A Study in Ezra - Week 01 - Part A

Four things to look for in Ezra:

1.  What does Ezra say about the character of God?

2.  What does Ezra say about God's love of His creation?

3.  What does Ezra say about God's plan of redemption?

4.  Whether Ezra relates to the Old Covenant or to the New Covenant...and how.

God told His people that if they chose to break their covenant with Him, He would again allow other nations to take them into slavery (Jer. 2:14–25). In spite of God’s repeated warnings from the mouths of His prophets, Israel and Judah chose to reject their Lord and to participate in the worship of foreign gods.

The Jews’ return from the Babylonian captivity seemed like a second Exodus, sovereignly patterned in some ways after Israel’s first redemption from Egyptian bondage. The return trip from Babylon involved activities similar to those of the original Exodus: 1) the rebuilding of the temple and the city walls; 2) the reinstitution of the law, which made Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah collectively seem like a second Moses; 3) the challenge of the local enemies; and 4) the temptation to intermarry with non-Jews, resulting in idolatry.

The decrees, proclamations, letters, lists, genealogies, and memoranda, many of them written by the Persian administration, attest to the sovereign hand of God in Israel’s restoration. The primary message of the book is that God orchestrated the past grim situation (captivity) and would continue to work through a pagan king and his successors to give Judah hope for the future (return). God’s administration overrides that of any of the kings of this world, and thus the book of Ezra is a message of God’s continuing covenant grace to Israel.

Here is an outline of Ezra:

I. The First Return under Zerubbabel (1:1–6:22)

A. Cyrus’ Decree to Return (1:1–4)

B. Treasures to Rebuild the Temple (1:5–11)

C. Those Who Returned (2:1–70)

D. Construction of the Second Temple (3:1–6:22)

1. Building begins (3:1–13)

2. Opposition surfaces (4:1–5)

3. Excursus on future opposition (4:6–23)

4. Construction renewed (4:24–5:2)

5. Opposition renewed (5:3–6:12)

6. Temple completed and dedicated (6:13–22)

II. The Second Return under Ezra (7:1–10:44)

A. Ezra Arrives (7:1–8:36)

B. Ezra Leads Revival (9:1–10:44)

 The events in the book of Esther are just about in the middle of the chronology of the book of Ezra.

 The book of Ezra witnesses that God keeps His covenants quite apart from the keeping of those covenants by the Jews. As people of the New Covenant, that must be considered welcomed news to us.

 Ezra, like Esther, is the story of how God kept the lineage of David complete until the coming of Messiah, Jesus, Christ.

Ezra reports how the sovereign hand of God moved kings and overcame varied opposition to reestablish Israel as Abraham’s seed, nationally and individually, in the land promised to Abraham, David, and Jeremiah.

The Prodigal and the Robe

It’s one of the best known illustrations given by Jesus. It’s the account of the Prodigal Son. It’s found in Luke 15, and is a part of a series of “losts.” There are the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.

A man had two sons, one of whom wants his inheritance in advance. So, the man divides ALL of his assets and divides them between the two. One son stays home and does what a good son does. The other becomes either rebellious or adventurous and leaves home to “sow his wild oats.” He spent all he had and ended up working for a pig farmer, the last place a Jewish person would have wanted to work, because pigs were considered unclean. He then decides he was better off at home, so he returns to a father who, unexpectedly, treated him like a king, threw a party and caused jealousy in the heart of the “good” son. The father then tells the gospel story (which he had never heard) of how the dead can live.

There are many important points in this parable. There is the greed of the son. There is the rebelliousness of the son. There is the pugnaciousness of the son. There is the extravagance of the son. There is the stupidity of the son. There is the wastefulness of the son. There is the misfortune of the son. There is the uncleanness of the son (he was working in a pig pen, remember?).

Then there is the time the young man came to his senses, recognizing his plight. There is his decision to return home, fully expecting to be rejected and relegated to the lowest position on the farm, a slave.

There is the father’s persistence in watchfulness. There is his reaction to seeing the son approaching home and there is his unexpected welcoming of the dirty, filthy, swine smelling prodigal.

Finally, there is the great celebration over the homecoming of the son. There is the other son’s jealous reaction and the father’s explanation.

Those are all acceptable applications of the account, but they are not the point.

The point of the “story” of the Prodigal Son is salvation.

Sin is ugly. It is uglier than pig slime. It is so ugly that God cannot so much as look upon it. He must turn His back on it (like He did when Jesus was on the cross). Most of us trivialize sin, not realizing how disgustingly vile it is to God. We wallow in it like the son did in the pig pens. We stink of it. We are slimy in God’s eyes because of it. Like the Prodigal Son, we are not worthy of being called sons of God.

