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Surveying the Text: Ezra/Nehemiah

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

We have before us the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which were probably one book originally. Moreover, it is also quite possible that Chronicles/Ezra/Nehemiah was originally one book. As we consider this, it would obviously be helpful for you not only to read through these books, but also through the book of Esther, as well as the books of Zechariah and Haggai. In order to get the blessing from these books that we would like to get, one of our first responsibilities is that of getting oriented. That will include the surrounding territory.

The Text

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying . . . (Ezra 1:1).

Overview

So let us stop at the first verse and ask the questions we need to ask to keep from getting disoriented. It is also necessary to explain that on matters of biblical chronology, there is almost always considerable disagreement, and so it is necessary for me to explain what chronology I am following—even if I do not take the time to try to prove it in exhaustive detail. And so we begin with Cyrus. Who is he?

Pagan Kings

The modern Iranians are descended from the Persians, and we will begin by getting straight on their kings from this period. We will start by using the Greek names for them, which are the most common.

Cyrus reigned from 539 to 530.
Cambyses II reigned from 530 to 522.
Darius I reigned from 522 to 487.
Xerxes I reigned from 487 to 466.
Artaxerxes Longimanus reigned from 465 to 425.

The period stretches from 539 B.C. to 425 B.C. During this time, the Greeks defeated the Persians at Marathon and Salamis, Pericles reigned in Athens, the Greek tragedians flourished, Socrates taught, Cincinnatus was dictator in Rome, and the Buddha and Confucius both lived and died.

Throne Names

We have the difficulty of identifying persons who sit on thrones when we have to take account of the fact these rulers often used throne names. We know this readily in other circumstances. If someone today were to refer to “Caesar,” a natural question would be “which one?” The same is true of “Pharaoh.” One of the things we have to deal with is the very real possibility that Darius and Artaxerxes were throne names. Other throne names in the Bible would be Ben-Hadad (Jer. 49:27;Amos 1:4) or Abimelech (Gen. 20,26 , Ps. 34 ). So the assumption here is that the shift from Darius to Artaxerxes in Ezra 7 does not represent the reign of a different king, but rather a change in the name used for him.

The Operating Assumption

My operating assumption here as I deal with the chronology of these books is that the Persian kings named “Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther” are all the same man. In doing this, I am following James Jordan in his monograph on the subject. I am not following the chronologies of the standard evangelical world here because there seems to be too great a willingness to make biblical statements conform to what we (think we) know about secular history instead of the other way around. And in my mind, this has ramifications for the doctrine of biblical inspiration and infallibility.

Most Bible commentaries assume that the Artaxerxes found in Ezra 7 and following, and in Nehemiah, is Longimanus. This dates the latter part of Ezra between 465-25. But since the book opens with Cyrus, the beginning of the book is many years before this (539). If Ezra 1-6 occurs in the early years of Darius, this brings us down to 516. Then at Ezra 7, we have to skip 57 years, coming down to 459, the seventh year of Artaxerxes. Then Nehemiah takes us even further down to the 33rd year of Artaxerxes, 433 B.B. The standard view stretches the events of these two books over the better part of a century. What I am assuming here is that we need to telescope them, and that it all pretty much happened in the reign of Darius. This makes Ezra and Nehemiah contemporaries.

But most Bible chronologies take Artaxerxes (of Ezra) to be Darius. As we study this, remember that Christians of good will differ, and the confusion about these identifications is ancient, even going back to Josephus and apocryphal books.

Just a Few Examples

I said earlier that the matter of biblical infallibility and sufficiency is really at stake, and wanted to give just a couple examples of this sort of thing.

Ezra: “And his brethren, Shemaiah, and Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God, and Ezra the scribe before them. And at the fountain gate, which was over against them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the going up of the wall, above the house of David, even unto the water gate eastward” (Neh. 12: 36-37).

Nehemiah: “Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city; Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah” (Ezra 2:1-2; cf. Neh. 7:7). Unless the writer is trying to confuse us, we should assume that a different Nehemiah would be identified as such (as is done in Neh. 3:16).

Mordecai: In the verse quoted above, look at the third name after Nehemiah—Mordecai. Why would this not be the great Mordecai of Esther 10:3? How many Jews would have this Persian name (which meant “man of Marduk”)?

