Let's turn in our Bibles now to Ezra chapter 2.
Maybe you're already there, but if you're here visiting us, if
you're here joining us in this journey for the first time, we
are beginning Ezra chapter 2. And before we start this new
chapter, it's important to remember that the return of the
Exiles from Babylon will very much mirror their removal from
the promised land, in that their recovery and their restoration
will not happen all at once. It will actually take place in
three major waves. The first cycle will be led by a
man named Zerubbabel, who we will learn more about tonight.
The second will be led by Ezra himself.
And finally, we will see Nehemiah guiding a remnant back
to the promised land. Unless we think that these
cycles happen in close succession.
In reality, they all took place around 100 years over a span of
a century, close to a century at least.
So these these didn't happen one after another.
There was actually gaps in between these movements.
And in a moment, we're about to explore the very first steps of
the first Jews who were in captivity for decades now,
making their way back to what God had originally promised
them. And the way the Holy Spirit is
going to unfold this pivotal moment in the history of God's
people is by recording and providing for us in remarkable
detail the names of those who responded to the invitation
given by Cyrus. Now, if we're honest, although
the significance of this text is monumental, the content may not
be the most exhilarating because if you look quickly, the last
verse there, there might be a number.
There should be a number in your Bible.
At least we have the number 7070 verses of all virtually names
with little commentary. And so at first we might be
struck with the thought, what value does this provide God's
people, especially today? Well, clearly it's meaningful,
and not just because it's found in the Scriptures, but because
this very same registry is actually repeated in another
part of the Bible. This very same genealogy is
found in the book of Nehemiah when he decided to update the
population of the returnees and use this very same catalog as a
resource. So if you like taking notes of
references, here's one. To begin with, in the margin of
your Bibles, Nehemiah 7 five. Let me read it to you.
This is what he says as he's about to introduce almost a copy
paste of what we're about to study this evening.
Nehemiah 75 reads. Then my God put it into my heart
to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be
enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the
genealogy of those who came up at the 1st and I found written
in it. And that's where the verse ends.
So this verse shows US1 what we already confirmed that what
we're about to look at is the first way, right?
Nehemiah says that himself. But I believe there are many
reasons why this particular text would be valuable to the
original readers. Let me give you a few.
Number one, this was God's way of honoring those who made the
sacrifice of going back to a land that was devastated,
brought to absolute ruin, and left behind their community,
left behind their success, left behind their comfort zone with
the priority of rebuilding God's house. 70 years.
Just imagine what your neighborhood would look like if
it was unkept for 70 days. What about 70 months?
70 years? This is not an attractive
endeavor. This would be extremely
challenging. This would be something that
would demand much faith and again, sacrifice.
And we could say right from the beginning, the fact that these
names are mentioned is a way of God the Holy Spirit honoring
those who took this bold action for His name's sake.
Secondly, this would be a document that would grant
confidence to the people of Israel about their covenantal
relationship with God remaining intact, that despite their
expulsion from the promised land, despite years of being
separated from what God had granted them.
This would reveal no, no, no, we have our identity still.
We have proof that we are still connected to Abraham.
So this would reassure the people of God that God has not
abandoned us. He's not erased us from history.
He still has a purpose for us. There's still hope.
Finally, very close to the second point, this would also
serve as a validation of the ancestry of the Jewish people
for generations to come. For what purpose?
Demonstrating that their return to the land was their inherited
right. This is your right, people of
Judah. This is your invitation to
somebody that already belongs to you.
And so we can look at this text as Christians and think this is
irrelevant to me, but to the Jews, even to this day, this was
a historical landmark providing so much promise and so much
hope. But what about us?
What does this text offer the Christian?
How does this apply to those who have pledged their allegiance to
the Son of God under the New Covenant?
Well, this Bible study hopefully will prove that it has much to
offer, but it will require patience, and it will demand
careful attention in order to unearth the treasures within.
And maybe you're like the average reader who comes to Ezra
chapter 2 and immediately thinks, where do I even begin
with interpretation or application?
And I want to offer some help. The first step is simple.
