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A Holy People? (6) Ezra 3:1—7:10
“You are holy to the LORD”
Ezra . . . was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the LORD the God of Israel had given. . . . Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel (7:6, 10). . Introduction
The time and career of Ezra (458 B.C.) was one chapter in the larger biblical story that began with creation, continued with Abraham, the Exodus, and the rise and fall of the Israelite nation, on down to New Testament times. You and I live in the new chapter and most definitive chapter in that age-long story. With the coming of Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection, arrived not only the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises, but a “dramatic irruption into the process of world history unlike anything before or since.”
Thus in once sense the story of Ezra the scribe and the restored community is not our story, yet their story is an essential part of our story as it contributed to setting the stage for who we are as a holy people. Basic spiritual issues now are the same as then although their forms and settings have changed. Our focus with Ezra is on his concern that the returned exiles should constitute a holy people: “And I said to them, “’you are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy’” (8:28). Although the actual language of the holy is somewhat infrequent in Ezra-Nehemiah, the reality of the holy is comprehensive for the life of the community and descriptive of the people of God. In addition to a holy people and the holy vessels we read of “the holy seed” (E 9:2), “the holy city Jerusalem,” (N 11:1, 18) the “most holy food” (E 2:63; N 7:65), “his holy place” (E 9:8); the “holy Sabbath” (N 9:14; 8:9, 10, 11), and “the sacred [holy] donations” (N 10:33).
A holy people: how did Ezra (and Nehemiah) go about to accomplish and ensure such? We will probably not be too comfortable with Ezra’s tactics, but they raise an issue that is relevant to the conduct of the Christian and to the life of the Church, one still debated in current biblical and theological scholarship, and thus an issue that remains relevant to the life of the Church, the age-long issue of “law and gospel,” or the relation between the vertical and horizontal dimensions of biblical faith and life and the definition and role of “law.” For example, fifty years ago (1957?), I read that salvation is all grace; ethics is all gratitude. But today we start with Ezra the scribe on his arrival in Jerusalem:
After this, in the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of the chief priest Aaron— this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the LORD the God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him. Some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants also went up to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. They came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. On the first day of the first month the journey up from Babylon was begun, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the gracious hand of his God was upon him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel (7:1-10)
I. “Ezra . . . a scribe skilled in the law” “the gracious hand of his God was upon him”
At what point in the story of the returned and restored community of Israel does Ezra arrive? We recount the story thus far as told by the book of Ezra. With the decree of the Persian ruler Cyrus (538 B.C.), we are told that 49,897 Jews returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and its environs (1:1--2:67). Both Cyrus and the people are said to have been “stirred” by God to action (1:1, 5). The first thing the people did on their return was to take an offering, “freewill offerings for the house of God, to erect it on its site” (2:67-70). A few months later under the leadership of the priest Jeshua and Zerubbabel the governor, they rebuilt “the altar of the God of Israel” and re-established the worship of God at the heart of their community life (3:1-7). Their next initiative, “in the second year after their arrival at the house of God at Jerusalem,” was to lay “the foundation of the temple of the Lord,” an occasion that led to great shouts of praise to the LORD, with the old heads weeping amidst the shouting “so that the people could not distinguish the sound of joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping” (3:8-13). The vertical God-ward dimension of their corporate existence was a priority.
But opposition to their rebuilding plans soon appeared. First came their religious rivals, the Samaritans to the north who asked to take part in the temple project, but were rebuffed by Zerubbabel (4:1-3). Then “the people of the land,” those who did not go into exile and who were now experiencing the influx of thousands of refugees, “discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build.” Letters were written to the Persian officials with the result that the builders in Jerusalem were made to cease “by force and power,” so “the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped and discontinued until the second year of King Darius of Persia” (4:4-24).
The “second year of King Darius” came eighteen years later (520 B.C.) when in response to the prophetic ministries of Haggai and Zechariah, the work of rebuilding the temple began anew (5:1-2). Then comes the story that Herb has recounted about Tattenai, the satrap of Syria (“the governor of the province Beyond the River”), who questioned their authority to build the temple. Letters were written to King Darius and eventually the original decree of Cyrus was found in the archives, and the order was given to continue work on the temple (5:3-6:12). So we read that
the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of the prophet Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished their building by command of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia; and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius (6:14-15).
