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Day 270: God's Favor with Ezra
Ezra 7 -8
The events recorded in the Book of Esther took place between Ezra Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Esther's Jewish name was Hadassah, but she received the Persian name Esther when she became the wife of Persian King Xerxes I (called Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther), the son of King Darius I who permitted the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. Esther is one of several heroines in the Bible chosen by Yahweh to move forward His divine plan for the salvation of His covenant people. She stands in the company of Miriam, the first prophetess and the sister of Moses and Aaron, Rahab the Canaanite heroine of Jericho, Jael, and Judith who killed a wicked enemy, Hannah the mother of the prophet Samuel, and Mary of Nazareth, the mother of the Messiah. Esther was a Jewish maiden who courageously saved her people from the destruction planned by Haman, a wicked Persian courtier who conspired to issue a royal decree to massacre the Jews living in the Persian empire. The city where she lived, Susa in Persia, was the city where Nehemiah served in the court of Esther's stepson, King Artaxerxes I.
Ezra 7:1-10 ~ The Pedigree and Mission of Ezra
"After these events" refers to the previous chapter and the rebuilding and dedication of the Jerusalem Temple. Ezra was moved by God to travel to the community of returnees in Jerusalem and teach the Law. With the permission of Persian King Ahasuerus, he assembled a group of people willing to make the journey with him. Twice we are told that the hand of Yahweh his God was over him (verses 6 and 9). God gave Ezra His help because his heart was right with God: For Ezra had devoted himself [set his heart] to studying the Law of Yahweh so as to put into practice and teach its statutes and rulings (verse 10).
Ezra's qualifications for the mission:
- He has an excellent pedigree in the Aaronide and the Zadokite line of chief priests.
- As an expert in the teaching of the Law of Moses, he possesses the necessary authority and enough preparation as a chief priest to properly conduct Temple liturgical services.
- His expert understanding of the Law of Moses provides an authoritative link to the pre-exile past and for interpreting, explaining, and applying the ancient laws to a new context in which there is no Davidic king but instead, it is a Persian king they must obey.
Ezra 7:11-20 ~ The Order of Artaxerxes Commissioning Ezra's Mission
Chief priests generally did not become trained scribes. Their duties were leading Temple worship, teaching the Sacred Scriptures, instructing the people on the precepts of the Law, judging conditions that might be contagious diseases requiring quarantine from the general population like leprosy (Lev 13-14; Num 5:1-4; Mt 8:4; Lk 17:14), and overseeing ritual purification for contamination from that which made a covenant member ritually impure and unable to attend worship (Num 19:11-22). However, chief priests living in pagan lands without Temple duties were often employed by their overlords in other professions since they were educated in reading and writing. Ezra probably held an official position as a scribe of Persian King Artaxerxes in the Persian province of Babylon, advising the Persian government on how to work with the Jewish communities (verses 6 and 11).
Ezra 7:21-24 ~ The King's Orders to the Royal Treasurers of the Province of Transeuphrates
This order repeats the previous command of Artaxerxes' grandfather, Darius I, in Ezra 6:8-10. The king commands the royal governor of the province of Transeuphrates ("Beyond the River") to fully cooperate with Ezra and his mission. Verse 23 suggests the Persian kings believed their generosity would result in blessings on their family and their empire.
Ezra 7:24-26 ~ The King's Final Instructions to Ezra
Question: In verses 25-26, what additional powers did the king gave Ezra?
Answer:
- Ezra will have the authority to appoint magistrates and scribes in all the Jewish communities in the extended province of Transeuphrates.
- He is to enforce that everyone must obey Persian law and the law of Yahweh.
The "law of the king" refers to imperial law of Persia, which all Persian subjects had to obey. The Persian legal system permitted the observance of both local law and imperial law.
Ezra 7:27-28 ~ Ezra's Prayer
From verse 27 to the end of Chapter 9, there is a change of narrator with Ezra speaking in the first person. In Ezra's prayer, he gives credit for his mission to Yahweh, "who moved the king's heart" just as He "roused the spirit" of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1). He would have seen leading the return as a fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah (Is 40:3-5; Jer 31:8-9).
As a faithful member of the covenant, Ezra praises Yahweh. He sees the good things God has done for him and his people. He blesses God, acknowledging that God, the source of all blessing, has once again intervened in the lives of His people. Ezra, in his restoration of the covenant people, prefigures Jesus. Jesus' mission was also to restore the covenant people.
The Catechism teaches: "Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other. The prayer of blessing is man's response to God's gifts: because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the One who is the source of every blessing (CCC 2626). The two fundamental forms express this movement: our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father; we bless him for having blessed us; it implores the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father; he blesses us" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2626-2627).
Ezra 8:1-14 ~ Ezra's Register of the Returnees
The list begins with the two priestly families who are the descendants of Aaron: Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, and Ithamar, the fourth son of Aaron and the father of eight of the twenty-four priestly classes (1 Chr 24:4). The descendants of Phinehas belonged to the Zadokite line and the only line represented in the list of chapter 2 and Nehemiah 7. The descendant of Ithamar belonged to the dispossessed line of the traitor Abiathar who did not support Solomon as David's choice to succeed him as King of Israel and was, therefore, excluded from the Temple (1 Kng 2:27). The name of his descendant on the list indicates the reconciliation of the two rival priestly families which, in the Second Temple, shared the priesthood of the "sons of Aaron." The Zadokites, however, maintained their preponderance with sixteen orders compared to the Ithamarites with their eight orders (1 Chron 24:4).
Ezra 8:15-20 ~ Ezra's Examination and Instruction to the Returnees
The covenant people living in pagan lands had made homes for themselves, had married pagan women and were hesitant to return to Judah. The people of the ten northern tribes had settled in Assyrian lands for three centuries. In his book, Antiquities of the Jews, the first-century AD Jewish priest/historian, Flavius Josephus, wrote that the ten northern tribes of Israel, deported by the Assyrians in 732 (from the Galilee) and 722 BC were still living beyond the Euphrates and did not return with Ezra (Antiquities of the Jews, 11.5.2). Biblical evidence of their continued existence appears in the Book of Tobit.
Ezra 8:21-23 ~ Ezra Proclaims a Fast
After the destruction of the First Temple, fasting became an important religious observance that continued in the Second Temple period. It was generally accompanied by prayer and confession (see Esther 4:15-16; Dan 9:3-4; Neh 9:1; Zech 7:1-7; 8:18-19; Mt 6:16-18; 9:14-15; Mk 2:18; Lk 18:12).
Ezra 8:24-30 ~ Ezra Appoints the Priests and Entrusts Them With the Temple Vessels
Ezra appoints the priests and entrusts them with the Temple's vessels. In verse 28, he reminds the priests that they, like the sacred vessels, are consecrated to Yahweh. Also, the consecrated status of these vessels entails the responsibility to take special care of them and to ensure that they do not lose their sacred status by becoming contaminated by the profane to make them ritually unclean.
Ezra 8:31-36 ~ Ezra Leads the Return to Jerusalem
Ezra ordered the departure from Babylon on the first day of the first month of Abib/Aviv (7:8). But they didn't start for Jerusalem until the twelfth, after recruiting Levites to accompany them (8:31). The twelfth day of Abib was just before the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread (Abib 14th and 15th- 21st); they started on their journey confident that the hand of God was over them, protecting them from enemies. Ezra and the caravan arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month of Ab/Av, in the seventh year of King Ahasuerus' reign in 458 BC (7:7-9). It is the same month the Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple in 587/6 BC, and the returnees would have seen their return on this month as part of Yahweh's divine plan.
Agape Bible Study
Zechariah 7 - 8
Zechariah 7:1-3 ~ Prelude to the Fifth Oracle: A Question and Answer about Fasting
The oracles in 7:1-8:23 were two years later in November of 518 BC. The oracle in 7:1-14 is in three parts with each section beginning with "the word of Yahweh Sabaoth was addressed"
- a prelude setting the year and the event that initiated the oracle (verses 1-3)
- a condemnation of the insincere fasts and feasts of a people unwilling to listen to the voice of God through His prophets (verses 4-8)
- an exhortation to practice mercy and justice and a reminder of the exile that was the result of their failure to obey God's commandments.
Zechariah 7:4-14 ~ The Fifth Oracle: An Answer to the Delegation and a Survey of the Past Seventy Years
In parts 2 and 3 of the oracle, Yahweh gives a review of the past seventy years as He begins to answer the question of the delegation from Bethel in 7:3. The fasts in verse 5 were in memory the destruction of the Solomon's Temple (2 Kng 25:8-10) and the assassination of Gedaliah, the Jewish appointed Persian governor and friend of Jeremiah (2 Kng 25:22-25; Jer 39:14; 40:5-16; 41:1-18; 43:6).
The Oracles of Zechariah in Chapter 8:1-8
Zechariah 8:1-17 contains seven oracles Yahweh addresses to the covenant people. The five poetic oracles in 8:1-8 and the two prose oracles in verses 9-17 concern the restoration of Zion (verses numbered according to the NJB but may be numbered differently in other translations). The words "Yahweh Sabaoth says this" introduces each oracle (verses 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 14) except for the second oracle that is introduced by "Yahweh says this" (verse 3): Oracle #1 = 8:2; #2 = 8:3; #3 = 8:4-5; #4 = 8:6; #5 = 8:7-8; #6 = 8:9-13; #7 = 8:14-17. Oracles 1-5 are a collection of prophecies focused on what Yahweh describes as an age of peace and happiness because His Divine Presence is in Zion, dwelling among His faithful covenant people. Oracles 6-7 present a warning and an exhortation in verses 16-17 concerning pleasing Yahweh by living in righteousness.