It's to read through this catalog and to realize that this
long list of names and and cities and towns and numbers are
actually grouped differently. And though you may have
different people group these sections and these different
categories, there's debate about what should be included, what
should be excluded. Personally, I think that there
are 8 solid classifications, 8 solid classes, groups,
distinctions of those who will make their way back to the
promised land. And when you understand that and
you make that distinction, it makes all of this a lot more
manageable. It's not as overwhelming.
And so tonight, we're not going to look at all 8.
Originally, I thought we're going to complete this chapter
in one sitting, but then as I looked more carefully, I
realized that there's too much too much here for us to rush
through. And so we're actually only going
to go through three. We're going to look at the first
3 and I'm sure you'll see why we need to do that.
And so let's begin here by reading the first group
mentioned in Ezra 2, one to two. Now these were the people of the
province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles from
whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried captive to
Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and
Judah, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel,
Joshua, Nehemiah, Soraya, Realiah, Mordecai, Bilshan,
Mizpahr, Bigvi, Rehum, and Banna, the number of the men of
the people of Israel. We'll stop there.
Can we pray and ask God's help? Lord, we pray that in a perhaps
intimidating text like this, you would bring illumination in a
way that would bring you so much glory, in a way that would
captivate all our hearts to stand in awe of Your Word.
So we need the help of the Holy Spirit to arrive there, and we
have come in faith, trusting that you will teach us and that
Lord, you will receive worship because of it.
We thank you in advance. In the name of Jesus we pray.
Amen. If you're taking notes again,
the first group that is underscored here are the
leaders, the leaders of this first movement, this first wave
of exiles returning to the land. And as much as we would like to
think that the Nehemiah and Mordecai that are mentioned in
these verses are the same ones from the books that we are
familiar of Nehemiah and Esther, they are not.
They come much later in the story.
And you just have to remember that there are people even in
biblical times that had the same names and every generation had
popular names, and these might be some of them.
So these are not the same characters.
What we are faced with instead are unfamiliar individuals, 11
of them to be exact. But when you look at Nehemiah's
version, there is an added name bringing the total to 12.
And it could be that the number 12 in terms of the leaders is
meant to symbolize the totality of God's people who are now
being restored to the Lord and their covenantal relationship
with Him. What is more obvious, however,
is that the leader of the leaders is Zerubbabel.
He's the first one mentioned and as we read through this story,
we will learn that Zerubbabel was the appointed governor of
the re established inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah and will
play a key role in rebuilding the temple.
But he's more than that. More texts will show that
Zerubbabel was not just a trusted leader, he was a
descendant of David. He's actually from the royal
line, which again makes him the heir to the throne, but also the
ancestor 1 ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Zerubbabel appears in another genealogy, the one that belongs
to our Lord in Matthew 112 to 13.
His name is found there. Now this is remarkable.
This is this is where we need to pause and ponder because if you
do, you will relish in the depth of God's faithfulness.
Think about it. God did not just preserve his
people over these 70 years in exile.
He did not just safeguard the articles of the temple.
He actually protected the Davidic line.
He did not abandon or forget his messianic plan.
This is amazing against all odds, through so much
decimation, devastation after years and years and years of
captivity. One of the first things we learn
in this chapter is that God still has the promise he made to
David in mind, and He wants us to see his faithfulness in it.
But the royal line is not the only thing that he preserved.
There's also the priestly line. How do we know that with a name
that comes immediately after Zerubbabel?
Joshua. Is he not there?
Joshua. Now Joshua, if we look at Ezra
3/2, look at it quickly, just flip over there for a moment,
you'll realize what his role is among the leaders.
It says you're in Ezra 3, two. Then arose Joshua the son of
Josadak with his fellow priests, and Zerubbel the son of Shaltial
with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel
to offer burnt offerings on it. He's a priest.
He's a priest, but when you read texts like Hegei 11, for
example, he's not just a priest, he's the high priest of this
time. This is fascinating.
So you have in the first names mentioned in this genealogy, a
call to remembrance that God has now preserved the royal line and
the priestly line. And as encouraging as this is,
as much as this duo will do much for the restoration of the
people of God and their walk with God, right?
Because what we're going to find is that they are working side by
side frequently. They're mentioned together.
They're almost inseparable in their partnership.
