THE FIRST PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
From the Captivity to the Return
Message Eight—Ezra
Scripture Reading: Ezra 7:1-5; 9:1—10:14; Neh. 8:1-4, 6, 8, 13-18; 13:1-30a
I. The Lord raised up Ezra to strengthen and enrich His recovery; the book of Ezra bears a strong intrinsic significance for the Lord’s recovery today—Ezra 7:6-10, Neh. 8:1-2, 8:
A. Ezra was a priest and also a scribe, one who was skilled in the law of God; as such a person, Ezra had the capacity to meet the need—v. 21:
1. A priest is one who is mingled with the Lord and saturated with the Lord; Ezra was this kind of person—8:21-23.
2. Ezra was a man who trusted in God, who was one with God, who was skilled in the Word of God, and who knew God’s heart, God’s desire, and God’s economy—7:27-28; 10:1.
3. Ezra was one with the Lord by contacting Him continually; thus, he was not a letter-scribe but a priestly scribe—Neh. 8:1-2, 8-9.
4. Ezra spoke nothing new; what he spoke had been spoken already by Moses—Ezra 7:6; Neh. 8:14.
B. In the Lord’s recovery we need Ezras, priestly teachers who contact God, who are saturated with God, who are one with God and filled with God, and who are skillful in the Word of God; this is the kind of person who is qualified to be a teacher in the Lord’s recovery—Matt. 13:52; 2 Cor. 3:5-6; 1 Tim. 2:7.
II. Ezra purified the recovery by causing “the holy seed” to be separated from anything heathen—Ezra 9:1—10:14:
A. In the Lord’s recovery there should never be any mixture; the recovery must be absolutely pure, single, and holy—9:1-2.
B. Before Ezra arrived, there was mixture because some of the Israelites had married heathen wives and had children born of this mixture; this is a type which we should apply spiritually, not literally.
C. In the Lord’s recovery there is the need of purification to separate “the holy seed” from anything that is heathen—v. 2:
1. The Lord’s recovery is the holy seed; we must be so pure that the holy seed will never be mingled with anything heathen.
2. When the recovery is holy, we will see the Lord’s blessing—Ezek. 34:26.
D. In all the steps of the Lord’s recovery, there is the need of purification—Ezra 9:1-2; 10:1-14; Neh. 13:1-30:
1. After the building up of the house, we need purification, and after the building up of the city, we need to be purified again.
2. Anything common and anything contradictory to the heavenly nature of the Lord’s recovery must be purged out—2 Tim. 2:19-22.
III. Ezra reconstituted the people of Israel by educating them with the heavenly truths that Israel could become God’s testimony—Neh. 8:1-4, 8:
A. God’s intention with Israel was to have on earth a divinely constituted people to be His testimony; in order for God’s people to be His testimony, they had to be reconstituted with the word of God—Isa. 49:6; 60:1-3.
B. After the return from captivity, the people were still unruly, for they had been born and raised in Babylon and had become Babylonian in their constitution.
C. There was the need of teaching and reconstitution to bring the people of God into a culture that was according to God, a culture that expressed God; this kind of culture requires a great deal of education—Neh. 8:8:
1. Ezra was very useful at this point, for he bore the totality of the heavenly and divine constitution and culture, and he was one through whom the people could be reconstituted with the word of God—vv. 1-2.
2. Ezra could help the people to know God not merely in a general way but according to what God had spoken—v. 8.
IV. In order to reconstitute the people of God, there was the need to educate them with the word which comes out of the mouth of God and which expresses God—Psa. 119:2, 9, 105, 130, 140:
A. To reconstitute the people of God is to educate them by putting them into the word of God that they may be saturated with the word—Col. 3:16.
B. When the word of God works within us, the Spirit of God, who is God Himself, through the word spontaneously dispenses God’s nature with God’s element into our being; in this way we are reconstituted—2 Tim. 3:16-17.
