In Ezra 8:1-15 … after listing all those names (a rather large group of returning Jews, upwards of 7,000 I have read), a trait (name listing) with which both the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are heavy, Ezra “pauses” for a brief time.

Hence today’s Text … “And I (Ezra the leader) gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava; and there abode we in tents three days: and I VIEWED the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi.” Ezra 8:15

I plan to call this (nearly) half-week “break” a time of rest and thoughtfulness … just before the long four month journey (back to Jerusalem) begins. (Do remember, even God Himself “rested” on the seventh day of creation!)

Plus … the command “to rest” is built right into the middle of the Mosaic legislation. One day in seven! (Exodus 20:8-11, the longest commandment! “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it THOU SHALT NOT DO ANY WORK, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and RESTED the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” One of the Ten Commandments.)

Ezra had his thousands of followers “rest.”

Why?

Here … apparently a time of inactivity … to “view” the people.

To “take inventory” of the situation!

To, as Paul would have said it … “Examine yourselves!” See 2 Corinthians 13:5 in the New Testament for the whole verse.

Wow!

How often do WE do this?

Paul again, 1 Corinthians 11:31 … “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged (of God).” Folks … God wouldn’t have to judge us (at least not as often) … if we more frequently “judged ourselves!”

Now here’s David, praying virtually the same idea: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23

Maybe even Daniel 5:27 would “work” here! “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” Daniel 5:27

Anyway, this is the general idea!

“And I (Ezra) gathered them (the Jews returning to Jerusalem) together to the river that runneth to Ahava; and there abode we in tents three days: and I viewed (“biyn” meaning “discerned, analyzed, considered”) the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi.” Ezra 8:15

Wow!

By so taking time to stop and “look at themselves” … the people here averted a major mistake! (As in: “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” 2nd John verse 8)

Look, astoundingly … “We found none of the sons of Levi!”  We are still our Text today … Ezra 8:15, its last clause.

Someone was missing.

A whole Tribe of Jews, the sons of Levi, not a single one was present!

Priests, yes (of the sons of Aaron).

But technically no Levites, servants of the House of God!

(Half of solving a problem can be detecting that problem!)

So Ezra takes action!

And resolves the issue!

God work will NOT be impoverished, after all!

“Then sent I (still Ezra) for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, chief men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, men of understanding. And I sent them with commandment unto Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say unto Iddo, and to his brethren the Nethinims (servants of the Temple of God), at the place Casiphia, THAT THEY SHOULD BRING US MINISTERS FOR THE HOUSE OF OUR GOD. And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of LEVI, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen; and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons, twenty; also of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims (a lot): all of them were expressed by name.” Ezra 8:16-20

Levites were found.

And Levites enlisted!

And a problem solved!

BECAUSE … of a three day rest and time of introspection!

Wow!

I “rest” my case! (Pun intended!)

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Jesus DID SAY to his disciples one day … “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and REST A WHILE: for there were many (people) coming and going, and they (the disciples) had no leisure so much as to eat.” Mark 6:31

Amen.

 

Yes, due to our travel schedule and morning preaching engagement, I will be writing today’s Bible Study Lesson this afternoon sometime. (And if not by the afternoon, early this evening.)

But I am excited about looking further into Ezra chapter 8.

Right now I must pour myself into the Text God has laid on my heart for the morning Service here in Salisbury, North Carolina.

And if you miss today’s Lesson … it will be archived right here for you to read anytime!

Ezra, that little Bible Book of history is proving to be more spiritually nutritious that I ever imagined!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Ezra chapter 8 shares a number of similarities with Ezra chapter 2.

Look!

Ezra 2:1 … “Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city ….” Then comes quite a long list of names!

Now Ezra 8:1 … These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king ….” More names again, a lot of them!

The first group was led by Zerubbabel, a noteworthy man of God.

The second, by Ezra himself.

And honestly, I see no one famous in all of chapter 8.

Virtually unknown people, these Jews, but still listed in the Book of God, the Bible!

And why there listed?

Because of their FAITH!

Their hearts had been “stirred” by the Spirit of God … to come home to Jerusalem, to the Temple, the Altar of God … to the right Place of worship!

So God has registered them in this historical document, again Ezra chapter 8.

And all this information forms something like a “parable” in my mind … as I sit here in a motel room typing a Bible Study Lesson.

I know another group of virtual “unknowns!”

Leaving a land of captivity heading for a place of Freedom!

On a journey, from earth to Heaven!

Having begun that trip due to one motive, FAITH in the Lord God Almighty, and His Son Jesus Christ!

We too have a Leader, a greater than Ezra (whose name means “Help”). Here I speak again of our dear Saviour! “The Lord of Life!” The Crucified, Buried and Risen Again King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

And this too … our names have also been written in a Register!

“The Lamb’s Book of Life,” Revelation 21:27.

Yes, the old song is right … “We ARE marching to Zion, that Beautiful City of God!”

Is you name written there?

Are you saved?

If not, God is able to touch your heart too!

That’s why Jesus came and died on Calvary!

His, our Lord’s, Own Words … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24, how to be “saved!”

