Father, we thank you for gathering us this night.
To be able to look forward to an anticipate week after week time
in the Word with a with a people who love you is a gift in
itself, and we give you glory for it.
And we ask now that you would assist us and guide us through
these passages in a way that would make everything and
everyone disappear except for the man Christ Jesus.
That he would be front and center in our mind's eye, that
He will pull out of us greater affection and devotion, and that
we would leave here awe struck by His absolute beauty and His
infinite glory. Only by the Spirit can such a
thing be possible. But we pray in faith that you
would move in great power and that we would leave here knowing
that God was surely in this place.
We don't rely on any personality.
We don't rely on any equipment, we don't even rely on any
knowledge. We come to you admitting that we
need your grace to rest upon this time and we trust that you
will make it known. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. You know, as I was thinking
about this time together earlier today, my heart quickly became
swollen with encouragement because I really just thought
about it. I am in a few hours, about to
gather with a people who will fill a church sanctuary to study
an ancient genealogy on a Friday night.
That seems strange, doesn't it? But we know that we're not here
just looking at any ordinary historical record.
We've come because we realize that this document is found in
God's written Word. This is divine revelation, and
we believe that. Even a list of names and cities
and numbers. Have something for us, for our
spiritual growth, for the increase of our worship, for our
sanctification. And if you were not here last
week, then perhaps you didn't taste that.
How? We just carefully looked at this
registry and realized that there was so many profound truths for
us to feast on and to be nourished by.
And in case you weren't there last week, we began Ezra chapter
2. And in Ezra chapter 2, we looked
at the first steps of a faithful remnant who chose to return from
exile and to go back to a desolate city called Jerusalem,
located in a ruined state called Judea.
And what we saw in those steps. With many groups of people who
have collected their faith and made this effort together.
And although one can organize these different peoples and
names and families in various manners, we chose to look at
them through the lens of a total of 8 categories, 8 categories of
people who made the bold step of going back to the Promised Land.
Does anybody remember the first three that we covered in our
study last time? You can say it if you know it.
The leaders are #1 #2 the men of Israel, or in parentheses, the
families of Israel. And lastly, very good, the
priest and the Levites and we pause that verse 40 of Ezra 2
last week and we'll now pick up right where we left off to see
the fourth group that the Spirit of God draws our attention to.
Let's read one verse to begin with.
In Ezra 241, the singers, the sons of.
Asaph 128. Even if you are a diligent
student of the Bible, this could be the first time you've
discovered that there is actually a designated group of
people who were called to sing at this time.
Now what's interesting is that their origins go back to King
David, who set apart different groups of ministers in
preparation for the temple to be built later by.
His son Solomon. And among those different groups
of ministers were musicians and vocalists, and the details of
their designation are found in another obscure part of the
Bible, First Chronicles, chapter 25.
And I just want to read to you, unless you want to turn there to
see it with your own eyes. I just want to read to you the
first verse of that chapter because there is something very
important regarding it. Here's what it says.
First Chronicles 25 One David and the chiefs of the service.
Also set apart for the service the sons of Asaph, and of Heman,
and of Judgothan, who prophesied with liars, with harps, and with
symbols. The list of those who did the
work of their duties was and it goes on to list the names of the
singers. Three families were chosen by
David, who was evidently led by the Spirit of God to facilitate
the music. And the choirs and the singing
in the House of God known as the Temple.
Why is that important? Because we only learn of one of
these families who chose to return to Jerusalem, the sons of
Asaph. And for reasons not explained to
us, we don't know why the two other families did not go back.
But what's in focus here is Asaph and his descendants.
Asaph should be familiar to us. You know why?
Because if you read through the book of Psalms, you have looked
at 12 of his own writings, his own pieces he's attributed 12 in
the spirit of God has preserved his songs, his journal entries,
his poems, if you will, in the Psalter.
And perhaps he is most known for the soul bearing transparent
work in Psalm 73. Psalm 73 is really Asaph's
confession of a crisis of faith. And the thing?
That he was really wrestling with was how is it that the
wicked can prosper, that evil doers can enjoy life, while
those who are righteous and committed to the truth suffer?
And he even admits at the beginning of that Psalm that
these doubts were so intense that they almost derailed him
from his walk with God altogether.
Do you remember what he said in Psalm 73, verse 2?
He mentions. But As for me, my feet had
almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped.
I couldn't make sense of this to the degree that I was willing to
walk away from all of it. This is a minister.
This is a praise team leader. This is a man of reputation.
This is a man that people knew who were blessed.
By and at one point in his walk with the Lord, he said I was
ready to give up on everything but praise God.
