Ezra - Scriptural Dossier 2024

This transcription is a teaching about Ezra, who was a priest and scribe. He was skilled in the Torah and had a desire to teach it to others. The first time we hear about Ezra in scripture is in the book of Ezra, chapter 7. Ezra was a direct descendant of Aaron, the chief priest, and he came from Babylon with the king's blessing and support to restore the people to the Torah. He was well-educated in the law and his mission was to teach it to the people returning from exile. The book of Ezra focuses on his mission rather than his personal life. Ezra was contemporary with the prophet Nehemiah, and the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book. Ezra's name means "help" or "helper." He lived from about 480 BCE to 440 BCE. He was a priest and a scribe, and he became the high priest when the Judeans returned from exile. Not much is known about his family life. Ezra was zealous Do you have a desire, a zealousness to learn the Torah and to tell other people about the Torah and to teach it to other people to bring them closer into service and connection and relationship with Yahweh? Well, you have a connection to Ezra, who we're going to be learning about right now in this teaching. So this teaching is going to be all about Ezra, who he was, what happened during his life, especially during the book of Ezra itself, and also a little bit of the book of Nehemiah. If you would like to learn more about this, you can check out our notes that we took. It's located on the article post at godhonesttruth.com. A link has been conveniently located for you down below in the description, and that should be there whether you're watching on video or whether you're listening through an audio podcasting app. Right down there in the description, click on that link. It'll take you to the article post. We'll be able to see the slides here on your screen, the on-demand video, the notes that we took for this, and also the transcript, if that's something that is a benefit to you as well. All that's located for you conveniently in one link down below in the description. So Ezra, who was Ezra? What was he all about? What did he do? What can we take away from the story of Ezra itself? Well, the first time we ever hear or see the name Ezra in scripture, at least chronologically speaking, is the book of Ezra, chapter 7, verses 1 through 6, especially verse 1. And after these events, in the reign of Artachastra, sovereign of Persia, Ezra, son of Saraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shalom, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Merios, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzi, son of Buki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the chief priest. This Ezra came up from Babel, and he was a scribe skilled in the Torah of Moshe, which Yahweh Elohim of Israel had given, and the sovereign gave him all he asked according to the hand of Yahweh his Elohim upon him. So here we see the first mission of Ezra, and it's only near the end of the book of Ezra. In fact, the book of Ezra is only 10 chapters long. It's sort of like the book of Esther. Very short, very quick read if you ever want to go through it from chapter 1 to the last chapter, chapter 10. But we don't see Ezra come on the scene until chapter 7 in the book of Ezra. And here we can see that Ezra is a direct descendant of Aaron, the first chief priest. When Moses and the children were in the wilderness, and they set up the Levitical priesthood, Ezra is a direct descendant of Aaron himself. And the book of Ezra is very keen on lineages, and you'll see why in a minute when we get into more of the story about Ezra. But there's a great emphasis placed on lineage and who has this priestly lineage and can they prove it. And right here when we're introduced to Ezra, they proved that Ezra was a priest because it was very important during this time. You can also see that Ezra was someone who was very skilled and educated in the Torah, which is also going to be very important and plays a crucial role in what Ezra was to do during his lifetime. But the name Ezra itself, we don't get too much help from the lexicons, we get a little bit. In fact, the concordances and lexicons are very sparse when it comes to Ezra. But Ezra's name literally means help or helper. And in a sense, that's exactly what Ezra did during his lifetime. Here on your screen, you can see the Strong's definition entry, the Browndriver-Briggs entry, the Jesenius' Hebrew lexicon entry, and of course, all these are in the notes that we took for the subject as well. And here is the Jastrow's Dictionary of the Targums. Basically, these lexicons and concordances just state that Ezra was a priest and a scribe. And one thing to clear up real quick, because I know it'll probably come up in the comments somewhere. On our image that we put for this video, it's got Ezra, prophet, and priest. We've already established that Ezra is a priest. He's of the priestly lineage. But he's not directly so much a prophet as you would normally think of a prophet, sort of like Moses or Samuel or Zechariah, people like that. He's not really in that category of prophet, but he is still considered, at least through tradition, as one of the prophets and is included in the section of prophet and prophetic books. So, just to clear that up real quick, but he was most definitely a priest and a scribe. In fact, he became the high priest when the Judeans came back from the Babylonian exile. A few statistics about Ezra. Like I said earlier, the name Ezra itself means help or helper. And if you take a more extended version of Ezra, something like Ezra-yah, Ez-zah-ree-yah, getting