Ezra’s Cry for Wisdom

Ezra’s Cry for Wisdom

I want to begin reading in verse number 15 there. “And I gathered them together,” who’s the them? This is the heads of the households with their families that had come out. We’re leaving Babylon the captivity going back to Jerusalem with Ezra in this second deportation or second return, I should say from exile. And I gathered them together to the river that runeth to a hava. And there are both we intents three days. And I viewed the people and the priest and found their none of the sons of Levi. Then sent I for Eliezer for Ariel for Shimiah and for El Nathan and for Jerib and for El Nathan. I’m sorry and for El Nathan and for Nathan and for Zachariah and for Masjulam, chief men. Also for Joyarib and for El Nathan. Men of understanding. There must have been some good men named El Nathan, right? And I sent them with the commandment unto Ido, the chief at the place Cessophia. And I told them what they should do unto Ido and to his brethren. The Nithonians at the place Cessophia that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding. And of the sons of Molly, the sons of Levi, the sons of Israel and share a bia with his sons and his brethren. And Hasha Biah and with him, just Shiah of the sons of Morari, his brethren and their sons, 20. And also of the Nithonians whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, 200 and 20 Nithonians. All of them were expressed by name. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava that we might have flicked ourselves before our God to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way. Because we had spoken unto the king saying, the hand of our God is upon all of them for good that seek him. But his power and his wrath as he can’t stall them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this and he was entreated of us.

Let’s conclude the reading there in verse number 23 this evening.

So there were three deportations that of leading up to and culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. There were three deportations to Babylon. There will be three returns from Babylon. The first of which would be under the rubable. You remember that name. He was the one who was along with Joshua the high priest. Wasn’t he the one that rebuilt the temple? It was much smaller than it was in the days of Solomon. Of course it had been destroyed in 586. But that return from captivity happened in 538 and it was not until 515 BC. I think about that time frame that the temple was completed. There’s a rubable temple we often refer to it as a smaller temple. There had been a few that remembered the glory of the former temple and they were somewhat disappointed. We might say with the smallness of it and yet the Lord is even in small things. It doesn’t necessarily matter the size of it. But here we’re talking about approximately what 50 plus years later now that Ezra is going, God is laying it upon his heart to go back to Jerusalem. For a distinct purpose from that of rebuilding the temple, the temple had already been rebuilt. Now it had been rebuilt for decades. But he returns in 458 we understand. And he is Ezra is a priest in a scribe.

If you look over in Ezra chapter 7 with me, let’s look over in Ezra chapter 7. Let’s look in verse 6 beginning. It says there that Ezra went up from Babylon and he was a ready scribe in the love Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all his requests according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. And there went up some of the children of Israel and of the priests and of the Levites and the singers and the porters and the Nephenim’s unto Jerusalem in the seventh year of art exerts the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month which was in the seventh year of the king. For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

So Ezra, his genealogy if we look back at the beginning of the seventh chapter stretches back to Aaron. He’s a descendant of Aaron. We certainly notice other priests in that line when we look back through his lineage in the first part of chapter 7. But it says that his father was Sariah. Sariah looking in verse number 1 it starts with that which was closest to him. It says now after these things in the reign of our exerts these king of Persia as read the son of Sariah. And then it talks about asariah we recognize Hilchiah the priests Zadok. All of these he’s in the priestly line isn’t he? And we notice though that his father Sariah well we that name pops up in another place. A couple other places too. And Jeremiah chapter 52 if you look over there. Jeremiah 52 this is I’m just going to look at this particular reference to him and Jeremiah 52 and verse 24. It’s there in Jeremiah 52 verse 24 that we read and the captain of the guard took that is Nebuchadnezzar 8. And this is the captain of the guard that he took as it says here Sariah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest. And the three keepers of the door he took also out of the city and an eunuch which had the charge of the men of war. seven men of them that were near the king’s person which were found in the city. And it says and the principal scribe of the host who mustered the people of the land and three scoremen of the people of the land that were found in the midst of the city. So Nebuchadnezzar 8 and the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon to Ribla and the king of Babylon smoke them and put them to death and Ribla in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.