They point to a coming leader. They point to one who will
combine both offices, who'll be both king and priest, and he
will do something far greater what they were able to
accomplish. He will bring the people of
Israel to an everlasting covenant, to a superior way of
worship, to an ultimate relationship and contract with
God. And we know that the Hebrew
Scriptures predict this in the person of Jesus Christ.
That leader arrived 2000 years ago, and we are living in the
reality of the captain of our salvation, who is still now not
just drawing the Jewish people, but all nations, and he's
delivering them and he's rebuilding them, and he is, more
importantly, regenerating them, and He's creating a new people
in preparation for his Kingdom to come and to be established
for all eternity. Who thought that we can find
Christ in a text like this? But he's there.
Zerubbabel and Jeshua, yes, separately, but working
together, pointing to one who combined these things, the seed
of David and a priest after the order of Melchizedek, Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. But before we move on, we also
have to observe something practical about these leaders.
They show the importance of leadership, and this is
something for us to consider even as Christians, as the
Church of Jesus Christ. I find it fascinating that when
the Lord stirred the hearts of this remnant to return to
Jerusalem, that move of the Spirit led to structure and
order, not chaos and confusion. When the Spirit of God was
working in the hearts of the people, you didn't have these
Jews saying every man for himself, every family for
himself, and independently make their way back home.
Evidently they rally together and they put some structure.
They appointed their leaders and they understood their own
separate roles. And here's the lesson for us.
There are many ways, even unique ways, that a move of God, a work
of God, can begin. But in order for that work to
last, it requires proper, biblically qualified leadership,
among other things. You see, without spirit
appointed leadership, a genuine move of God becomes vulnerable
to many dangers that can spoil or even snuff out that work.
That's important in a day and age like today.
That is vehemently against the idea of authority, but you find
this principle throughout the Scriptures.
The one that came to mind is what Paul instructed Titus in
Titus 1/5 and Titus 15. Paul says This is why I left you
in Crete, that you may put what remained into order and appoint
what elders and every town as I directed you.
That was one of the priority things that Paul instructed
Titus when he had left them back in this region.
So you had evidently souls who were saved in Crete.
We don't have any record of that in Acts or other places in the
New Testament, but clearly it happened.
Souls were saved and one of the first top things that needed to
be done almost with urgency. Find leaders, find pastors
qualified, called by God so they can supervise and they can
supply the needs and they can shepherd these souls.
This is amazing. God is a God of order.
God is a God who has given us a blueprint, A blueprint that has
positions, a blueprint that calls for accountability, A
blueprint that again calls for organization.
Because, again, God's Spirit can do many things, and He can do it
in things in ways that can't even be copied.
But if that thing is going to last, it needs to have, among
other things, qualified leadership.
Be careful of those who downplay or ignore the necessity of the
local church elders. Accountability.
God has commanded certain things to be in place in order for His
work to be sustained through His people.
So those who promote and even teach, oh, we don't need this
and we don't need that. I have me and my Bible.
We'll read it carefully and see what it asks of you.
And if you read it honestly and in humility, it's going to lead
you to a church and it's going to call you to identify and
prayerfully select leaders who will be held accountable for
supervising your soul. They will stand before.
There is going to be a separate line on Judgement Day for
pastors realize that according to James three, those who teach
God's word and so leadership needs to stand in awe of God and
the people of God also need to stand in awe of God and both
realizing their need for one another.
More can be said about that. But this is the first group, the
leadership of this movement. But we move on now to the second
part of verse 2 to look at the second group of people.
And you can write it and you can categorize it as the following,
the men of Israel, the men of Israel.
And you can put in parentheses the families of Israel.
Notice again the last part of verse 2, the number of the men
of the people of Israel. What should stand out to you
about that part of verse 2? You would think that it would
read the people of Judah or the people of Judah and Benjamin.
Why? Because those were the tribes
who were dislodged, who were removed by Nebuchadnezzar.
But again, you have yet another clear indication that God is
beginning a new work and he is wanting to encompass all his
people. He wants to restore the unity of
the nation, and he's using this kind of language, Israel.
Israel's coming back. It just shows us God's longing
for the unity of his people in every generation.
And this is refreshing to us after centuries of studying what
a divided Kingdom, northern tribes, the southern Kingdom.
But as the people are coming back now, the language is
changing. It's going back to its original
design. Now, within this long list, the
names that you find here are actually organized into two
subgroups, and they're easy to remember.
