Ezra8
Notes
Transcript
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Review- Jarad at job for 15 years. Enjoyed it, but now faces difficult people, boss with no leadership, and less energy.
How’s work- “Its a job”
Story continues- the company name and boss is totally different. Conflict is still present but progression is being made
A people of God- “Ambassador, I have a task for you.”
Prioritize worship/ take the next step- God chooses to dwell with me. I can talk with Him today. What is one thing I can do to serve someone at work today
Next steps our hard steps/don’t quit- toward his coworker he wants to give him a piece of his mind, but he remember that his family is watching. He prays together with them
Moral Drowsiness can only be awakened by God- another day; one day closer
God makes provision to dwell at home with him in a foreign land- even if I had a job with upbeat coworkers and engaging boss, it would be small in comparison to being a doorkeeper in God’s house.
Pray
In our limited ability there is a constant tension that exists with God’s action and our responsibility. The easing of this tension is met with all kinds of metaphors (God sending the boat, and helicopter to help the drowning man) inaccurate teaching (God helps those who help themselves), helpful instruction but no always clarifying (ask God for wisdom)
We wander at times why God could not regularly let us hear conversations like the one Gideon overheard in the tent of the enemy.
What are some of the things that we delay to do because of fear, confusion, or difficulty?
Break from a binging habit
Confessing, making something right, or seeking reconciliation
Talking to a neighbor
Using a spiritual gift
Pulling away from a bad influence
Getting baptized
Giving
Opening your home for others
Seeking for provision or waiting for God to provide
What are we waiting for in these kind of circumstances?
Peace
Time
Things to slow down
Someone to ask me to do it
Enough provision
Clarity
Starting with this tension may be stirring up a variety of emotions within you:
Anxiousness- I have had a history of overbearing people in my life
Annoyance- another sermon on something more I should be doing
Discouragement- I have tried and keep failing
Pride- most of the things listed don’t bother or I have already done them
Here is a question. To act in any of the areas listed, do you need full explanation, or calming peace? Does your next action have to be some bold and heroic? Do you have to get it all right when you start?
Is there a way to be move to action while still having questions, fears, and doubts.
Consider who this character is in Scripture and what moved this character to act
Illustration: What character in the Bible is described in these 4 actions/charades?
I want to see!- standing on tipee toes
Oh Wow!- bowing his head
Right on it Yes!- quickly runs
“I have an important message for you” going around to others
The book of Ezra is true to God’s nature of communicating with us in these unknowns. In the first part of the book, we have received hopeful insight into God moving the heart of kings and moving the heart of His people Israel to continue His redemptive story. Last week, we saw the overview of the second return to Jerusalem under the leadership of Ezra. We saw the purpose of the return, Ezra’s strong resolution with God’s law, the backing of the king’s decree, and the reminder that God’s hand was upon him.
Now the narrative switches to first person and we seem to be reading from what may have been a personal journal of Ezra’s. It is going to go into some of the details of the four month journey that was summarized in chapter 7. We will see the repeated affirmation of God’s strength and goodness, but we will get needed insight
The voice that calls us to act in these situation is one that affirms God is good, powerful, and on the move. It does not call us to inaction but rather calls us to
Work because God is at work
Work because God is at work
How does this work relationship function? What does it look like
Work with initiative based upon what God has already revealed
Work with initiative based upon what God has already revealed
What has God revealed?
He has revealed His gracious, forgiving, promise keeping nature. This was seen in Jeremiah and in the first wave of the exiles.
He has revealed the importance of His dwelling among His people and His people putting Him first and loving Him. For Ezra’s time this involved attention to the temple.
Ezra grows up in a foreign land hearing about the stories of the first return 80 years earlier. He knows that He is part of a high priestly lineage. (Captain of a team that does not formally exist). What initiating steps does he take
6 this Ezra came up from Babylon; and he was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.
He studies God’s law
He makes a request to the king (imagine this conversation)
28 and has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. So I was encouraged, as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me; and I gathered leading men of Israel to go up with me.
