7/16/2011 7:19:13 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: He (God) gathered a willing remnant
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezra 8:1-30
Message of the verses: “ 1 ¶ Now these are the heads of their fathers’ households and the genealogical enrollment of those who went up with me from Babylon in the reign of King Artaxerxes: 2 of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; of the sons of David, Hattush; 3 of the sons of Shecaniah who was of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah and with him 150 males who were in the genealogical list; 4 of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah and 200 males with him; 5 of the sons of Zattu, Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel and 300 males with him; 6 and of the sons of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan and 50 males with him; 7 and of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah and 70 males with him; 8 and of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael and 80 males with him; 9 of the sons of Joab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel and 218 males with him; 10 and of the sons of Bani, Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah and 160 males with him; 11 and of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai and 28 males with him; 12 and of the sons of Azgad, Johanan the son of Hakkatan and 110 males with him; 13 and of the sons of Adonikam, the last ones, these being their names, Eliphelet, Jeuel and Shemaiah, and 60 males with them; 14 and of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud, and 70 males with them. 15 Now I assembled them at the river that runs to Ahava, where we camped for three days; and when I observed the people and the priests, I did not find any Levites there. 16 So I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah and Meshullam, leading men, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, teachers. 17 I sent them to Iddo the leading man at the place Casiphia; and I told them what to say to Iddo and his brothers, the temple servants at the place Casiphia, that is, to bring ministers to us for the house of our God. 18 According to the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of insight of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, and his sons and brothers, 18 men; 19 and Hashabiah and Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, with his brothers and their sons, 20 men; 20 and 220 of the temple servants, whom David and the princes had given for the service of the Levites, all of them designated by name.
“21 ¶ Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions. 22 For I was ashamed to request from the king troops and horsemen to protect us from the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, "The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who forsake Him." 23 So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our entreaty.
“24 ¶ Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brothers; 25 and I weighed out to them the silver, the gold and the utensils, the offering for the house of our God which the king and his counselors and his princes and all Israel present there had offered. 26 Thus I weighed into their hands 650 talents of silver, and silver utensils worth 100 talents, and 100 gold talents, 27 and 20 gold bowls worth 1,000 darics, and two utensils of fine shiny bronze, precious as gold. 28 Then I said to them, "You are holy to the LORD, and the utensils are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD God of your fathers. 29 "Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the leading priests, the Levites and the heads of the fathers’ households of Israel at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD." 30 So the priests and the Levites accepted the weighed out silver and gold and the utensils, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.”
In this section of the book of Ezra you will find many more names, and this was a pattern of Ezra for in the first part of his book he gave many names of those who eighty years before went with Zerubbable and there were 50,000 who left on that journey. Now eighty years later Ezra takes a smaller group of exiles back to the land of Israel, to the city of Jerusalem, and later on Nehemiah will go up to Jerusalem with others.
The sub-titles in this section that covers the first thirty verses of chapter eight are as follows: “Recruiting” verses 1-20; “Trusting” verses 21-23; and “Committing” verses 24-30. In this section of Ezra there are some great principles for believers today to follow and it could be said that this whole journey could picture the believer’s life, for all of God’s people are on a dangerous journey to the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22), and the Lord has committed some of His treasure with His children. We as believers are to protect the treasures that He has entrusted us with and unlike those exiles we are to invest those treasures in order to multiply them for the cause of Christ. This principle can be seen in different places in the NT, such as Matthew 25:14-30 and 1Timothy 1:11, 18-19, ss6:20; 2Timothy 1:13-14; 2:2.
“Recruiting” In this section there is given the majority of names that were given in this chapter that went on this journey. Ezra had contacted eighteen leaders of the tribes of Israel in order to get support in recruiting people for this important journey and they came up with 1,515 men, plus women and children as seen in verse twenty-one. Dr. Wiersbe points out an interesting fact that many of the names of those who left 80 years earlier and those who went with Ezra are of the same tribal families and this speaks of the pioneer spirit these families had.
It was difficult in recruiting those who went as it always seems to be when trying to do a work for the Lord. Jeremiah had instructed those who were about to go into captivity to settle down in the land and make lives for themselves in their new surroundings and this is what they did and so many did not want to disrupt their lives in order to go back to a place that was in rubble in order to serve the Lord in this challenging area. Jesus told the disciples that the harvest was ripe but the laborers were few.
This problem of few laborers was especially true of the tribe of Levi as after Ezra and the others got started they realized that there were no Levites and so Ezra sent some men back to recruit some Levites. This committee came back with only 38 Levites, but they also recruited 220 temple servants. The numbers should have been reversed, but the laborers are few. During the first journey to Jerusalem the total of Levites was only 2% of those who went on the journey.
“Trusting” In this section one can see the great faith of this wonderful man of God, for Ezra did have great faith and again I can see Ezra 7:10 in this trusting aspect of his life for faith comes by hearing the Word of God, and Ezra was surely one who stayed in the Word and practiced what he was learning.
Ezra could have asked the king for an armed escort for they were carrying many tons of gold and silver back to Jerusalem and the journey was surely a dangerous one, but he believed that the Lord would protect them on this journey that the Lord had directed them to go on and so he was ashamed to ask for any escort. Instead Ezra took the next step and that step was stopping for three days to fast and to pray. They stopped by a river that was probably a cannel and fasted and prayed for a safe journey and so their Escort would be the Lord who would protect them. Dr. Wiersbe writes that there is a fine line between faith and presumption, and I would suppose that some people presume that the Lord will bless their work with a false assumption, however this was not the case with Ezra, for the Lord would bless this journey and it does show that Ezra was a great man of faith.
The last sup-point is “Committing” and in this short section it can be seen that Ezra commits the treasures to a group of men to make sure that all would be on the up and up he had the treasure weighed and would again weigh it when they got to Jerusalem.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I think of how this journey parallels my journey with the Lord and how I am to be faithful with the “treasures” that He has entrusted me with. Paul writes that all believers have “spiritual gifts” and he wrote to Timothy that he was in danger of losing his gifts if he did not begin to use those gifts that he was given. To invest in the Kingdom of God is the best investment one can make and I desire to use the gifts He has given me to make that investment.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to invest in the Kingdom of God by using the gifts He has entrusted me with.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
3. Trust the Lord to work out the arrangements for our journey back to Ohio as to when it will be and to get done the things needed to be done.
7/16/2011 8:31:15 AM
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