Benn Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther

Restoring the Church
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4335-7352-1
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

Reihe: Preaching the Word

A Verse-by-Verse Commentary on the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther Packed with exciting Biblical history, the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther display God's faithfulness through trials, the promise of restoration, and the beauty of revival. This commentary provides deep insights to help pastors and teachers draw connections between Ezra and Nehemiah, both of whom display godly leadership and the power of prayer. Then readers will follow Esther to learn how God's providence reigns, even in a pagan world, and see how each of these Old Testament books points to the promise of our Savior Jesus Christ. Pastor and experienced Bible expositor Wallace P. Benn expertly discusses Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther verse by verse, and provides insightful observations, illustrations, and applications.

Wallace P. Benn is a well-known Bible teacher and preacher in the British Isles and Ireland. He is the founder of Bible by the Beach, a Bible-teaching convention in Eastbourne, England, and a trustee of Irish Church Missions, an evangelical church-planting agency in Ireland. Wallace and his wife, Lindsay, have two grown children and three grandchildren. They are members of St. Botolph's Church in Kettering, England.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Benn, Wallace P.

Leseproben

1

Our God Reigns—See God

Ezra 1

Why study Ezra? Because it is a neglected part of God’s Word written, and no part of the Holy Scriptures should be neglected. Bruce Waltke talks about it in his excellent Old Testament Theology as “a story the church needs to hear but rarely does.”1 It is the story of a second exodus as God’s people return from seventy years of captivity in Persia, and after a period of judgment it is a story of grace, forgiveness, and restoration. It is a story of new beginnings and a period of church reviving.

In a powerful and beautiful passage, Ezra (9:6–9) describes what has been going on. He confesses the sin of the professing church of his day (the people of Judah, the Jews), which has been the cause of the terrible events of 586 b.c. when Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the last portion of the people were taken into exile. But now in grace and mercy, and in fulfillment of his promise, God is reviving, restoring, and bringing the people home. It is a time of “a little reviving in our slavery” when God has shown his steadfast love for his people and his willingness “to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem” (9:8–9). Ezra describes a time of church revival and restoration after a period of difficulty and judgment.

Back in the 1980s, J. I. Packer suggested that the church in the West was going through a period of judgment for its manifold disobedience and unfaithfulness to God’s Word. I trust you come from a church situation that is encouraging, seeing growth, and knowing God’s blessing, but it is certainly true that despite many encouraging signs the church in the Western world (unlike the church elsewhere) is not winning overall against the huge secular, unbelieving, materialistic tide it is facing. I remember a bishop from Africa telling me in 1998 that more people were becoming Christians in his diocese than were being born! That’s hugely encouraging, and we in the West need to realize how well the church is doing in the Two-Thirds World, often even in the face of extreme difficulty and persecution. We need that reviving too! The old mainstream Protestant denominations are riven with disagreement between those who want to be faithful to the Scriptures and those who simply wish to be in tune with the values of our time whatever the cost. We need God to revive and restore us, bringing us back to joy in the gospel of grace and the abiding truths of the Bible as the crucial answer to our deepest needs before God. On a more personal note, which one of us reading this text is as obedient to God’s Word as we should be or takes with wisdom and courage all the opportunities God gives us to live and witness for him? We need reviving too, so that in a fresh way we may be the people God wants us to be. So Ezra is deeply relevant.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one, and they need to be read, studied, and ideally preached together. They cover three returns of God’s people to the land. The first and main one in 538 b.c. included the building of the second temple (Solomon’s temple being the first, destroyed in 586 b.c.), which was finished in 516 b.c. (see Ezra 1—6). The second return was in 458 b.c. with Ezra himself leading a group (see Ezra 7—10). The third return to Jerusalem was in 445 b.c. under the leadership of Nehemiah. This period covered the reign of four Persian kings (Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes) and covers approximately the last 100 years or so of Old Testament history (see the earlier chart). It was a period of God’s blessing and faithfulness despite continuing sin among the people, but a time that looked forward to what God would do to bless and restore his people with the coming of the messianic king, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ezra shows us how God goes about blessing and reviving his people. If we are to know his reviving touch, we should ask God to do the same fundamental things among us as he did among his people then. What is the first step in God reviving his people? It is to renew their vision of his sovereign power and covenant faithfulness.