C. As a result of being reconstituted through the ministry of Ezra, Israel (in type) became a particular nation, a nation sanctified and separated unto God, expressing God—Isa. 49:6; 60:1-3; Zech. 4:2:
1. They were transfused with the thought of God, with the considerations of God, and with all that God is; this made them God’s reproduction.
2. By this kind of divine constitution, everyone became God in life and in nature; as a result, they became a divine nation expressing the divine character—1 Pet. 2:9.
Ministry Excerpts:
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, the last three books of the history of God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, are related to God’s chosen people in their captivity (2 Chron. 36:17-21). Ezra concerns the return of God’s people from their captivity (cf. Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, and Nehemiah concerns the repair, the rebuilding, of the city. Esther presents to us a pattern of how the omnipresent and omnipotent God becomes the hiding God who secretly preserves and cares for His chosen people in their captivity.
The book of Ezra provides a record of the two returns of the children of Israel from their captivity, which fulfilled God’s promise, spoken through Jeremiah, that the captivity would last only seventy years (Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10; 2 Chron. 36:21-22; Dan. 9:2). The first return was under the kingly leadership of Zerubbabel (chs. 1—6), a descendant of the royal family of David who was appointed to be the governor of Judah by Cyrus (5:14; cf. note 81). The second return was under the priestly leadership of Ezra (chs. 7—10).
The return of Israel to Jerusalem from their captivity was crucial in four points: (1) it recovered the purpose of God’s calling Israel to make them His testimony according to His law (see note 11 in Exo. 20); (2) it recovered the oneness of Israel on the unique ground of Jerusalem (Deut. 12:5, 11-14); (3) it recovered Israel’s enjoyment of the good land promised by God; and (4) it allowed God to fulfill His intention of having His house built and His kingdom established on the Satan-usurped earth in order to carry out His eternal economy through Israel’s participation in and enjoyment of the good land. All the foregoing crucial points typify today’s recovery of the church life, which is a recovery of the church out of captivity in the great Babylon (Rev. 17:1-6) back to the unique ground of God’s choice, the ground of oneness. (Ezra 1:1, footnote 1)
The first return of Israel from their captivity (see note 11 in ch. 1) needed the kingly leadership of Zerubbabel, a royal descendant who knew how to govern and who took the lead in building up the altar and the temple. After this, the need shifted from the royal family to the priesthood, to Ezra, a descendant of the high priest Aaron (vv. 1-5). Ezra was not only a priest but also a scribe, a person who was skilled in the law of God (v. 6). As such a one, Ezra had the capacity to meet the need.
After the rebuilding of the temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the people were still unruly, for they had become Babylonian in their constitution. Therefore, there was the need for an Ezra, one who was both a priest who served God and also a scribe, a scholar, who was skilled in the Word of God, skilled in the law of Moses. Ezra bore the totality of the heavenly and divine constitution and culture. He brought the people back to the Word of God that they might be re-educated and reconstituted with the heavenly truths in the divine Word. See note 11 in Neh. 8. (Ezra 7:1, footnote 1).
THE NATION OF ISRAEL BEING GOD-MEN IN TYPOLOGY
BUT EVENTUALLY BECOMING DEGRADED
As a result of this time of education and training, the nation of Israel became an army not only formed and organized but also constituted to be God with man and man with God. Hence, in typology the Israelites were God-men. They were God-men, and everything related to them, even their environment with the pillar of cloud in the day and the pillar of fire at night, was God’s expression. Their going forth became God’s going forth (Psa. 68).
After a short time, however, the children of Israel no longer expressed God, and He let them die in the wilderness. Then God raised up the second generation, and they crossed the river Jordan by a great miracle. As a heavenly constituted army they came to Jericho. When they shouted, the city of Jericho fell. This was God’s testimony. This was the move, the living, of God-men; it was God marching on. But when they came to the city of Ai, one among them caused them to fail. From that time onward, there was nothing among the Israelites but degradation. God sent the prophets to warn them and bring them back, but they refused to go along with God. Eventually, God brought in the Babylonians to possess the good land and carry the people of Israel away to Babylon to be disciplined and punished.