He made a choice. And in the very last verse of
that Psalm he gives us another. But he says in verse 28 of Psalm
73, but for me it is good to be near God.
It is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my
refuge that I may tell of all your works.
That's the punctuation mark of that Psalm.
I'm going to stay near God, which implies something It's
possible not to be near God. I didn't mean to say this, but
it's worth asking right away. Are you near God tonight?
I pray that this Bible study would draw you closer if you're
not, Asaph said. I want to be near him, and
here's what I want to argue. I'm convinced that Asaph's
decision with this crisis of faith had generational
consequences. That's not something I'm
inferring. That's not something I'm trying
to make happen in the text. Remember, I told you First
Chronicles 25 is a chapter that tells us about the beginnings of
this ministry group known as the Singers in the Temple.
Asaph is named there, among others.
But there's this interesting verse and verse six of First
Chronicles 25. Don't turn there, but listen to
what it says. They were all under the
direction of their father in music, in the House of the Lord.
Speaking about the sons of these worship leaders, they were all
under the direction of their father, including Asaph.
Asaph was not just a dad. To his sons he was a ministry
team leader. He was a spiritual guide.
He was again a man of great reputation in the land.
And you can only imagine what would have happened if Asaph had
turned away from his faith. What if he had decided to walk
away? Or what if he had decided to
diminish his zeal to give? God half of his heart because he
couldn't reconcile the dilemma that was ever before him.
What if he recanted? What if he became apostate?
What if you became worldly? What if he had never concluded
It is good for me to be near God?
What would have happened to His sons who took His direction, who
trusted in him, who watched him, who were inspired by Him?
But I believe. Because this man vowed to
declare his works not just to the nation, but to his own
family. When it came to the point that
the sons of Asaph were taken into exile and the opportunity
arose for them to return, they thought to themselves, we're
going back, we're going back. You know, Asaph said.
It is good to be near God physically.
We're not near God here in Babylon.
Let's go back. Let's go back.
Listen, never underestimate the far reaching, glorious
consequences of your choice every single day to walk close
to God. It may be the very reason why
your children. Will choose to walk close to God
even when you're no longer around.
Your consecration and mine carries consequences beyond our
own lives. I'd love to see that that 128 of
the descendants of Asaph chose to go back to Jerusalem and
being near his presence again. And it could be that Asaph's
decision to be near God while he was still alive made a mark on
them. Now, there's one more thing I'd
like to highlight about these singers before we move on.
Did you know that these exiles in Babylon made a different kind
of vow while in captivity? They vowed that they would never
sing God's songs while in captivity.
Did you know that actually there's an entire Psalm about
it? There is a Psalm in the Psalter
written by the Exiles. While they were in Babylon.
Did you know that? Well, now you do.
Psalm 137. Look at it.
Now let's turn there. I want you to see it from verse
one down to verse 6. This is marvelous Psalm 137,
verse one by the waters of Babylon.
There we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion on the
willows. There we hung up our liars.
For there are captors required of us songs, and our tormentors
mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its
skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof
of my mouth if I do not remember.
You if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
O the vast amount of insights and principles concerning
worship and praise in these verses.
One thing that stands out to me is how these exiles refused.
To sing God's songs merely for entertainment's sake, even
though they were pressured, even though there was a demand to
sing these holy songs, these holy lyrics.
Just to please some people who are outside of covenant with
God, they said we will not do that.
And unfortunately, today we're seeing an entire industry in
Christendom moving in the opposite direction.
Catering supposed worship music for the carnal mind, for the one
who is not in covenant with Christ.
No hesitation whatsoever. To capitalize on the Lord's
songs. This is tragic.
This may offend some people, So be it.
I believe a lot of what we call worship today has been infected
by a Babylonian mindset. But what we find here is a group
of people who refused. This belongs to the Lord.
This is holy. This is this is for his
pleasure. Everything that we organize,
everything that we write is for His ears primarily.
But that's not why I brought you to the Psalm.
The main thing I want to show you is how, according to these
verses, sin robs us of the soul enriching experience of singing
to the Lord. They're writing this while in
captivity. We will not sing.
We cannot sing. No one can truly sing it.
It's amazing how human nature is wired to belt out things.
If you think singing is just a Christian exercise, there are
stadiums filled with people who will repeat lyrics and even lift
their hands to those who are rejoicing over sin and evil and
darkness. And what is that?
What makes people want to sing? We're wired that way.
But to sing the songs of God? Truly and genuinely is
impossible while you're in captivity is impossible while
you're in bondage to sin. In Proverbs 29 six, it says that
the evil man is ensnared in his transgression.
