which the eternal had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the Feast of the Seventh Month, and that they should announce and proclaim it in their cities in Jerusalem, saying, Go out to the mountain, bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle trees, palm trees, and branches of leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.

And so they went out and started keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, verse 17. The whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under them. And since the days of Joshua the son of Nun, until the day of the children of Israel, they had not done so.

And there was very great gladness. And day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read the book of the law of God. They kept the Feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner. This sounds like Ezra became a festival coordinator, which I've learned by experience is a bit of a job, but one that brings a tremendous amount of joy. Which, by the way, yeah, that announcement about Cincinnati possibly filling up, that was news to me, but... that was for people who don't live closest to Cincinnati. I want to encourage any of you that want to come to Cincinnati, I'm going to be there and welcome all of you. Actually, I'll also mention... Sorry, this isn't part of my sermon notes, but I meant to mention it beforehand. We do have the extra space in the main meeting room. If you were there on the first day of the Feast last year, remember when we were like sardines? But on the eighth day, we got some extra space, and we've got that for both Holy Days this year. But Ezra got to be part of one of the best feasts of Tabernacles ever. He said they hadn't done it like that since the days of Joshua. Boy, just think, I was saying Joshua... I could see Ezra reading about building and dedicating the temple and the fire coming down and saying, boy, I wish I could have been there. But boy, those priests, if they could have read of this, they might have said, oh, I wish I could have been there when everybody built booths and kept the feasts like they did in Joshua's day.

That's exciting. We don't know how much Ezra did that's not recorded in the Bible. But I think we can safely say he was not born too late. And neither is anybody in this room. And we want to keep in mind, though, that Ezra would have never been able to play his part when the time come if he hadn't already in advance prepared his heart to seek the law of the Eternal, to do it, and to teach it. And as much as I want to emphasize that great religious revival that he led, it still might not have been as significant as his preserving the Word of God and teaching it, passing on that truth, making sure it would go on to future generations. If you consider where Ezra was in the historical context, yes, you know, the time of David's and Solomon's reigns had passed. The great first temple was destroyed. Ezra lived in what we sometimes call the days of the Gentiles. And what I mean by that is, it's after God had stopped working with Israel as a special people, but God had given Daniel understanding of the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, where he saw that statue with a head of gold and arms of silver, a chest and thighs of bronze and legs of iron.

Ezra was living during the second of the empires that represented, you know, Babylon, then Persia. Yet to come was Greece and Rome. So Ezra wasn't too late. Think of what would happen. I want to turn to Daniel 11.

Daniel 11 describes many events that would happen after the time of Ezra.

And that would include, perhaps, what we refer to as the Maccabean Revolt during the third beast. Well, sort of, yeah, I think we'd call it under what's left of the third beast before the Romans came in.

Daniel 11 and verse 32. This is a scripture that always sort of gives me some inspiration. By the way, remember the Maccabean were the ones that responded to the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes. He was a ruler of that part of the empire who, you know, was disappointed and, you know, was mad at the Jews and everybody else and came in and desecrated the temple and they say, sacrificed a pig on the altar.

And it inspired a revolt. And Daniel 11.32 says, Those who do wickedly against the covenant, he shall corrupt with flattery. But the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.

And the fight to oppose the desecration of God's temple and of God's law was made possible in part because of the work of Ezra the scribe. Generations earlier, because of his work and because of those he inspired and taught to whom Ezra passed that truth, there was a temple for Jesus Christ to come to.

And there were people who knew the truth, the Word of God was preserved.

As I said, Ezra was not born too late. And we are not born too late.

You know, sure, many of us who are younger, we might have missed some of the hay days of the modern church of God. Some of us who are younger enough missed the rebuilding of the church that happened from the mid-90s on. But we should not look back. We should do what Paul wrote in Philippians 3 and verse 13.

Philippians 3, 13 and 14.

Paul said, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God and Jesus Christ. There... Actually, oh, sorry, I read 14 second. I should have started with 13. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God and Jesus Christ. That prophecy I read in Daniel 11, 32. Many scholars believe that that desecration of the temple and the abomination of desolation is a dual prophecy. Perhaps it's yet to be fulfilled again in the end time. There might be a time yet ahead for those who know their God to be strong and carry out exploits. Those will be people who are not born too late. And I wonder, perhaps those are people that are alive today and in the Church. If it doesn't happen for several decades, it could be some of our young people who will be able to do it because those of us who are older are doing what Ezra did. I hope we're doing that. Preparing our hearts to seek the law of God, preparing our hearts to do it and to teach it. Whether or not any of us get to do great exploits, preparing for future generations to do so is one of the most significant things that we all can do. That we can all do to preserve that knowledge of God's Word and to pass it on to future generations. Now, the story of Ezra the priest described is one that the Bible doesn't tell in great detail. I suspect that's in part because Ezra was humble. He didn't want to write a whole bunch about himself. He didn't promote himself when it came to telling his own story in the Scriptures. But what we can read gives us a pretty powerful example. He lived at a time when others might have been somewhat despondent. He thought, ah, we missed it. The big things are over. But instead of thinking that way, Ezra was a ready scribe. He prepared his heart to seek God's law, to live by it and to do it. And that's an example I want to follow the best I can. And I hope we all will strive to do that. So we can be ready if and when God calls on us to do great exploits or if he's calling us to provide for future generations to give them what they'll need to do those exploits. Let's all be like Ezra. Let's prepare our hearts to seek the law of God, to teach it and to do it.