Category: Ezra

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Ezra Nehemiah

The power to change hearts

Nehemiah and Artaxerxes

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the book of Ezra, at least by the interpretation I’ve been going by (namely that Xerxes and Artaxerxes are Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I respectively), is not chronological.

Chapter 4 of Ezra gives us the background to the beginning of Nehemiah.

After Ezra came to Jerusalem with the initial blessing of Artaxerxes, opposition arose.

Ezra was told by Artaxerxes to use the gold and silver he had given them in order to buy things for their sacrifices at the temple.

Artaxerxes then told Ezra that whatever was left over could be used for whatever seemed best to them (Ezra 7:15–18).

Under Ezra, the people then started to rebuild the walls and foundations of Jerusalem using the money that Artaxerxes had given them.

But opposition arose.

The enemies of the Jews sent a letter to Artaxerxes telling him that if they were to complete these walls, they would rebel against Persia.

They then pointed to Israel’s “history of sedition,” and requested that Artaxerxes look for himself in the Persian records (Ezra 4:14–15).

Artaxerxes did look, and came to the conclusion that the Jews would be a threat if they rebuilt their walls, and so he immediately commanded a stop to this work.

And so we come to Nehemiah.

Years had passed, but Artaxerxes was still on the throne, and the walls that Ezra had been building up were now torn down.

The gates were also burnt down, leaving the Jews vulnerable to any attacks by their enemies.

Nehemiah was a Jew who was a cupbearer to the king. Basically, he brought wine to the king, and tasted it before giving it to the king to make sure it wasn’t poisoned.

Although it may seem a simple job, as a cupbearer, he was considered a high official in the court, and obviously had frequent access to the king.

Also, because of the position of trust he was in, he was often taken into the king’s confidence and had influence with the king.

One day Nehemiah’s brother came with news from Jerusalem about the state of trouble the people were in.

When Nehemiah heard this, he wept, prayed, and fasted before God. He confessed the sin of his people and prayed for favor with the king, namely that his heart toward the Jewish nation would be changed.

This was no small prayer.

It was Artaxerxes after all that had ordered the stoppage of the work on the walls.

Yet God answered.

Artaxerxes noticed Nehemiah’s troubled face and asked him what was wrong.

Nehemiah was frightened because it was actually a capital offense to come before the king with less than a cheerful face.

But because of the respect that Artaxerxes had for Nehemiah, he was concerned for his well-being.

With that, Nehemiah breathed a quick prayer for help (I hardly think he prayed for an hour before the king before presenting his request) and told him about the situation in Jerusalem.

And God gave Nehemiah favor in Artaxerxes’ eyes.

What changed Artaxerxes’ heart?

There’s no explanation for it except that God had heard Nehemiah’s prayer.

Perhaps having seen Nehemiah’s humble and loyal service over the years also helped sway Artaxerxes.

Maybe he felt with Nehemiah in charge of the situation, rebellion would not happen after all. Surely this highly trusted Jew would not make this request if he thought rebellion would be the result.

And with that, Artaxerxes gave his blessing.

What can we get from this? I think two things.

First, what may seem insignificant to the kingdom of God can turn out to be very significant.

If Nehemiah had proven himself untrustworthy to the king in his position as cupbearer, there’s no way Artaxerxes would have trusted him when he made his request.

But because Nehemiah had been faithful and loyal as his servant, Artaxerxes trusted him.

You may think that what you’re doing at your job has nothing to do with God’s kingdom.

But by serving faithfully, loyally, and with excellence, you show the people around you what a Christian is, and it will make an impact.

If on the other hand you are unfaithful, and give less than your best, it will have a negative impact on how people view God.

Second, prayer has the power to change hearts.

You may look at your husband, your wife, your boss, or the other people around you and think it’s impossible for God to work in them.

But if you pray for them, and you live a consistent example of Christ to them, it gives God a free hand to work in their hearts.

Is there someone in your life that you long to see change in?

Be an example to them of what a follower of Christ is. Pray for them.

And you will see God work in their lives.

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Ezra

Marrying ourselves to the world

Weeping in rain

This is one of the more difficult passages in the Bible.

God says that he hates divorce, and yet Ezra basically commands those who had taken foreign wives to divorce them.