You have the the recordings of those who are listed by family,
the sons of the sons of the sons of and you have those who are
identified by their towns or their villages, the men of the
men of. That's how you tell the
difference between the two. And although we can attempt to
spend our time looking at every single detail, I want to under
score at least one, one family and one town.
One family and 1 town and the first family is what I want us
to look at the top of the list of verse 3.
Let's look at verse 3, the sons of perish 2172.
So if you compare this family with the rest, they rank among
the highest and the largest of families returning back to
Jerusalem. That says something about the
value system of this family. That says something about their
shared faith and making this decision.
A lot of them have hundreds, and there are a few others that are
are up there with the thousands. But the Sons of Perish are up
there in terms of how many are going back from a single unit.
And this should be encouraging to us, but it's also a warning.
Do you know why it's a warning? This very same family reappears
at the end of the book of Ezra, when the Holy Spirit, through
Ezra, puts on record those who became guilty of the sin of
interfaith marriage. That after years of returning
and settling in the land, there were many of the Exiles who
committed the grievous sin, one of the sins that actually led to
their exile to begin with, by yoking themselves to idolaters.
And I want you to see who first appears on the list among the
men of Israel. I'm sure you can guess, but look
at Ezra 10 verse 25, Ezra 10 verse 25, and of Israel, of the
sons of Perosh, Ramaya, Izia, Malkia, Miemin, Eliezer,
Heshabaya, and Binaya. What a sobering warning of how
our spiritual senses can grow dull over time.
The same men whose spirits were stirred by God to leave comfort
and community for a wasteland to glorify the Lord.
Over time, we're stirred by intense lust to partner in
marriage with those who hate the God of Israel and the truth.
And you and I, looking at this, learn a very valuable truth.
We cannot afford our devotion to Christ to ride on a single
moment or series of events. We must nurture and guard our
hearts daily, every day, every week, every month, year by year.
They were stirred in Ezra chapter 1.
Surely Ezra 2 proves it. They made their way back to
Jerusalem where their hearts still stirred in Ezra 10.
Evidently, no, you can't. You can't afford to rest your
faithfulness upon some past experience.
We are forgetful. We are easily distracted.
It requires a daily effort to seek the Lord, to plant your
eyes on Him, and to feed your soul with His word and to
fellowship in His presence. The sons of Paris show us that
you can start well, but overtime lose track and even return to
the very things that you you said you would never do again.
Oh, what a sobering lesson. And this is what we learned from
at least one family. Can you imagine what else we can
learn if we look at more? But we won't.
We're going to read now, and this is where it's going to
demand your attention. We're going to make an attempt
to read through all these names and stop at verse 23.
Can we do that? Verse 4.
The sons a chef Ataya 372. The sons of Ara, 775.
The sons of Payath Moab, namely the sons of Joshua and Joab,
2812. The sons of Elam, 1254.
The sons of Zatu 945. The sons of Zakai, 760.
The sons of Banai, 642. The sons of Bibai, 623.
The sons of Asghat, 1222. The sons of Adonikem, 666.
The sons of Big Vai, 2056. The sons of Aden, 454.
The sons of Eder, namely of Hezekiah, 98.
The sons of Bizai, 323. The sons of Jorah, 112.
The sons of Haisham, 223. The sons of Gibar, 95.
The sons of Bethlehem, 123. The men of Nitophat, 56.
The men of Anathoth, 128. I was stopped in my tracks when
I came to verse 23, and the same should be true of you.
Does Anathoth sound familiar to anybody here?
Any idea why this town is significant?
It is the hometown of Jeremiah the prophet according to
Jeremiah 11. And what's amazing about this
hometown is it not only had a claim to fame, if you will,
unfortunately, they developed a notorious reputation for
persecuting Jeremiah. And so ugly and nasty was their
treatment of the servant of God that the Lord addressed this
specific town in the book of Jeremiah and gave a very
harrowing promise. Jeremiah 11.
Let's turn there and see what happens.