But a righteous man, what does he do?
He sings and rejoices. Only a went man who's been truly
suffering from the shackles of sin can really sing.
And that's why I think highlighting the singers in Ezra
2 is helpful and insightful because it shows us that one of
the things that we recover when we are restored to the Lord,
when when we rebuild our relationship with Christ is our
singing and the joy and the pleasure that comes with it.
So this is what we see with the singers, but we move on now to
the fifth group according to verse 42.
The sons of the gatekeepers, the sons of Shalom, the sons of
Ater, the sons of Talman, the sons of Akub, the sons of
Hatita, and the sons of Shabaya in.
All. 139 The fifth group are the gatekeepers.
Who are the gatekeepers? They're essentially the
bodyguards of the temple. Their responsibilities included
opening the entrance into the temple, monitoring who comes in
and who leaves, ensuring that the utilities that go out and
come in are are are fined, that they're still there, they're up
to date, they're they're clean, they're preserved and other
menial tasks like this, They were, they're essentially just
supervising the temple grounds. And at first glance, when you
look at the gatekeepers and what they're called to do and compare
them with the priest and the Levites and the singers, their
duties don't really seem that impressive, rather ordinary.
And that's what makes this so special.
So you had the priests who interceded, you had the Levites
who taught, you had the singers who move the hearts of people
with their prophetic songs. And what about the gatekeepers?
They just had a clipboard at the front, making sure that the
right people were coming in and making sure that nothing was
taken out. It's not very glamorous.
In fact, we might say it's easily replaceable.
And yet, when it came to this genealogy, the Lord recognized
the gatekeepers. The Lord highlights these
ministers and he rewards them. He applauds them.
He inscribes their names in our Bibles to say in my eyes.
Oh, Gatekeepers, you are so valuable.
You are very much needed for the operations of my house, my
dwelling place on the earth. I do not overlook you.
I, I place you among those who truly play a part in my Kingdom.
So I told you that in First Chronicles 25 is is the chapter
where we learn about the singers.
Well, on the very next chapter in First Chronicles 26, we learn
about the designation of the gatekeepers, the people
associated with it, the people who are in charge of it, They're
descendants. And then you find this verse as
you read through those names in First Chronicles 26, as though
to reassure the gatekeepers of the significance of their
ministry. Just listen.
First Chronicles 26, verse 12. These divisions of the
gatekeepers, corresponding to their chief men, had duties.
Just as their brothers did, ministering in the House of the
Lord. Isn't that precious that moved?
Me, no matter how menial, how practical your service in the
Church of Christ may be. Do you see what the Lord is
saying in this verse? Make no mistake, you are
ministering in the House of God. You are important.
God requires your participation in your involvement.
So maybe you serve in the sound and visual team and you think
that you just come here on Fridays and Sundays to push some
buttons. No, no, no, no, no.
You're ministering in the House of God.
Maybe you're with the hospitality team.
Maybe you've been recruited by the hospitality team.
To do what? Clean those tables and sweep
those floors. Take out the garbage and you
think, all right, God, I'm waiting for you to call me to
something. And maybe He does have something
in mind for you. But do you not understand that
even in that you're offering service to the Lord?
To God Almighty in his house. Here's the Lord going out of his
way to say, you gatekeepers, you have duties just like your other
brothers. Yeah, just like the priests and
just like the Levites and just like the singers.
You are ministers in my sight. These are the gatekeepers.
But now we come to another group in our main text.
Let's look at verse 43 and we're going to listen.
Now you have to pay attention because we're going to read
through these names down to verse 58.
The temple servants. The temple servants.
This is the sixth group that we are looking.
At of the returnees back to the promised land.
The temple servants, the son of sons of Ziha.
The sons of Hasufa, the sons of Tabaoth.
The sons of Kiros, the sons of Saya, the sons of Paden.
The sons of Libanah, the sons of Hagabah.
The sons of Akub. The sons of Hegeb.
The sons of Shamlai. The sons of Hainan.
The sons of Guedel. The sons of Gehar.
The sons of Raya. The sons of Resin.
The sons of Nikoda. The sons of Ghazam.
The sons of Ouza. The sons of Pasiya.
The sons of Bisai. The sons of Asna.
The sons of Meunim. The sons of Nephisim.
The sons of Bakbuk. The sons of Hakufa, The sons of
Harhour. The sons of Bazluth.
The sons of Mehida, The sons of Harsha, The sons of Barkos, The
sons of Sisera, The sons of Tima, The sons of Niziah and the
sons of Hatifa, The sons of. Solomon's servants.