In some cases, they were to even send away the children that were born to those marriages.

Why did Ezra do this?

I think the main thing to note is that based on the commands God had given the people, these marriages were not lawful.

God had specifically told the people not to intermarry with the people from Canaan (Exodus 34:15–16; Deuteronomy 7:1–6).

Why? Because they were doing atrocious things that God did not want his people to get involved with. Child sacrifice and prostitution were two examples of this.

So in God’s eyes, these were not legitimate marriages.

The book of Malachi confirms this idea.

It’s not certain when Malachi was written, but it was probably written sometime during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.

In Malachi, God said this:

Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. (Malachi 2:11)

Right after saying this, Malachi lights into those who divorced their wives.

Some believe that what was happening was that the Jews were divorcing their wives in order to marry these idol-worshipping women.

If this is so, it makes the marriages even more illegitimate. In short, it was adultery in the eyes of God.

The result of all this?

Basically, by marrying these idol-worshippers, the Jews were falling into the same habits that caused their exile (Ezra 9:1–2).

You can understand then why Ezra immediately fell into mourning, and what he meant in his prayer of repentance on behalf of the people.

He prayed,

What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this.

Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices?

Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor?

Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant.

Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence. (Ezra 9:13–15)

And so in chapter 10, Ezra called for a purging in Israel.

All those who had taken idol-worshipping women as their wives were to send them and their children away.

You see a powerful picture of the misery of the situation as the people wept in the rain repenting before God in chapter 10.

What can we get from this?

First, I am NOT saying that if you are married to a non-Christian, you should divorce them.

Unlike the Jews, we are no longer living under Mosaic law. Instead we are living under the new covenant of grace.

And the apostle Paul clearly teaches us that as long as our unsaved spouse is willing to live with us, we are not to seek to leave them.

Rather we should pray that they too may be saved. (1 Corinthians 7:12–16)

But there is a principle that we need to be aware of.

When we marry ourselves to the things of this world, it pulls us away from God.

Sometimes these things look beautiful, just as these foreign women looked beautiful to the Jewish men. But when we attach ourselves to them, they pull our hearts away from God.

For some people, they marry themselves to money. They make money their top priority in life.

Others marry themselves to possessions.

Others to power.

And of course, some set aside their relationship with God in order to pursue a romantic relationship with a non-Christian.

But by doing these things, we commit adultery against God.

We’re essentially saying to God, “These things are more important to me than you.”

How about you? Are you in love with the things of this world? What is it doing to your relationship with God?

Let us purge from our lives all that would pull us away from a relationship with him.

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Ezra

The gracious hand of God

Ezra

We now return to the book of Ezra.

Xerxes is now dead (he was assassinated by the commander of his own royal bodyguard), and his son Artaxerxes is now on the throne.

At that time, Ezra, a priest of God living in Persia, made the decision to return to Jerusalem in order to teach the people there God’s word.

One phrase that we see over and over again in these two chapters is “The gracious hand of God.”

We see it as King Artaxerxes granted Ezra everything he asked as he made his trip to Jerusalem.

Artaxerxes gave him an abundant amount of silver and gold to buy all the things they needed to make their sacrifices to God. He also gave him wheat, wine, olive oil, and salt as well.

God’s gracious hand was also seen in sending a man named Sherebiah and two other men who brought in a number of people to help serve in the temple.

And God’s hand was seen as he protected Ezra and his contingent from bandits on their return back to Jerusalem.

Why was God’s hand upon them? Ezra told Artaxerxes the reason.

The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him. (Ezra 8:22)

Ezra had set his heart on seeking God. He had devoted himself to studying God’s word, and it was his heart’s desire that all would know what God had said.

As a result, God blessed him.

How about you? Are you seeing God’s hand on your life?

If not, can you say you are truly seeking him?

Are you making him the center of your life? Does your day begin and end with him? Are you devoting yourself to his word and his work as Ezra did?

It is as you do these things that you will see God work both in you and through you to touch the people around you.

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Ezra

When we commit ourselves

Committed

It took a long time for the Israelites to commit themselves to the building of the temple, but finally, at the urging of Zechariah and Haggai, they once again got started.

And once again, almost as soon as they got restarted, opposition came.

