“What 42,360 Homeless People Can Teach You” Ezra 2:1-70 16 February 2014

Ezra 2… Hear the word of the Lord…

Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to and Judah, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel: the sons of Parosh, 2,172. The sons of Shephatiah, 372. The sons of Arah, 775. The sons of Pahath-moab, namely the sons of Jeshua and Joab, 2,812. The sons of Elam, 1,254. The sons of Zattu, 945. The sons of Zaccai, 760. The sons of Bani, 642. The sons of Bebai, 623. The sons of Azgad, 1,222. The sons of Adonikam, 666. The sons of Bigvai, 2,056. The sons of Adin, 454. The sons of Ater, namely of , 98. The sons of Bezai, 323. The sons of Jorah, 112. The sons of Hashum, 223. The sons of Gibbar, 95. The sons of Bethlehem, 123. The men of Netophah, 56. The men of Anathoth, 128. The sons of Azmaveth, 42. The sons of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, 743. The sons of Ramah and Geba, 621. The men of Michmas, 122. The men of and Ai, 223. The sons of Nebo, 52. The sons of Magbish, 156. The sons of the other Elam, 1,254. The sons of Harim, 320. The sons of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, 725. The sons of Jericho, 345. The sons of Senaah, 3,630. The priests: the sons of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, 973. The sons of Immer, 1,052. The sons of Pashhur, 1,247. The sons of Harim, 1,017. The Levites: the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodaviah, 74. The singers: the sons of Asaph, 128. The sons of the gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, and the sons of Shobai, in all 139. The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasupha, the sons of Tabbaoth, the sons of Keros, the sons of Siaha, the sons of Padon, the sons of Lebanah, the sons of Hagabah, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hagab, the sons of Shamlai, the sons of Hanan, the sons of Giddel, the sons of Gahar, the sons of Reaiah, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Nekoda, the sons of Gazzam, the sons of Uzza, the sons of Paseah, the sons of Besai, the sons of Asnah, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nephisim, the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Hakupha, the sons of Harhur, the sons of Bazluth, the sons of Mehida, the sons of Harsha, the sons of Barkos, the sons of Sisera, the sons of Temah, the sons of Neziah, and the sons of Hatipha. The sons of Solomon's servants: the sons of Sotai, the sons of Hassophereth, the sons of Peruda, the sons of Jaalah, the sons of Darkon, the sons of Giddel, the sons of Shephatiah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Pochereth-hazzebaim, and the sons of Ami. All the temple servants and the sons of Solomon's servants were 392. The following were those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, though they could not prove their fathers' houses or their descent, whether they belonged to Israel: the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, and the sons of Nekoda, 652. Also, of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, and the sons of Barzillai (who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name). These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food, until there should be a priest to consult Urim and Thummim. The whole assembly together was 42,360, besides their male and female servants, of whom there were 7,337, and they had 200 male and female singers. Their horses were 736, their mules were 245, their camels were 435, and their donkeys were 6,720. Some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, made freewill offerings for the house of God, to erect it on its site. According to their ability they gave to the treasury of the work 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priests' garments. Now 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 in their towns.

Now doesn’t this chapter just warm your heart? Nothing like a bunch of dead, homeless people to ignite your spiritual appetite! Nothing like a bunch of weird Hebrew names to get your spiritual juices flowing. So and so begat so and so begat so and so…so what?

We may be tempted to skim these verses. I understand that. Preachers may be tempted to skim these verses because they fear that it would take up too much time in their sermon. Even as an Old Testament major in seminary, these verses can be hard reading. I mean, forget application! I just want to get through this list!

But this is God’s word. And Paul tells us in Romans 15:4-5 that the Old Testament Scriptures were written down for us so that we would be encouraged, endure, and have hope. Ezra 2 was written so that we would be encouraged, endure, and have hope. Maybe you weren’t encouraged by the reading. Maybe you struggled to endure! Maybe be you hoped when you turned the page that it would stop at verse 50!

Is the apostle Paul for real? Encouragement from this chapter? Yes. And if you struggle to endure the reading of this chapter, then get some hope from Paul in Ephesians 4 where he says that God gave pastors and teachers to the church to build them up in the faith, help them grow to maturity, and increase in the knowledge of God so that they may not be tossed back and forth by false teachings but may hear the truth of God.

That’s what I plan to do with Ezra chapter 2. Encourage you. Equip you. Give you hope. Build you up. Help you grow. And I’m going to use a list of homeless, dead Israelites to do so… by God’s grace! Who knew? Reading the church membership rolls, reading the church directory, could actually be a means of grace?!

We’re actually only going to look at the first 42 verses today. I know what you may be thinking, “Duh! There’s no way you could preach a sermon on all 70 verses. You don’t have enough time.” That may be true. But when you see that these 70 verses are just a lengthy genealogy, then you may be surprised that I have to preach it over the course of 2 sermons.

It’s true. There’s just so much gold to be mined from this “seemingly boring” list of people that I had to break it up into 2 sermons. Besides, Old Testament genealogies are my forte, my specialty. I love preaching hard texts like this! I really take Paul at his word in Romans 15. And I hope you will too by the end of this sermon.

The big idea that seeps out of the cracks of these verses is this- WHENEVER YOU MESS UP, DON’T GIVE UP- KEEP LOOKING UP.

I know what you’re thinking: “Really? You get that out of this? You get whenever you mess up, don’t give up- keep looking up out of 42 verses full of hard to pronounce Hebrew names?” My answer: Yes!

If you read between the lines, then you will arrive at this conclusion. Now, we don’t want to read into the text. That’s eisegesis. We want to do exegesis and draw truth out of this passage. But we do want to and need to read between the lines of this particular passage and make some connections with what we saw last week in Ezra 1 and Jeremiah 29.

When we dig a little deeper and think a little harder and longer and ask a few questions, I think we’ll come to the conclusion that these homeless Israelites teach us to not give up, even if we’ve made a mess of our lives. The hope of the Gospel is precisely what kept these people afloat for 70 years in exile.

Well, how did these Israelites mess up their lives?

LOOK AT VERSE 1 AGAIN… Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.

You’ve got to read verse 1 slowly and read it and be pained by it the way an Israelite would read it. Twice the word “captivity/captive” is used and once the word “exile.” Verse 1 is a reminder that this was the darkest period in Israel’s history. They were carried away into exile by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, because they turned away from worshipping Yahweh, the Sovereign Lord. The nations of Israel/Judah messed up their lives because they loved and worshipped the gods of Babylon. And in a weird twist of fate, they were carted off to the very land where these gods dwelled.

But understand this truth about the exile: not every person who was exiled was living in disobedience to the Lord. There was a remnant of believers that loved the Lord. They were faithful. Sinful, yes, but faithful, too. But the majority of the nation had turned away from Yahweh to serve other gods. And the faithful remnant were carted off to Babylon along with the disobedient.

But remember what we saw last week. The Lord stirred the prophet Jeremiah’s heart to write a letter to these exiles to give them hope. Jeremiah’s letter included a promise from Yahweh that He would restore His people to the land, to Jerusalem, the city of God, after 70 years-

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:10-14

So even though they had severely messed up their lives because of their sin and rebellion, Jeremiah’s letter was meant to be an encouragement. Jeremiah’s letter contained a giant promise from the Lord that they could cling to for 70 years. Jeremiah’s letter was basically saying-

WHENEVER YOU MESS UP, DON’T GIVE UP- KEEP LOOKING UP.

Israel could do just that because of the promise of God sent by Jeremiah in his letter to the exiles.

R.C. Sproul says, “We exist as the people of God because He has made and kept promises to His people. We can be a part of the family of God only because our God makes and keeps covenants. God never breaks or changes His promises. They are everlasting promises to which God committed Himself forever… The hardest thing in the world for the Christian is to live by faith rather than by sight…living faith involves trusting the promises of God… Throughout history, God has demonstrated that He is supremely trustworthy. That’s why, in one sense, nothing could be more foolish than not to trust in the promises of God… when God makes a covenant with His people, He can punish them for breaking His covenant, but He never abandons the covenant promises that He makes.” (The Promises of God: Discovering the One Who Keeps His Word, pp. 7-8, 16)

Israel indeed broke covenant with the Lord so He punished them with 70 years in exile in Babylon. But the Lord never abandons His people or the covenant promises that He has made. This was the hope that Israel could cling to for 70 years while they waited for restoration.

And this hope no doubt was reinforced through the covenant families. That’s what we see in verses 2-35. We won’t read all of these names again. Sorry. That probably makes some of you sad. I should read all of these names because we don’t have a name picked out yet for our 6th child!

* verse 27- Michmas Magness * verse 30- Magbish Magness

Actually, verse 56 contains the name that I have tried with 2 kids already, but Heather still isn’t buying it: Darkon Magness

Well, we won’t read these names again, we could, but we won’t. But notice that the people in verses 2-35 are just average Joe’s. They are ordinary people.

By ordinary I mean that they weren’t priests or Levites, etc. They were lay people. But they were important because they were a part of the people of God. So verses 2-35 give us a list of ordinary Israelites who were so enthralled with God that they left their cush jobs and easy life supported by the new government of Persia and they forsake all of that to be homeless worshippers in Israel.

What would cause them to do this? What would cause them to leave their cush jobs and easy life supported by the new government of Persia and then forsake all of that to be homeless worshippers in Israel? I think it was the hope of the Gospel. I think it was their hope in the promises of God. I think it was 70 years of waiting and hoping in the promise of restoration that caused them to leave Persia behind. I think it was 70 years of families doing discipleship, continually rehearsing the promise of God.

Now, why do I say that discipleship was taking places within the families? I say that because what is the one Hebrew word here that gets repeated continually throughout this chapter? The ESV translates it as “sons.” It’s the Hebrew word ben. Now, that’s a great name for a kid! Ben Magness. That has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Over and over again throughout this chapter you have the word sons/children repeated. Why? I think if we read between the lines then we will see that family worship, family discipleship was happening over the course of these 70 years. Don’t miss the author’s point, Grace! He’s trying to get you to see that covenant runs in families. The Gospel spreads through families as moms and dads take the call to disciple their children seriously. Don’t miss what the author of Ezra+Nehemiah is saying!

Sons! Daughters! Children! Kids! Munchkins! Pass the promises of God on to your children. And don’t give up! Keep talking to them about Jesus! Catechize your kids! Read the Bible to them! Tell them about God!

Remember where they were for 70 years. In exile. In captivity. Why? Because of their sin. Because they rebelled against Yahweh. But did their sin and rebellion and shame and guilt paralyze them? No! They owned their sin. They told their kids. “We’re in exile because of our sin. We messed up. We messed up our lives big time. But Yahweh is faithful. Merciful. He forgives. His love never ceases.”

I think that’s why you have “sons” repeated over and over again. Because the parents kept discipling their kids, even though they had totally messed up their lives.

When you read a “seemingly boring” genealogy like this that is full of dead people with really weird names that are hard to pronounce, let every weird hard-to-pronounce name, every time you read “sons” be a reminder to you that-

WHENEVER YOU MESS UP, DON’T GIVE UP- KEEP LOOKING UP.

That’s what these Israelites did. They kept looking to Yahweh. They kept looking up to Him. They kept looking up promises in His word! And they shared this with their kids.

Listen, I know the temptation to give up and despair when it comes to discipling your kids. Do you ever wonder if they are listening or if they are even getting it? How many of you ask your kids what they learn in Sunday school and they say, “I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

Heather taught a class last week with one of our kids in it. I came home from after preaching the 3rd service and Heather asked one of our kids what the lesson was about. The response, “I don’t know.” She pressed a little and all she got was, “Disciples.”

So we may be tempted to think that they aren’t getting it. It’s not sticking. But it is. It’s God’s word and it will not return void or empty but will accomplish what He purposes {see 55:11}. In fact, I got a great encouragement this week along these lines. Someone sent me an email to say that they were praying for me and they sent a link to a sermon by John MacArthur. So I watched some of the sermon clip on YouTube and MacArthur was preaching and he said the word gospel. I had been watching this in the van with Heather because we were a few minutes early for her doctor’s appointment. So we’re watching this video for a while and Piper, our 2 year-old, is still buckled in her car seat.

And after several minutes of preaching, MacArthur says the word gospel in his sermon. And right away Piper says, “Gospel!” I looked at Heather and was like, “Did she just say gospel?”

Don’t give up parents. You’re kids are listening, just like these Israelite kids mentioned here in Ezra 2. And God is working in the hearts of your children, just as He was in the hearts of the sons of Pahath-moab, Magbish, Michmas, and Azmaveth, to name a few.

Clearly God was stirring His people’s hearts. Ezra 1:5 says that Yahweh stirred up His people’s hearts to return to Israel: “…everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.”

But I don’t think that the stirring that happened in their hearts just happened in a vacuum. I don’t think that the nation of Israel was numb to the Lord for 70 years and then He just stirred their heart and they suddenly had a passion to see His glory displayed. I think God was stirring what was already happening in their hearts. I think families were seriously discipling their children and the nation, for the most part, was clinging to Yahweh’s promise in Jeremiah’s letter.

I think for the most part the nation got a wake up call with the exile and they turned their hearts to the Lord and did not begin to become like the world, namely they did not become Babylonians, they did not easily absorb and take on Babylonian culture. Now, typically this is what happens when a new generation grows up in a foreign place.

In my years of working at Starbucks I met and befriended a lot of Ethiopians. There is a huge Ethiopian community in Dallas and they love Starbucks! And they love putting a lot of sugar in their Starbucks! But the kids of these Ethiopian transplants are not like their parents. They are more American than they are Ethiopian. They have adopted American culture as their culture because they were either born here or came to America as a small child. All they have known is America.

That’s typically what happens with the younger generation when they grow up in a different country. But I don’t think that happened with the Israelites in Babylon. I think they kept their Israelite culture and distinction, as evidenced by the 42, 360 Israelites who returned to Israel knowing that they would be homeless and have no jobs. How did this happen? It was family discipleship. Some of the parents who left Israel and were taken in handcuffs to Babylon and died in Babylon. What made their kids move back when they had never even seen Jerusalem?

I think the answer is found by reading between the lines. They heard about Yahweh. They heard about all that He had done for the nation of Israel through the years. They heard about His faithfulness. And they heard the promise from Jeremiah’s letter over and over and over again-

When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:10-11

Maybe you’ve made a mess of your life. Maybe you’ve turned from the Lord and you’re making your way back. Maybe in one sense you’ve been in Babylon for 70 years. Maybe you’ve been in exile, help captive to your sin and consequences.

This list of dead, homeless Israelites can give you the hope that you need. They can encourage you. They can help you endure. Why? Because they are proof that God restores broken people. They are proof that God takes messy people who have totally messed up their lives and He turns it for good.

Oh, I’m not saying that restoration will be easy. I’m not saying that God’s grace is a magic wand that you can wave over your life and “poof!” everything will be okay. No. There are consequences to sin. Sometimes we really mess up our lives. We make bad decisions. We sin. We really jack up our lives.

There’s hope, yes, but God likely will not wave a magic wand and make it all go away. He typically works through slow, steady grace. Slow, steady grace that moves like molasses and gets you through moment- by-moment, day-by-day. His means of grace is slow, steady discipleship focused on the promises of God.

For Israel is was slow, steady discipleship for 70 years. 70 years of rehearsing the gospel. 70 years of trusting the promises of God. And God was faithful. Moment-by-moment, day-by-day. Through all the mess, Yahweh was faithful.

Ezra 2 is telling you, Christian, that you serve the same God. Ezra 2 is telling you to give God your mess. Ezra 2 is telling you that-

WHENEVER YOU MESS UP, DON’T GIVE UP- KEEP LOOKING UP.

Give God your mess. Your messy family. Your messy relationships. Your messy everything. Give Him your mess. He loves your mess. Why? Because that’s the raw material that He uses to bring about redemption. Your mess is the raw material that Jesus uses to bring you good and extend His kingdom in this world.

Paul Miller says, “The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy… Don’t try to get the prayer right; just tell God where you are and what’s on your mind. That’s what little children do…Tell him where you are weary. If you don’t begin with where you are, then where you are will sneak in the back door. Your mind will wander to where you are weary… The very things we try to get rid of— our weariness, our distractedness, our messiness— are what get us in the front door! That’s how the gospel works. That’s how prayer works… So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are. That’s how the gospel works. God begins with you. It’s a little scary because you are messed up… God would much rather deal with the real thing. Jesus said that he came for sinners, for messed-up people who keep messing up. Come dirty.” {The Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, pp.32-24}

Come messy. Come dirty. Just like the Israelites. Just keep clinging to His promises, like Israel did for 70 years. Keep clinging to promises like Romans 8:28, which you’ve probably heard a million times. Well, think about how many times Israel heard the promise out of Jeremiah’s letter? Probably all the time.

Do what Charles Spurgeon said to do, which is exactly what I believe these Israelites did:

“Cast the burden of the present, the sin of the past and the fear of the future, upon the Lord, who forsaketh not his saints.”

Don’t let the promises grow stale or lose flavor. Cling to them. Cling to Romans 8:28-30 because Jesus made it true for you.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:28-30

You can trust that. You can trust that, Christian. Don’t believe me? Well, if you struggle to believe that promise, let the apostle Paul tell you exactly why you can trust this promise. Let the apostle Paul tell you exactly why you should remember our big idea-

WHENEVER YOU MESS UP, DON’T GIVE UP- KEEP LOOKING UP.

Why? Why can you trust the promises of God, even when you mess up? Let Paul tell you exactly why you can trust the promise-keeping God-

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31-32

You can trust the promises of God because God gave you His son Jesus. I think it might be a good idea to stand to our feet and come messy and dirty to Jesus. After all, He’s the one who made sure Ezra 2 got included in the Bible. He’s not ashamed to call these messy, messed-up Israelites His own, and He’s not ashamed to call messy, messed-up you His own either. I think that’s plenty of reason to stand and sing with all of our messy hearts.

“What 42, 360 Homeless People Can Teach You” Ezra 2:1-70 Sermon study questions

1. READ Romans 15:4-5. Does this verse apply to Old Testament genealogies? Are there any observations that you glean from Ezra 2:1-35 that may or not have been mentioned in the sermon?

2. The big idea of yesterday’s sermon was this: When you mess up, don’t give up- keep looking up. Explain how the big idea of the sermon could be derived from this list of homeless Israelites. How did they mess up? Do you think they may have been tempted to be discouraged and give up in Babylon? What promise could they “look up” in order to find encouragement?

3. R.C. Sproul says, “We exist as the people of God because He has made and kept promises to His people. We can be a part of the family of God only because our God makes and keeps covenants. God never breaks or changes His promises. They are everlasting promises to which God committed Himself forever… The hardest thing in the world for the Christian is to live by faith rather than by sight…living faith involves trusting the promises of God… Throughout history, God has demonstrated that He is supremely trustworthy. That’s why, in one sense, nothing could be more foolish than not to trust in the promises of God… when God makes a covenant with His people, He can punish them for breaking His covenant, but He never abandons the covenant promises that He makes.” (The Promises of God: Discovering the One Who Keeps His Word, pp. 7-8, 16) Discuss.

4. The Hebrew word ben (“sons”) occurs repeatedly in Ezra 2. What clue does this give us as to what the author wanted to stress? What does this teach us about the importance of family worship/discipleship? READ Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 20-25. Do you ever struggle to be faithful with family devotions? If so, why?

5. A thought from the sermon: “Give God your mess. Your messy family. Your messy relationships. Your messy everything. Give Him your mess. He loves your mess. Why? Because that’s the raw material that He uses to bring about redemption. Your mess is the raw material that Jesus uses to bring you good and extend His kingdom in this world.” Discuss.

6. Paul Miller says, “The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy… Don’t try to get the prayer right; just tell God where you are and what’s on your mind. That’s what little children do…Tell him where you are weary. If you don’t begin with where you are, then where you are will sneak in the back door. Your mind will wander to where you are weary… The very things we try to get rid of— our weariness, our distractedness, our messiness— are what get us in the front door! That’s how the gospel works. That’s how prayer works… So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are. That’s how the gospel works. God begins with you. It’s a little scary because you are messed up… God would much rather deal with the real thing. Jesus said that he came for sinners, for messed-up people who keep messing up. Come dirty.” (The Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, pp.32-24) Discuss.

7. READ Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7. Along these lines, Charles Spurgeon said, “Cast the burden of the present, the sin of the past and the fear of the future upon the Lord, who forsaketh not His saints.” Discuss 1} how the Israelites in Ezra 2 would apply these Scriptures and Spurgeon’s quote to their situation, 2} how can you apply these to your life?