7/14/2011 7:55:05 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: He raised up a godly leader
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezra 7:1-6, 10
Message of the verses: “1 ¶ Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, there went up Ezra son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, 2 son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, 3 son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, 4 son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, 5 son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest. 6 This Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all he requested because the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
“For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.”
Today’s SD begins the third chapter in Dr. Wiersbe commentary on Ezra and it will cover chapters seven and eight of the book of Ezra. As mentioned before Wiersbe will give a brief statement on how the chapter will unfold and that statement for this chapter is as follows: “What did God do for the people of Israel during those difficult days after the Babylonian Captivity?” Now the answer to this question will be given throughout this third chapter by way of the different main points of which we will cover the first one in today’s SD.
While reading some of the notes from John MacArthur’s Study Bible yesterday I came upon an interesting fact that brought some light upon the book of Ester and how that book fits into the history of the exiles. MacArthur states that the book of Ester took place between the last verse in chapter six of Ezra until the first verse in chapter seven of Ezra and this was a time period of 59 years. In the first verse of chapter seven the king of Persia is Artaxerxes Longimanus. Now you won’t find the Longimanus in the first verse as part of the king’s name but that was what he was called. Longimanus is a Latin word and the Greek equivalent is Marochier. There is speculation that he was called this perhaps because his “long hand” stretched reached out so far in the kingdom, or perhaps because he was generous to his subjects. It could be because of both reasons.
The phrase that is highlighted in green is a phrase that is seen six times in chapters seven and eight of Ezra and if one would have to answer why Ezra was a successful this along with what is highlighted in yellow could well be the answer. There is an interesting end note about the phrase “hand of the LORD “that I wish to quote. “Of course, God is spirit and doesn’t possess literal hands such as we do. The phrase is what theologians call ‘anthropomorphic.’ That is attributing to God something that is true of humans (‘anthrop’ = human; ‘morphos’ = form). God doesn’t have eyes, but He ‘sees’ what’s going on in the world; He doesn’t have ears, but He ‘hears’ our cries. Because He’s a Person, God has the ability to act and respond, and the Bible uses human terminology to explain this. When Isaiah wanted to show the greatness of God, he said that God measured the waters ‘in the hollow of His hand’ (Isa. 40:12); and the psalmist reminds us that all God has to do to feed His creatures is open His hand (Ps. 104:28). ‘You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing’ (Ps. 145:16 NKJV).”
As mentioned above this chapter takes place nearly sixty years after the completion of the temple and this will help put into prospective the time frame of the post exile period of time, for soon the Word of God will be completed as far as the OT is concerned and the next time that the Lord is heard from will be through the voice of John the Baptist. I think perhaps this would be a good time to try and explain the different parts of the Scripture as far as what they can be titled. From Genesis to the book of Ester is the historical portion of Scripture, but certainly not in chronological order for the book of Job is probably the oldest book of the Bible and it is in the next section or the pottery section, followed by the prophets. Now the prophets are broken up between the major and Minor Prophets and this has nothing to do with their message, but the length of their message. As far as the chronological part of the prophets there were pre-exile prophets such as Isaiah and then there are post exile prophets like Haggai.
Artaxerxes reigned from 465-424 and as far as this chapter the date is 458 according to Dr. Wiersbe. It was at this time that God raised up Ezra to lead a second group of refugees from Babylon to Judah in order to bring financial and spiritual support to those who had be doing the work of building the temple and also doing other work at Jerusalem.
Richard Nixon said the following about leaders they “make a difference.” Ezra was a gifted leader along with Nehemiah and the Lord used both of these men during this difficult time in the history of Israel.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “When God wants to judge a nation, He sends them inferior leaders (Isa.3:1-8); but when He wants to bless them, He sends them men like Ezra.
There are three different sub-points under this first main point as outlined in “Be Heroic” which is Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ester. I will try and get through these three sub-points this morning. The first one he entitles “His noble ancestry” and this will cover the first five verses of Ezra seven. I know that when most of us get to the genealogies in Scripture we may begin to yawn or skip over them, but just the same they are put there for a reason and they all have names of people who lived during, in this case, OT times. Ezra was not like some of the priests that could not confirm their genealogy, for he could trace his all the way back to Aaron the very first priest that God called. While studying the books of 2Kings and 2Chronicles the godly priest Hilkiah was there and he was the one who reigned during King Josiah’s reign and he found the Book of the Law and read it to the king, which brought about a great revival in Judah. Zadok was the priest during the reign of King David, actually during some of the most trying times of David’s rule. There are certainly other very famous men in this genealogy of Ezra that are mentioned in these first five verses of chapter seven. Ezra did not squander the rich spiritual legacy of those spiritual men that went before him, but he built upon their great foundation.
The next sub-point covers verse six of chapter seven and is entitled “His remarkable audacity.” I have already mentioned briefly some of the truths found in this verse, but there is one thing in this verse that I have highlighted in red because it is near and dear to my heart, and that is the understanding of the Scriptures, for that has been a passion of mine since shortly after I became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ back in Jan. of 1974.
There is a wonderful verse found in Romans that give a great reason to study the Word of God: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” If one wants to increase their faith the best way is to study the Word of God. Ezra was that kind of a man, as he was not content to be laid back and just study, but went to the king and asked to bring more exiles back to Jerusalem and was successful because the hand of his God was with him.
The last sub-point is entitled “His exceptional ability,” and this covers verse 7:10. I would suppose that if I had to search the entire Bible that I would not be able to find a better verse that shows why I began this blog. I realize that I am no Ezra, and that I am not going to bring these studies to the nation of Israel, but I hope and pray that the Lord will use these studies to encourage others and to also encourage others to begin to dig in and study the greatest Book that has ever been written, and according to Romans 10:17 will have their faith begin to increase. Now when one’s faith is increased by the study of the Word of God they can begin to act in a similar way that Ezra had acted ant that put into practice what he had learned from the study of God’s Word. The psalmist wrote “Oh, how I love Your law! My meditation all the day (Ps. 119:97, NKUV). Some believe that Ezra is the one who began the Jewish Synagogues in Babylon, the first place they were found, and this was probably from his desire to study the Word of God and then put it into practice.
Ezra was blessed, not in the reading and studying of the Word, but obeying the Word, but you have to read and study it in order to obey it. Ezra had the right perspective and that is the perspective to follow, that of understanding the Word of God in order to teach others, and not to know it to be puffed up, but to be humble for the privilege of understanding this wonder Book.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following: “Each generation needs to discover the precious treasure of the Word of God, but that can’t happen unless previous generations are faithful to learn the Word, guard it, obey it, and teach it. ‘And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach other’ (2Timothy 2:2, NIV).
Spiritual meaning for my life today: What I have learned in this lesson today has enforced the things that I have studied before and also reinforced why it is that I want to study God’s Word. I have a desire to teach others what the Lord is teaching me, and this is why I was convicted to put these on a blog. However I want my motive to be pure in studying the Word of God, that is to obey it and to bless others with it too.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to study the Word and to put into practice what I have learned.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
7/14/2011 9:25:59 AM
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