Year 2, Day 45: Ezra 7

Ezra’s Genealogy

Here in Ezra 7 we have a great record of Ezra’s lineage.  I don’t know why, but this lineage fascinates me.  I guess I think it is pretty neat that Ezra could trace his line the whole way back to Aaron – Moses’ own brother!  I can barely trace my line back beyond my great-grandparents, much less to someone who lived 500 or 800 years prior to me.  That would be like me trying to trace my lineage back to someone who was a contemporary to Martin Luther or even Thomas Aquinas!  That’s pretty impressive.

Ezra’s True Value

But after we hear about Ezra’s pedigree we hear an even more important statement: “Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10, ESV)  This is a three-fold pattern to which I think we should pay some attention today.

• Ezra set his heart to study the law.  One cannot become a knowledgeable person on a topic without studying it.  We don’t give out driver’s licenses to anyone that wants one; a person must first demonstrate knowledge of the vehicular law before one is licensed.  We don’t allow just anyone to do open-heart surgery without doing pretty intensive practice and study first.  Why would we be surprised to find out that God desires that the people who will speak out about Him should know something about Him first?  In fact, I am always amazed at how much people are willing to say about God without practicing the study of His Word beforehand.  For some reason we all think ourselves experts on many topics – including God – without actually having studied about it!
• Ezra then attempts to do the law.  Now, I don’t want that to come across in a works-righteousness manner.  I didn’t say Ezra succeeded in mastering the law and doing everything right and was saved because of it.  But Ezra did put what he studied into practice.  And since he was human he no doubt he messed up once and a while.  The point is that Ezra lived his faith.  To use a few clichés, he walked to talk.  He put his money where his mouth was.  He practiced what he preached.  His study was more than just an academic pursuit of God.
• Finally, Ezra endeavored to teach it to others.  Notice that this is third in the list.  One can only teach best what one has first studied and wrestled against in practice.

Ezra Comes to Jerusalem

So Ezra goes up to Jerusalem to accomplish this task.  He gets a letter from the Persian king to make it happen.  He goes merrily on his way with God’s blessing from the mouth of a Gentile king.  Isn’t it really cool to see how God can work through the full chain of disobedience leading to oppression, oppression leading to repentance, repentance leading to reformation, reformation leading to genuine spirituality, and genuine spirituality leading to the repentant being able to see God’s hand at work in the world around us?

Also notice that as Ezra goes up he is told that he can have a certain amount of the treasury from the Babylonian stores from the captive land of Israel.  Yet, there is one item on the list that is not given a limit as to how much Ezra can request: salt.  Now, salt is very important to life and in ancient days it was far more expensive than it is today.  But I think there is something far cooler than a statement of wealth going on here.  I think God is setting up a message in Ezra’s life about spirituality.

Gold, silver, and other precious things will only get you so far.  We can live without those things.  But without salt, we die pretty quickly.  The electrical synapses in our bodies fail and we have problems with things like heart attacks, renal fatigue, and seizures.  Our intestines need some salt in order to absorb certain minerals.  We can live just fine without gold or silver.  We simply cannot live without salt.

In the New Testament, Jesus compares His disciples around Him to salt (See Matthew 5:13).  In a manner of speaking – especially when He adds “if the salt loses its saltiness,” Jesus is saying that without people of faith life would struggle to continue.  If I may tie this passage back to Ezra’s letter from the Persian King, it could be that the king {knowingly or unknowingly} is making the claim that he understands the role of God’s people.  After all, the king has supported the rebuilding effort and he has supported Ezra’s work to return the Hebrew people to God.  So I think it is legitimate to take from this passage this lesson: without faith, life is hard; without people of faith, life would struggle to continue in any meaningful manner.

Ezra Sets Up Shop

Finally we hear about Ezra’s ability to appoint judges and magistrates.  Ezra is being given power and authority.  Ezra has the king’s trust.  Even though the king is a Gentile king, God has sure worked through him in a way to show grace, power, authority, and even trust.  This book is really turning out to be a wonderful illustration on how God can work through even the most unlikely of sources.

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