Jeremiah 11, verse 21. Says therefore thus says the
Lord concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life and
say, do not prophecy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by
our hand. Can you imagine this men from
your hometown, children that you grew up with on the streets,
playing families that integrated with your own, are so sick and
tired of your ministry, are so turned off by the word of the
Lord through your mouth, that they threatened to actually kill
you? Let's read on in verse 22.
Therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts, Behold, I will punish
them. The young men shall die by the
sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine,
and none of them shall be left, for I will bring disaster upon
the man of Anathoth the year of their punishment.
If you have never read the book of Ezra, or maybe you have but
decide to skip chapter 2 because you glance at the list and
thought this isn't really important to me, and then you
come to this text. For example, you might arrive at
the conclusion that when God spoke and promised to destroy
the men of Anathot that he did so completely.
This sounds like total annihilation at face value, does
it not? I will destroy you.
None of them shall be left. But then you come to Ezra
chapter 2, and you read down that list, and you make a
startling discovery. The men of Anathoth are still
around #1 and #2 they're actually going back to
Jerusalem. What an important reminder never
to skip any part of the Bible. And more than that, this
genealogy teaches us that the Lord not only preserve the
remnant of this condemned town, but stirred their hearts to come
back home. Did he judge the the generation
that harassed his servant Jeremiah?
Yes, he did, But He did not hold their sin against them forever.
And when it came to this move of God in Babylonia after Cyrus the
king of Persia took over, God did not skip over the men of
Anathoth when he decided to woo his people back into his arms.
You would think if we had that kind of power and scanning
through the Exiles and finding the men of Anathoth, oh, yeah.
You were the ones who didn't believe my word through my
prophet. You were so despicable, so
disrespectful, so persistent in your rebellion.
How about you stay in Babylon? It's actually what you deserve.
It's not what the Lord does. This move, this moved me so
deeply that here, these men with a very dark past, very
dishonorable history, had their spirits moved by the hand of
God. It's time to go home.
It's time to come back. It's time to go back to the
promise that I even gave you. Who who thought that you can be
moved by the grace of God in a list of names?
But it's there. And what a refreshing thing for
us, who might even have many failures, that every time you
even think about it makes you cringe, makes you ashamed, makes
you want to hide. Look at the men of Anathoth and
look at the grace of God in this.
He can restore anybody. And you look at these other
names in these other towns, and that's just reinforced over and
over. It's amazing when you actually
look at the accounts of these towns and these families and
their histories, how much this chapter drips with mercy.
This is the second group, the men of Israel, And we just
looked at one family and 1 town, and there's a lot left in there
for you to discover on your own. Let's come to the last one for
our study where we will spend the most time.
We read to verse 23, but let's come down here to verse 36.
The priests, the sons of Jediah of the House of Joshua, 973 The
sons of Imr, 1052 The sons of Pashur, 1247 The Sons of Harem
1017 verse 40. The Levites, the sons of Joshua
and Cadmiel, and the sons of Hoda Vaya 74 Now it would be
totally acceptable to separate the priests and the Levites in
their own categories, but I chose to merge them under a
single heading. So here's the third group, the
priests and the Levites. Now, remember, every priest in
the Old Covenant had to be a Levite, but not every Levite was
a priest. Within the Levitical tribe, you
had one family that was set apart to be the priestly line.
Which family? The sons of who?
Aaron. Very good.
So only the sons of Aaron were permitted to offer sacrifices,
for example, and other functions within the House of God.
So then what about the Levites? What, what, what were they
called to? Well, they were ministers as
well, but they were called by God to assist the priests.
In fact, when you look at the Book of Numbers, the Levites are
called a gift to the sons of Aaron.
They would, in many helpful and practical ways, help and assist
the priest in doing what they were called to do, but they
could not be priests in the same way.
So the Levites were ministers in and around the temple, but they
were never to be priest. Only the descendants of Aaron
were permitted to do so. And here's what we have to ask
ourselves when looking at this. There's a staggering
observation. If you have only one family
within the Levitical tribe that were called to be priest,
wouldn't that mean then that the rest of the Levites would
naturally outnumber the priests? Wouldn't there be more Levites
than sons of Aaron? Answer yes.
And in fact, when you look at other genealogies in the Bible
and the priests are accounted for in comparison to the
Levites, the Levites always, always, always outnumber the
sons of Aaron. Did you see the numbers that we
just read? Look at it again.
Compare the numbers of verse 36 down to verse 39 with what we
find in verse 40. Look at it again.
The sons of Jediah and verse 36 of the House of Jeshua in 973.
The sons of Emer, 1052. The sons of Pascha, 1247.
The sons of Harem, 1017. These are the priests.
These are the sons of Aaron. And then you come to verse 40.
What do you discover? The Levites, the sons of Jeshua
and Cadmium, the sons of Hodavaya 74 That's strange.
That doesn't seem right. Now some want to say, well, hold
on. Look at what we find next in
verse 41. The singers, the sons of Asaph
128 The sons of the gatekeepers. Scroll down in all 139.
Well, singers and gatekeepers were what?
They were also Levites. OK, but even if you combine
them, they are still far fewer in number than the sons of
Aaron. Now, in case one might think
maybe we're reading too much into the small inclusion of the
Levites, I want to actually let you know that it was a concern
to another person, not a commentator, not a modern day
theologian, to Ezra. Who was the one who led the
first wave back to Jerusalem? What's his name?
Very good. Who is the 2nd leader of the
second wave? Ezra.
Very good. Look what Ezra does in Ezra 8,
Ezra 8, verse one, just to confirm that this is his own
genealogy of the men and the families that he led back to the
Promised Land, Ezra 8, verse one.
These are the heads of the father, their father's houses.
And this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from
Babylonia in the reign of Arctic Xerxes, the king.
So this is his own genealogy now of the people that he led back.
Now Scroll down to verse 15 of Ezra 8.
Ezra writes in verse 15. I gather them to the river that
runs Sahaba and there we camped 3 days.
As I reviewed the people and the priest, I found there none of
the sons of Levi. Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel,
Shamaya, El Nathan, Jereb El Nathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and
Meshulan leading men, and for Joy Rib and Al Nathan, who are
men of insight, and sent them to Edo, the leading man at the
place of Casafia, telling them what to say to Edo and his
brothers and the temple servants at the place Casafia, namely to
send us ministers for the House of our God.
So Ezra, on his journey back, stops.
He pauses, He reviews the registry and he realizes we
don't have any Levites. And So what does he do?
He begins a recruitment campaign and he sends trusted men to go
back to Babylonia under a new ruler at this point.
And he says, hey, find as many Levi's as you can and call them
to their original purpose, and that is to serve God and his
people. This is shocking.
Chapter 2, in the first wave, you have 74 Levites, and then
when the second cycle begins, that number goes down to what,
0? And this is the question that I
had. How is it that the very people
who are set apart from all the other tribes to have unique
access to the House of God and the elements of the place of
worship and being in close proximity to the presence of the
Lord? How is it that such a privilege
group were so reluctant to return to their inheritance?
And people speculate, people guess.
And I believe there is one answer that makes the most
sense. What did Jeremiah instruct the
people when they were in exile in Jeremiah 29?
He gave him many instructions and one of them we reviewed last
week. Build homes, plant gardens, eat
of the fruit of the land, have families.
You're going to be there a while.
Pray for the welfare of the city, because in their welfare
you will have welfare. Now.
You can imagine how difficult it would be after almost 2
generations of investments. To suddenly uproot yourself,
pack your bags, and walk away from it all.
To go back to what? A destroyed city with virtually
no resources, surrounded by vicious enemies?
How much harder would it be for a Levite who could never own
land in Israel? God was their inheritance.
Remember, they did not have the right to own real estate.
That's how they were differentiated from all their
siblings. I'm your inheritance.
God says you live by faith. I'll call the other ones to take
care of you. So they only lived in cities
within the tribes of the promised land and here now they
come to a brand new country and they're actually granted homes
and fields. They don't have to wait for the
yearly tides. They can actually just walk in
their slippers and go to the backyard and pick their own
fruits and vegetables and they can even sell it.
And what you have here is an honest commentary of a
temptation that has kept many throughout history from obeying
the call of God into full time ministry, held back by money,
held back by worldly pursuits, held back by pressures even from
their own family. There have been many since the
days of the prophets who have reluctantly answered the call of
God, or even though they answered it disqualified
themselves because they they went after things that God said
was not yours. And so this shows us the
temptation of the world for the one who's been genuinely
summoned by the Lord to serve him in the capacity of
vocational full time service to him.