All this leads us to a short chronology for these books instead of a long chronology. But far more is at stake than simply dates. What matters most is whether we really trust the Word of God in all details.

The Tasks

Assuming them to be (roughly) contemporary, let us consider the task of Ezra (perhaps the first Pharisee) to be the rebuilding of the altar and the Temple. The task of Nehemiah was the rebuilding of the city walls and gates. Both of them had to do what they did against great opposition, and formidable challenges. Why would God do it this way? Because we tend to think that Ezra and Nehemiah were building something for God, when it was God that was building something for God. He was building Ezra and Nehemiah. He is doing the same thing today.

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Surveying the Text: Colossians

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Introduction

Colossae was a bit more than 100 miles from Ephesus, and the two letters to the respective churches were written about the same time—which would be approximately 60 or 61 A.D. The apostle Paul had heard a number of good things about the church there, but there was also a troubling problem with some false teaching that was circulating among them. Paul addresses that problem with a positive statement of the gospel, but from that positive statement we can gather some information about the heresy he was countering.

The Text

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Col. 3:15–17).

Summary of the Text

Paul urges them to allow the peace of God to rule in their hearts. They are to do this with gratitude. The word of Christ is to dwell in them richly, in all wisdom, and this would be manifested in the result, which would be psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all of them sung with grace. And do everything, he says, in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to the Father in the name of Jesus. As we shall see, the theme of this letter is the absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ over all things. And because of a true spiritual awareness of this, music from the heart is therefore essential.

The Colossian Heresy

What problem was Paul countering? There appear to have been three general aspects to it. First, it granted a lot of importance to various spiritual powers, angels and whatnot. Second, a strong emphasis was placed on outward religiosity—new moons, feasts, fasts, and so on. And then third, these false teachers claimed to have the magic decoder ring. They were possessors of an esoteric “knowledge.” All this indicates that it was some form of early Gnosticism.

Paul counters their empty philosophy with three profound answers. To the first, he answers Christ. To the second, he answers Christ. To the third, he answers Christ.

The Cosmic Christ

Confronted with a teaching that postulates a spiritual world crawling with various celestial dignitaries, Paul responses with the magnificent “Christ hymn” (Col. 1:15-20). Christ is the Creator of all things, and has dominion over everything, including thrones,

dominions, rulers or authorities. The second claim is also answered by Christ. When empty deceptions and philosophies are erected, Paul answers with Christ, in whom all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form (Col. 2:9). In the crucifixion of Christ, we see the circumcision of the world (Col. 2:11), and in that circumcision God has forever and finally removed the foreskin of vain religious observance. This is what true regeneration entails. And to the esoteric claims of “knowledge” (gnosis), Paul answers with the real thing, knowledge of Christ. Paul answers them with a battery of words like knowledge (gnosis and epignosis), wisdom (sophia), understanding (synesis) and mystery (mysterion), and all of it centered in Christ the absolute.

Christ is the very image of God. He is the agent of all God’s creative activity in the world. And He is the head of the church, the fullness of God Himself.

The Mathematics of Death

So what happens when death dies? It is like canceling something out in mathematics. Death is a negative, and when it has a negative value placed on it, the end result is positive. The death of death is life everlasting.

The Christian life is therefore not rule-keeping. These are of no value, Paul says, in dealing with the flesh (Col. 2:20-23). Rules—do this, don’t do the other, here eat this, make sure you never eat that, stay off the grass—are worthless in creating an ethical human being. Rules are just a bit and bridle for a stubborn mule, when God intends to transform the one who believes into a winged horse.

Your liberty from the old ways is found in one thing only, which is the fact that you have died. If you have died, then your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). If that is the case, then you have a foundation from which to put to death your earthly members. From the basic death that all believers have, you may apply more death to particular besetting sins.

Dead Men Singing

And so we come back to our text. We do not sing because we have formulated a new rule —thou shalt sing. Our life in Christ, hidden with God in the heavenly places, is not some sort of new super-law. It is not as though Moses had the law carved in earthly granite, but the new super-law is carved in celestial adamant, but still somehow outside us. We sing because Christ is Lord. We sing because of the absolute supremacy of Christ over everything. In Romans, when Paul finishes a particularly tough bit of theology (Rom. 11:32), his natural reaction is to burst into song (Rom. 11: 33-36). We should be the same way.