There must come a time when we realize the ugliness of our sin and repent of it, as the Prodigal son finally did. Then we must turn to God just as we are, filth and all, asking Him to take us in, undeserving though we are. We must be willing to come to Him as slaves, the lowest of the low. 

When we do, something really wonderful happens.

In the parable, the father runs to his son, embraces him, slime and all, throws his finest robe over him and calls for a feast!

In our sinful state, God the Father sent God the Son to us with His arms open wide on the cross. He threw the robe of the shed blood of Jesus over us, covering all of our nasty, rotten sin…just as we are. And that’s how He accepts us, covered with the robe of the righteousness of Christ.

God has allowed us to become a part of His family. He has prepared a place for us. He has called for a feast at a special wedding: the marriage feast of the Lamb.

It has been rightly said that the Son of God became a Son of Man so that the sons of men might become sons of God!

Like the prodigal son, recognize your sin, repent of it and come to the Father through faith in, and only in, the finished work of the Son at the cross of Calvary.

Joshua Part Two

Remember: The book of Joshua is about Jesus.  The name Joshua means "Yahweh is salvation," or "the LORD is salvation." Variant forms of his name include Jehoshua, and Yeshua. It is the Hebrew name of the Greek form of "Jesus." In Numbers 13:16 his name was changed from Oshua to Jeho–shua (Numbers 13:8, 16). The Divine name of Jesus was incorporated into Joshua's. Every event in the book points directly to the Christ of the New Covenant.

Joshua is not a religious philosophy lesson. It is not a lesson about obedience (although obedience is certainly a good thing). Joshua is a lesson about God's salvation. It is about how God uses unexpected ways to accomplish His plan. What could be more unexpected than God coming to earth to live, die and rise from the grave to provide our salvation?

Chapter 7

Verse 1 – Achan took some accursed things.  Both curses and blessings were kept by God’s power, not man’s. Many curses and blessings were spoken directly by God through His servants. Under the Old Covenant, disobedience could bring a curse from God, meaning that some extremely grievous event could happen because of the action of an individual or group, up to and including eternal damnation.

If you are a born again believer, you will never be cursed by God because His Son’s sacrificial death either covered all of your sins or it didn’t. It did. That does not mean you will suffer no consequences for a sin you commit, but a curse is not one of the consequences.

Verses 2-3 – In order to win the battle of Ai, Israel would have had to have first been conquered by God. That is, they would have had to totally and completely submit themselves to Him. Achan’s rebellion showed that Israel had not been “conquered” by God. Instead they decided to rely on their own abilities. Because they had not submitted to God, it would have made no difference how many men they sent against Ai, they would have lost the battle.

Christians are called to be completely submitted to, and only to, Christ, who afforded them so great a salvation. Anything less will never bring the deep satisfaction of living by the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Verses 4-5 – Israel was defeated at Ai. Their defeat showed that strength is not what is important. Total surrender to God is all that matters.

Verses 6-9 – Joshua actually thought that the defeat at Ai was because of God’s unfaithfulness to Israel. What a perversion of the truth. It was their failure to submit to God that brought their defeat. Submission to Christ is the final evidence of our having received the salvation He offers.

Verses 10-11 – First realize that Israel had sinned against God. Sin is any act or thought that is not in the pure center of God’s will. That is how we know we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Israel sinned and suffered the consequences of their sin.

Verses 12-13 – The effect of Israel’s sin was that they lost their power before their enemies. For the Christian, sin does not result in a curse (eternal damnation), but it does result in a loss of power to live in the realization of God’s live.

Verses 14-15 – Joshua did not know that it was Achan’s family that had sinned against God and brought such powerlessness upon Israel. But God knew. God dealt with Achan’s family, He could continue His blessings on Israel.

Verses 16-18 – God actually revealed the offending family to Joshua. How embarrassing that must have been! The time for regret of sin is before we sin. In other words, Christians, if they have God’s law written in their hearts, know what sin is before they commit it. If we are focused on Christ, we cannot at the same time sin against Him.

Verses 19-21 – Joshua confronted Achan and he confessed his sin against God. If we confess our sin, God is faithful to forgive us. He is also just in doing so, because of the shed blood of Christ (See 1 John 1:9). When the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger for such a heinous sin, He was telling us that there is no sin that cannot be forgiven. 

The victory over sin comes when we die to self and place our trust in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary.