The sermon by Jason Dohm focuses on Ezra, the priest and scribe, in Ezra 7:1-10, highlighting his lineage and role in leading the second wave of captives from Babylon to Jerusalem. Ezra, a descendant of Aaron, was a skilled scribe and a pivotal figure in the Jewish history, known for his dedication to seeking, doing, and teaching the law of Moses. The sermon emphasizes the importance of Ezra's genealogy, illustrating how lineage plays a role in God's purposes but is ultimately secondary to God's eternal plans. It describes how God's hand was upon Ezra, granting him favor with King Artaxerxes, facilitating a significant return to Jerusalem. Ezra's commitments to seek the law of the Lord, do it, and teach it serve as a model for Christian life, highlighting the importance of building a legacy of faithfulness for future generations. The sermon also reflects on God's faithfulness in raising leaders like Ezra to serve His purposes and the importance of building a solid foundation for the next generation.

Our sermon scripture is Ezra 7 verses 1 through 10. Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Serea, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shalim, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahaitib, the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Mereoth, the son of Zarehiah, the son of Uzziah, the son of Bukkiah, the son of Abishua, the son of Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the chief priest. This Ezra came up from Babylon, and he was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king granted to him all his requests, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. Some of the children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the nethanyim came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.

On the first day of the first month, he began his journey from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month, he came 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 statutes and ordinances in Israel. The title of the sermon this morning is Ezra the Priest and Scribe. We get introduced to this great character from Scripture, this great man among the people of God. For us, the book just bears his name and it's wedged between 2 Chronicles and Nehemiah.

But he's actually a towering figure among the Jews to this day, and we don't appreciate him as we should. So it's a blessing to be able to come to this text and be introduced to the author of this book much more closely. Last week we closed out the first wave of captives returning from Babylon. They don't all come back at once. There's an initial wave when Cyrus decrees that God has told him to build a house for the living God at Jerusalem.

So he puts the people at liberty to go back. This is under King Cyrus of Persia. This wave is led by Zerubbabel and a Jeshua, the priest. So chapters 1 through 6 were all about the first wave of those who were returning. It closed out at the end of chapter 6.

And what a way to close it out. It's a celebration of the Passover in the newly finished temple. And we had these words in last week's text, the Lord made them joyful. They were joyful. And why?

Because God made them joyful. And this is a mark of the work of God in your life. That you're full of joy. Not happy giddy every minute of the day, but there's a deep and abiding joy that comes along with God's hand upon you, God working in your life. And the people felt that in last week's text.

So the first wave, There were four kings that were reigning during the period of the first wave returning and then the rebuilding of the temple. Ezra mentions two. He mentions Cyrus at the very beginning and Darius at the very end. There were two in between that Ezra never mentions. Then after Darius, there's Ahasuerus who's also known as Xerxes, this is his Greek name, and then there is the son of Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes, So that brings us into chapter 7.

So there's a big gap that you don't even get a sense of if you're just reading straight through. You see in chapter 7 verse 1, then after these things, and it sort of reads like it's a small amount of time, but it's not a small amount of time. There's a king reigning that never gets mentioned between 6 and 7, and it's the son of Darius, Ahasuerus, or Xerxes. And then that king has a son named Artaxerxes and that brings us into chapter 7. So there are 57 years between the events of chapter 6 and 7 verse 1.

The temple is finished in the year 515 BC and the seventh year of Artaxerxes, which is where we are in our text, is the year 458 BC. So there are 57 years that aren't even mentioned, but Esther is in that gap. So if you want to know where the book of Esther fits in chronologically, it fits into this gap between the end of chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7. Ezra doesn't even mention it, but the Lord's people in the Empire of Persia come within a hair's breadth of being annihilated. But God in His faithfulness raises up Esther for such a time as that to save his people, to intercede for his people.

So we just finished chapter 6, now 57 years have gone by And Ezra brings us into his own time. Before in chapter 1 through 6 he was just recounting things that had happened in the past that he wasn't even a first person party to. But now he begins to recount the events of his own life in chapter 7. And so this week, the beginning of chapter 7, it introduces the second wave of captives coming back from Babylon to Jerusalem. And they have a leader and his name is Ezra.

And Ezra is a remarkable, godly man. It's wonderful just to see this man and how Scripture describes him. As we go to the text, Let's go to the text in prayer. Our God, we give you thanks for the many, many, many sons and daughters of yours who have gone before us, whose faith we see and we marvel that you raised up so many men and women that you had mercy on so many men and women through the centuries, and you raised them up to accomplish your purposes in this world. And now you've given them to us as examples that we could look at them.

We can pattern our lives after these faithful sons of yours, these faithful daughters of yours. We thank you that in the pages of Holy Scripture you've given us this as a gift. We receive it with grateful hands today, in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like to begin with a close look at Ezra chapter 7 verses 1 through 5. This is Ezra's genealogy.

It's the family tree of the author of this book and the leader of the second wave of those who are coming back from captivity. It proves that he's a priest. If you want a summary of verses 1-5, That's it. It's important that Ezra demonstrate genealogically through recounting his family tree that he is really a priest. He's really a son of Aaron.

He's going to be coming back and leading reforms. The first wave came back and they embarked on a building project. The main aim of the first wave was to rebuild this temple that had been torn down by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. The second wave is actually going to lead reforms in worship. Ezra is going to be leading reforms in worship.

Ezra is actually, as a historical figure, is going to be sprinkled throughout Nehemiah as well. Ezra is going to appear repeatedly in the book of Nehemiah. So we're going to be talking about Ezra for months and months into the future. In this genealogy there are 16 names in this family tree and it's a partial genealogy, meaning that not every generation is mentioned. So, son of, when you see son of, it's actually meaning descendant of.

In some cases it's the actual genealogical son, father-son relationship. In some instances it's more distant than that. It might be a great, it might be a grandson or a great-grandson. But it's a partial genealogy, not every generation is mentioned and It's essentially a summary of 1 Chronicles 6. In 1 Chronicles 6 verses 1 through 14, you get the full genealogy with no gaps.

It actually goes beyond Aaron upstream to Levi. If you go to 1 Chronicles 6 verse 1, this genealogy begins with Levi and it gives his son and it gives his grandson and it gives his great grandson who is Aaron and then continues down even past Saria, which is the first name in Ezra's genealogy here, to Jehozadak. This is a list of giants. So it's a partial genealogy, and Ezra has lifted the names out of the full genealogy of those who were most historically significant. And it is a list of giants, really, really significant high priests in the history of the Lord's people.

So I'm going to give you just a flyover of some of these giants, not all 16 but some. Ezra begins with Saraiya. Saraiya actually was a member of Jesuas genealogy. It's actually Jesuas grandfather is Saraiya. So Saraiya, excuse me, Ezra and Jeshua who served alongside Zerubbabel in the first wave of those who returned.

Ezra and Jeshua are closely related Because there are gaps in the genealogy, you don't know whether they're cousins or even closer than that, but they're closely related. Saraiya is in both of their family trees. Saraiya was the last high priest of the first temple and Nebuchadnezzar himself killed Saraiya 129 years earlier than this time in Ezra. So you can see there were some generations. Sarai is the first name mentioned, but it's not Ezra's physical father.

He's a descendant of Sarai, but not the actual son of Sarai. Son of actually is meaning descendant of. And by the way, that's very common in the Old Testament genealogies. There are some places where you have a full genealogy, and there are some places where you have a summary genealogy. And it's very common for son of to just mean descendant of.

So there's Hilkiah, another giant. Hilkiah was the high priest under Josiah. Josiah was the boy king. Josiah became king when he was eight years old. In the 18th year of his reign, of Josiah's reign, when he was 26 years old, Hilkiah, the high priest, comes upon the law of God in the temple.

It had been lost. And he brings the law to Josiah, this now young man king, this 26-year-old king, and Josiah reads it and he sees how far the people have drifted away from the ways of God and he tears his clothes and then he starts destroying idols and he leads this great revival among the people of God. Hilkiah is that high priest serving in the time of Josiah the king when the law of God went. Hilkiah discovered the law of God, rediscovered the law of God in the temple. Here's another giant on the list, Zadok.

Zadok was a priest under David, not the high priest, but a priest. But he was made high priest by Solomon. Because the previous high priest had gone along with another son of David who tried to usurp the throne from Solomon. So Adonijah is one of Solomon's brothers who tried to usurp the throne and the previous high priest, Abiathar, went along with this usurper and So Solomon replaced him with Zadok. Zadok was a priest under David, but high priest under Solomon.

The Zadokites, The descendants of Zadok will be the high priests until 171 BC. So they will hold the high priesthood for almost 800 years. The descendants of Zadok will be the high priests. A giant. Another giant, Aaron's grandson, Phineas.

It was Phineas when the people were being corrupted by intermarriage with pagans. The men of Israel had begun to take Midianite wives, and the people were being polluted with idolatry and harlotry because of this unequal yoking, because of intermarrying with pagans. Phineas, because of his zeal for the Lord, goes into a tent where A son of Israel and a daughter of Midian are with a javelin in hand, and he runs them both through. God was judging them for this intermarriage with pagans, and there was a plague among the people. Thousands of Israelites were being struck down by God in judgment through a plague.

Because Phineas had zeal for the Lord and he ran this couple through with the javelin, the plague was stopped and subsided. Phineas' father is another giant on the list, Eliezer. Eliezer was the third son of Aaron. The first two sons of Aaron were Nadab and Abihu, who appear in Leviticus 10 bringing strange fire before the Lord. Fire that God didn't tell them to bring before him.

God judges them and consumes them. They no longer are. And so, Eliezer, this third son, becomes high priest then, upon the death of his father. So he served as high priest at the end of Moses' life after Aaron dies. And then all of the reign of Joshua.

When Joshua is leading the people, Eliezer is the high priest. And then finally, Aaron, Aaron the first high priest, the brother of Moses, whose great grandfather was Levi. All these names are giants in the list of Ezra's genealogy. He has a towering Lineage. Does lineage matter?

No and yes. Ultimately, It is the eternal purpose of God that matters. Ultimately. It's the eternal purpose of God that matters. It's not who your mom and dad were.

It's not who your grandfather was, or your great-grandfather, or your great-great-grandfather. Ultimately, it's things that God decided in his own mind before you ever did one thing good or bad. Because The truth of it is that we're all born members of a race in rebellion to God. And so it is for God to have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and to have compassion on whom he will have compassion. So in that sense, it does not matter who your dad is or who your granddad is or who your great granddad is.

It's up to God to decide who he wants to have mercy on. But in another way, it does matter. So for justification, for your salvation, it doesn't matter a lick What your family tree looks like. God can reach into any family tree and redeem. And he loves to reach into some of the most broken family trees and show mercy because it brings him glory.

To just reach down into a mess of Muck and Meyer, generations of Muck and Meyer, to say, you're mine, I'm having mercy on you. You don't deserve it. Your family tree has been waging war against me for generations, but I'm reaching down into that and I'm having mercy on you. I'm saving you. I'm sustaining you.

But in another way, it matters in the sense that God is pleased when a generation honors him, when a generation builds something that can be built upon, when One generation hands down a legacy of faithfulness and the fear of the Lord to another generation. So often you see in a family line what you see in Ezra's family line. People who have been faithful, that God just continues to be faithful in that family line. He delights to work that way often, not all the time, but often he delights to work that way. And that we should see it as our mission to build something that our children can build on and go further than us.

We see that in Ezra's family line. So no matter how broken your family line is, maybe your family tree is a mess. Okay? So God broke into that. It wasn't God's fault that your family tree is a mess.

It was your ancestors fault. They lived in rebellion to this God who's good. He reached into that and he saved you. He plucked you out of a mess. And now it's his desire that you would build a solid foundation so that your children can go beyond you, way beyond you.

Isn't this what we want to see with our eyes? Our children going beyond us and their children, our grandchildren going beyond them. This is what we see in the line of Aaron. We see these faithful men like Hilkiah who stumbles upon the law of God in the temple and he brings it to his king. His king reads it and leads these reforms and Hilkiah is right at his side when he's leading this revival among the Lord's people.

Ezra was standing on shoulders. Ezra had good shoulders to stand upon, faithful shoulders, because of the goodness and the faithfulness of God. So does lineage matter? No. And yes.

Now, let's look at verses 6 through 9. I want to read them and then talk about them. Ezra chapter 7 verse 6, then Ezra came up from Babylon and he was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. Some of the children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the nethanyim came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.

And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. On the first day of the first month, he began his journey from Babylon. And on the first day of the fifth month, he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him." So this relates the coming up from Babylon to Jerusalem. This relates the second wave of captives returning. The first thing I'd like to notice in this section is that Ezra initiated this second wave.

Ezra initiated it. Verse 6 says, the king granted him, Ezra, all his requests. So we learn from this that Ezra made the request and the king gave him everything that he asked for. And in our memory verse we find out some things that he didn't ask for. He didn't ask for an escort of soldiers and horsemen.

He was too ashamed because of all the things he had said about God. But all the things he did ask for, which we'll be learning in the next couple of weeks, the things that he asked for and the things that were granted to him by King Artaxerxes, All the things that he did ask for, he was given. So Ezra initiated it. He asked to go back with his brethren to Jerusalem. Everything that he asked of the king was granted to him.

We already have history with Artaxerxes in the book of Ezra. You remember chapter 4 and the 100 year detour. Remember Ezra is working patiently chronologically through the events. And then he steps back and shows you a hundred years. He stops going chronologically and he goes back and he shows you a hundred years.

He shows you the span of kings from Cyrus on one end to Artaxerxes who will go all the way to the end of Nehemiah, Artaxerxes will still be reigning at the end of Nehemiah. So, and he does that to show them a century of relentless spiritual opposition. So that was our 100-year detour. Well, we encountered King Artaxerxes in that 100-year detour. And it ended this way in chapter 4, verse 21.

Remember, The leaders of the region beyond the river have sent a letter to King Artxerxes saying, if you let these people keep building this wall in this city, as soon as they're done, they won't pay you any more taxes and they will rebel against you. Go look in the archives at the history of this city and you'll find out that what we're saying is true. So our exerxes goes, looks in the archives, he finds out this is a rebellious city. These people have a history of rebellion against kings and So he writes a letter and the letter ends this way in chapter 4 verse 21. Now give the command to make these men cease that this city may not be built until the command is given by me.

So he leaves the door cracked open just a little until the command is given by me. I might change my mind and command something different later, but for now make them stop. Of course when these leaders of the region beyond the river get the message they're happy to go make them stop right away they did it by force of arms. That's the last we saw of Artaxerxes. Well now we're seeing a completely different Artaxerxes.

It's the same Artaxerxes. It's the same king but he has a radically different completely different disposition towards the Lord's people. What a reversal! How did this happen? Ezra tells us how it happens in verse 6.

The hand of the Lord his God was on Ezra. The hand of the Lord his God was on Ezra. The hand of the Lord his God was on Ezra. The hand of God being upon various ones of his people is language that's going to be reappearing and reappearing. It's going to occur three times in this chapter, chapter seven, it's going to occur three more times in the next chapter, chapter eight, it's going to occur twice in Nehemiah chapter 2.

So Ezra and Nehemiah are going to keep saying this, the hand of God was upon them. And it means that God is giving special favor to accomplish his purpose. That's what they mean when they say the hand of God. They're attributing the circumstances to the goodness and the faithfulness of God. They're seeing it rightly.

When good things come, it's because God did it. It's the hand of God upon us. It's his faithfulness. It's God giving favor to accomplish his own purposes. When the hand of your God is upon you, you can ask unlikely things of unlikely people and they'll be granted.

That's exactly what happens here in Ezra. Ezra asks an unlikely person, a king who's already written a letter to say, make them stop. And he's asked an unlikely thing. Hey, could we go back from Babylon too? Will you send us with treasure?

So they've asked an unlikely thing of an unlikely person but it's granted because God's favor is upon them to accomplish his own purpose. So Ezra initiated the second wave by making requests of a king who owes him nothing. This king, Artaxerxes, is the king of the world pretty much. The king of the known world at the time, pretty much, with very few exceptions. This king owes him nothing.

This king has previously opposed the work of the Jews in writing. But now his heart is inclined towards them. Why? Because the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. It's like a water course.

He directs it wherever he wills. So who went? Well, Ezra gives us a summary of who went. And as we proceed in Chapter 7 and we work through Chapter 8, we're going to get in greater detail who went. But Ezra gives us a summary here.

And it's very, very similar to what we saw in Ezra chapter 2 with the first wave. The same groups are mentioned in verse 7. We see some of the children of Israel. Now look at verse 13. It's out of the scope of our text today but it has a bearing on some of the children of Israel.

Now look at verse 13. It's out of the scope of our text today, but it has a bearing on some of the children of Israel. In verse 13, this is part of the letter that Artxerxes gives them. Artxerxes says in verse 13, I issue a decree that all those of the people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites in my realm who volunteer to go up to Jerusalem may go with you. So anyone in the whole realm.

Now last week we saw Darius, the grandfather of Artaxerxes, called the king of what? The king of Assyria. So the Assyrians, it was actually the Assyrians which 200 years before had taken the ten tribes, the ten northern tribes captive. And then the Assyrians were overrun by the Babylonians. The Assyrians were conquered by the Babylonians.

And then the Babylonians were overrun by the Persians. The Babylonians were conquered by the Persians. And so now this territory, which has the scattered ten tribes, whoever wants to go up to Jerusalem, and we don't know what the makeup, the exact makeup of those who returned to Jerusalem in the second wave were, but we know this, that Art Xerxes made a decree that all those of Israel and the first wave, it was overwhelmingly the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Do you remember that? Mostly from the southern kingdom, Judah and Benjamin went up.

But now it seems to be broadened in those who were allowed to go back. The ten tribes, the northern tribes had gone into captivity centuries before in different places of the Assyrian Empire, which became the Babylonian Empire, which became the Persian Empire, and now the King of Persia says, those of Israel who are willing to go back can go back. So some of the children of Israel went back. Also, priests went back. Now remember, the priests were holy.

Israel was a holy nation and within that holy nation, Judah was a holy tribe and within that Levi was a holy tribe and within that holy tribe, Aaron was a holy family. This was a people set aside for the very specific purpose of leading in temple worship, leading in corporate worship. These holy people went back with Ezra. Ezra was a priest and other priests went back with him. Levites went back.

Numbers 8 and 19, we learned that Levites were a gift to the priests. God knew that the priests had more to do than they could get done. So this tribe is set apart to help the priests with the worship of God. They don't have an inheritance except God. God is their inheritance.

The other 11 tribes get land. The Levites get God. Their job is to help the priests in the worship of God. The singers go back. We studied this in chapter 2.

Singers were also Levites. These are a subset of this holy tribe, the Levites. Singers were the sons of Asaph. Asaph was appointed by David to worship before the ark day and night with other men as well. We know how David loves his singing.

If you have any doubt about that, go to the book of Psalms and see how David loves his singing. And David appointed singers, and Asaph was their leader. So singers go back with Ezra. Gatekeepers go back with Ezra. In chapter 2, again we learned about the gatekeepers.

They also were Levites. They were a subset of this holy tribe and their job was access control. Anybody can come in here on a Sunday morning, bring on the pagans, bring on the counter protesters, let's have Sunday chores and get them in this door to hear the preaching of the word of God. But access control was a little different under the old covenant. And so there were trustworthy men, trustworthy Levites, who were given charge of access control.

They came back with their leader, Ezra the priest. Nethanim came back. The NASB and the ESV and the NIV translate it temple servants. So the King James and New King James transliterate it, they bring it over from the actual word, and don't bring it into English words, they leave it nethonym. But the other translations, these other translations that generally speaking we like a lot, just translate it temple servants.

That is a good translation of the word. In Ezra chapter 8 verse 20 we see that the nethanyim were those that David and the leaders appointed for the service of the Levites. So we're getting this picture. God keeps giving these gifts. Actually the word behind nethanyim literally means given.

The nethanyim were not Levites but they were given to the Levites to help them in their work. So the nethonym helped the Levites and the Levites helped the priests in their work. All of these groups were included in the first wave. So if you go back to Ezra chapter 22, you'll see in the first 35 verses, people of Israel, genealogies named, and then in verse 36 and following, you'll see the same groups. You'll see priests, you'll see Levites, you'll see singers, you'll see gatekeepers, you'll see nethanyim, And you'll see one other group that are not mentioned here, the sons of Solomon.

The sons of Solomon's servants were mentioned in chapter 2. They were a group that you don't find here. How long did it take? So that's who went. How long did it take?

Four months. Verse 9 tells us that this began on the first day of the first month, and they arrived on the first day of the fifth month. So they're not actually traveling in the fifth month. They're arriving on the first day. So all of month one, all of month two, all of month three, all of month four, they're traveling.

Then the first day of the fifth month they arrive at Jerusalem. If you draw a straight line from Babylon to Jerusalem, it's right around 500 miles. You have to go right across a really big desert to do that. So that's not the track. Almost certainly that's not the track that they took.

You would not travel with all these people straight across the desert, the 500 miles. So you've got to go around the desert. And at the time there was a well-established route that went northwest along the Euphrates River and then south and it makes the 500 miles as the crow flies into about a 900 mile journey. So it's 900 miles in four months, which is actually a slow pace. It's a very modest pace.

If you take out 11 days, so if you go to verse 31 of chapter 8, Ezra chapter 8.31, you see that there was actually a delay. They actually didn't start the travel until the 12th day of the first month. And Chapter 8 actually explains what that delay is all about. We're coming to that in a little bit. They started on the 12th day of the first month.

If you subtract those days and then you just divide it out, it works out to about 8.25 miles per day, which is a comfortable pace to travel. An army on the march can reliably travel more than twice that in a day. But they're not an army. They're men, women, boys, girls of all ages with their animals, with their taking their life from Babylon to Jerusalem. So they're not an army on the march.

And so they're making about an average of 8.25 miles a day over the course of a little less than four months. And they're arriving in Jerusalem. The commentators also mentioned this, multiple commentators mentioned this, at the same time, Right around the same time, right around 458 BC, there's a rebellion in Egypt. Egypt is in rebellion against the Persian Empire. They were part of the Persian Empire, then they rebelled.

And this is happening now. And So in our memory verse, in Ezra chapter 8 verse 22, when we see the enemy on the road, there's a war going on and springtime is when the armies begin their campaigns in these wars that are happening all the time in these empires. And so there may very literally have been armies traveling on the same roads at the same time because they're starting out in the first month of the year, which would be something like mid-March, and they're arriving in mid-July. This is right during the time for war. Now, verse 10.

Time. Okay, now verse 10. Verse 10. Ezra chapter 7 verse 10, for Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. In verse 10 we get the heart and mind and life of Ezra.

Ezra is the shortened form of Azariah. Ezra's short form for Azariah. Azariah is a name that appeared twice in his lineage at the first of the chapter. So when we look at those sixteen names in the partial family tree that we're given, you'll see that Azariah is twice among those sixteen names. Ezra is the shortened form of that name.

So just like Jeshua in the first wave, the Jeshua who stood beside Zerubbabel, just as Jeshua was a shortened form of Joshua, Ezra is a shortened form of Azariah. Now we skipped over verse 6, at least in terms of how it relates to Ezra. This from verse 6, he was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. So Ezra was a scribe. In verse 11 we get more on what that means here from verse 11.

Ezra the priest, the scribe, expert in the words of the commandments of the Lord and of his statutes to Israel. This is what a scribe is. He's an expert in the words. What words? Of the commandments of the Lord and of his statutes to Israel.

He's an expert in the words. That's what a scribe is. Not just someone who just is good at copying one thing onto blank paper, but someone who is an expert in the words of the law of Moses. He was skilled. He was not just a scribe.

He was a skilled scribe. Jewish tradition says that Ezra had the law memorized, had the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, memorized and that he could write it from recall. Now that's an extra biblical source, it doesn't say that in the Bible, but the Jews are pretty serious about their history. And At least the Jews relate to this day that Ezra had the law memorized and he could write it from recall. The Jewish tradition also says that Ezra canonized the Old Testament, meaning He pulled together the law and the history books, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, and the poetic books, Psalms and Proverbs, and the prophets into the Old Testament.

This is the Word of God, and only this is the Word of God. So again, that's extra biblical, but Jewish tradition says Ezra is the man who did that. Ezra is the man that God used to pull this body of inspired books together to say, this body is the Word of God and only this body is the Word of God in the Old Testament. After 70 years of captivity, living in a foreign land among pagans, this is what the people of God needed. An expert in the words.

Someone who knew and could teach the words. 70 years in captivity. A lot of that law they don't even need in Babylon because they can't do it. The temple lies in ruins. So a lot of that law is irrelevant to their daily lives.

So they're there, they're living in a foreign land, they're living among pagans, and now they need an expert in the words. Think about how we bemoan the state of biblical literacy today. Don't we do that? Don't we bemoan? Look around in the church and say, wow, by and large we don't know very much Bible.

And maybe we're some of the more biblically literate people and we don't know very much of our Bible. We bemoan our own biblical literacy or maybe biblical illiteracy is the way we should say it. We don't know our Bibles like we should. What would it be like for the people who have been in Babylon for 70 years? They need an expert in the words and that is exactly what God has raised up for this people at this time, an expert in the words.

Verse 10 says that Ezra had prepared his heart to do three things. He had prepared his heart, or Some of the other good translations say that he had set his heart. They do that because there are really two things at work in this word. Sometimes rendered prepared, sometimes rendered set, because both things are a part of this Hebrew word. One is making ready, that's a part of this word, and the other thing is having a steadfast purpose.

So both of those things are in play in the heart of Ezra. He's making himself ready for this and this and this, these three things. And he has made it his steadfast purpose. He is dead set on this, and he's dead set on this, and he's dead set on this, and he's dead set on this, these three things. So both things in play, making ready and having a steadfast purpose.

Number one, to seek the law of the Lord. Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. He was dead set on seeking the law of the Lord. This is an interesting choice of words, isn't it?

He's not learning the law of the Lord. I'm sure he is learning the law of the Lord, but that's not the word chosen. He's not studying the law of the Lord. He's not even memorizing the law of the Lord. Now he's learning, he's studying, he's memorizing, but the word that the Holy Spirit chose to give to us today is seek the law of the Lord.

He sought the law of the Lord. It goes way beyond learning. It goes way beyond studying. It goes way beyond memorizing. He was seeking God through his word.

He was wanting to know the mind of God by going to this God's word. So it's way beyond an intellectual exercise. Study, go to the class, pass the test, get the points. That's not what Ezra is doing. Ezra is seeking after God through his word.

Isaiah 55, 8 and 9 says this, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So my ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. So Ezra is a man who sees this and knows this. By the way, Isaiah wrote that probably 200 years before Ezra.

Ezra knows those words. Ezra sees God's ways, my ways. God's thoughts, my thoughts. How do I get up there? Where his ways are, where his thoughts are, his word?

Seek his word. I'm going to make myself ready to seek his word. I'm dead set on knowing this God through his word. Now there's a kind of learning and studying that actually works against this. Did you know that?

There's a kind of intellectual acquisition that works against what's being described of Ezra. Listen to this, this out of the mouth of Jesus in Matthew 22 verses, excuse me, Matthew 23 verses 23 and 24. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you paytie the mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

There's a kind of intellectual acquisition that works against seeking the law of God that is so concerned with the nuance and misses what it's all about. And Jesus rebukes scribes for this in Matthew 23. He rebukes him. He says, woe to you. So all scribes are not created equal.

Jesus was probably talking to men who memorized Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. So it's not the knowledge gap that separates Ezra and the scribes that Jesus is facing down in Matthew 23. It's the heart. It's the heart. It's the heart that had missed justice and mercy and faith and wanted to talk about tithing garden spices.

There is a kind of intellectual acquisition that totally misses the point. And it has no relationship to seeking the law of God. Ezra sought the Lord of the law through seeking the law of the Lord. That's the point. Ezra sought the Lord of the law.

In other words, the law doesn't exist for itself. The law exists to point to him. He sought the Lord of the law by seeking the law of the Lord. But it's possible to just study and study and study and study and never get to the Lord of the Law. Number two, to do the Law of the Lord.

Ezra prepared his heart to do the law of the Lord. Ezra prepared his heart to do the law of the Lord. Ezra was dead set to do what he had learned as he sought the law of the Lord. James 1 verse 22, But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. Ezra knew this.

That we're not just supposed to study and acquire the knowledge, but we're actually, it has a purpose. It's not just to make us smarter. Paul says, knowledge puffs up, Ezra knew that. So he wasn't just a hearer of the word, like James warns us against in James 1.22, just being a hearer, that's bad. He was a doer of the word.

He was dead set on it. He made himself ready to obey, not just to study. Thirdly, to teach the law of the Lord, First to seek the law of the Lord. He made himself ready and he was dead set to seek the law of the Lord. Two, to do the law of the Lord.

He made himself ready to obey and he was dead set to obey. And then finally to teach the law of the Lord. He prepared his heart to teach the law of the Lord. He made himself ready to teach. He was dead set on teaching this law to the Lord's people.

Ezra went into this deep well and he learned to obey these great truths And then he became a channel of it to the Lord's people. This is beautiful. This is magnificent. He went into the deep well. He drew out of the deep waters of the law of God, the Word of God.

And he knew there was a purpose for it, that it should be done, not just learned. And so it transformed his life. And then he became a channel for these great truths to the Lord's people. Notice the sequence, seek do teach. That's not an accident.

That's how it's supposed to go. We want to be careful not to say that one is an unbreakable prerequisite for the other. In other words, we don't want fathers, for instance, to be perfect in their keeping before they start teaching. It's a father's job to start teaching. Even if in some ways there's some hypocrisy in it, he hasn't attained to what he's teaching yet.

Well that happens every week when I stand in the pulpit. I teach a standard that I haven't attained to. Welcome to the job of teaching the Word of God. You teach the standard and then you ask God to have mercy on you and to help you do the things you've been saying. But this is a good sequence.

This is what we should see in our lives. Seeking, doing, teaching. Now turn to 1 Timothy 4. This is exactly what Paul is exhorting Timothy to, his son in the faith in 1 Timothy 4. You have to see this.

Turn to 1 Timothy 4. I'm going to begin reading in 1 Timothy 4 verse 6 and then for the sake of time I'm going to skip to 11 and read through the end of the chapter. So it will be 6 and then skip to 11. 1 Timothy 4 verse 6, Paul writes to Timothy, If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith, and of the good doctrine, which you have carefully followed. So you see already in this first verse Paul's talking about the same thing.

He started in reverse. He talks about his teaching of these things but then he says what has gone before. You've been nourished in the words of faith. You've been nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. You've been doing it.

You were nourished and then you carefully followed these things. You did it and now you're instructing the brethren in these things. Now skipping to verse 11. These things command and teach. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity, till I come give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

Do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them. That your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.

Continue in them for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. Paul, if you were to boil it down, you could say, Paul is saying to Timothy, be like Ezra. Be like Ezra. Nourish yourselves. Nourish yourself, Timothy, in the Word of God.

Give attention to the reading of Scripture and give yourself holy to it and carefully do it and then instruct your brethren out of it. Paul is exhorting Timothy, his son in the faith, to be like Ezra, to seek, to do, and then to teach. One of the commentators I've been reading, it's the World Biblical Commentary, and the man who wrote it on Ezra and Nehemiah is a man by the name of H.G.M. Williamson. He says this, with study, conduct, and teaching put deliberately in this right order, each of these was able to function properly at its best.

Study was saved from unreality, conduct from uncertainty, and teaching from insincerity and shallowness. I want to camp on each of those things that he just said in the end. So first he says this is the right order. Seek, do, teach is a good ordering. And then he says study was saved from unreality.

In other words, learning, the risk of learning is that it becomes separated from reality. Well, because he was doing this, there was no separation. Learning stayed wedded to reality. It wasn't just knowledge. It wasn't just hearing the word.

It was hearing and doing the word. So the study was saved from unreality. And he says that the conduct was saved from uncertainty. In other words, because it was based on what God had said, there could be a certainty to the doing. Isn't that a blessing when you can be certain about what you're doing because what you're doing is founded in the Word of God.

It comes out of your study from God's holy word. It's here. So when you do it, you don't have to do it uncertainly. So you can save your conduct from uncertainty by grounding it in what you've learned from God's holy word. And that teaching was saved from insincerity and shallowness.

Why so? Because it's not hypocritical teaching. Because he was doing what he learned. And so when he was a teacher of it, it wasn't teaching in hypocrisy. Because he wasn't just a hearer of the word, he was a doer also.

So this progression saves us from unreality, from uncertainty, and from insincerity and shallowness. So God raised up this remarkable man and Ezra enjoyed God's favor. The hand of the Lord his God was upon him and even to the point where he turned the heart of this king, which was turned away from the work that the Jews were doing and just turned it around. Now all of a sudden in chapter 7 we find that the king's heart is inclined. He enjoyed the king's favor.

He enjoyed God's favor. He enjoyed the king's favor and he enjoyed his people's favor. All these people come back with him in the second wave. All these people uproot their lives and travel 900 miles, go to a place that they've never seen before. Okay, applications.

Three applications. Number one, God is always raising up sons and daughters to serve Him. God is always raising up sons and daughters to serve him. Don't be afraid of the Gospel in the next generation. God is raising up sons and daughters here, there, everywhere to serve him in every generation.

It was so inspiring to get this picture of Zerubbabel and Jeshua in the first wave. And Ezra is actually going to find that there are problems in Jerusalem when he gets there. He's going to find that there are problems. On a faithful generation, Zerubbabel and Jeshua passes away, there are problems, God has already raised up another man to lead his people, to be a blessing to his people, a man who seeks and does and teaches. We never have to fear for the gospel in the next generation.

There are some bad signs right now about the gospel in the next generation. Well, you know what? The truth is there are six months old children, babies, here, there, and everywhere that God is going to raise up. How do we know that? Because we can look back over thousands of years and say, this is what God does.

A promise-keeping God does this. A faithful God does this. He's raised. He hasn't even called them yet. They're little pagans.

They're in rebellion to him now, but he's going to put his hand on them and call them out. He's going to bring them to maturity to be a blessing to his people just like he did with Ezra. Never fear. Number two, our mission is to build a generation that can be built on. Our mission is to build a generation that can be built on.

It doesn't overthrow the doctrine of election. Whether our children will be saved or not are in the hands of God. And we have many reasons to hope he will save our children, because he accomplishes the salvation of people through these means of grace. How will they be saved unless they hear? How will they hear without a preacher?

Well, we have a lot of preachers in a lot of homes, so this should give us hope that maybe God is doing this, and He'll be kind to our children, and He'll show mercy on those who had not abstained mercy. But that's his part. What's our part? Our part is to build a solid foundation. However many Christians God puts in our home, they can build on that foundation because it's built on Christ and on the Word of God.

To build lives on the Word of God so that our children can go so far beyond us. So far beyond us. And our grandchildren further than them. Build something, build a life on the Word of God that is a springboard for the children, the Christian children that God gives you, however many he has mercy on. It matters.

You can look at these giants in Ezra's genealogy, like Hilkiah and Phineas and Eleazar, And see that this is a man standing on shoulders. Okay? Build a life so that our children can stand on our shoulders and see farther and go farther. Thirdly, this is a model for the Christian life. Ezra is such a beautiful model for the Christian life.

Seek the law of the Lord. Actually, seek the Lord of the law by seeking the law of the Lord. See beyond this wonderful law to the God, the wonderful God who gave the wonderful law. Don't have your heart captured by the law, Have your heart captured by the God, the beauty of the God who gave this law. And then do it.

The purpose of learning these things is to do them, not just to hear them, not just to be puffed up in knowledge, but to have our lives conformed to the beautiful image that we see. It's a law of love. The fulfillment of the law is love. Love is the fulfillment of the law. So a life built on obedience to this law is a life of love.

And then thirdly, teach. These are words of life. This is what Peter said when Jesus says, everybody's left me, do you want to leave too? Peter says, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life.

These words should be on our lips. We're not just to be a repository of this, of these words of God. We're supposed to be dispensers, dispensing, being a blessing with these words of God. Seek, do, Teach. It's a model for the Christian life.

Oh God, thank you that you set this man before us. He's only great because you are great. He was only faithful because you were faithful to him. But you raised him up to make him an example to your people. May we learn well, may we study the life of this man, the son of yours, whatever flaws that he had, you were faithful to him, you raised him up and you worked in him and through him.

I pray that we would be inspired by this, that this would make us want to love you more, to love you better, to follow you as He followed you. Use us in our generation, God. In Jesus' name, Amen.