This time it came from Tattenai, the governor of the Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai, who perhaps was some sort of Persian investigator.

They questioned the Jews about what they were doing and under what authority.

After receiving the reply from the Jews, they immediately went to King Darius about it to see what he had to say.

The result?

Darius found the order originally given by Cyrus to allow the Jews to rebuild the temple.

Not only did he then order Tattenai and Shethar-Bozenai not to interfere, he ordered them to help pay for it and to help provide for the offerings made at the temple as well.

It’s really amazing to me how God turned the whole situation around such that the people who had originally tried to cause trouble for the Jews ended up helping them.

But it also shows me that when God calls us to do something, and we commit ourselves to doing what he has said, he will make sure that we will have everything we need to complete the job.

And if opposition from the enemy comes, he is more than able to turn the situation around so that our work can be completed.

The only question we need to ask ourselves is, “How committed are we to doing what God has said?”

Do we easily give up when things get hard? Or do we let other things in our lives, such as the pursuit of money, the pursuit of possessions, or the pursuit of pleasure, get in the way?

God has a great plan that he wants us to get involved in.

How committed are you to that plan?

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Ezra Haggai

Getting our priorities straight

Mountain

Before I go on, I should make some comments on the chronology of events going forward.

I’ve mentioned before that there is a lot of dispute among scholars about the timing of events, and the more I dig, the more I see why.

I also see why there is dispute about the starting date for the prophecy in Daniel 9. I have already given my position, but I will admit it’s not without its problems. One is the list of events as set out in Ezra.

Basically, if we go with the idea that Xerxes and Artaxerxes were the ones noted in history (as I do), then we have to say that Ezra 4:6–23 is one long parenthetical comment.

The reason that it’s put there is not because it’s in chronological order, but because thematically it fits in with the idea of the opposition the Jews faced in Jerusalem.

The events of Ezra 7 to the end of the book actually happen before Ezra 4, and the events of Nehemiah occur after it.

One thing to note is that in Ezra 4, it says nothing of the rebuilding of the temple, only the city walls and foundations, the reason being that the temple was already built as seen in chapters 5–6 of Ezra.

At any rate, because of the opposition they faced in Ezra 4:4–5, they stopped work on the temple. But we see in the book of Haggai, there was another reason they stopped the work. It simply wasn’t important enough to them.

And so Haggai confronted the people, saying,

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”

Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” (Haggai 1:2–4)

In other words, the people were so concerned about their own personal lives and trying to rebuild them, that they neglected the Lord’s temple.

How often do we do the same in our own lives? We know that our spiritual lives and our relationship with the Lord are important, but there are so many other things we’re concerned about, our finances, our job, our families, etc.

Not to say that these things are unimportant. They are. They have their place in our lives. But when they usurp God’s place in our lives, something’s wrong.

God told the people, “Look at your lives right now. You plant much, but harvest little. You eat, but are not satisfied. You drink, but are not filled. You put on clothes, but aren’t warm, and you earn money but see it all slip through your fingers.” (Haggai 1:5–6)

He then told them the reason for all this was because their priorities were messed up. They had ignored him, and so he had withdrawn his hand of blessing on them. So he told them,

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. (Haggai 1:7–8)

God tells us the same. Give careful thought to your ways. Make your relationship with God your top priority. Give priority to God and his kingdom above all else. And if we do, we’ll find blessing.

Jesus put it this way,

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

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Ezra

Opposition

Opposition

Things are about to become messy concerning the chronology of Ezra.

I think I’ve got a handle on it now, but as we go through the next several blogs, keep in mind that there is quite a bit of dispute among scholars, not only on the chronology of events, but on who is who.

For the time being, I’m holding to the idea that Xerxes and Artaxerxes in chapter 4 of Ezra are the Persian kings who reigned between 486–423 B.C.

Some hold that they were actually Cambyses and Smerdis who reigned before Darius, which would make sense chronologically, but I’m not sure there’s enough evidence from history to say that they also held the names of Xerxes and Artaxerxes.

At any rate, speaking of things getting messy, things quickly got messy for the Jews who were rebuilding the temple.

As they were doing so, some enemies, apparently Samaritans, offered to help them in the rebuilding of the temple.

These Samaritans were the descendants of the remnant of northern kingdom Jews left in Samaria after the majority of the Jews were exiled to Assyria.

This remnant had then intermarried with the people whom the Assyrians imported from Mesopotamia and Syria.

These Samaritans still worshiped the true God, but not him alone. They mixed their worship of God with other gods.

As a result, the Jews who came with Ezra rejected their help.

When this happened, they started to oppose the Jews, not only in the building of the temple, but in the restoration of the walls and the city, as we will see throughout Ezra and Nehemiah.

I think we can learn a lesson from this in our own lives.

When we start to follow God, to build up and sanctify the temple of our body to Christ, and to build up our spiritual strength, there will be opposition.

Sometimes the people around us will be happy to see the positive changes in our lives and will even support us.

But when they start to see that what we believe is in conflict with what they believe, they try to get us to compromise our faith.

In Japan, for example, there’s much pressure on the Christians here to offer incense at Buddhist ceremonies.

But people will try to get us to compromise in other ways as well. They try to get us to compromise our ethics at work or in our personal lives. And if we don’t do so, they then start to become hostile.

Jesus never promised that if we followed him, everyone would like us. Jesus was perfect, and people still hated him. Jesus said,

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. (John 15:18)

So the question we need to ask ourselves is, “Who are we trying to please?” Are we trying to please God or people?

Let us be people who seek the praise of God over all others. No matter the opposition, no matter the cost.

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Ezra

Joy and regret

Joy and regret

In this passage, we see several things. First, we see the restarting of sacrifices and offerings, and the first Feast of Tabernacles in years.

But we also see the start of the rebuilding of the temple. And after the Israelites had laid down the foundation, there was great rejoicing. In verse 11, it says,

With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.”

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. (Ezra 3:11)

At the same time, however, it says,

But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.

No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away. (12–13)

Apparently, when the older priests, Levites, and family heads who had seen the original temple saw the foundation of the new temple, there was a feeling of bittersweetness.

Sweet because something they had loved was being rebuilt.

Bitter because its glory was nothing in comparison with what it was before.

Sometimes in our lives, we make decisions that make a mess of our lives. Through our sin, we tear apart our marriages; we ruin our health; we ruin our finances.

When we repent, God does forgive us. And he helps us to put the pieces of our lives back together again. In this, there is great joy in his mercy and grace toward us.

But at the same time, sometimes we feel the pain of regret.

We see the great damage we’ve done to our relationships and to our lives, and though things seem to be coming back together, going through the process can be painful.

On top of that, what we seem to be rebuilding seems to be much less than what we originally had.

But let us not let our regret overwhelm us. Once we’ve repented, it is not God’s desire that we focus on our past mistakes and the consequences that we have reaped.

Rather, he desires that we focus on the future, resting in his forgiveness and grace.

As we do so, he will wipe away every tear, and his glory will shine through us once again.

Paul puts it this way,

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

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2 Chronicles Ezra

Called by name

Return from exile

And so after about ten months, we finally come to the end of 2 Chronicles. Sometimes I thought we’d never get to the end of Kings and Chronicles.

But here, and at the beginning of Ezra, we see the return of the Jews to their homeland. How did it come about? Cyrus made a proclamation in the first year of his reign saying,

The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build Him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Any of you who are His people may go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem. And may your God be with you! (Ezra 1:2–3)

That first verse there struck me. “[Yahweh] has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build Him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”

Why did he say that? Considering that the Persians had their own gods, why did he give credit to the God of the Jews? Probably because of what God had said through Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah had written, years before Cyrus was born,

[God] says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.’” (Isaiah 44:28)

And again,

This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut… so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (Isaiah 45:1, 3)

I believe that it was because of these words that Cyrus said what he did.

He allowed the Israelites to return, giving them back all the temple items that had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar.

Moreover, he commanded the Israelites’ neighbors to support them with gold, silver, and other things for the rebuilding of the temple.

And with Cyrus’ blessing, the Israelites returned just as God had said.

Just as God called Cyrus to accomplish his purposes, so God has called us to do the same.

We were not called to live for ourselves. We were not called for our own purposes.

God has called us by name that we might live for him.

Paul put it this way,

And [Jesus] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:15)

Who are you living for?

God has not only called you for his purposes, he has called you by name.

Will you answer the call?