Ezra & Nehemiah: Walking in God's Words

R E A D I N G T H E B I B L E T O D AY S E R I E S

Ezra & Nehemiah

Ezra & Nehemiah Walking in God’s Words Walking in God’s Words

Peter Adam

Peter Adam Series Editor–Paul Barnett

Contents Foreword Preface

vii ix

1.

Reading books of the Bible

1

2.

The main theme of Ezra and Nehemiah: walking in God’s words

7

3.

Background information

15

4.

The first group returns from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 1–2)

21

5.

He is good; his love endures forever (Ezra 3)

39

6.

From opposition to joy (Ezra 4–6)

53

7.

Four miracles of God (Ezra 7–8)

64

8.

The first sin (Ezra 9–10)

75

9.

Meet Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1:1—2:9)

92

10. Rebuilding the walls and gates of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:10—4:23)

111

11. Fear God (Nehemiah 5)

128

12. Strengthen my hands, O God (Nehemiah 6:1—7:23)

137

13. Our great, mighty, awesome and loving God (Nehemiah 8–10)

145

14. Nehemiah and the people of God (Nehemiah 11–12)

171

15. More reformation needed! (Nehemiah 13)

176

16. Conclusion

191

Chapter 2

The main theme of Ezra and Nehemiah: walking in God’s words

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are about the two leaders the books are named after, and what they did. They are about the Jews returning from Babylon to Jerusalem, rebuilding the temple and walls of the city, and what happened to them when they returned.

The books are structured around the return of three groups of exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem; the first in Ezra 1–6, the second in Ezra 7–10, and the third in Nehemiah 1–13. These people returned by God’s grace, and also by the decision of the King of Persia; the first group by permission of King Cyrus, and the second and third groups by command of King Artaxerxes. All faced problems from within God’s people, and opposition from outside God’s people. Nevertheless, God succeeded in bringing his people back to their land and their city, Jerusalem.

At a deeper level, the books are about the power of the word of God, and the ministry of Ezra and Nehemiah in encouraging God’s people to walk in God’s words. We see the power of the word of God in Ezra 1:1.

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the L ORD spoken by Jeremiah, the L ORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing.

7

Walking in God’s Words All that happens in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah flows from the fact that the LORD moved Cyrus to act so that the word of God spoken by Jeremiah would be fulfilled. Because the LORD acted so that his word was fulfilled, his people returned from Babylon to Judah, his temple was rebuilt, his law was taught, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt and the city repopulated. All that happens in these books is the result of the fulfilment of God’s word. So too, the constant theme of these books is that God’s people learn to walk according to God’s word, and especially by the Law of Moses.

They learn to fulfil his word as they trust his promises, obey his commands, heed his warnings, shape their lives by his instructions, and so know and worship God. Ezra was a scribe and teacher of God’s law, who had devoted himself to study, perform and teach the Law of God. He was sent by King Artaxerxes to teach and impose God’s laws on God’s people, and to appoint judges and magistrates who would implement those laws, because the king had instructed that God’s laws should be followed by God’s people (Ezra 7:1–10, 25–26). Ezra implemented this requirement in the difficult area of mixed marriages in Ezra 9–10. We see a major example of Ezra’s ministry of teaching and implementing the Law of God in Nehemiah 8–10.

Fulfilling God’s laws also required the completion of the temple, the provision of utensils for temple worship, and the recruitment of priests and Levites to serve in the temple (Ezra 1–3, 5–6, 8). This too was an implementation of the law, because it fulfilled the requirement that God’s people worship God in the place he had chosen, namely Jerusalem and the temple (Deuteronomy 12:5–14), and according to his instructions about how to worship (Exodus 25–40; Leviticus; and many places in Deuteronomy).

Though not a priest or scribe, Nehemiah had a similar commitment to the Law of God. He wanted God’s people to live securely in Jerusalem, ‘the place’ God had chosen as a dwelling for his Name (Nehemiah 1:9). That was why he built the wall (Nehemiah 1–4, 6, 12), and why he 8

The main theme of Ezra and Nehemiah repopulated the city (Nehemiah 11, 12). He ensured that only authentic people of God took part in temple worship (Nehemiah 10:28, 29; 13:1–3, 23–29), and implemented the requirements of the law in regard to worship and the Sabbath (Nehemiah 8–13). He also implemented the ethical requirements of the law (Nehemiah 5). In the absence of a king in David’s line6, Nehemiah acted like a judge from the time of the judges (see the book of Judges). He protected the people from their enemies, and encouraged them to serve only the LORD, according to the law. In the words of Mervin Breneman, ‘More than anywhere else in Scripture, these books show the power of God at work through written texts’. 7 We could add that these books also show a remarkable determination to shape the people of God by the words of God, and a model of how to apply ancient texts in a new context.

