Dei Time

Tough Love

Dei Break

Ezra 9:1 - 10:44

Ezra was "appalled" (NASB) over the intermarriage of Jew with pagan, buy not because of his racism or xenophobia, but a concern that the foreign wives were actively involved in their pagan practices and drawing their families away from God (vs.14). This was what God wanted separated from His people. Also, the pronouncement may not have been a blanket declaration, since the decision was made to consider each case of intermarriage separately. It may be that the judges in some cases determined that the family involved was devoted to the Lord and that the wife had accepted God as her Lord. Paul expressed the same concern over conflicting religious practices within marriage in 2 Corinthians 6:14. The Bible isn't specific as to whether all of the foreign wives were divorced regardless of their belief, but we do know that Jesus accepted anyone who believed in Him, including the woman of Samaria who had been guilty of improper worship.

One way that intermarriage became acceptable was that the people's leaders were practicing it. When a nation's leaders not only condone immoral practices, but pursue them, sin is much harder to recognize. It is much harder to draw the people and the nation to repentance and change. Continually in the history of Israel and Judah the king's actions had a major impact on the practices of the people. Today, we live in an age when the morality of business and political leaders is said to be irrelevant to their public lives, and has no effect on the nation's people, but is that true?

Ezra was tough, even making the crowd stand in a pouring rain to hear God's word (10:9), but his "tough love" was what the people needed. Ezra's desire for their survival as a unique people of God meant that he had to do the unpopular thing. It's hard to imagine the difficulty for the families involved, but the Bible doesn't detail everything that happened. One can hope that God's compassion moved the leaders to provide support and care for each separated family.

Next time: Nehemiah—Cupbearer to the King

Just Who Was Ezra?

Dei Break

Ezra 7:1 - 8:36

Artaxerxes appears again. According to Easton's Bible Dictionary, this was a Greek name applied to several Persian kings. This Artaxerxes is not the one who blocked the rebuilding of the temple. Knowing the Persian kings through their own records allows us to date Ezra's return to Jerusalem at 458 B.C.

Ezra was a scribe. The scribes served as teachers, editors, and copyists of the Word. By Ezra's time the various books comprising the Old Testament were becoming more available in written form. Jewish tradition credits Ezra with assembling much of the Old Testament as we know it today.

Ezra's qualifications to serve as a teacher and leader of the priests and people are presented by way of his lineage. He was a descendant of Aaron, and a direct descendant of the last high priest to serve prior to Babylon's conquest of Jerusalem.

Although Moses is widely accepted as the author of the first five books of the Old Testament and Joshua, David, and Solomon as writers of various books and parts of books, Ezra is the first who speaks in the first person (7:28, 8:15, etc.). We are reading the first person account of the experiences of a man living over 2,400 years ago.

Ezra's group was not the first to leave Babylon. His visit to the temple in Jerusalem illustrates that Ezra and his followers arrived after the completion of that structure—56 years after.

What was so important about this journey to Jerusalem and these returning residents? In our reading it will become obvious that the people in and around Jerusalem had again begun to lose their focus on God. Why did God choose to send Ezra? Commentators note 7:10—"For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel." Ezra was about to make a huge impact on the people of Jerusalem. How would the Law affect this new generation of Israelites who, while in Babylon, had begun to take on the name "Jew"?

Next time: Tough Love

The Politics of Rebuilding

Dei Break

Ezra 5:1 - 6:22

Artaxerxes, out of fear that Judah would rebel if Jerusalem were rebuilt, ordered that work there be stopped. This decree remained in force for about 15 years until 520 B.C., about six years into the reign of his successor, Darius.

Haggai and Zechariah (vs.1) were prophets whose experiences were recorded in their own biblical records that we will be reading later. They emphasize the disobedience of the returning Jews as the cause of their problems. Ezra concentrates on the enemies of Jerusalem. Both were real.

Tattenai doesn't appear to have been opposed to the rebuilding of the temple, but as an administrator he wanted to make sure that it was approved by King Darius (vs.17). The king's later threat in chapter 6 to impale anyone who rejected his proclamation demonstrates that any royal official would be very cautious in their duties (vs.11). Tattenai must have done well at this. His name is found in Persian records dated almost 20 years after the Jerusalem incident.

Darius' references to God seem to indicate that he recognized God as his Lord (vs.10 and 12). However, Persian records indicate he restored the temples of many gods in many areas. He probably thought the true God was just one of many.

Surprisingly, Cyrus is named king of Assyria in verse 22. He had been called king of Babylon in verse 13. It may be that the author was reminding the people that the evil that Assyria and Babylon had done had been overturned. It is also true that the territory controlled by Persia had once been Assyria's empire, then Babylon's. It was not unknown for even the Persians to relate their rule to the former empires of the area, emphasizing no doubt the supposed superiority of the new Persian Empire that presently reigned.

The Persians ruled over Jerusalem, but the temple was rebuilt, dedicated, and the Passover celebrated about 900 years after its institution in Egypt. Twenty-one years had passed since the return to the city. It was late winter 515 B.C. and the people of God were home again.

Next time: Just Who Was Ezra?

Problems Begin

Dei Break

Ezra 3:1 - 4:24

Zerubbabel was a grandson of King Jehoiachin, who had been pardoned after 37 years of imprisonment in Babylon and pensioned by the government there. He was, like all the kings of Judah, a descendant of David. His co-leader, Jeshua, was a Levite priest and is identified by some of the prophets as the high priest of the time.

A group that we've seen before now returns to the story. When Assyria crushed Israel, the empire relocated settlers from other areas to Samaria. These newcomers intermarried with the survivors of the attack on Israel who remained in the area. You may recall that some of the people of the north accepted an invitation to rejoin Judah in the true worship of God while others scoffed at the idea (2 Chronicles 30). Now it is 536 B.C., nearly two hundred years after Israel fell in 722. The intermarriage has resulted in a new form of worship—worship of God, but tainted by the non-Jews intermarried with Israelites and also tainted by ignorance brought about by the lack of spiritual leadership in the area for at least 50 years since the fall of Jerusalem. After being rebuffed by the returning Jews at their offer to help rebuild the temple (4:2), the "Samaritans" turned on their distant cousins and began to plot against them (vs.4-5) instead of working with them.

In Jesus' time, the Jews hated the Samaritans, and would walk all the way around Samaria, substantially lengthening his journey in order to avoid touching Samaritan soil. The religious confusion in Samaria caused by its convoluted history accounted for Jesus' unusual conversation with the Samaritan woman by the well.

Artaxerxes, around whom the quoted letters (vs.7-16) revolve, was king of Persia from 464 B.C. to 424 B.C., indicating that the opposition to rebuilding Jerusalem went on for decades. Verse 24 climaxes with the clear statement that the king ordered the rebuilding in Jerusalem to cease.

Next time: The Politics of Rebuilding

More on Artaxerxes    http://formerthings.com/artaxerxes.htm 

The Exiles Return

Dei Break

Ezra 1:1 - 2:70

While the Jewish nation lived on within its borders, Babylon plunged to destruction. Overextended and filled with political intrigue and ambition, within fifty years after destroying Jerusalem Babylon was itself destroyed. Persia swept into the land from the southeast, creating yet another world empire.

Life in Babylon was not like the years of slavery in Egypt. Though deported against their will to a strange land, for most Jews it was not a journey to prison or excessive repression. Life was pretty normal in Babylon. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that some Jews did very well in exile, establishing trading businesses and other profitable enterprises. A sign unearthed at one excavation site could be translated something like "Murashu and Sons - Banking and Real Estate - with Offices in Nippur and Throughout the World."

It had been fifty years since the three deportations from Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and many Jews chose to not return to a city unknown to them. Jerusalem was 900 miles away and these descendants of the city's residents had been born in Babylon and established their lives there. They were part of what came to be known as the Dispersion. God used their tragedy to spread His name in the world. Some Jews settled in Babylon, others dispersed throughout the region, including Egypt.

However, to many the pull of the city of God was more important than the comfort of Babylon. God promised their ancestors a land, and that land surrounded Jerusalem. These people sought to retain their identities as God's people, complete with His blessings. They were eager to get away from Babylon and, perhaps especially, Babylonian worship practices. In the city of Babylon there were fifty-five chapels devoted to the chief god, Marduk; fifty-three temples to other chief gods; three hundred chapels to earthly deities; six hundred to heavenly deities; and three hundred seventy-two altars to other various gods. In the midst of this rampant idolatry, synagogues first appeared, since the temple was not available for worship. Rabbis (or "teachers") replaced the priests as worship leaders since no sacrifices could be made.

Next time: Problems Begin