The sons of Sotai, the sons of Haisophoreth, the sons of
Peruda, the sons of JA Allah, the sons of Darken, the sons of
Gidel, the sons of Shifataya, the sons of Hatil, the sons of
Pokareth Hezebaeim, the sons of Amy, all the temple servants,
and the sons of Solomon's servants.
Were 392. So we looked at the singers, we
looked at the gatekeepers, we briefly touched on their
origins. Who are the temple servants?
Is it even important asking? I think it is.
Does anybody here read the new King James of the King James
translation? Do you have that in your hands
here tonight? Anybody.
Is everybody? Phew.
Do you see the temple servants or do you see something else
mentioned? Another name?
Say that again, Nephenim. If you have the King James and
the new King James, the temple servants are not identified.
Instead you have this title, the Nephanim.
Why is that? Because those translations chose
to use a transliteration of the Hebrew word Nephanim, whereas
the ESV and the NASB for example opted to translate the function.
Of this group of people, and the word nephanim essentially means
to be given. Given to others.
And so the idea here is that they are given.
Once they are, they are consecrated and they are brought
forth to someone else for a specific purpose.
So both really mean the same thing.
And when we understand the role of these temple servants, the
name makes perfect sense. This group, the temple servants
in the original Word, are found in First Chronicles, Ezra and
Nehemiah. And when you?
Look at where they're mentioned. You realized who they were in
more detail. So we're sticking in Ezra.
Now Fast forward and go to Ezra chapter 8 and look at verse 20.
This is going to give us a clear understanding of who we're
looking at here. Ezra 8, verse 20.
Besides, 220 of the temple servants the same group of
people. Whom David and his officials had
set apart to attend the Levites. These were all mentioned by
name. Let's backtrack for a moment.
The priests, were they Levites? Good, yes.
But from which family line? The sons of Aaron?
That means not every Levite was a priest.
So you had the sons of Aaron from the tribe of Levi who were
set apart to be the priestly line.
The Levites were given to assist the sons of Aaron to perform
their priestly duties. We understood that right?
But there's another layer to this now.
So you have the sons of Aaron, the Levites, who assist them in
their priestly role. But now we learn about these
temple servants who were given to help who?
The Levites, Interesting. Now we understand what they're
supposed to do, but we still haven't answered the question
who they are. Do we have any clues where they
come from? Well, we can determine one
thing, right? Are the temple servants Levites
or not Levites? They're not Levites.
Why? Because they're assisting the
Levites, so they're outside of the Levitical tribe.
So we're one step closer now, but there isn't any explicit
text that shows us really their origins.
But there is one place and all of the Bible that gives us a
very strong clue of their ancestry.
Who here remembers the Gibeonites?
You would remember if you were with us when we went through the
book of Joshua, the Gibeonites were Canaanites.
The Canaanites who lived in the Promised Land before Israel
entered into conquer, were destined to be judged by God for
their centuries upon centuries of iniquity and rebellion.
These Gibeonites heard about Moses, heard about the miracles,
and heard that now Moses, successor Joshua, is leading
this nation into our own land to take over everything.
They're terrified. And so they come up with a plan.
Let's pretend that we're coming from a distant land, approach
Joshua and the leaders, convince them that we are not among the
Canaanites and make a covenant with them.
And once they make a covenant with us, because remember a
promise back then a whole different way than it does
today. We're coming up to that in a
moment here. We are going to trick them to
believe that we are their allies and we'll make a pact, we'll
make a treaty, and we'll be safe.
So they did it, Joshua. And then the leaders did not
seek the Lord. According to Joshua Chapter 9,
they make this covenant. And it didn't take very long
before they realized we've been lied to, we've been tricked,
we've been hoodwinked. And so they approached the
Gibbey Nights saying, you lied to us, you deceived us.
And the Gibbey Nights say, well, OK, look, we heard about who you
are. We heard about your God.
This is how we responded to do with us as you please.
And Joshua was a man of integrity.
And so he decided not to slay them, not to kill them.
Why? Because they're protected by
this oath. And So what does he do?
He assigned to them permanent servitude that as long as they
would remain with the people of God for generations upon
generations, they would. Be servants to what capacity?
Let me show you in Joshua 9, verse 23.
Now, therefore, Joshua's speaking.
Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be
anything but servants. Cutters of wood and drawers of
water. For what?
For the house. Of my God.
He emphasizes this in verse 27 in Joshua 9.
But Joshua made them that day, cutters of wood and drawers of
water, for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord.
