The Bible Recap - Day 268 (Ezra 7-10) - Year 5

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap. Today we finished our 36th book of the Bible, and it took us 7 chapters, but we finally met Ezra, the man who this book was named after. He's a scribe descended from Aaron the High Priest. He lived in Babylon turn Persia until he left to return to Jerusalem during the reign of King Artisersseys of Persia. Remember King A from the book of Esther? His full name was Ahashuerus, but he was also known as Xerxes, and Artisersseys is the king who came after Xerxes. So this is all happening after Esther's has been dies.

But a quick sidebar, this new king is almost certainly not Estrus' son. Most scholars don't attribute any children to Estur. The events starting in Chapter 7 are taking place roughly 60 years after the first six chapters of this book. Today opens with a letter to Ezra from King Artiserxes of Persia. He's sending Ezra and a bunch of other Jews in Persia back to Jerusalem, but he's not sending them back dismissively. He's sending back anyone, back to Jerusalem. But he's not sending them back dismissively. He's sending back anyone who wants to go, and he's sending them with massive blessings and provisions.

He says he'll take care of basically everything Ezra needs. He also tells Ezra to appoint magistrates and judges who will teach and enact the laws of Yahweh. And as if all this weren't enough, the king tells him that the temple gets a pass on paying taxes. This is a really exciting commissioning for Ezra, because he's a Torah scholar, and he's going to get to teach the scriptures to all the exiles in Jerusalem.

And by most accounts, this will be Ezra's first time in Jerusalem. He's probably only about 22 years old at this point, which means he was born in exile. This is a huge assignment with a lot of authority for such a young man. He's not even old enough to be at priest, but he knows where the assignment has ultimately come from, and he knows where his strength lies. After he gets the letter from King Artis Xerxes, he praises God for putting these plans into the King's heart, and he says, I took courage for the hand of the Lord my God was on me. The awareness of God's nearness, banishes fear, and imparts courage. In chapter 8, they set out on their months-long journey. It was roughly a 900-mile trip.

As he's counting all his men along the way, he realizes that, oopsie, they forgot to invite any Levites, and those are kind of vital in running the temple. So he sends a crew to rally some Levites, and they come back with a bunch of top-notch temple servants. Hooray! That was a close one! But again, he says they were provided for by the good hand of our God on us, according to verse 18. Then he has another, oh, moment. He realizes that this is a very long journey through potentially hostile territory, and he's actually maybe kind of scared. The king had offered to send bodyguards with them, but he was like, no, thanks, God will take care of us. He realizes that he may have stated it as though it were a fact,

but he never actually asked God for it. So here they all are at the river with a leader who is barely old enough to vote, and he does the only thing he knows to do. He fasts and asks God for help, which is exactly where his hope lies. Next, he divides out the holy vessels among the priests and gives them responsibility over their portion until they get to Jerusalem. This is probably not only helpful for making sure

nobody's luggage is over the checked bag weight limit, because the stuff weighs over 70,000 pounds, but it also serves to protect against theft. They did encounter some thieves along the way, but Ezra says God protected them. In verse 31, he says, the hand of our God was honest, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes on the way. And when they arrive at Jerusalem safely and all the holy vessels are accounted for, they make offerings to Yahweh. All is well in Jerusalem, right? Nope. Chapter 9 opens with some of the locals spilling the beans that

things are seriously out of hand here, even though they've only been back for a few decades. The main issue, they say, is that the returned exile started marrying a bunch of the locals who don't know or love Yahweh, which, if you recall, was one of the big problems in the past. For the most part, marrying people of other nations wasn't a problem if they were followers of Yahweh. It's just that so few of them were. There were the occasional outliers like Ruth, but most of them were pagans. God forbid marrying people of other religions because he warned them that it would lead them to worship false gods, which it did. To make matters worse, the priests and leaders among the people are the ones who led the way in this.

Young Ezra is devastated. This is what's happening in Jerusalem. This is what gods people are the ones who led the way in this. Young Ezra is devastated. This is what's happening in Jerusalem. This is what God's people are doing. This is what He's been assigned to lead. He pulls out His own hair and beard. He tears His clothes and falls to the ground in morning. And He goes to the only place He knows to go. Yahweh, He confesses the sins of the people. He recounts God's great love to them through all their rebellion, acknowledging that God has not punished them according to what they deserve. He says God has shown mercy in response to their sins, and that God has shown grace by giving them favor in the eyes of foreign kings who have granted them a chance to rebuild.

Ezra seems legitimately terrified that God is going to say, enough! I've given you a second chance and you've blown it and then just killed them all. This was a wake-up call for the people that grown so accustomed to their own ways that they probably failed to realize how far they'd gotten from God's ways. They confessed their sins and grieve what they've done. They promised to live according to God's ways and enter into a covenant with him to divorce any of the pagans they've married.

And here's where we hit a problem. They're making a covenant with God to do something God never told them to do. He told them not to marry pagans, but he never told them to divorce pagans. They're assuming this is what God wants. But as we've already seen, they're not very informed about God's word in his ways.

So what does God think of their oath? Some scholars point out that the word used for Mary here is different than the normal word. This one is more along the lines of cohabitating. So it's possible that they're living together, but not married. That maybe the priest thought they'd bound a loophole in the law by not actually marrying the pagan women, but just living with them instead. So it could be that Ezra isn't commanding a divorce so much as a breakup.

Other scholars point out that we don't actually see any evidence that God directs Ezra on this. Ezra mourns, but we never see him ask God for directions specifically. He just rolls with the suggestions of the people, possibly out of a hope that this kind of over correction would save them from being annihilated as he feared. The book ends with him calling everyone to gather and repent as they promised. What was your God shot today? Despite how messed up the whole last scene is, sin on sin on sin, I loved the words of Shekhaniah and the midst of confessing his sins in 10-2. He says, even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. Their hope isn't that they're finally going to get things right. That's impossible.

Their hope is that God has entered into a covenant with them. God has preserved them despite their sin. God offers forgiveness and God extends hope. Hope is a person and he's where the joy is. Tomorrow we'll be starting the book of Nehemiah. It's 13 chapters long. We've already watched the short video overview of the book of Nehemiah and Ezra on day 189, but we'll link to it again in case you want to refresh your memory.

It's in the show notes as usual, and it's 8 minutes long. Have you ordered your t-shirt to celebrate your trip to the Old Testament yet? Maybe you can say you thrived, or maybe you feel like you survived. But we're here for both. Either way, you've accomplished so much, and this t-shirt is just a fun way for us to celebrate together. Order your t-shirt today at thebubblerecap.com forward slash store, or click the link in the show notes.

If you, like me, are working to embrace the gift of singleness, or if you have a friend who hopes to find a spouse, I have something that might encourage you. Not long ago, I sat down with Jen at KSBJ to talk about how we live in the space of maintaining contentment in singleness while still hoping for a spouse. Click the link in the show notes to catch our conversation.