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: (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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: (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
4. Ezra spoke nothing new; what he spoke had been spoken already by Moses—Ezra 7:6; Neh. 8:14. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
II. Ezra purified the recovery by causing “the holy seed” to be separated from anything heathen—Ezra 9:1—10:14: (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
A. In the Lord’s recovery there should never be any mixture; the recovery must be absolutely pure, single, and holy—9:1-2. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
C. In the Lord’s recovery there is the need of purification to separate “the holy seed” from anything that is heathen—v. 2: (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
2. When the recovery is holy, we will see the Lord’s blessing—Ezek. 34:26. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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: (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
2. Anything common and anything contradictory to the heavenly nature of the Lord’s recovery must be purged out—2 Tim. 2:19-22. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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: (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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: (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
2. Ezra could help the people to know God not merely in a general way but according to what God had spoken—v. 8. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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: (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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: (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)
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. (2004 MDC, msg. 4)