To this day, in the place that he should choose, I believe the
non Levitical background and the responsibilities of the
Gibeonites aligned perfectly with this group known as the
Temple Servants. In other words, it's a high
possibility that the Temple Servants are Gibeonites and it
could be that over time they were formerly given to the
Levites to assist them in their labor.
And with that, the Nephanim and some of your translations became
their official title as a group. K solved, in my estimation at
least. But there's still more to
understand from this. What do they have to teach us?
What spiritual lessons do they have to offer us as Christians,
as followers of Christ? And I was meditating on this.
I was thinking, now that I know something about their history.
And here we are in Ezra. If the temple servants are
indeed the Gibeonites, they're now in a brand new land, They're
in Babylon. There's different rules.
Here. In other words, imagine being in
their shoes where as long as you were under this government, you
did not have the freedom to choose your own career.
You you couldn't explore and dream about your kids becoming
this or becoming that. You were held by an oath that
for the rest of your life and for generations to come, you
would disciple your kids to know how to cut wood and draw water
efficiently. In order to help the Levites
better do their work, so they can help the priest better do
their work. That is all that you are known
for. That is all you have to look
forward to. You are servants forever.
But then one day Babylon comes knocking on the door, takes you
and everybody else. Now there's no more temple.
Now there's really no more people.
At least for 70 years. Blank Slate.
A brand new opportunity not just for you, but for your
descendants, for your progeny. And now Cyrus speaks, and he
says whoever wants to go. Back.
Go back. I wonder what some of these
temple servants thought. Why would we go back to that?
Cutting wood and drawing water? We have a brand new life here.
Do you see? What I'm saying?
And then you come to Ezra too, and you read that the temple
servants, along with Solomon's servants, packed their bags and
made their way back to a destroyed temple to do their
part to resurrect it, to go back to their duties.
How do you make sense of this? I think there's only 1 logical
answer. Covenant.
These temple servants understood
that they were joined to the people of God and they benefited
from the people of God and the promises that they inherited
from God. And so they were, they were
bound to this God and this people.
And even though they could have started all over, even though
they could technically make an excuse and not be blamed for
staying in Babylon, they said, no, no, no, no, no.
We are part of this group. We are part of this nation.
We serve this God. We're going back even if we have
to cut wood and draw water. This is a remarkable display of
unbreakable faithfulness. What you have with the temple
servants is a marvelous example of keeping your word.
It's a lost art today. Did you know that one of the
marks of a citizen of the Kingdom of God according to
Jesus Christ is how we make and keep oaths?
Did you know that? Read the Sermon of the Mount
carefully. Our Lord, our Savior, our Christ
desires of us to have such trustworthy character that you
will not even need to rely on a promise.
You would have to rely on elaborate kind of vow.
All it would require of you is a yes or no.
Imagine that. Imagine living to a degree of
trustworthiness where nobody has to squeeze out of you.
Do you promise? Do you swear on this?
Do you swear on that? I just, I just said yes.
That's it. Well, we want to be disciple,
right? This is discipleship.
This is discipleship, making oaths and keeping them.
And this is what we find here. You have here this group of
people who did not really have the most impressive tasks, who
are really stuck, but they made a promise.
They made a promise. Today it's more common for
people to break their promises. It's actually not even
surprising anymore. People break their promises all
the time. They said yes at the altar when
they got married. And all it takes is a few years
for that to mean nothing anymore.
People say yes in memberships when they become members of it.
And it takes very little for them to no longer hold up to
their covenant. It's it's becoming a lost
reality. And here's a Bible study to
remind us how beautiful. It is when somebody says yes and
they mean it even for generations to come.
May the Lord convict us, and I say us, including myself.
Who knew that you can learn something from the temple
servants? These men have menial jobs, but
giant character. They convicted me.
That's group number six. We still have two more.
Let's come now to group #7. This is probably the most
intriguing group listed in this genealogy, which we can label as
the following The unidentified. The unidentified.
Let's read from verse 59 down to verse 63.
The following were those who came up from Tell Mila, Tell
Harsha, Kirab, Adan, and Imer, though they could not prove
their father's houses or their descent, whether they belong to
Israel, the sons of Delaya, the sons of Tobiah, and the sons of
Nikoda. 600 and. 52 Also of the sons of the priest.
The sons of Habaya, the sons of Hecos, and the sons of Birsalai,
who had taken a wife from the daughters of Verzalai, the
Gileadite, and was called by their name.
These sought their registration among those enrolled in the
genealogies, but they were not found there, and so they were
excluded from the priesthood as unclean.
