SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 7/14/2011
7:55:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus: He raised up a
Godly Leader
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference:
Ezra
7:1-6, 10
Message of the verses: “1 Now
after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, there went up
Ezra son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, 2 son of Shallum, son of
Zadok, son of Ahitub, 3 son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, 4 son
of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, 5 son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son
of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest. 6 This Ezra went up from Babylon,
and he was a scribe skilled in
the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all he
requested because the
hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
“For Ezra had set
his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His
statutes and ordinances in Israel.”
Today’s
SD begins the third chapter in Dr. Wiersbe commentary on Ezra and it will cover
chapters seven and eight of the book of Ezra.
As mentioned before Wiersbe will give a brief statement on how the
chapter will unfold and that statement for this chapter is as follows: “What did God do for the people of Israel
during those difficult days after the Babylonian Captivity?” Now the answer to this question will be given
throughout this third chapter by way of the different main points of which we
will cover the first one in today’s SD.
While
reading some of the notes from John MacArthur’s Study Bible yesterday I came
upon an interesting fact that brought some light upon the book of Ester and how
that book fits into the history of the exiles.
MacArthur states that the book of Ester took place between the last verse
in chapter six of Ezra until the first verse in chapter seven of Ezra and this
was a time period of 59 years. In the
first verse of chapter seven the king of Persia is Artaxerxes Longimanus. Now you won’t find the Longimanus in the
first verse as part of the king’s name but that was what he was called. Longimanus is a Latin word and the Greek
equivalent is Marochier. There is
speculation that he was called this perhaps because his “long hand” stretched
reached out so far in the kingdom, or perhaps because he was generous to his
subjects. It could be because of both
reasons.
The
phrase that is highlighted in green is a phrase that is seen six times in
chapters seven and eight of Ezra and if one would have to answer why Ezra was
successful this along with what is highlighted in yellow could well be the
answer. There is an interesting end note
about the phrase “hand of the LORD” that
I wish to quote. “Of course, God is spirit and doesn’t possess literal hands
such as we do. The phrase is what theologians
call ‘anthropomorphic.’ That is attributing to God something that is true of
humans (‘anthrop’ = human; ‘morphos’ = form).
God doesn’t have eyes, but He ‘sees’ what’s going on in the world; He
doesn’t have ears, but He ‘hears’ our cries.
Because He’s a Person, God has the ability to act and respond, and the
Bible uses human terminology to explain this.
When Isaiah wanted to show the greatness of God, he said that God
measured the waters ‘in the hollow of
His hand’ (Isa. 40:12); and the psalmist reminds us that all God has to do
to feed His creatures is open His hand (Ps. 104:28). ‘You
open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing’ (Ps. 145:16 NKJV).”
As
mentioned above this chapter takes place nearly sixty years after the completion
of the temple and this will help put into prospective the time frame of the
post exile period of time, for soon the Word of God will be completed as far as
the OT is concerned and the next time that the Lord is heard from will be
through the voice of John the Baptist. I
think perhaps this would be a good time to try and explain the different parts
of the Scripture as far as what they can be titled. From Genesis to the book of Ester is the
historical portion of Scripture, but certainly not in chronological order for
the book of Job is probably the oldest book of the Bible and it is in the next
section or the pottery section, followed by the prophets. Now the prophets are broken up between the
major and Minor Prophets and this has nothing to do with their message, but the
length of their message. As far as the
chronological part of the prophets there were pre-exile prophets such as Isaiah
and then there are post exile prophets like Haggai.
Artaxerxes reigned from 465-424
and as far as this chapter the date is 458 according to Dr. Wiersbe. It was at this time that God raised up Ezra
to lead a second group of refugees from Babylon to Judah in order to bring
financial and spiritual support to those who had be doing the work of building
the temple and also doing other work at Jerusalem.
It
has been stated in an earlier SD that when God wants to accomplish something He
brings about good leaders and this can be seen throughout the Scriptures. Richard Nixon said the following about
leaders they “make a difference.” Ezra
was a gifted leader along with Nehemiah and the Lord used both of these men
during this difficult time in the history of Israel.