Or Luke 10:20, with Jesus preaching once again: “But rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Tomorrow we will settle down into the history of the chapter, Ezra 8, more specifically. And it is loaded with practical applications concerning our “trip” to Jerusalem also, including “New Jerusalem” ultimately!

 

Today’s Verse (our Text for the morning) is beautiful!

Any real Bible Preacher on earth could orate on its precious truths for a whole Sermon!

Ezra said, as he faced a difficult journey: “And I was strengthened as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me.” Ezra 7:28, embedded in the chapter’s last verse, really.

Yes, a four month trek lay ahead of this man, the leader of hundreds of Jews who would be following his vanguard. Through apparently dangerous territory!

Yes he assuredly says: “the Hand of the Lord my God was upon me,” thus “I was strengthened!”

Wow!

The Hebrew verb employed as “strengthened” here is spelled “chazaq,” literally meaning “hardened” for the task ahead! Not wishy-washy! Not half in-half out! Resolved! Plus this, I just noticed that “chazaq” is translated “to hold” (37 times) in the King James Version. As in … “God’s Hand was upon me … and I was ‘held’ firmly by Him!” The verb here is also “reflexive,” meaning that the action of God is intensely personal, Ezra being in God’s Grip! (Normally a reflexive suggests: the subject of the verb is also the direct object of the verb, expressed or implied!) Like: “I was strengthened, me myself, by God’s Mighty Hand!”

This is impressive, in more ways than one!

Now the phrase “the Hand of the Lord” must be considered.

I find this exact “string” of words 36 times in the Old Testament, located in 35 different places, “the Hand of the Lord.”

From Exodus 9:3, its first Bible appearance: “Behold, the HAND OF THE LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.” All the way to Acts 13:11, its last appearance: “And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.” Mercy! Both these times, in both these extremes, the “Hand of the Lord” was stretched out in judgment!

But a few of the times (I am estimating a third of them, I just reviewed them all)  “the hand of the Lord” is used in the Word of God, it is viewed positively!

And certainly so by Ezra!

But also by Ezekiel (who uses the phrase more than any other Prophet, really more than any other Bible character) … “So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but THE HAND OF THE LORD was strong upon me.” Wow, Ezekiel 3:14, here God’s Hand and God’s Strength are again linked!

Furthermore Nehemiah, Ezra’s compatriot and co-laborer, was fond of expressing it this way: “Then I told them of THE HAND OF MY GOD which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.” Nehemiah 2:18, he sure wanted that “for good” in there, didn’t he?

Even earlier in Nehemiah (2:8) we find again … “And the king granted me, according to the good HAND OF MY GOD upon me.” Wow, not God’s Hand of Judgment (its predominant implication) … but God’s Hand of Blessing … “for good, not evil!”

Now our Ezra Text again: “And I was strengthened as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me.” Surely I’ve said enough to encourage us all!

Let us ask for God’s Hand to be “upon us” … “for good!”

For strength!

For courage!

(As in 1st Samuel 30:6 … “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: BUT DAVID ENCOURAGED (“chazaq, the very same verb used in today’s Text) HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD.” What a Verse! “Strengthened himself!”

Oh, Paul said it too, just in a little different way … “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13

I didn’t count them today … but once again, Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Ezra the Scribe is ready to lead another group of Jewish refugees (captives who have been set free) from the land of Babylon (now ruled by the Persians) back to the land of Judah, back “home.”

This venture has been made possible (to some degree anyway) by gifts (sizable financing) from the King of Persia, Artaxerxes by name. A rarity in ancient history, such kindness!

Now here are Ezra’s words as he pondered the wonderful turn of events, from slavery to liberty! “Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.” Ezra 7:27

Gold and silver provided by royalty, with a promise of more if needed, from the King’s vast resources!

Yet Ezra does NOT view the King as the ultimate giver in this wonderful act of provision! (Although you can be sure proper respect was shown to the Monarch for his largess.)

No, look at today’s Text again … “Blessed be the LORD GOD of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.”

It was GOD Who caused the gifts to flow!

It was GOD Who wanted His House (the Temple of Solomon being rebuilt, best as possible) beautified!

It was GOD Who placed such a generous “idea” into the King’s heart, mind!

And it was (of course) GOD Who deserved the final praise and adoration and worship, GOD alone!

Wow!

That’s the RIGHT WAY to view the “blessings” that come your way.

Certainly thank (it’s just good manners, etiquette) the individual giver, who (by the way) obeyed God’s promptings in his or her life, the heaven-sent notion to give to a certain person or ministry or cause. Thank them and MEAN it, too! From the depths of your heart.

BUT AT THE SAME TIME … realize that God is the Ultimate Sender of all life’s good things!

(Look: “EVERY good gift and EVERY perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17)

So … thank God, honor Him as the true Source of all Blessing!

(As in: “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow,” the “Doxology” we all used to sing every single week at Church! Or at least we did.)

That’s today’s Lesson, today’s thought, dear readers.

Gifts come … via the hands of others … but finally from the Hand of Almighty God!

Thank the donor!

Worship the Sender, the Lord of Heaven and earth!

One more time, today’s Verse … “Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.”

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell