Ezra 8
Chuck Smith on Ezra 8
Verse by verse, the C2000, 1979 to 1985 and C3000, 1985 to 1999 series. Permission granted by The Word For Today.
C2000 · 1979 to 1985
Chapter introduction
So in chapter eight it gives to us a list of those who went with Ezra, totalling out about 754 of the males, when you add the priests that were added to later. So they numbered the people, and they found out that they didn't have any ministering priests among them of the Levites. And so they wanted to take back some priests to administer also. And so search was made, and they found these men and "by the good hand of our God upon us," they brought to us a man of understanding and his sons who were the sons of Levi, the sons of Israel. And so they returned with them to the land.
Verses 21–22
But as they gathered at the river and they were ready to go, they had collected a lot of money, the king had given them a lot of gold and silver and he said,
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all of our substance. For [he said] I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because (8:21-22)
He had actually told the king how great God was. "The God that we serve, He's the God of the universe," and really been bragging to the king about God. Been witnessing to the king about the power and the greatness of God and how God watches over His people and how God's hand is upon those for good who seek after Him, and we're going to seek after God and all. And so the king gave them all this gold and everything else. But now he has all this treasure and he's got this long journey through this land that is filled with Nomadic tribes who plunder all of the caravans that come along. They live off of these caravans. And with all of the wealth that he's carrying, he's really worried about it. What if they get plundered on the way and they're going to have to move slowly. Actually it took them four full months to make the journey from the area there in Persia to the to Jerusalem. And with all this money.
So he really had sort of painted himself into a corner in bragging about God. It would be inconsistent to go back to the king now and say, "Would you mind sending a bunch of soldiers and horsemen so we can be protected from the enemy?" When they had told him that God was able to protect. So they fasted and prayed and they then began their journey. So he took twelve of the men and he divided the treasure among them. Weighed out all of the silver and the gold with these twelve men and he instructed them to watch it and to keep it.
Verses 31–33
And so we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. And we came to Jerusalem, and we were there for three days. Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah (8:31-33)
And so forth. And so they had these guys bring the gold in and they weighed it out and it was all there. Every ounce made it safely.
Verse 36
And they delivered the king's decree to the king's lieutenants, and to the governors on this side of the river: and they furthered the people, and the house of God (8:36).
C3000 · 1985 to 1999
Verse 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 (8:1).
Basically, there are twelve major families, probably representing the twelve tribes of Israel. There is approximately fifteen hundred men, if you count them here it’s about fourteen hundred and ninety-six, plus those of the Levites which were not numbered plus the wives and the children, who went with Ezra with their families back to Jerusalem in this migration of people across this wilderness area. That saves us reading all of the names from verse two to verse fourteen. That’s basically what it says without all the names attached. They traveled for nine days.
Verse 15
And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava; (8:15).
That is this little stream that runs on into the Euphrates River.
and there abode we in tents three days: (8:15).
It was sort of a place for the staging of this journey getting everything together, checking all the supplies, going down the inventory and making sure everything was in order to begin this track across this wilderness area.
They arrived there on the ninth day out of Babylon. They remained there for three days.
Verses 15–17
and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi. Then sent I 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, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God (8:15-17).
We need men who when we return can minister in the house of God.
Verse 18
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; (8:18).
We will hear more about Sherebiah. He became, more or less, the leader in the priesthood and we will hear more about him when we get to Nehemiah.
Verses 19–20
And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons, twenty; Also of the Nethinims, (8:19-20).
The Nethinims were just the servants in the temple. Those that took care of the janitorial.
Verse 20
whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims: all of them were expressed by name (8:20).
All of them were able to give their genealogies.
Verse 21
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance (8:21).
Before embarking on this perilous journey across five hundred miles of desolate wilderness area, Ezra called for the people to fast and pray, to wait upon God to receive guidance and direction. This is a practice that is a wise practice and was something that was done also in the New Testament. Knowing the direction that God wants you to go, knowing the thing that God wants you to do; it is not wise to jump into it. It is always wise to seek the Lord, to fast and to pray and wait for sort of step by step instructions.
In the book of Acts, chapter fifteen, it says, “And the spirits said Separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the ministry wherein I’ve called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and the spirit sent them forth”. Now the spirit had directed Paul and Barnabas already, take these two fellows and take them into the ministry that I’ve called them to do, but before they embark in it there was that fasting and prayer, the waiting upon God. I think that we too often just jump into things, “Is that what God wants?” just jump and we don’t wait upon God and fasting and prayer for more specific direction.
Here, they knew that God wanted them to return to Jerusalem. We’ve got this perilous journey ahead of them, so let’s wait upon God, fast and pray and really get the mind of God and the anointing of God upon our lives before we begin this journey.
Verses 22–23
For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us (8:22-23).
History tells us that when they were transferring some of the treasury, that they had as many as twenty thousand soldiers accompany the treasures to protect it on this route because there was those marauding gangs, pirate types, who preyed upon the caravan. They would come down and kill the men, rape the women and steal the goods and make of with it. They lived off of the caravan.
That route was an extremely dangerous route to travel for the lack of law enforcement; it was the rule of the strong. Thus Ezra realized that he had a great amount of money, the gold and the silver and the vessels amounted to several millions of dollars. Thus he was a little concerned, going to be traveling over this dangerous route where all these marauding gangs hang out. But he told the king how great God is; God takes care of his people, God is a great power to those who trust in him. He had been bragging to the king so much about God that now he was ashamed to ask the king to send some soldiers.
There comes that place, I think, in life where we are determined to either trust in the arm of the Lord or we’re going to trust in the arm of flesh. I think we all have to come to that. When we were pastoring years ago, in Huntington Beach, we had a little lady who attended our church in her nineties. She was hardly as tall as the pulpit here; we called her mother Burke. She had a tremendous ministry of exhortation to the church. She could get up and make you want to love the Lord more, make you want to praise the Lord, make you want to pray, she just had a great gift of exhortation. She had a big Cadillac car that she drove around the country in, going to churches exhorting the body of Christ, that was her ministry. People were blessed by her ministry; she was just that grandmotherly type. Here at ninety, driving this car, you had to admire the spunk of this little gal.
She was in Texas ministering in a church there. A man was touched deeply, a man who owned a large trucking company. After the service, he came up and said, “I saw this car that you’re driving and that thing could just break down anytime, anywhere. That thing’s ready to go. So here’s my card and on it is my private home phone number. I have the trucking company and I have terminals and mechanics all over the country. You take my card and no matter where you are or what time, day or night, if you have a problem with your car just call me and I’ll see that your car gets towed in and repaired. No matter where you are, just call me”. She took the card and looked at it, smiled and handed it back and she said, “For seventy years I’ve been trusting the Lord to take care of me and he has never failed me yet. Though I appreciate so much your offer to me, I hope you’re not offended, but I would rather continue to trust in the Lord than to trust in you to help me out of a jam”.
Telling the people to trust the Lord, and that was her ministry, exhorting people that God was on the throne; that was her theme, “God is on the throne. God knows, God will take care of you”. Having that as her theme would be a little inconsistent to take a card that some man has offered saying you can trust in me to help you whenever you are in need, that’s inconsistent with her message.
It would have been inconsistent with Ezra’s message to the king for him to say, “can you give us a company of soldiers to go with us so we can get this treasure safely there”. He had been telling him how great God was and what God was able to do, so it would have been inconsistent. He fasted and prayed and they sought the Lord and God heard them and brought them safely there. That’s the bottom line to the story. You trust in God and God will take care of you. You trust in man and they might fail. As she said, “When I call you might be on vacation. You might be in the Caribbean or Hawaii or someplace and no one to answer the call”. She said, “I know whenever I call on the Lord, he’s always there”. O what an important message.
Verses 24–26
Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them, And weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counsellers, and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered: I even weighed unto their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, (8:24-26).
The fact that he is weighing it to them means that it was probably in bars rather than in coins.
Verses 26–27
and silver vessels an hundred talents, and of gold an hundred talents; Also twenty basons of gold, of thousand drams; and two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold (8:26-27).
He weighs all of this stuff out, they’ve taken inventory, and they write it all down, what is being commissioned to these twelve priests to carry back to Jerusalem.
Verses 28–29
And I said unto them, Ye are holy unto the LORD; the vessels are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering unto the LORD God of your fathers. Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD (8:28-29).
You guys are responsible for this. When we get to Jerusalem, when we come into the court, we’ll have the chief and the priests there and we are gonna weigh this stuff again. So you guys are responsible to watch over it and to bare it safely until we weigh it again before the chief priests in the chambers of the house of the Lord.
Verses 30–31
So took the priests and the Levites the weight of the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God. Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, (8:30-31).
They began their journey on the first day of the month from Babylon, nine days to the river, three days there at the river as they conscripted some Levites as they fasted and prayed and now they head out towards Jerusalem.
Verse 31
and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way (8:31).
He delivered us from the power of the enemy. O how wonderful it is to have the hand of God upon our lives, delivering us from the enemy.
Verses 32–34
And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days. Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the so of Binnui, Levites; By number and by weight of ever one: and all the weight was written at that time (8:32-34).
Checked off.
Verse 35
Also the children of those that had been carried away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt offerings for all Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, twelve he goats for a sin offering: all this was a burnt offering unto the LORD (8:35).
We’ve arrived; there are the offerings of commitment, consecration, the sin offerings. As with joy, they celebrate God’s providential care over them during this hazardous journey.
Verse 36
And they delivered the king’s commissions unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors on this side the river: and they furthered the people, and the house of God (8:36).
We find the commission and the fulfillment of the commission as they arrive safely according to the good hand of God upon them.
As I said this morning, there can surely be an interesting spiritual analogy drawn to this whole story. As we make our journey through the enemy’s land to the promise land, sustained by the hand of God; according to the good hand of the Lord upon us, we are strengthened for the journey; we are protected in the journey from the enemy. One day, by the grace of God, we’re going to arrive safely home in that heavenly kingdom, where we shall live and dwell with our Lord, world without end. All because of the good hand of the Lord our God upon our lives.
How important it is that we seek the Lord, that the hand of the Lord is upon them for good that seek him. How important that we seek God that his hand might rest upon our lives.
Father; be with us as we make this journey through this alien world. Lord we realize that we’re just pilgrims here, we’re just passing through. We realize Lord how out of sync we are with the world around us, a world that has given into rebellion against you, and a world that has given over to the flesh and to the fulfilling of their fleshly desires. O God, may we walk in the spirit, may we seek You with all of our heart. That Your hand might be upon us to guide us, to protect us, to strengthen us in our pilgrimage here. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
May the Lord be with you. May his hand be upon your life this week, that you experience the presence, the power of God as you seek him. May God really challenge our hearts to seek the Lord, his will, his plan. That we might be led of the Lord to accomplish his purpose that he has in mind for us this week. God has a special task for you to do. I pray that you’ll discover it and I pray that you’ll complete it for his glory.