The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most
holy food until there should be a priest to consult Urim and
Thummim, the unidentified. The most important part of this
whole section is how these individuals and families could
not prove their father's houses or their descent, whether they
were part of Israel or not now, whether they lost their family
records while in exile or they were pretenders, or a mixture
of. Both is not exactly clear.
However, what the Holy Spirit wants to under score is the
vital importance of being able to prove your status and their
inability to do so. They couldn't so.
The call was out. We're going back to Jerusalem.
All the people of God pack your bags, make your way.
And you have some who came to the leaders and says we want to
go, but we don't know which family line we come from.
Hold on, you don't know. And and what's more staggering
are some of the priests who when they looked at the registration
like we can't find you here. And so they weren't outright
rejected, but they were severely limited.
What's the lesson here? Here's the spiritual lesson.
This is a staggering picture of those who cannot give a clear
testimony of their salvation. This is a strong illustrations
of professing Christians. Who do not know how to prove
that they are really of Christ. And we have many like this who
exist in our churches. By the way, they long to be part
of the community of God's people.
They can even recount their background growing up in church.
They might even show how they have been involved in some level
of ministry. But upon closer examination,
there's a troubling lack of spiritual evidence that they
actually belong to God's family. And this is more common than you
think. I can't tell you the amount of
conversations I've had with other pastors and even other
serious Christians. And maybe a name.
Or we discover mutual friends and at some point the question
is asked. Is so and so a believer?
And the horrific answers that surface along the lines of, you
know what I don't know? I mean, they come to church from
time to time and they seem nice and but when you talk to them,
it just, it's not that obvious. And sadly, this is something
that's becoming all so far too common.
And I want to ask you, is that something that people say about
your faith? Would that be said of you by
those who know you or who observe your life?
I have to say that there are far too many people in Christendom
who make it very difficult to confirm their testimony because
you look at their choices and you look at their social media
and you look at their priorities and you hear how they speak and
you're. I think you are, but I don't
know if you are. I've been to those funerals.
Those are the worst funerals. And I've mentioned this before
where the person has enough churchianity in their history,
but you don't know if they've really been been.
Born of God and you're wondering how confident do I have to be
behind that pulpit when I give this eulogy about where this
person is? This is exactly.
You have an Old Testament picture of that today.
Are you an Israeli? I think so.
I mean, my mom is this and what about.
OK. But yeah, I I visited Israel
before I've been there. Actually there's some mission
trips here in. The but what?
I need concrete proof and they're unable to provide it.
And perhaps you're here today and this group and this
genealogy resonates with you the most because you don't know if
you're saved. You might, you might have been
coming here week after week and you're like, I just like hearing
interesting thoughts from the Bible, But you don't know if
your heart has really been transformed by the Spirit of
God. And maybe that's troubled you.
I hope that's troubled you. I understand that there are
those who have a very sensitive conscience and they're godly and
they, they, you can smell the fruit of the spirit off their
lies And, and this and Satan, I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about when you look at your own life, you can't
really determine I I'm a follower of Christ.
Can I let you know something? There is instruction here for
you. There are so many things that we
can pull out of this text, but I want us to look at what?
The governor told the priest in verse 63.
Look at verse 63 again. The governor told them that they
were not to partake of the most holy food until there should be
a priest to consult Urim and Thummim.
What are Urim and thummim? They're gemstones according to
the book of Exodus, that were kept by the High priest and were
used to make decisions or get clarity in a supernatural way by
God in cases. Such like this.
We're not told anywhere how the Urim and the Thummim worked.
There isn't this, you know, explanation or protocol of what
they would do. So there's debate about how this
worked. Were there, were there markings
on it that would shine? Would, would one turn this way
and another way? We, we don't have that.
And I think that's by God's wisdom, because there's a lot of
superstitious people out there who might try to copy this.
So it's veiled. And another thing that's
important is that you see no such practice in the New
Testament or any encouragement to seek God's will in this way.
You priests, or at least those who claim to be priests, you
cannot partake in the holy fruit of the temple or function as
priests until we figure out by God through the Urim and the
tomb if you are truly His. You and I don't have access to
such things. But we have another thing at our
disposal to confirm our status the Bible.
The Word of God. Did you know that the Bible
wants you to know with absolute certainty that you're a child of
God? The Bible, God's Word, does not
want you doubt for a moment. So the same man who wrote the
Gospel of John with the intent of seeing people say by
recognizing this Jesus Christ of Nazareth is indeed the Son of
God, wrote another epistle called First John.
And in First John, he's not writing so that people could
believe. He's writing to the believer so
that they would know that they have eternal life.