Ezra and Nehemiah followed the words of God, and taught and encouraged God’s people to do the same. From that commitment to the words of God came their commitment to the people of God, to the city and temple of God, to the true worship of God, to the application of God’s words to God’s people, and to the purity of God’s people.

These are the main themes of these two books, and they all come from the Law of Moses and the prophets, and are shaped by ideas and words from those sources.

We find at least 44 specific references to terms like ‘the Law of Moses’, and seven other references to the people doing something ‘according to what was written’, or similar words referring to the law. The law features at key moments, such as the description of Ezra and his ministry in Ezra 7 and 8 and in Nehemiah 8, and in the formative and extensive prayers of Ezra 9 and Nehemiah 1 and 9.

6.

Zerubbabel, who was governor of Judah (Haggai 1:1), was a grandson of King Jehoiachin, but did not have the role or title of ‘king’. Nehemiah was not of David’s line.

7.

Breneman, M 1993, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, New American Commentary 10, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, p. 53.

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Walking in God’s Words The teaching of the Law of Moses is fundamental to the theology of Ezra and Nehemiah. From that law comes: • belief in God the Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth • God’s covenant and promise to Abraham, including the gift of the land • God’s call on his people to worship him only in ‘the place’ he would show them (i.e. Jerusalem) • the recognition of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi • the provision and regulations about priests and Levites • the instructions about sacrifices and feasts like Passover and Tabernacles • the provision and regulations about the Sabbath • the story of God’s rescue of the people from Egypt through Moses, and his protection of them in the wilderness • the covenant at Mt Sinai, and the giving of the law, with its laws about the community, including care of the poor, the prohibitions about marriage to the people of the land, and the prohibition of idolatry • the call to be holy, as God the LORD is holy • the threat of being scattered among the nations and the promise of return.

These are the major themes and basic theology of Ezra and Nehemiah, and these all come from the Law of Moses.

Ezra and Nehemiah also use the prophets, especially Jeremiah, as sources of the written words of God. We find this focus on walking in the words of God in the solemn covenant and promise that forms the climax of the two books. God’s people, living in Jerusalem, with temple and wall rebuilt, having been taught the Law of Moses, and separated from foreign influence, made this solemn promise to: bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the LORD our Lord (Nehemiah 10:29).

10

The main theme of Ezra and Nehemiah Following the law was essential to express the fact that they were indeed God’s people, reconstituted after the disaster of their exile brought about by the judgement of God. Because their ancestors had failed to keep the law, they had been expelled from the land. They must keep the law, to show that they were the people of God. That is the reason for the long lists of names, which show their legitimate ancestry (Ezra 2, 8; Nehemiah 7, 11). This is the significance of the crisis of intermarriage, which threatened the identity and purity of God’s people (Ezra 9, 10; Nehemiah 13:1–3, 23–28). Other signs of continuity and identity included returning to the land promised to Abraham; rebuilding Jerusalem, originally captured by King David; rebuilding the altar and temple on the same site in Jerusalem; using the returned utensils from the former temple; re-establishing the ministry of authentic priests and Levites; and celebrating the major festivals and daily sacrifices.

Furthermore the great prayers of the book (Ezra 9; Nehemiah 1, 9) are soaked in Scripture, not only from the law, but also from the later historical books and the prophets. They largely comprise quotations from Scripture.8 King Artaxerxes instructed Ezra to teach the Law of God, and to ensure that it was implemented by God’s people in Judah, and more broadly by the Jews who lived in the province of Trans-Euphrates. He referred to Ezra as ‘teacher of the Law of the God of Heaven’ (Ezra 7:12), and wrote of the Law of God as ‘the wisdom of your God which is in your hand’ (Ezra 7:25, RSV). And the right response to the words of God in Scripture is found in Ezra 9:4, where everyone ‘trembled at the words of the God of Israel’ (see also 10:3).