But it's not limited to that. It is true for those who have
received the nudge from the Holy Spirit and providential
confirmation to pursue something like full time ministry.
But it's it's also a call for those who are so invested and
consumed by the world that they don't have any room in their
lives to serve Christ. And I find it so amazing that
this illustration of a haunting temptation that looms over so
many, even perhaps some who are listening to me now, does not
just stay in the Old Testament. It shows up in so many different
illustrations and even one that looks similar to this in the New
Testament. When I when I found this earlier
this week, I rejoiced because of God's Providence and what we
heard last Sunday. Do you remember who we spoke
about for those who were here for the baptism service?
Barnabas, the son of encouragement.
And do you remember what we learned about Barnabas?
One of the first insights about him, in fact, the introduction
to him in our Bibles. Let me remind you, and maybe for
those who have never seen this or weren't with us last Sunday
in Acts 4, Barnabas was what a Levite.
And what does Barnabas do as a Levite?
Acts 436 when the church was experiencing revival and out of
the abundance of people's hearts we're giving to the poor and the
needy, Acts 436 reads. Thus Joseph, who was also called
by the apostles, Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, A
Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and
brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet.
Do you see how understanding the Old Testament helps you
interpret the new? If you didn't know the Levites
or how they were called by God and what was permitted and what
was prohibited, you can just read by this and just think.
OK yeah, Barnabas was a kind man and he was clearly a Jew.
No, no he wasn't. He was more than a Jew, he was a
Levite. What's a Levite doing selling
land? You shouldn't be owning land.
God didn't allow you to own land.
So we have, we only have two answers here.
One, like many of God's commands over time, they were not as
binding. They were not taken as
seriously. Or two, because we learned he
was a native of Cyprus. His land was there.
So you can imagine how hard it was for a man like Barnabas as
he witnessed and saw a genuine move of God with the essential
message that the Messiah has come, is now wanting to,
prompted by God to give up land. And he does so, so willingly, so
joyfully that it was a means of encouragement to others.
Yes, he came from a heritage that could not experience this.
The safety and the comfort. I can pass this down to my
children. That didn't matter to Barnabas.
He saw the cause of Christ and the message of Christ worth
everything he had and when he had opportunity to give in his
own way. And this is not a call for us to
just sell everything. That's that's not the message.
It's to give yourself over completely.
He did so look at how Barnabas is so much more different than
the Levites in Ezra chapter 274 down to 0 with such a wide open
door to go back and to actually be one of The Pioneers of
rebuilding the House of God and ministering to the people of God
from the presence of God. And they thought my cucumber
field is better than that. You think that's silly?
OK, there are people like, like the Levites today who are
slaving over the silliest of things.
And then you meet Barnabas. And he reminds us, I'm sure even
of what we find here in Ezra, that there was something far
greater than a temple, far greater than land, far greater
than borders and walls, far greater than regions and
mountain tops and land flowing with milk and honey.
Christ, Christ, where's our excuse with someone so much
greater than whatever they had under the old covenant?
How can there even be hesitation in any person's heart or mind to
do whatever Christ asks of them? Don't we not have a greater
promise? Do we not have a greater king?
Do we not have a greater covenant?
Imitate this man and beware of falling to the trap of the
Levites in Ezra chapter 2. Is there anything you're holding
back tonight? Is God calling you to something
and it's been weeks? It's been months and you
hesitate to answer because you're afraid what He might ask
of you. You know those Levites who
stayed back? Can you imagine what they missed
out on? The prophecies that would be
shared through the prophets in that restored place?
The privilege of being able to, though they didn't know, have
their names written in God's word for all to see.
It may seem like a sacrifice now, but when you really think
about it, it's a privilege always.
It's always an honor, no matter what the Lord asks of us.
I mean, you're here for how long?
On average, 72 years. Give every part of who you are
to him, just every day. Lord, it's yours every day.
Pray something like this, Lord, Whatever you ask of me, I will
gladly give it. Now, encouragingly, some of
those Levites that Ezra invited did join them.
But what a sad sight to see here at the outset of chapter 2.