The completion of the temple in 515 B.C. was followed by a joyful dedication of the temple by the people, the priests, and the Levites with the offering of “one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel” (6:17). The priests were set
in their divisions and the Levites in their courses for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.” On the fourteenth day of the first month the returned exiles kept the passover. For both the priests and the Levites had purified themselves; all of them were clean. So they killed the passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by all who had joined them and separated themselves from the pollutions of the nations of the land to worship the LORD, the God of Israel. With joy they celebrated the festival of unleavened bread seven days; for the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel (6:18-22).
The worship life of the people of Israel was now fully restored—altar, temple, and sacrifices. The vertical dimension of their community life was now effectively in place: “first things first”!
But now the real party-spoiler, Ezra the scribe and priest, who could trace his lineage back to the chief priest Aaron, arrived on the scene from Babylon along with more people, some priests and Levites, singers and gatekeepers, and temple servants. What was the problem? In his hands was “the book of Moses,” “the law of Moses,” “the law of the LORD” (7:1-10). We read that
this Ezra . . . was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the LORD the God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him. . . . Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel (7:6, 10).
To be a holy people was it not enough to have the temple, to worship with the proper liturgy, to get the vertical dimension in order with a meaningful relationship with the God of Israel based on his redemptive grace? Why mess around with a “law”? With rules? With “do’s and don’ts”? Does that not lead to a legalism, getting the behavioral cart before the salvation horse? After all love, love, only love matters!! Did Ezra get off the track, or is there something essential to biblical faith and life about “the law of the LORD” (7:10)?
II. “the law of the LORD”
Ezra, as a “scribe skilled in the law of Moses,” was an interpreter and expositor of the law, not just a copyist. He is portrayed as the first and great example of a class in a long line of those who studied, lived, and taught the requirements of “the law of the LORD” to the people. This book of the law that Ezra possessed was “similar to, if not fully identical with, our Pentateuch,” and had probably been in the process of reaching its final form by the work of Ezra and others in Babylon.
Having now arrived in Jerusalem, “Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel” (7:10). Ezra was intent on forming a holy people by his teaching of “the law of the LORD.” But how was “the law of Moses” originally intended to function in the life of the people of Israel?
As far back in the Old Testament as Exodus 15, as the story heads towards the giving of the law at Sinai, the narrator describes the intended role of the law or torah (“instruction”) in Yahweh’s words, “I am the LORD who heals you” (15:26). Along with other hints in this story of the healing of the bitter waters at Marah in response to the grumbling of the people (15:22-27), the declaration “I am the LORD who heals you” witnesses to God’s intention for the torah in the life of the people. The grace of deliverance is not sufficient in itself but leads to a “completion” of grace, a grace linked to the true function of torah. The need for more grace is seen in the complaints and faithlessness that punctuate chapters 16 and 17. In 16:8 Moses says, “the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but” against the LORD,” and in 17:6 the people cry out, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
When the law, focused in the Ten Words (20:1-17), is given in the midst of the Sinai theophany, we are told that
When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.” Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
The true function of the law of Moses or the torah is found in Moses’ declaration that “God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin” (v. 21). The verb “to test you” may very well mean “to cause to have experience of,” with the primary meaning then of Exodus 20:20 being that God has come in the giving of the torah that his people may so experience him so that his presence may be present with them to keep them from sinning. The law is intended as a “means of grace,” a means of putting us in touch with God’s transforming presence: “God has come”—not an impossible, oppressive, and legalistic set of rules!
Other Old Testament scriptures appear to bear this out: Listen first to the deuteronomic summary of the law: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart” (Deut. 6:4-6).
As he was about to begin his conquest of the Promised Land, Joshua was told to
be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth (cf. Deut. 30:140); you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:7-9).
The Psalmist spoke often of the positive and liberating role of the law in the lives of the faithful:
but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper (1:2-3).
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes; . . . Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer (19:7, 8, 14).. Note the verbs.
Conclusion
Our “instruction,” our torah, our instructor is Christ, our Instructor as we seek to become and be a holy people!
“Christ is the end (telos “goal”) of the law” (Rom. 10”4), therefore “whoever says, “I abide in him,’ ought to walk just as he walked” (1 John 2:6; cf. Col. 2:6).
For us the means is crystal clear: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
So we sing,
By God’s Word at last at last my sin I learned; Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned.
Yet he question remains: What did Ezra do, how does he fit in our “law and gospel” issue--“redemptive grace” and its relation to an obedient life--ethics, and character, that is “the law of the LORD” in our living? From North, “The Chronicler,” 385-386. The Second Temple (Ezra 1:1—6:22 Ezra’s Return and the Torah (Ezra 7:1—10:44) Ezra’s Priestly Scribal Activity (7:1-28) Rounding Up the Convoy (8:1-31) The Situation in Jerusalem (8:32—10:44) Rearmament of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1--7:72) Ezra’s Torah Promulgated (Nehemiah 7:73—9:38) Nehemiah’s Reform (Nehemiah 10:1—13:30) Ezra 8:28. These words were spoken by Ezra to the leading priests. Timeline for the events in Ezra-Nehemiah Reign of Cyrus II of Persia (550-530) Conquest of Babylon by Cyrus II (539) Edict of Cyrus and Return of the Exiles (538) Reign of Cambyses in Persia (530-522) Reign of Darius I in Persia (522-486) Temple Rebuilt (520-515) Ezra’s Mission (458?) Nehemiah as Governor (445-) Or 398 B. C., depending on how one deals with the biblical evidence. A few suggest 428 B.C. The basic question is who arrived first, Ezra or Nehemiah? The date of 458 B.C. assumes that Ezra came first (Ezra 7:7-8). N. T. Wright, Paul: In Fresh Perspective ( Fortress Press, 2005), 54. The relation between different periods of biblical history, e.g., Old Testament and New Testament, and even between New Testament times and our own as to the application of biblical authority remains a crucial interpretive issuel. The word “holy” occurs five times in Ezra and nine times in Nehemiah. My memory says that while reading for a course on the Church at Princeton Theological Seminary I first saw this saying in Newton Flew’s book, Jesus and the Church (1939). I read later, however, that its origin is much earlier, but I cannot remember the author. The Samaritans were Jews who had mixed with the foreigners that the Assyrians had earlier settled in the area (2 Kings 17:24). They followed the Mosaic tradition and shared the Jewish interest in rebuilding the temple. The name “Ezra” was probably the shortened form of a word meaning “the Lord has helped.” Probably in the reign of Artexerxes I, 465-425 B.C. The hermeneutic of “love” takes several forms in current theological and ecclesiastical discussion, especially as it relates to contemporary Jesus’ research.. H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 16 (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1985), xxxxix. It is possible that when Cyrus officially ended the Jewish exile, a school of priestly scribes had doubtless just embarked on the mammoth project of publishing a critical edition of the Torah. Rather than undertaking the difficult task of abandoning or relocating such a project, they elected to delay their return to Jerusalem until the work was finished. But the years dragged on to decades and almost a century until eventually Ezra became head of the school and brought the project to a head. So Robert North, “The Chronicler: 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah,” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmeyer, and Roland Murphy (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1990), 390. The hints are in verse 25, first in the Hebrew root consonants of torah forming the root of the verb “showed,” and then in the verse’s “law” language-- “a statute and an ordinance.” For the interpretive details behind this use of the Wilderness and Sinai narrative see my “Biblical Foundations for the ‘Secondness” of Entire Sanctification,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 22.2 (Fall 1987), 13-16, and ”The Quest for the Holy: The ‘Darkness of God,’” Wesleyan Theological Journal, 23 (Spring-Fall 1988), 14. See also Moseh Greenberg, ”nsh in Exodus 20:20 and the Purpose of the Sinaitic Theophany,”Journal of Biblical Literature, 79 (1960), 275-276. See also Deuteronomy 11:18 and 30:14. See especially Psalm 119. For example verses 11, 18, 34, 72, 77, 97, 105. Read the whole of Psalm 119 at one sitting. “At Calvary,” William R. Newell, 1895.
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