Ezra 1 follows directly from the previous book (2 Chronicles 36:22–23) and tells us that God’s Word can be trusted because God keeps his promises. The decree of Cyrus is the direct result of the fullfillment of prophecies that were stated long before. See the remarkable mention of Cyrus by name in Isaiah 44:28:

who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd,

and he shall fulfill all my purpose”;

saying of Jerusalem, “She shall be built,”

and of the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”

Josephus, the Jewish historian, speculated that Cyrus—when shown this prophecy or when reading it himself—was then prompted by it to take action. Be that as it may, Ezra says it was really God who stirred him to issue this decree (1:1).

Note also the specific prophecy mentioned by Ezra that is being fulfilled—Jeremiah 29:10–14:

For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

This was now happening, said Ezra. (See also Jeremiah 25:11; 31:7–8; 33:9; Zechariah 4:10.)

Redeeming and Restoring His People

God keeps his covenant promises to his people, and his word of promise can be trusted now as then. Ezra was telling the story of God’s redeeming and restoring his people to praise his name and bear witness to him in the world of his day.

The book of Ezra is a story of God’s grace and mercy that displays his steadfast love for his people as he refuses to give up on them.

Working through Human History to Achieve His Purpose

If you were a Judean slave in Persia, the superpower of the day, you might have wondered how on earth you would ever get back to Jerusalem. Perhaps there would be a coup and you could escape. Unlikely, given Cyrus’s power. Maybe someone would poison the king and in the ensuing chaos you could slip away. That was not the way God did it at all. Instead in a peaceful way he “stirred up the spirit of Cyrus” (1:1) to issue the decree recorded in verses 2–4.

This is remarkable in many ways, and the way it is phrased in Ezra 1 shows a clear respect for “the God of heaven.” This was a smart political move on Cyrus’s part, and though of particular benefit to the people of Judea in exile, we know from The Cyrus Cylinder (a renowned document in the British Museum) that such a decree was extended to many other ethnic and religious groups as well. In the vast empire that Cyrus had conquered and sought to control, there were many ethnic groups that had been exiled and displaced. Sending them back on a mission to restore their places of worship would hopefully create a thankful and loyal population throughout his empire. Cyrus was, it seems, a polytheist (note the phrase “may his God be with him,” v. 3) and a worshiper of Marduk. The decree as recorded by Ezra was in a form amenable to the Jewish exiles, but unknown to Cyrus, it was all for their benefit under the sovereign hand of their God.

There is a key lesson to be learned here. In our unstable world of superpowers and wars and rumors of wars, it is not Joe Biden or Vladimir Putin or anyone else who is in control—it is God. His purposes to save, bless, and keep a people for his glory cannot and will not be thwarted. Our God reigns, and he works throughout history and even uses unbelievers to achieve his purposes. If he can use Cyrus, he can use anybody. He rules and overrules the course of human history for his ends. How tremendously encouraging it must have been to a humanly insignificant and captive people to know that their destiny was in safe hands and that God had the power to keep his promises and accomplish all his plans for the good and blessing of his people. In the Western world today, when Christians are often marginalized and seem powerless to stop the neo-pagan tide, how encouraging it is to know that our God still reigns and works out his purposes. My old college principal, mentor, and friend J. Alec Motyer used to say, “The sovereignty of God is the pillow on which I lay my head at night.” That has been my and my family’s joyful experience for many years now.

Energizing, Stirring Up, and Motivating His People to Do His Will (for Their Joy)

The renewed vision of God’s...