For God loves those who ‘tremble at [his] word’ (Isaiah 66:2).

Although they were not called prophets, both Ezra and Nehemiah acted like prophets. As John Calvin wrote, the 8.

See for example, Myers, JM 1965, Ezra, Nehemiah, The Anchor Bible, Doubleday, New York, pp. 78, 79, 95, 96, 167–170. You will also find these in a good cross-reference Bible.

11

Walking in God’s Words prophets of the Old Testament derive their teaching from the law, and they explain in more detail what it means to obey God, and apply the law to their own day.9 Ezra and Nehemiah did this. And it is striking that Nehemiah’s book begins with the phrase, ‘The words of Nehemiah’: this is the same form of words an expression that introduced the prophecies of Jeremiah and Amos. 10 Later Jewish and Christian writers referred to Ezra and Nehemiah as prophets.11 This prophetic ministry was in applying the Law of God. For Ezra and Nehemiah tried to implement the Law of Moses among God’s people on their return to the land from their exile in Babylon. In a sense they were attempting to recapture what it was like to live as the people of God in the days before Israel had kings, as there was no descendant of David ruling in Jerusalem. But to do that, they had to apply the Law of Moses in a new situation. We see this especially in Ezra 9 and 10, and Nehemiah 5, 10 and 13.

A useful study shows that in applying the law to their new context they did the following: 1. They created rules that enabled the previous instruction in the law to be carried out in a new context, and revised these rules when necessary.

2. They created new rules from precedents in the law.

3. They redefined categories, which enabled more comprehensive application of the law.

4. They integrated and coordinated instructions from the law.12 This ministry had a profound effect on God’s people down to Jesus’ day, where the ministry of the scribes had such 9.

Calvin, J tr. 1981, Commentary on Isaiah, Baker, Grand Rapids, Vol. 1, p. xxvi.

10. Jeremiah 1:1; Amos 1:1.

11. Myers, Ezra, Nehemiah, pp. lxiii, lxv.

12. This is based on work done by David Clines, summarised in Williamson, HGM 1985, Ezra, Nehemiah, Word Biblical Commentary, Word, Waco, pp.

333–334.

12

The main theme of Ezra and Nehemiah strong influence. It has continued to influence Judaism up until our own day. For Jews are still people of the book—the book we know as the Old Testament. Their teachers still study the Law of Moses, and the teaching of the scribes and commentators on that law.

Keeping or walking in the Law of Moses meant much more than obeying commands. It also meant trusting the one and only God as the Creator and Ruler of everything; believing the promised covenant of God to Abraham; trusting the God of the exodus, who rescued his people from Egypt by his mighty power; believing that God would work among them through priests and sacrifices and festivals, and accept their worship; and trusting God’s promises, and especially his promise that he would bring his people back home and establish them, that they would continue to be his people, and that he would continue to be their God. Let us also follow the example of Ezra and Nehemiah, and so benefit from their ministry, as they encourage us to walk in God’s words, as they did.

I make use of three biblical contexts to help us understand Ezra and Nehemiah in this commentary: • The immediate context and setting as found in 2 Chronicles; prophets from the immediate context of the books including Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel; and their exact contemporaries, Haggai, Zechariah, Esther and probably Malachi.

• The earlier context of the books of Moses; the prior history of the people of God in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles; and the prophecy of the return in Isaiah 40–66.

• The big overall context of Biblical Theology and salvation history, in which the promises of the Old Testament find their fulfilment in the New Testament in Jesus Christ.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah do not give a year-byyear account of the history of God’s people over the 100-year 13

Walking in God’s Words period they cover. They include selected events, not a complete history. They do not answer all the questions we might like to ask! Their message of the importance of walking in God’s words is found in the instructions they give, the history they recount, the prayers they include, and the personal examples of both Ezra and Nehemiah. These books are a narrative. They have a theological and pastoral purpose for the people of God for whom they were written, and for the people of God in every age, ourselves included.

What should we make of this message as Christian believers? Firstly, it reminds us of the importance of the Bible. Secondly, it reminds us of the importance of living by faith in God, trusting his promises, and following his ways.

Thirdly, it helps us honour those who teach us the Bible.

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