THE RETURN OF GOD’S PEOPLE UNDER ZERUBBABEL
God could not forget the good land, the promised land, the land of Immanuel (Isa. 8:8). The good land should be the land of God-men for the testimony of God. First, there was a return under the leadership of Zerubbabel, a descendant of the royal family. It was fitting for him to take the lead in the first return from captivity, because he had the capacity to administrate and to govern. He was a strong governor and he led the people in rebuilding the temple with the altar.
THE NEED FOR AN EZRA
However, the people were still unruly, for they had become Babylonian in their constitution. Therefore, there was the need for an Ezra, a priest who served God, and also a scribe, a scholar, who was skilled in the Word of God, skilled in the law of Moses (Ezra 7:6, 11). He bore the totality of the heavenly and divine constitution and culture. Ezra called the people together and confessed not only his own sin but also the sin of Israel, to bring them back to the Word of God.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ELDERS TO TEACH
THE SAINTS WITH THE TRUTHS
In the church life today, the main responsibility of the elders is to teach the saints with the truths. The Bible says that one of the qualifications of an elder is being apt to teach (1 Tim. 3:2). Paul tells us that certain elders may not have a job but may “labor in word and teaching” and therefore should be supported by the church (5:17-18). However, I have observed that some elders are deficient in the knowledge of the truth and may not even be clear whether a particular matter is an item of the truth.
A GREAT FAMINE THROUGHOUT THE EARTH
Throughout the whole earth there is a great famine of God’s Word. In Christianity today, both in Catholicism and in Protestantism, there is very little teaching of the truth. In many places, instead of the truth there are superstitions and pagan practices. For instance, in all of Latin America there is very little of the truth. I believe that this is the reason why our publications, which are full of the truth, are so well received there. In Latin America the people who love God also love our publications. These publications cover the entire Bible from the first page to the last.
THE NEED FOR EZRAS TO CONSTITUTE THE PEOPLE
WITH THE HEAVENLY TRUTHS
Both Brother Nee and I spent a great deal of time in learning to be skillful in the Word. Much of what we have learned has been put into print. We have almost completed the life-study of the Scriptures, and we have begun what we call the crystallization study. Today there is the need not just for Zerubbabels but for more Ezras. It would be unseemly for an elder to make decisions and expect the saints to follow them but not visit the saints with the truths. The real eldership is not to exercise authority. The real eldership is to visit the saints and to shepherd them, feed them, and take care of them by speaking to them concerning the truths. Today we need Ezras to teach the people, to educate them, and to constitute them with the heavenly truths.
TYPES OF THE RICHES OF CHRIST
I thank the Lord that, even though we are still so short in many ways, He, for His own sake, has spread His recovery, with His riches, to more than two thousand cities throughout the earth. When the Israelites went back to Jerusalem, they were stirred up, they rose up, they went up, and they brought up 5,400 vessels of gold and silver (Ezra 1:7-11). These were the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out from Jerusalem and had put in the house of his gods. During the first return from the captivity, all these vessels were brought back to Jerusalem. Those vessels are types of the riches of Christ. After I came to this country, I released messages on the riches of Christ, and I also wrote a hymn on the unsearchable riches of Christ (Hymns, #542). In Ephesians 3:8 Paul speaks not only of Christ’s riches but of Christ’s unsearchable riches. Today the enjoyment of the riches of Christ is by His word.
THE LORD MOVING IN HIS RECOVERY BY HIS WORD
In His recovery the Lord is moving by His word, by the truth. His word is in the Bible, but the Bible needs the proper interpretation, which is found in the life-studies. If the co-workers and the elders study all our publications, there will be many Ezras in the Lord’s recovery to constitute people with the heavenly truths. (Life-Study of Ezra, msg. 5)