Ezra 1-3: A Happy Sad Start

We trace the first steps home in Ezra 1–3 as Cyrus opens the door, leaders gather people, and an altar rises before the temple. Joy and grief collide when the foundation is laid, pushing us to ask whether we cling to the past or build toward a faithful future.

• context for the exile and return
• roles of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and later Nehemiah
• Cyrus’s decree and returned temple vessels
• the caravan’s makeup and why the lists matter
• altar before temple and worship amid fear
• laying the foundation and Psalm 136 praise
• mixed reactions of elders and younger builders
• practical parallels for our own rebuilds

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Transcript

Why Ezra And Nehemiah Matter

Waves Of Return And Leaders

Ezra The Scribe And His Lists

Cyrus Decrees The Return

The Caravan Headcount And Gifts

Altar Rebuilt Amid Fear

Festivals Resume Without A Temple

Laying The Temple Foundation

Praise, Tears, And Mixed Emotions

Heart Check For A New Season

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey, this is the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast, and I'm Mike. I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being here. Last episode, we finished the book of Esther. What a great story that is. Just a well-written narrative, a lot of great drama, some great storytelling, and of course it's all true, and it's about our true God who works even behind the scenes sometimes to accomplish his purposes. Fantastic story there. I was glad that Kelsey was able to join us for reading the parts of Esther. That was a lot of fun. And uh we're continuing in this section of the Bible around the Jewish exile. Remember, in Kings and Chronicles, we saw the decline of the kings, and it resulted in the nation of Israel being split, and then also each half of the nation being taken away into exile by opposing stronger nations. And there's a period of time there, 70 years, about where there's no one living in Israel, no one living in the promised land. All the Jews have been spread out in various parts of the world. And so Esther is one of those cases of uh being living in the Persian Empire, which is the empire that took over the Babylonians, who took the Jews in the first place. And so some had made a life there over that period of time. And we saw Esther and how God used her. However, the time for Israel to lay empty is coming to a close now. And uh God is looking to move his people back home, and he's allowing an opportunity for them to do that. And now, not every Jew who is now living abroad comes back to the Promised Land all at once. Some never do, uh, many do, but not all at the same time. It's it's a bit of a process. And the book of Ezra and the next book, Nehemiah, gives the details of that process. So Ezra is actually kind of uh two stories in one. The first half, chapters one through six, is about uh one main figure named Zerubbabel, who he led the first wave back to the Promised Land and started building the temple. Now we also will hear more about Zerubbabel when we read the prophets, the minor prophets who were active during that time. Prophets like Haggai and Zechariah were working with Zerubbabel in this time of rebuilding the temple. So we'll get to them shortly. Um, but Ezra is kind of starting with that wave led by Zerubbabel. Then Ezra will end up coming back, uh leading a group to help them anchor to the Word of God. And then Nehemiah later will come leading another wave back to help rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. And so a really fascinating bit of history here. Uh all of it though, pointing to the fact that look, just because they're coming back to the Promised Land doesn't necessarily mean that their hearts have completely changed. And that shouldn't surprise us because neither do we, right? A change of scenery doesn't completely mean a change of heart. And even after a time of discipline, yes, hearts are softened, people look forward to a second chance, but it doesn't mean that everything's fixed and that everything is back up and running, stronger than it ever was. This is a bit of a process, and the process that Israel goes through to return to the promised land, and you've got ups and downs, you've got opposition, you've got you've got struggles internally and externally, all of this mirrors our work of getting back closer to the heart of God. It's a bit of a mess, it's a bit of an up and down sometimes, it's not linear, but we can learn a lot from how Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah lead people to do the work that needs to be done to bring hearts closer back to God. What those parallels are and what applications we can draw from them, hey, we'll talk about those as we go along the way. It's going to be a fun section of reading the Bible here together as we start in Ezra. Now, Ezra's job was a scribe. That's just kind of what he did. And so he is a numbers guy, he's a details guy, he's got some sections of his book here that are just listing names and numbers, counting people and recording all these sorts of things. So I'm gonna where I think it's appropriate, I'll I'll I'll spare you some of the monotonous details there, and I'll maybe sum up a section of here uh here and there as we go so that we don't have to just hear names and numbers the whole time. There's a couple chapters like that. Uh, but for the most part, we get some really good insights into what this transition looks like to head back to the promised land. It's an exciting time, it's a scary time, it's a messy time, it's an uncertain time, uh, and it's not a smooth time either. But uh, what great lessons we can learn. Let's get into it here in the book of Ezra. I'll just start with chapters one through three today, here in the New English translation. In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfillment of the Lord's message spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord motivated King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also to put it in writing. It read This is what King Cyrus of Persia says, the Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He's appointed me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Any one of his people among you, may his God be with him, may go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and may build the temple of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. Any one who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner, must be helped by his neighbors, with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God, which is in Jerusalem. Then the leaders of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites, all whose mind God had stirred, got ready to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. All their neighbors assisted them with silver utensils, gold, equipment, animals, and expensive gifts, not to mention all the voluntary offerings. Then King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the Lord's temple which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem and had displayed in the temple of his gods. King Cyrus of Persia entrusted them to Mithridath, the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazar, the leader of the Judahite exiles. The inventory of these items was as follows thirty gold basins, one thousand silver basins, twenty nine silver utensils, thirty gold bowls, four hundred and ten other silver bowls, and one thousand other vessels. All these gold and silver vessels totaled five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazar brought them all along when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem. These are the people of the province who were going up from the captives of the exile whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had forced into exile in Babylon. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own city. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Sarah, Relea, Mordecai, Bilshon, Mispar, Bigvey, Rehum, and Bana. The number of Israelites was as follows. And now here's a long list of names and quantities of people, all listed by their ancestors, which families and clans of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin are represented here. We also have a number of Levites and the singers and the gatekeepers. These are the kinds of people who are going to help reestablish worship and a rhythm of worship at this new temple. So that's important. A large number of Levites are coming to initiate that. There's a bunch of temple servants who are represented here, and uh descendants of Solomon himself. Uh the temple servants and the descendants of the servants of Solomon were 392, and there's a number of descendants of priests. Ultimately, here in verse 64 of chapter 2, it gives a summary, and here it is. The entire group numbered 42,360, not counting their male and female servants, who numbered 7,337. They also had 200 male and female singers, and 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys. I told you, Ezra's a scribe, he loves this stuff. When they came to the Lord's temple in Jerusalem, some of the family leaders offered voluntary offerings for the temple of God in order to rebuild it on its site. As they were able, they gave to the treasury for this work sixty-one thousand drachmas of gold, five thousand menas of silver, and one hundred priestly robes. The priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their towns, and all the rest of Israel lived in their towns. When the seventh month arrived, and the Israelites were living in their towns, the people assembled in Jerusalem, and then Jeshua, the son of Josedak and his priestly colleagues, and Zerubbabel, son of Shaltiel, and his colleagues, started to build the altar of the God of Israel, so they could offer burnt offerings on it, as required by the law of Moses, the man of God. They established the altar on its foundations, even though they were in terror of the local peoples, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings. They observed the feast of shelters as required, and offered the proper number of daily burnt offerings according to the requirement for each day. Afterward they offered the continual burnt offerings and those for the new moons, and those for all the holy assemblies of the Lord, and all those that were being voluntarily offered to the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. However, the Lord's temple was not at that time established. How good must it have felt, right, to start offering sacrifices to the Lord on an altar in Jerusalem, in the land that God gave you, that must feel good for the first time in many decades. So they provided money for the masons and carpenters, and food, beverages, and olive oil for the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar timber from Lebanon to the seaport at Joppa, in accord with the edict of King Cyrus of Persia. And in the second year, after they had come to the temple of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel, the son of Shaltiel, and Jeshua, the son of Josedak, initiated the work, along with the rest of their associates, the priests and the Levites and all those who were coming to Jerusalem from the exile. They appointed the Levites who were at least twenty years old to take charge of the work on the Lord's temple. So Jeshua appointed both his sons and his relatives, Cadmiel and his sons, the sons of Yehuda, to take charge of the workers in the temple of God, along with the sons of Henadad, their sons and their relatives, the Levites. When the builders established the Lord's temple, the priests, ceremonially attired and with their clarions, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with their symbols, stood to praise the Lord according to the instructions left by King David of Israel, with antiphonal response. I had to look that up, it means a kind of a call and response, two different parties calling and responding and singing like this. They sang, praising and glorifying the Lord, for he is good. His loyal love toward Israel is forever. Actually, that full song is probably Psalm 136. If you want to go look up that whole song that they probably were referring to here, it's a great call and response psalm with the people responding, His love endures forever. And so uh that's probably what they're singing here. All the people gave a loud shout as they praised the Lord when the temple of the Lord was established. Many of the priests, the Levites, and the elders, older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established, were weeping loudly. And many others raised their voice in a joyous shout. People were unable to tell the difference between the sound of joyous shouting and the sound of people weeping, for the people were shouting so loudly that the sound was heard a long way off. You might be asking, Mike, what's up with the older people crying? Why were they so upset? Well, remember, the temple that they remember was Solomon's temple. And we read about how big and glorious that was, and Solomon dedicated the temple, and God's presence absolutely filled it, overcame it. It was amazing, it was big, it got the attention of all the nations in the world. And now this one, not as impressive. Well, this serves as a good heart check. Are we sad because we aren't seeing things the way they used to be? Do we feel like, oh, I just wish we could go back to the way God had it back in the past, or the way my life was back then, before I got sick, before my family blew up, before I lost my job, whatever the situation may be. And yes, God is doing something new now, but it's different. Are you mourning what you lost, or are you celebrating what could be? That's the thinking out loud thought for the day.