Here's a reference, First John 513.
Notice what John says in First John 513.
He writes here. I write these things to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that
you have eternal life. Let me give you this in case
anybody approaches you the way I've been approached.
There are different people on the spectrum of doubts that I
have talked to that that sometimes they even come
trembling eyes filled with tears.
Other people come dragging their feet.
Just curious. Hey, how do I know if I'm really
a Christian again? More more people were broken
than that, but I give them the same instructions.
You go to 1st John. And you read from cover to
cover. It should take you no longer
than 15 minutes. And ask yourself this, Can I
Amen all that John says about those who are born of God?
Just read it and read it again and check off every box.
Because John uses this kind of language.
Those who are born of God fill in the blank.
Phil and Blake are those who are born of God.
And what you need to do is come before that book and say, yes,
that's true of me. Yes, that is me.
Yes, I know that that happened to me two years ago.
That was a turning point. And if you can pass that test,
you can know that you have eternal life.
The Bible wants you to know. Don't be like those who don't
know because it is crippling. Notice that the priest could not
function as priest. You know, missionaries and
pastors of old would not hire people on their teams unless
those people knew for certainty that all their sins have been
forgiven. Did you know that that was one
of the requirements that if anybody wanted to be a
missionary, if anybody wanted to be an evangelist with these men
who have changed history through their ministries, they had to
know I have been forgiven of all my sins.
Because if you're not convinced, what, what are you going to
convey to those that you're preaching to?
So the Bible wants us to be totally assured.
And when you do doubt, even as a sincere believer, you don't stay
there. You fight for that assurance
with the truth and God will bring you there.
Because if you don't, it's going to impact your ministry.
It's going to impact your testimony.
It's going to impact your joy, which in fact impacts your
testimony. So the the unidentified is 1/7
group. But now we come to the eighth
group and this is an interesting one as well.
I called them the assets. The assets.
Look at verse 64. The whole assembly together was
42,360, besides their male and female servants, of whom they
were 7337, and they had 200 male and female singers, not the same
singers as the ones in the temple.
Their horses were 736, their mules were 245, their camels
were 435, and their donkeys were 6720.
Some of the heads of the families when they came to the.
House of the Lord that is in Jerusalem made free will
offerings for the House of God to erect it on its side.
According to their ability. They gave to the treasury of the
work 61,000 derricks of gold, 5000 meters of silver and 100
priests garments. So the Holy Spirit now wants to
tell us also the resources that join the people who went back,
the total number of people in this first wave.
Remember, this is just the first cycle of returnees.
We're still going to look at two more in our future studies.
Total that what 42,360 now. Besides that we learned that
there are just over 7000 male and female.
Servants. What does that tell you?
What does that tell you about your social status if you have a
servant? You're wealthy, so looks like
some of these families in Babylon became wealthy and they
brought their servants with them, which tells us that their
riches and their possessions did not hinder them from
prioritizing God's house. As much as riches and promotion
and growth and economy is a snare to many, it's possible in
this life to be successful and spiritual.
It just takes an incredible amount of discipline.
And you constantly asking God to satisfy your heart so that
you're not tempted for other things to attempt.
To satisfy your heart. These people with their servant
says we're going back. Oh, you can imagine their
estate, you can imagine their land, you can imagine their
comfort. But no, no, no, we're going back
to the rubble and we're going to do what we can to build God's
house. May God raise up more
businessmen like that in this place.
May God raise up more entrepreneurs like that in this
place. We don't get so caught up in
their own success, but use their success for the advancement of
an eternal thing. But not everybody was so
successful. Look at the numbers of the mules
and the horses and the camels. When you add them all up, it's
just over maybe 1000, but for 42,000 people it's clear that
wealth and resources were unevenly distributed.
So you have a mixed crowd of faithful returnees here, yet
some who are more wealthy, others who are not so.
And yet the Lord highlights something that is so incredibly
encouraging about their first investments for the House of God
once they came back to Jerusalem.
Do you realize now that we're back in the promised land at the
end of Ezra 2? This phrase soothe my soul.
Look here, verse 69 again, according to their ability, they
gave to the treasury of the work.
According to their ability, that's what God looked for.
For those who really want to do great things for God, for those
who have prayed, Lord, how, how can I give myself more to you?
That's a wonderful thing to desire and request, but you have
to be careful. You have to be careful that.
What you are? Doing for the Lord with with the
best of your ability is not discounted in your own sight, or
worse, thinking that God doesn't see it as valuable and as
beautiful. There was a change in my own
heart, if I can be transparent, when I finally realized early in
my walk what Christ really asked of me.