Dr.
Wiersbe writes “When God wants to judge a nation, He sends them inferior
leaders (Isa.3:1-8); but when He wants to bless them, He sends them men like
Ezra.
There
are three different sub-points under this first main point as outlined in “Be
Heroic” which is Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ester. I will try and get through these three sub-points
this morning. The first one he entitles
“His noble ancestry” and this will cover the first five verses of Ezra
seven. I know that when most of us get
to the genealogies in Scripture we may begin to yawn or skip over them, but
just the same they are put there for a reason and they all have names of people
who lived during, in this case, OT times.
Ezra was not like some of the priests that could not confirm their
genealogy, for he could trace his all the way back to Aaron the very first
priest that God called. While studying
the books of 2Kings and 2Chronicles the godly priest Hilkiah was there and he
was the one who reigned during King Josiah’s reign and he found the Book of the
Law and read it to the king, which brought about a great revival in Judah. Zadok was the priest during the reign of King
David, actually during some of the most trying times of David’s rule. There are certainly other very famous men in
this genealogy of Ezra that are mentioned in these first five verses of chapter
seven. Ezra did not squander the rich
spiritual legacy of those spiritual men that went before him, but he built upon
their great foundation.
The
next sub-point covers verse six of chapter seven and is entitled “His
remarkable audacity.” I have already
mentioned briefly some of the truths found in this verse, but there is one
thing in this verse that I have highlighted in red because it is near and dear
to my heart, and that is the understanding of the Scriptures, for that has been
a passion of mine since shortly after I became a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ back in Jan. of 1974.
There
is a wonderful verse found in Romans that gives a great reason to study the
Word of God: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” If one wants to increase their faith the best
way is to study the Word of God. Ezra
was that kind of a man, as he was not content to be laid back and just study,
but went to the king and asked to bring more exiles back to Jerusalem and was
successful because the hand of his God was with him.
The
last sub-point is entitled “His exceptional ability,” and this covers verse
7:10. I would suppose that if I had to
search the entire Bible that I would not be able to find a better verse that
shows why I began this blog. I realize
that I am no Ezra, and that I am not going to bring these studies to the nation
of Israel, but I hope and pray that the Lord will use these studies to
encourage others and to also encourage others to begin to dig in and study the
greatest Book that has ever been written, and according to Romans 10:17 will
have their faith begin to increase. Now
when one’s faith is increased by the study of the Word of God they can begin to
act in a similar way that Ezra had acted ant that put into practice what he had
learned from the study of God’s Word.
The psalmist wrote “Oh, how I
love Your law! My meditation all the day (Ps. 119:97, NKV). Some believe that
Ezra is the one who began the Jewish Synagogues in Babylon, the first place
they were found, and this was probably from his desire to study the Word of God
and then put it into practice.
Ezra
was blessed, not in the reading and studying of the Word, but obeying the Word,
but you have to read and study it in order to obey it. Ezra had the right perspective and that is
the perspective to follow, that of understanding the Word of God in order to
teach others, and not to know it to be puffed up, but to be humble for the
privilege of understanding this wonder Book.
Dr.
Wiersbe writes the following: “Each
generation needs to discover the precious treasure of the Word of God, but that
can’t happen unless previous generations are faithful to learn the Word, guard
it, obey it, and teach it. ‘And the things you have heard me say in
the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be
qualified to teach other’ (2Timothy 2:2, NIV).
Spiritual meaning for my life today: What I have learned in this lesson today has
enforced the things that I have studied before and also reinforced why it is
that I want to study God’s Word. I have
a desire to teach others what the Lord is teaching me, and this is why I was
convicted to put these on a blog.
However I want my motive to be pure in studying the Word of God, that is
to obey it and to bless others with it too.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Continue to study the Word and to put into practice
what I have learned.
2.
Continue to learn contentment.
7/14/2011 9:25:59 AM
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