That's so few, so few did. We'll stop here before we
continue in the other categories and give thanks to the Lord for
how He spoke to us tonight. Well, we do thank you that even
through verses like this, there's gold and silver and
precious stones. Lord, it is my prayer that every
person here would be inspired, that every part of the Bible
speaks. And Lord, help us remember that
it takes the whole Bible to make a whole Christian.
So Lord, may we never be negligent of any book, any list
of names. May we always remember that
you've designed your word to be cross referenced.
Your word interprets itself. So by your grace, may we mature
even with things like names and cities.
And more than that, help us see Christ, the foreshadowings, the
promises. We want it all.
We want it all, Lord, we pray for our leaders, that they would
be strong, they would be holy, they would be God.
Fearing that you would raise up more leaders so that when your
spirit moves, when revivals break out, when mass evangelism
takes place, that work could be sustained because there are
right leaders ready to serve God's people.
We pray, Lord, as we saw with these families and these towns,
that we would not be like the sons of Parachu in the
beginning, we're so zealous and committed, but overtime became
cold and indifferent and even dangerous in their decision
making. At the same time, we think of
the men of Anathoth who are undeserving of experiencing the
move of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, but were recipients of
it. We see the hint of your mercy
even in that. And we pray for those who are
broken and wounded listening to this study, that they would also
sense your Spirit stirring in their hearts.
And Lord, we look at the priests and the Levites, and we see your
wonderful grace in preserving the royal and the priestly line.
But oh Lord, these Levites, what discouragement is this?
Lord, if there's anything of this world that's holding us
back from giving our all to you and being a part of building
your house, show us how foolish and how feeble these things are
that we may be constantly ready to run in the direction of Your
call for our lives. For some that might be full time
ministry. For others, it may just be a
place in the church where they can fill a gap and they can
serve the purposes of God within the local assembly.
Lord, we are eager to see the other groups and what you have
to teach us. Until then, may these Drews
marinate in our hearts and bleed into our souls and change us.
For your glory and your name we pray.
Amen. Let's stand and worship the
Lord. Give him thanks.
Let's give him. Let's give him thanks for Genie,
all of the Geez, tonight. We thank you for those names.
We thank you for those numbers. We thank you that your wisdom is
woven in between it all. You know, over the years, I have
heard people who would dare to handle a text like that.
And I've been more discouraged than encourage of how that was
done. And one of the reasons for that
is because the impression that was given as it was being
expounded was this is almost like silly, like let's just do
this to get it over with because it's there and it's God's word,
and let's just try our best here.
And so frivolous, even borderline irreverent.
But I'll be honest, if you came to me in the first few years of
my walk with the Lord and said, you know, you can actually
worship God in this genealogy through this genealogy, that
would probably hard be hard for me to believe at first.
But I'll tell you something so early in the study of Ezra,
especially in this chapter, because of the nature of the
framework of this text and what I was discovering as I was
reading on. And there's things that were
even left out. I worshipped, I worshiped God in
my study. I found myself at a new level of
worship. Lord, this is incredible.
I'm, I'm just like God's voice was vibrating through those
names and those numbers. And I thought one of my main
prayers for this study was I want every person there to feel
the same way. And I hope your heart is
encouraged and don't be frustrated and don't, don't beat
yourself up. If you're like Anathoth,
Anathoth, come on, man. I would have read right back
that I would have probably, I don't know what I would have
done with Anathoth. This is what the study is for,
not just for you to hear, but to be equipped not just to learn,
but to be built up, and over time you will develop the lens
as we endeavour to do this together, to see gold in every
part of God's Word. Amen.
We do worship you, Lord. We actually almost tremble,
Lord, in your presence with a text like this, to see just your
wisdom and your brilliance and your glory behind every aspect
in detail. We come before you in lowliness,
but also with excitement, thinking this is truly Your
word. Oh, we pray that that would be
our realization every morning when we wake up.
I have to hear him speak. I can't wait to.
What is he going to say to me in Leviticus?
What is he going to say to me in Zephaniah?
What is he going to say to me in Philemon?
Lord, give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear.
This can only come from the Holy Spirit.
Open our understanding so that we can fellowship with You in
Your word. Thank you for this part of this
chapter. Bring us back again should you
tarry, so that we can enjoy more of it in Jesus name, Amen.
Amen.