Because I remember being handed books of revivalists and
missionaries and people who won thousands to Christ and.
And the things that they endured and the persecution that they
evaded and the steadfastness of their faith though they were
being tortured. And I thought, what am I doing?
I'm a, I'm a 20 something year old studying creative
advertising in Toronto, Canada. Who am I?
Lord, launch me somewhere. I'll drop out right now.
Actually, just put me wherever you want to put me.
Let me do something for you. I'm limited here.
I'm trying to do the best I can. And in the sweetness of the
guidance of the Spirit, he began to show me things in his Word
that made me realize exactly what God was asking of me.
And the clearest memory I had was what Jesus said of Mary of
Bethany shortly before he would be killed.
You know the story very well that Jesus and his disciples are
having dinner, Mary and her siblings are in attendance.
And spontaneously Mary goes out and she gets this bottle of
perfume and she breaks it open, doesn't open it.
She breaks the neck, meaning I'm not taking a drawback, And she
pours it on Christ from head to toe.
And if you look at the Gospel accounts carefully, Judas was
the first one to criticize. What are you doing?
And then we're told that another gospel account that all the
disciples criticized. Because complaining is
contagious, isn't it? And Mary, what I love so much
about Mary's, wherever you see her in the New Testament, she's
at the feet of Jesus. In every scenario, she's at the
feet of Jesus. And in this final one, she, she
gives this extravagant sacrifice and she's being criticized.
She does not speak up for herself.
Christ defends her. And I want to read to you, don't
turn to just soak this in. I want to read to you what Jesus
Christ, the Son of the living God, said about this woman in
her attempt to show honor to her Christ before he would die.
He says in Mark 14-6, leave her alone.
Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing
to me. She has done a beautiful thing
to me. And you can think, OK, so Lord,
if if you want me to do a beautiful thing to you, do you
want me to just like empty my bank account and give it to my
local? What is it that what is
beautiful to your site? And then you read on verse 7 For
you always have the poor with you and whenever you want you
can do good for them, but you will not always have me.
And here it is in verse 8. She has done what she could.
That's the phrase. She has done what she could.
She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
What was beautiful in the sight of Christ.
Mary doing what she could so. You might be sitting here and
thinking, I only have so much time.
My body can handle only so much. I only really have one gift that
I think God has given me, but I look over there and that person
has five. And that person, it's like no
matter what they do it, it turns into gold.
I just have this. If you're not careful, you can
think to yourself, I don't know if this really means much to the
Lord. You find it in the old, you find
it in the new. All Christ is looking for is for
you to do what you can, and if in the sincerity of your heart
you are doing it with all that you can, though you may have all
these restrictions and obstacles, it will be beautiful
to Him. Do you understand this?
It will be beautiful to Him. The last verse of Ezra.
Just as a conclusion of chapter 2.
Now the priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers,
the gatekeepers and the temple servants lived in their towns
and all the rest of Israel in their towns.
What stands out to you about that verse?
Who came back to Jerusalem? A remnant from primarily 2
tribes, Judah and Benjamin. What does the Holy Spirit say
the rest of Israel? Wait a minute, Israel was taken
by the Assyrians many years before this.
So what's going on here? We have another instance where
Ezra by the Spirit speaks of all Israel, not just Judah, because
it reminds us that in God's eyes, even though the small
remnant comes back, He has in view the eventual restoration of
all of His covenant people. Let's pray.
Thank you, Lord, that you have used these two weeks to show us
the glory of this genealogy. Thank you that we have put in
the depths of our hearts these gems from these different
groups. Thank you, Lord, that you showed
us multiple ways how we can honor you, and you've warned us
in multiple ways as well. Lord, we are, as you know, a
very forgetful people. And Lord, if we forget much of
what we've learned these past two Fridays, help us remember
this, that whenever we encounter genealogy in your word, to not
dismiss it, but to believe that your voice is there, that
inspiration is there, that gold is there, and that you're ready
to speak to us and furnish us through a list of names and
numbers. Oh Lord, we we just end with the
final thought of our study. Remind us that you were just
after what we can give you. I pray that that would comfort
the mom of four. I pray that that would comfort
the man working 2 jobs. I pray that that would comfort
the one who has a disability. Show us what you ask of us and
Lord, may we trust that it is pleasing in your sight.
We worship you because we've heard you today.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
If you want to remain seated and
respond to any of these truths from your heart, you're free to
do that. If you want to stand and join
the praising to sing to the Lord, you're invited to do that
as well. But whatever you do, take these
next few minutes to really speak to the Lord and give Him your
heart.