So this is the final, five and six, it’s the final destruction, final deportation. This is it and ultimately if we are to understand that this was his immediate father. Sariah was the immediate father which it seems to be because we know one came from the other. Sometimes in scripture you can read something like the son of somebody but it may not be necessarily the way the Hebrew is. It may not be the immediate son, it might be the grandson. He’s one of the sons, the offspring. We talk about our forefathers, our fathers, even in the Old Testament they refer to fathers but they were not their immediate father. It was the forefathers, the one who went before. But if there were those that remembered the solemnonic temple that made it under the robo, it would not necessarily be a great stretch to think that well, maybe Ezra was a baby. When his father was killed, very likely, very very very possible that he was just an infant or a young one. When his father was killed and yet he lived perhaps throughout this captivity and now I’m not saying this dogmatically and definitively but he could have been every bit of 128 plus years old now. This is just conjecture, we’re not going to put this installed but that would be interesting if he was that age. If he was that age and now he prepared his heart, what do we read here in the text? We read in verse 10 in chapter 7 that he had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

Not everybody can do everything, nobody can do everything. It was not God’s calling upon him to rebuild the temple. That was not even what God and his will had equipped evidently and not equipped this Ezra to do. But God had prepared the Rebleble to do this. I think about these children and all the different personalities, the different interests, the different abilities that God gives to each individual. And God has a specific will and he wants us to make it, make us wise to understand what is his will for me. And for you, he wants each person to know and then to have understanding what is the will that God has for me. Maybe we don’t see the whole, we won’t see the whole plan at once but we can see how God is leading us. And when God is putting a burden on your heart to do something, you don’t need to sit still. You don’t need to say, well, I’ll just stay here. Go on, I need to listen to what it is that God is laying a burden on my heart to do. And even if I’m up in age, God still has a purpose for me. God has a purpose and a plan, yet in my life. Certainly nobody here is going to live to be. I’ve been well and must have miracle of God. Nobody here is going to live to be 600 years old like Noah was. But I thought when I was all the arc recently, what this man must have been highly intelligent after 600 years. And unless he was just sitting around, twiddling his thumbs for several centuries, you know, he learned a lot of stuff. And he knew a lot about life and yet as God directed and used that, there’s abilities in that knowledge that he had accrued over the years and he used it and was moved about the fear of the Lord to use all that for God. What a blessing. I mean, it would have had to have taken a skilled individual to do that. Not just anybody could have built an arc like that. God prepared Noah to do it. Here we have Ezra. God had been preparing him and Noah and Ezra had been preparing his heart as it says here to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach it. To do it and to teach it. That’s a good pattern, isn’t it? Not just to teach it, but to do it and to teach it. That’s a problem that caused Israel to get into the captivity in Babylon to begin with and God to bring destruction to Judah. And Jerusalem was that one of the grievances that Jeremiah brought out was that the priests, they’re not teaching the difference between the clean and the unclean. The people don’t know the right hand from their left. There’s confusion in the land. People doing whatever was right in their own eyes. There was a general disdain for the prophets and people would rather have the false prophets talk to them. Then the true prophets of the Lord. Now there is this burning desire evidently in Ezra’s heart. We’ve got to get back and we’ve got to teach the law of the Lord and we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to get back. Yet the temple of the structure is there, but we’ve got to see not only a restoration of the building but of the worship of the Lord. I thank God for those that maybe they say we’re just a wasteland as far as a good church. And they might have to meet in their home or maybe there’s a couple of families. There’s three families and they get together and there’s none of them are called to be a preacher of the gospel. But they get together and they study God’s word together and they do the best they can with what they have. And then maybe God sends a preacher along, right? He sends one who’s called. That’s not to diminish what they were doing before but now Ezra is, he’s a divine. That God is appointed to do this very thing and God who’s moved upon his heart. You’ve got to get back to Jerusalem. You’ve got to go back and teach the law of the Lord. You’ve got to establish this worship and so we see that he does.

And as he’s doing that, as he is beginning to move out with other families, with other heads of households that are going with them and they’ve cast in their lot. We’re going to go back with you. Well, they get out of Babylon and it says that they came to this river, right? There was a river by the name of a hava that they had come to and the consensus is that this was a tributary waterway that came off of or that that came from or maybe even actually ran into your frades, I should say. That was connected to your frades river. It was not your frades but it was a tributary of your frades. And so they were not very far from Babylon when they came to this place but it’s very likely this was a flat open area along the banks of the hava river, this waterway, where they were able to spread out a bit. They were able to spread out and they stopped there as we already read and it says that I gathered them together through the river that run us to a hava and there we have both intense three days and I viewed the people and priests. So he’s kind of taking a headcount if we can say that. And he’s looking over, who all do we have here? And as he begins to observe, he realizes none of the lemites are here. None of the lemites are with us. Where are they? And so it’s going to be kind of hard to do what God has laid upon my heart to do if we do not have the lemites with us. So God in so many words here, he gives, he gives Ezra the wisdom to seek out men of understanding among the group. There’s something to be said for not trying to do it all yourself but to seek out these other men. We need counsel, we need to be able to recognize others who are thinking spiritually, right? Others who are thinking right and consult with them and speak with them as he does here. And it says that as he sent for them, well, I sent for Eliezer for Ariel and he mentions all these men of understanding and I sent them. I sent them with commandment these men of understanding. He gave them a mission. Now, I want you to go and do this men of understanding. I want you to go unto Ido, the chief at the place, Cassifia. I told them what they should say unto Ido and to his brethren the nether names of the place of Cassifia that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of God. When God puts a burning desire on your heart and he begins to make you wise, what does the Lord want me to do? Then he’s going to make provision for that to happen. It may take longer than we thought, but it’s going to be the case. And now we see that Ezra knows we can’t move on with this until God provides ministers for the house. We need Levites to minister in the house when we get there. And so he’s trusting God to provide them and he does provide them. They do. Why didn’t they come initially? I don’t know. Have they come too comfortable and battle on some might suggest? That could be the case? Whatever it was. These men of understanding went with words sent. They were sent to say by Ezra, maybe unfolding whatever he said was the burden on his heart and why he needed to come. and they also evidently share that vision and they came. And they came because this was not going to be an easy journey. It was a dangerous journey in fact. In fact, we read here that in what was it in chapter 7 verse. No, no, it was in chapter 8. I’m sorry. In chapter 8 in verse number 22, he says I was ashamed to require the king of band of soldiers in horsemen to help us against the enemy. In the way, because I had already, we had spoken unto the king and just made this declarative statement. He had already said in the presence of the king, the hand of our God is upon all of them for good that seek him. And already told the king that his power in his wrath has again solved the forsaken. I had already declared that God is able to help us. And so at that point, I did not want it to seem that I was relying on man instead of God to help us. And so the Lord did help them and the Lord did protect them in the way. Well, they were carrying silver, gold. They were carrying vessels to bring to the house of God. Talk about a treacherous journey. And yet the world was within. The Lord helped them. God will not put us something on our heart. God will not lead us in the direction that He will not also give us the means with which to do whatever He’s placed on our heart and do. It may even be in a situation like, what was the brother in His family that went over? Was it Cameroon, I believe? And he was shot and killed. And yet that was not a…that was not a…that did not mean that God did not call him to go over there. But how many times in history have we seen? And I think his wife pointed out, I’m trying to remember the brother’s name right this moment. But his wife said how many young people have accepted the call to the mission field as a result of the testimony of her husband. And how God used that. And so it’s not in vain. It’s not in vain when God calls upon it. Just mark it down. But whenever God gives us wisdom of, this is what I want you to do. Now do it. There will be delays. There will be obstructions. There will be difficulties. There will be challenges. Of course. There always are. But remember that God is the one that already knows about these things. He already knows that could have happened. And all he wants us to do is what we said this morning. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. They give it to all men liberally and up. And the shall be given him. Well we see now Ezra knows this is a dangerous journey. He’s no word is providing the lead by us to come. But now there’s another danger. We’ve got to make the journey. We’ve got to get there. We’ve got to get there. Well, it says here in verse 21, then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of a hava that we might have flicked ourselves before our God. Just seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance. And that’s where he says, where I was ashamed to require the King of Band of Soldiers. So we fasted and we sought our God for this. And he was. Look at this phrase. He wasn’t treated of us. I sought the Lord. I sought our God for this. And he was entreated of us. So they fasted, prayed. And the Lord heard and answered. And so he delivered them. What does it say in verse 31? And the hand of our God was upon us and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy. And of such as lay and wait by the way. And we came to Jerusalem and abode their three days. Amen.

We have so many blessings that we need to count, not only. We have so many things to be thankful for. We have so many mercies of God to recount. Look at how many things he’s already brought us through. Look at how many things he’s already helped us with and he will continue. We need like David said this morning. Be merciful to me as you used to do to the saints of order, something to that effect. I can’t remember the exact wording. But as you’ve done in the past, do it again, Lord. Do it again. And there’s that anticipation that God will do what He says. It’s promised to do if He’s given us the direction to do something He will make the provision for it. He will provide. So Ezra claims this fast and the Lord was entreated as they prayed. He was entreated of them. He heard their cry. He answered their prayer. And they went out in confidence that the war was with Him. That the war was with Him. Well, as these priests, these nethonyms, Ezra and all these families go out, and we see that God has a plan for them. It’s been said so many times before that we are immortal until God has done with us. We shouldn’t be cocky. We shouldn’t be nobody can touch me kind of thing. We know that we should be meek and slowly before the Lord. But as long as God wants us to be here, He has a plan for us and He’s going to make provision for it. I meant to say I was thinking through wisdom this morning and I didn’t actually share the things I wrote down about it. But God will provide. God will provide the wisdom we need. Wisdom is the God given ability to apply truth to the situation at hand. Wisdom will enable me to rightly understand the circumstances at hand so that I can think, I can speak and act in a way that will glorify God and a way that will be good for all involved. Ezra knew that the Lord had put this burden on his heart to go back. It’s like Esther. She could have held her peace, but the work of her own a shelf and raised up deliverance from another place. There is a need at some point where the Lord is moving on your heart to do something to say something to accomplish something. There must be a resolve in your heart. Like Ezra said, he prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord to do it and to teach it. There must be that resolve. Like Daniel, you know, said that he purpose in his heart, not to defile himself with the King’s meat, right? He purpose in his heart to honor and glorify God. Then he must step out in God’s wisdom and just trust him once he shows the way he just do it and he will provide. Well, the need of wisdom is crucial because if we don’t get wisdom and then we don’t act on the wisdom that we get, then we’ll end up doing that which is dishonoring to the Lord. That’s more dangerous than far more dangerous than doing what God’s wisdom tells us to do, right? That’s the safest place to be, is to know what God wants us to do and then to do it. But Ezra knew that this fast was not some kind of show they were doing. This was a genuine humbling before God. Lord, where else have we got to turn but to you? Lord, we don’t know how it’s going to happen but we’re trusting you. And that fasting showed the posture of their heart was singularly toward God that from God alone will our help come in this situation. Not from the government, now God can use governments. And he often passed. I believe it wasn’t with me and my, the MS court was given actually. But that’s not whether that’s given or whether it’s not. God will provide. And so now Ezra is in new territory. He was basically, it seems, born in the captivity or just before the captain. He was a baby. But he’s going to a place where he likely has never been or he didn’t remember, I’m sure. I would think. But he knows God. And he knows God is leading him there. And though he knows adversity will come and it’s coming and has come. He knows that if God intends it to be the case, he will carry him through. And how that applies to so many things in our lives. If God gives us wisdom, let us not lean back to our own understanding. Let us not lean on our own, our own devices. But trust him, the God who puts the burden and gives the wisdom to our hearts to do something, to say something, to carry through with it. Because, you know, how else, even as it comes to our, as it pertains to our children, or our brothers and sisters in Christ, the lost around us. The only way that we can truly know that we’re loving one another’s we all to is if we’re following God’s wisdom, right? If we’re following what John talks about it, he says, you know, by this, we know that we love the brethren, if we love God and keep His commandments, right? And so we certainly should speak the truth and love, but we need wisdom in what we say and how we say it, but then we need to say it. We need to do it. And follow the world. And so may we have the spirit of Ezra. May we have the spirit that Ezra had. God has given me this burden and he will make a way. I look to him. I look to him to provide. I do not look to the king. Thank God if the king wants to give us an escort to keep us safe. That’s up to the king, but I’m not going to ask him for it. I’m going to look to the Lord and may God help us likewise to do that in our lives.

Let’s bring. Father, we need wisdom. We need to know your wisdom and then we need to walk in wisdom. We need to walk in wisdom toward those that are without. We need to walk in wisdom and be guided in our words with wisdom towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need wisdom in many areas of our lives on the job. Or even maybe a change that’s being made. We’ve come to a new chapter of our lives. Think about those that are coming to new chapters. I think of Brother Andrew who’s starting a new job this week. I think of Brother David who is seeking your wisdom for the next chapter of his life. So many Lord, I think of Sister Linda Valkarcel. She’s an Deborah Ham, who is coming to a new chapter of her life with both of them with her husbands having passed. So many Lord that need your direction for the next steps of life, the next chapter of life. Lord, may we not lean to our own understanding in those times, but in all our ways, may we acknowledge thee and trust that you will direct our paths. And Lord, if you be our helper, what of whom shall we be afraid? The Lord is my light and my salvation of whom shall I be afraid. Though in hosts and rise up or in camp against me, yet will I not fear. May that be true in our lives, even as we go this week. We pray now that you bless this final hymn as we sing together. May we meditate on the things we’ve seen, the good example we’ve seen in this Brother Ezra. Tonight, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.