pronounced that correctly. But anyways, you got that Y-A-H ending on it, on the end, which means Yahweh is my helper or Yahweh helps. Like we said earlier, he's a direct descendant of the chief priest Aaron, who started the Aaronic priesthood or is the first one in the Aaronic priesthood. He lived, Ezra did, from about 480 B.C.E. until about 440 B.C.E. Relatively speaking, according to our lifespan, that's fairly short, about 40 years, but he got a lot accomplished and a lot of good things accomplished during this time. His father's name, as we read in that lineage earlier, was Sariah. Interestingly enough, Sariah means Yahweh has prevailed. Very cool, very awesome name. If you have a son here in the future, consider Sariah. As far as the rest of Ezra's family life goes, we know extremely little to nothing about We don't know who his mother was. We don't know if he was married, if he had children. We don't know if he had siblings, brothers and sisters. We know very little about the rest of Ezra's personal life. In fact, the whole book of Ezra and the story of Ezra really does not focus on his personal life. It's more of his mission and what he did for Yahweh and bringing the people back and restoring the people to the Torah. He was also a contemporary of the prophet Nehemiah. And interestingly enough, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah at one point were one book. Nowadays, we consider them to be two books, the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah. Like I said, at one point, they were one book, the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. Fairly interesting. And you'll also hear the name Ezra pronounced a little bit differently sometimes. You ever heard of Esdras? Well, Esdras is actually referring to Ezra. You've heard of the books 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Esdras? It's still referring to Ezra. And not to get too much in the weeds, but way back in history, there was a difference of opinions on names and how names should be used with different books of the Bible. But anyway, that's where it comes from. Ezra at one point was also pronounced as Esdras or referred to as Esdras. So, just a little thing to put down in your notes if you're one of those note-taking nerds like I am. Now, we saw earlier that Ezra was well-educated. That Ezra was well-educated in the law or in the Torah of Yahweh. We also see this again in verse 10 of chapter 7 of the book of Ezra. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Torah of Yahweh and to do it, and to teach laws and write rulings in Israel. So, Ezra was well-educated, well-learned in the Torah, and he was zealous for the Torah. And it was his mission to teach the Torah to the people who were coming back from Babylon, coming out of exile, returning to Jerusalem. Now, before Ezra came out of Babylon himself, the, I guess you could say, prophet Zerubbabel had already preceded him, went back to Jerusalem, rebuilt the temple. So, now we've got the foundation. We've got the actual building, the temple. And this is when Ezra comes back. So, Ezra comes back out of Babylonian captivity, and he does so with the king's blessing and also with the king's financial support. We read Ezra chapter 7 verses, I'm sorry, yeah, chapter 7 verses 12 through 28. Fairly long passage, but I think this really, well, you'll see. We'll make some connections here in just a moment. But, Ezra chapter 7 verses 12 through 28. Artehashtas, Artehashtab, Sovereign of Sovereigns to Ezra the priest, a perfect scribe of the law of the Elah of heaven. And now I make a decree that all those of the people of Israel and the priest and the Levites in my reign, who volunteer to go up to Yerushalayim, go with you. Since you are being sent by the Sovereign and his seven counselors to inquire about Yehudah and Yerushalayim with regard to the law of your Elah, which is in your hand, and to bring the silver and gold, which the Sovereign and his counselors have voluntarily given to the Elah of Israel, whose dwelling is in Yerushalayim and all the silver and gold that you find in all the province of Babel, along with the gift of the people and the priest voluntarily given for the house of their Elah in Yerushalayim. Therefore, with this silver promptly buy bulls, rams, lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them on the slaughter place of the house of your Elah in Yerushalayim. And whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, do it according to the desire of your Elah, and the utensils that are given to you for the service of the house of your Elah, put back before the Elah of Yerushalayim, and the rest of the needs for the house of your Elah, which falls to you to give, give from the Sovereign's treasure house. I, Artachastesta, the Sovereign, do make a decree to all the treasurers who are beyond the river, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the Elah of heaven, does ask of you, let it be done promptly. Up to one hundred talents of silver, and up to one hundred cores of wheat, and up to one hundred baths of wine, and up to one hundred baths of oil, and salt, without reckoning. Whatever is commanded by the Elah of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of Elah of heaven. For why should there be wrath against the reign of the Sovereign and his sons? We further inform you that there is no authority to impose tax, excise, or toll on any of the priests and Levites, singers, gatekeepers, nephimim, and servants of this house of Elah. And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your Elah, that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges to judge all the people who