Zechariah 8:1-8 ~ A Hymn of the Restoration and Salvation of Zion
1 The word of Yahweh Sabaoth came as follows:
Oracle #1: 2 Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I have been burning with jealousy for Zion, with furious jealousy for her sake.
Oracle #2: 3 Yahweh says this: I am coming back to Zion and shall live in the heart of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called Faithful City and the mountain of Yahweh Sabaoth, the Holy Mountain.
Oracle #3: 4 Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Aged men and women once again will sit in the squares of Jerusalem, each with a stick to lean on because of their great age. 5 And the squares of the city will be full of boys and girls playing there.
Oracle #4: 6 Yahweh Sabaoth says this: If this seems a miracle to the remnant of this people (in those days), will it seem one to me? Declares Yahweh.
Oracle #5: 7 Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Look, I shall rescue my people from the countries of the east and from the countries of the west. 8 I shall bring them back to love in the heart of Jerusalem, and they will be my people and I shall be their God, faithful and just.
Zechariah 8:9-17 ~ Continuing Oracles for Zechariah's People in the Present
Oracle #6: 9 Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Take heart, you who today hear these promises uttered by the prophets since the day when the foundations of the Temple of Yahweh Sabaoth were laid, that the sanctuary would indeed be rebuilt.
The last series of oracles are in prose. The prophets the people "today" are Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the prophets of the return from exile and the last prophets until the mission of St. John the Baptist, the last of the Old Covenant prophets.
Oracle #7: 14 For Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Just as I resolved to ill-treat you when your ancestors provoked me to anger and did not relent, says Yahweh Sabaoth, 15 so now I have changed my mind and intend to treat Jerusalem and the House of Judah well. Do not be afraid! 16 These things are what you must do. Speak the truth to one another; at your gates, administer fair judgment conducive to peace; 17 do not secretly plot evil against one another; do not love perjury; since I hate all this, Yahweh declares."
Yahweh continues to focus on covenant traditions, stressing truth and justice as the basis of a newly restored faith community to avoid the covenant curse-judgments and to reap the benefits of covenant blessings (see Zec 7:9-10; Mic 6:12; Eph 4:25). He warns them a second time (see 8:13) in verse 15 not to be afraid but to trust in their God and Divine Father so long as they live in righteousness. The city gates in verse 16 were where the community gathered to hear grievances, where elders made judicial decisions and pronounced punishments for crimes against individuals and the community (see Ruth 4:1-2). In 8:17, God warns against sins that could damage the covenant people's relationship with Him again, listing the same wrongdoings mentioned in 5:3.
Zechariah 8:18-19 ~ An Oracle Answering the Question of Fasting
This passage is the first of three oracles (verses 18-23) promising a joyous future for Judah in her restored relationship with Yahweh. He now answers the question of the Bethel delegation in the prelude to the fifth oracle in 7:1-3. The answer is "no," they do not need to keep the fasts associated with Judah's national disasters and the Babylonian exile. They need to be joyful in their return from exile, their repentance of the sins of their ancestors resulting in Yahweh's forgiveness, and the restoration of their covenant with Yahweh, and the rebuilding of the Temple which is God's dwelling place among His covenant people.
Zechariah 8:20-23 ~ Two Oracles on the Prospect of Salvation in the Messianic Age
These oracles point to a future time when worshiping the One, true God will spread beyond Judah/Israel. At that time, many peoples and nations will seek Yahweh and want to hear the testimony of His covenant people as they search for a relationship with God.
DAY 270 The Concept of Sola Scriptura
CHALLENGE: "Catholic apologists misrepresent the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura ('Scripture alone'). It merely means that Scripture contains everything necessary for salvation."
DEFENSE: This is not how the teaching is understood by most Protestants, who apply it to all Christian doctrine.
Salvation-based explanations of sola scriptura are sometimes found in popular-level writings of Protestant apologetics, but they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Anglican Articles of Religion state: “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation” (art. 6).
Those who define sola scriptura in terms of what is needed for salvation presumably mean Scripture contains all truths of soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), which is a subset of theology in general. Saying we should be able to prove all truths of soteriology by Scripture alone is a more modest claim than that we should be able to prove all theology this way. It is thus a more defensible claim, and one with which Catholics could potentially agree.
However, this is not how sola scriptura is generally understood or applied. Even the Articles of Religion indicate a broader application, for they say that nothing that can’t be proved by Scripture is an article of faith—the faith as a whole being broader than the subject of salvation.
A more typical formulation is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith: “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture” (1:6).
Here sola scriptura is said to cover everything necessary for “salvation, faith, and life”—with faith and life including doctrinal and moral theology.
The broader use of the concept is also confirmed by experience, which shows Protestants regularly ask the question “Where is that in the Bible?” on theological subjects in general, not just on soteriological ones.
This broader understanding, however, is a more expansive and thus less defensible claim (see Days 5 and 16).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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