Loading summary
Transcript9 lines
- [00:05]
A
Hey, you are listening to A Year in the Bible with Daily Grace. We're so glad you are here with us today. We're wrapping up the Book of Ezra. Right, C.J. we're going to cover a few chapters, chapters seven through ten. You want to walk us through these chapters?
- [00:18]
B
Absolutely. So today we finally meet Ezra, after whom the book is titled. And he finally comes to the fork. He's a priestly scribe who knew well the law of Moses. So he's a very studious guy. He's also a priest, and he lived during the reign of a guy named Artaxerxes, who was another Persian king. And it was around the time of about 450 BC. So again, we see sort of the long development of this restoration and this return of the Jews back in the land of Israel. And the text says that the hand of the Lord was upon him, was upon ezra in Ezra 7:6. So the Lord has commissioned this man to do something, and he comes with a decree from the King Artaxerxes back in in Persia. And it says that any Jews who want to come with me and who want to go back to the land are free to do so. You guys can join me now, and we'll all go back. So we recruit some Levites, and they all head from Babylon, from that region, and they head for Judah. And then we get to Ezra 9. And here Ezra arrives and some local leaders took tell them some unfortunate news. They say some of the Levites have taken foreign wives. Now, this isn't to say that the Lord is somehow xenophobic or racist or something like this, but to say that someone has taken a foreign wife in the Bible implies that they've taken a wife who worships other gods. And that's an important thing to keep in mind here. We do see examples in the Old Testament where Israelites take wives from other people groups, but they're not foreign wives because they worship Yahweh. So for instance, we think of Ruth or we think of Rahab and these sorts of women. So that's an important thing just to keep in mind.
- [01:55]
A
Yeah.
- [01:56]
B
And then in response, Ezra tears his clothing because he's so bothered by it, and he offers a prayer of confession for the community, and he laments that they've turned from God, and he prays for restoration, and he prays that all hearts would be turned towards God. And then he urges the people to recommit themselves to the Lord and he urges them to repent.
- [02:15]
A
Yeah, so that's a great summary of what's happening here. What do we take away? Like what we walk away with from these chapters?
- [02:23]
B
Yeah. So I think the thing that comes to mind for myself is that repentance and self reflection, I think should be part and parcel of the Christian life. Obviously, as Christians, in theory, we're obeying God as best we can all the time, but of course we falter. And we're also sinful saints, which means that we do things that are not ideal and not moral. So I think Ezra reminds us that sin is serious. Christ came to die for our sins, so we should treat it with the seriousness that it deserves and that we should constantly be reflecting upon that.
- [02:54]
A
Yeah, I mean, in that vein, I felt some self reflection as I was reading through this passage. And one verse that really stuck out to me was Ezra 7:10, which says, Now Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel. And I thought, man, what just like a one sentence summary of what I would love to also determine in my own heart. And so by the help of the Spirit, I pray that I can do that. But that really caused a moment of reflection for me, that one verse right there. So, okay, that wraps up the book of Ezra. We talked about Ezra and Nehemiah. They're like buddy books. And so we're gonna hop into Nehemiah and kind of continue this story there tomorrow.
- [03:36]
B
Exactly right.
- [03:37]
A
Thanks, CJ.