are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of your Elah. And teach those who do not know them, and whoever does do the law of your Elah, and the law of the Sovereign, let judgment be promptly executed on him, whether it be death, or banishment, or confiscation of goods, or imprisonment. We'll pause right there for a moment, because this is a letter that the king, who was over Babylon at that time, sent with Ezra as he went out with the Levites, with the people who wanted to go with him, the singers, the gatekeepers, stuff like that. This is a letter that the king sent out with him. And he sent him out with these great riches, all that he would need to buy and build the things that were needed in the temple, the bulls, the lambs, the grain offerings, wine offerings, etc., etc. This foreign pagan king sent Ezra out for the rebuilding of the temple of Yahweh. I mean, how amazing is that? This is after the end of the Babylonian exile. Now, some of the Judeans stayed in Babylon, as we read in the book of Esther. But a lot of them came back, and Ezra was one of those who came back after the rebuilding of the temple. And he did so with the financial support and blessing of this pagan king, which I think is just absolutely amazing. And the connection that we can make there, at least sort of, is back with the exodus from Egypt. These Judeans are having pretty much an exodus from Babylon, even though they weren't in slavery like they were in Egypt. But they're coming out of Babylon with all these great riches, just like they did when they came out of Egypt. Except this time, it's with the blessing of the ruler and the financial support of the ruler, which still just blows my mind. I seriously doubt the United States government would ever send someone out with everything they need to rebuild the temple for the third time. It's just absolutely amazing that this pagan king would do so much to rebuild and supply the temple of Yahweh. So, a lot of things happen within the book of Ezra. One of these things, like I just read, is this support and blessing of the king to rebuild the house and the temple of Yahweh. After this letter in the book of Ezra, Ezra actually gives a blessing and a prayer because of all this. Let me read the end of this section here. This is the end of Ezra 7, 12 through 28. Blessed be Yahweh, Elohim of our fathers, who has put this in the sovereign's heart to embellish the house of Yahweh, which is in Yerushalayim, and has extended loving commitment to me before the sovereign and his counselors, and before all the sovereign's mighty princes. So I was strengthened as the hand of Yahweh my Elohim was upon me, and I gathered heads from Israel to go up with me. Ezra is praising Yahweh for this wondrous blessing from the king, and it's all by the hand and the workings of Yahweh. So, this is some of the more major things that happened within the book of Ezra. Ezra comes out with the king's blessing and financial support. He gets back to Yerushalayim, back to the temple, and he starts instructing the people in the Torah to get back to the way that they should be acting and behaving. Well, one of the issues that comes up is that the people were married to foreign pagan women. Then we read in Ezra chapter 10, verses 10 through 11, Now, we know there's a commandment not to go out and marry foreign women. Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 2 through 4, And when Yahweh your Elohim gives them over to you, you shall strike them and put them under the ban completely, make no covenant with them, and show them no favor. And do not intermarry with them. You do not give your daughter to his son, and you do not take his daughter for your son. For he turns your sons away from following me to serve other mighty ones. Then the displeasure of Yahweh shall burn against you and promptly destroy you. So, here we're already told, do not take foreign women. We saw the bad consequences that happened with King Solomon. That his heart was turned away because he married foreign women. He went after other gods besides Yahweh. And this caused, well, part of what we can see here in the book of Ezra, but they're told not to marry foreign women. But they did. So, now what do they do? Do they just go ahead and divorce them? Get rid of them? Well, doesn't Yahweh hate divorce? We see in Malachi chapter 2, verses 14 through 16, And you said, why? Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth against whom you have acted treacherously, though she is your companion and the wife of your covenant. And did he not make one? And he had the remnant of the spirit? And what is the one alone? He seeks a seed of Elohim, so you shall guard your spirit and let none act treacherously against the wife of his youth. For I hate divorce, said Yahweh, Elohim of Israel. And the one who covers his garment with cruelty, said Yahweh of hosts, so you shall guard your spirit and do not act treacherously. So, right here, we see directly that Yahweh hates divorce. This goes right along with what Yeshua stated in Matthew chapter 19, verses 4 through 6. And he answering said to them, Did you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what Elohim has joined together, let man not separate. So, again, we see a prohibition against divorce, but how does that come into context with marrying foreign women? Yeah, we shouldn't do it in the first place, but if it does happen, well, does the prohibition against divorce still apply? The Apostle Paul states this, 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 12 to 16. And to the rest I say, not the master. If any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she thinks well to live with him, let him not send her away. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he thinks well to live with her, let her not send him away. For the unbelieving husband has been set apart in the wife, and the unbelieving wife has been set apart in the husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but now they are set apart. And if the unbelieving one separates, let him separate himself. A brother or a sister has not been enslaved in such matters, but Elohim has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you shall save your husband? For how do you know, O husband, whether you shall save your wife? So, the Apostle Paul is telling us that if we have an unbelieving wife, that we are not to divorce her. But if she leaves, we're not required to stay. We can let her go. Same thing for a woman with an unbelieving husband. So, we go back and we look at Ezra chapter 10, verses 10 through 11. And he's telling the people to get rid or divorce their foreign wives. So, how do we reconcile all this? How do we understand it? Did Ezra give a wrong commandment? Maybe, maybe not. I tend to think no. They're coming back to Jerusalem, resetting the temple, setting it back up. One of the things that is very strict in the Torah about the temple is purity. And especially the priests and the Levites who go in to do the service of the temple. They're to be pure. They cannot even have a drop of alcohol in their system when they go in to do the service. The people coming to the temple cannot have been near a dead body for a while. A woman who had just given birth cannot or who is menstruating cannot. So, there was a huge focus on purity. And this is one of the things I think personally that's going on here. They're focusing on purity, getting away from all these pagan influences. They just want pure Yahweh worshippers. Now, they're setting Israel and the temple back up. Another thing, if you look back at what the Apostle Paul said, he's stating here an unbelieving wife or an unbelieving husband. Now, this would apply to someone who is not a follower of Yahweh. But you could also, in one way, interpret it as someone who doesn't believe in anything, more like an atheist. Not necessarily a pagan wife or a pagan husband, but it's one who doesn't believe in anything at all. That's one way to take it. But another way is also that when we look back at the entirety of Scripture, we see various people being grafted in and a distinction made between Israelite women and pagan women. We look in Malachi 2, verse 11, for a small clue here. And this reads, Now, you remember we read a little bit earlier about the verse in Malachi that states that Yahweh hates divorce. So, this comes right after this verse in chapter 2 of Malachi. So, the distinction made between Israelite women and pagan women is that Yahweh hates divorce. Yahweh hates divorce. This comes right after this verse in chapter 2 of Malachi. So, the distinction made there between the pagan women and the Israelite women, or the women who believe in Yahweh. Also look in the book of Ruth, chapter 1, verse 16. So, at this point, Ruth wouldn't really be considered a foreign woman. She would be considered an Israelite, a follower, a servant of Yahweh. So, the divorce decree, most likely in Ezra's time, would not have applied to Ruth. Remember, Ruth was a Moabite. She was not ethnically of Israel. But she definitely was spiritual. She was grafted in. And she, by her own choice, chose to go and serve Yahweh and become one of the people. Back in Ezra, when he's stating about the divorce, it's at least my personal understanding that he's telling them to get rid of these foreign women, these women who have not grafted themselves in, who are still worshiping their pagan gods and their pagan ways. He's telling them to get rid of those women. And that's what I think the foreign women is referring to here. He's telling them to get rid of these women and the children they have born for the sake of purity. He put the purity together with the distinction between an Israelite woman who's been grafted in and a non-Israelite woman who has not been grafted in. And at least to me, it makes a lot more sense that way. We're not given all the details in the book of Ezra as to whether or not these women did come over to worship Yahweh and serve him, or if they actually did stay in their pagan ways. But that's the way that I think makes the most sense and reconciles with the rest of the context of Scripture. If you have a different interpretation or a different explanation, go down below and let us know in the comments. It'll be interesting to see if someone else has a different interpretation on this particular point from the book of Ezra. So, then as we keep reading in the book of Ezra, and we get to chapter 8, verses 1 and 3. And when the seventh new moon came, the children of Israel were in their cities, and all the people gathered together as one man in the open space that was in front of the water gate. And they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Torah of Moshe, which Yahweh had commanded Yisrael. And he read from it in the open space in front of the water gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand, and all the ears of the people listened to the book of the Torah. So, here he's starting the re-education of the Judeans, of the Israelites, in the ways of the Torah. So, he starts reading from the Torah, and it goes from morning until midday. Like half the day is gone just reading the Torah, getting them started back into being re-educated out of their Babylonian influences. Also notice something that's very interesting here. It says the seventh new moon. So, they're in the seventh month when Ezra starts doing this. And this lasts for more than one day. And in fact, on day two, something interesting really happens. Nehemiah chapter 8, verses 13 through 17. And on the second day, the heads of the fathers' houses of all the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Torah. And they found written in the Torah, which Yahweh had commanded by Moshe, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the festival of the seventh new moon. So, the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house and in their courtyards, and in the courtyards of the house of Elohim, and in the open space of the water gate, and in the open space of the gate of Ephraim. And the entire assembly of those who had come back from the captivity made booths and sat under booths. For since the days of Yeshua son of Dan, until that day, the children of Israel had not done so, and there was very great rejoicing. So, on day two, they're learning about Torah in the seventh month, and they come upon the Feast of Sukkot. The Feast of Sukkot happens in the seventh month on the 15th day. So, they immediately go, and they build sukkah, and they celebrate Sukkot. How amazing is that? That Ezra is so ardent and zealous for the Torah, and he's out there teaching them the Torah. He's reading directly from the Torah. All the people are hearing it, and they come across the festival of Sukkot, and they go out and they do it. There's really no indication of backlash or anything saying, oh, well, that was for them back then in the first temple. We're in the second temple now. No, no, they were happy to hear it. They were happy to learn about it, and they were happy to go out and do it. It says there was great rejoicing because of this. And in fact, when you go back and you read what we're told to do, for the festival of Sukkot, rejoicing is actually a commandment, too. So, it's very amazing. They're coming back to Torah after this Babylonian captivity. They're being re-educated in the ways of the Torah. The temple's rebuilt. It's being rededicated. And they're just so zealous for learning and doing the ways of the Torah, getting back to the service of Yahweh, which is absolutely amazing to hear. Anyway, some takeaways from the life and times in the story of Ezra. Number one, like us, Ezra was living in a foreign land. Most of you out there who are listening right now, you're not living in the Promised Land. You're living in a foreign land like Ezra was for a time, like the Judeans were for a time when they were exiled to Babylon. Number two, Ezra lived among non-believers. Well, even in Israel, there are a great many non-believers. There are Arabs. I'm sorry. Strike that. There are Muslims. There are atheists. All kinds of people, even within Israel itself. Israel is not yet pure like it should be. But if you're outside of Israel, you're obviously living somewhere who has a great mixture of different beliefs, even what we would call paganism. I mean, here in America, it's sad to say, but there is way, way too much paganism here. So we're dealing with a lot of the same circumstances that Ezra was having to deal with back then. Ezra was well-trained and educated in the Torah. Not to mention the rest of the Bible, the Torah. Those of us, especially those of you out there like me, those of you watching this right now with the messianic way of thinking, we're getting back to the Torah. We are ardent and zealous for the Torah, just like Ezra was. We're learning. We're becoming more educated in the Torah so that we can go out and teach the Torah and the ways of Yahweh to other people to bring them to Yahweh in the way things should be done. And just like Ezra, we, at least most of the people I have met with a messianic kind of mindset, are ardent and zealous that others get back to the Torah like they should. Get in a way from all these Catholic traditions that have been established over two millennia. Over two millennia and even mainstream churchianity. They think, well, we're not Catholic. The sign outside doesn't have Catholic on it. But they don't understand that traditions and some of the doctrines that they hold to came from Catholicism, not from Scripture. And those of us, those of you out there watching this right now, are zealous and ardent to get people back to Scripture and away from church traditions. Get back to the ways of Torah. Get back to the ways of Yahweh. Just like Ezra was ardent and zealous to get the people back to the ways of the Torah and out of the ways of Babylon. So, there's various connections that we can make between ourselves and the story of Ezra. Like I said, it doesn't take too much time to read through the book of Ezra. It's only ten chapters. Even the book of Nehemiah is only 13. So, put them together. The Ezra and Nehemiah book, 23 chapters, still not that big. So, I invite you to go out, read the story of the return of the people. Very inspiring, or at least it was for me. So, go out, go farther than this, do your own research and learn about the man of Ezra and also Nehemiah and Zerubbabel and all the people of what happened. So, thank you for joining us for this drash. Another scriptural dossier and this time on the scribe and priest of Ezra. We hope that you liked it and got something out of it. If you did, let us know down below something that you may have learned about this. If we happen to miss something, let us know down below as well. Or if we got something wrong, let us know. While you're down there, also be sure to hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button and ring the bell. 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