He persuades men to follow him to Babylon (imagine this persuasion)
Family heads were the names listed
All the families but one were mentioned in chapter 2
It was noted that the initial wave of exiles were stirred by God. There is an initiative taking by these families to continue what God had started
God has revealed enough to know and obey Him. He gives the supply and assures that He will lead bu calls us to act.
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Application:
What actions do you need to take without further instruction? If the answer is “I don’t know” you can ask a brother or sister. If the answer is “too many,” start with 1. If the answer is “I have tried already,” remember the nature of the one Who is calling and enabling. Books like Ezra are meant to instill hope in you
Transition:
Work with sacrifice toward God who rewards you
Work with sacrifice toward God who rewards you
15 Now I gathered them by the river that flows to Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I looked among the people and the priests, and found none of the sons of Levi there.
Of the 43,000 who returned in the first wave, only 74 were Levites.
Ezra sends men of influence and insight in verse 16
He sends them to an unknown place to us (Casiphia). The best we can discern, it could have been a concentrated dwelling of Levites. There could have been some kine of synagogue or temple there. There was one during this time in Egypt (v. 17)
There were only at the river 3 days. This transaction took place in this time. 258 Levites are persuaded to go. They are leaving security and possible places of steady jobs to do the menial work of a Levite.
This was quite a feate to which Ezra responded in his journal:
18 Then, 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, namely Sherebiah, with his sons and brothers, eighteen men;
Are all God’s task low-paying and unknown?
Is our cost evaluation too small? Do we move at small fading incentives?
Illustration of motivation to ride on errand with parent because of a balloon at the bank.
We can make decisions based upon what gives me most resources. Rather choose a location to live, hours to work with the intention of loving and serving those whom God has put in your sphere of influence.
Choose giving that honors him with a portion and sacrifice not one that gives of the leftovers.
Work with dependence on God who defends you
Work with dependence on God who defends you
Go back to the scene of Ezra talking to the king about the mission to Jerusalem. The king offers him soldiers to protect him on the way. Ezra declines his offer because He believes that God will take care of him.
Ezra is sitting by the river, and looking at all the children, the treasures. He is considering the bandits that lie all along the way of the 900 miles journey. He may begin to be thinking, “Denying the kings defense was probably a dumb idea. However, I can’t go back and ask him again because I told him God would defend us”
22 For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.”
Trusting God does not always mean denying earthly protection. Nehemiah 2:9 records that Nehemiah used the protection of the kings army and he saw the same good hand of God upon Him. Whatever means is used the ultimate defense is God.
So what does Ezra do?
21 Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.
And what does Ezra record in the journal?
23 So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.
Where do we feel most vulnerable? In walking with others. What will they think, say or do?
Where are we most naive about our vulnerability? Familiar or comfortable settings?
What our defensive mechanisms- fear, anxious work
1 Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.
Work with carefulness toward your Holy God
Work with carefulness toward your Holy God
Ezra and the group of about 5000 people are still be the river, and Ezra takes one other preparatory step. He takes 12 lead and 12 Levites and does an inventory of all the goods that had been entrusted to them for God’s house. He then declares
28 And I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord; the articles are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord God of your fathers.
29 Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the leaders of the priests and the Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the Lord.”
This is the them throughout Scripture. Be holy because or God is holy. You work because of the one who has set you apart for Himself. You work with resources and abilities given to you by God. This theme will be explored even more in the remaining two chapters.
Work with thankfulness toward God who always gives you favor
Work with thankfulness toward God who always gives you favor
27 Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem,
31 Then 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 from ambush along the road.
35 The children of those who had been carried away captive, who had come from the captivity, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.
Who was the character in Scripture that was described at the beginning?
What motivated them to action? God is the acting, revealing, dwelling person on the scene- in the unknown they are peering to understand. A simple request is eagerly done. Pride is silenced by humility
In Christ- I delight to do thy will O God.