We are not Gnostics, but we do worship a cosmic Christ. We are not Gnostics, and so while we use earthly and material forms in our worship, we do not rely on them from the outside in. The Lord taught us that if you wash the inside of the cup, that takes care of the outside. But if you just tend the outside, then there are all sorts of ways to keep the cleansing power away from the inside. We are not Gnostics, but we do know. We know God through Christ.

And so it is that we sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs as a matter if simple spiritual overflow. Music is a divinely-designed release valve, uniquely installed to keep us all from exploding with joy. If that is not how you are experiencing it, then revisit the central message of Colossians. In Ephesians, the music is the result of the filling by the Spirit. Here is the result of the word of Christ dwelling in us richly. Put it all together. Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion. And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.

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Surveying the Text: Philippians

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Introduction

The occasion of this letter was tied in with the activity of Epaphroditus—whose name incidentally means “dedicated to Aphrodite.” He had brought news to Paul in prison about the church at Philippi, and he had delivered their gift to Paul (2:30; 4:18). Once he got to Paul he nearly died of a severe illness, but was now recovered and ready to return to Philippi (2:26-27).

The Text

“If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:1–5).

Summary of the Text

All Scripture reveals God to us, but this particular letter reveals a lot of Paul to us. This is a very personal letter, and a great deal of what makes Paul tick comes through to us in it. The two great themes in it are preparation for suffering, and avoidance of strife within the body. In both cases, the way to prepare is through cultivation of the mind of Christ, that which is found in our text. The mind of Christ is what enabled Him to take the form of a servant and to become obedient to the point of death. And the mind of Christ is that which enables us to defer to our brothers and sisters in the body, even when things are tense and awkward, angular and difficult. I mean, you know that look that Syntyche can get . . . she’s a handful. Or maybe it was Euodia. We don’t know (Phil. 4:2).

Background on Philippi

The city itself was founded by Caesar Augustus in Macedonia as a place to settle some of his veterans. Their loyalty to their emperor, their “lord and savior” was, not surprisingly, intense. The emperor cult was strong here in this city, and this brought them necessarily into conflict with the Christians, who confessed a greater Lord and Savior (Phil. 3:20). Try to imagine yourself at a pagan VFW meeting, saying the Apostles Creed instead of the Pledge.

The Philippian church was founded by Paul in the neighborhood of 48-49 A.D. This letter was written just over a decade later, somewhere around 62 A.D. The story of the church’s founding is recorded in the latter part of Acts 16. There we read about the conversion of Lydia and her household, the Philippian jailor and his household, and possibly the conversion of the girl who told fortunes by the power of the python (Acts 16:16).

The Right Kind of Like-mindedness

This letter from Paul is not about like-mindedness considered as an abstraction. It is not as though “agreement” is a good thing in itself. But we tend to lurch in the opposite direction, and think that “disagreement” is a good thing in itself. But what is good, the only thing that is good, is having the mind of Christ. If we have the mind of Christ, it is good to pursue like-mindedness with anyone who shares that mind of Christ. If someone else does not have the mind of Christ, then our goal should be to sharpen the disagreement.

Think about a board or a steering committee. Some people want to stack the board with people who all nod at the right times, usually in response to the prodding of a strong leader. What they get is not like-mindedness, but rather a pack of yes men. But others simply react in the opposite direction, with just as little reflection and thought. And they get disagreements just for the sake of disagreements. Agreement or disagreement by themselves are meaningless. What counts is the principle of agreement or disagreement.

Strong Language

When you take certain passages from this book, and line them up side by side, you can only come to two possible conclusions—either that Paul was a hypocrite, or that love and tender mercies are not the vats filled with sentimental goo. Take these for examples:
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Phil. 2:3). “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision” (Phil. 3:2).

For another example, compare the highs and lows here:

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil. 3:8–9).

The Kingdom Does Not Run On Air

The apostle had entered into a partnership with the Philippians, a partnership or fellowship that revolved around financial support.

“Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only” (Phil. 4:14–15).

The apostle did not believe in doing “all the Jesus stuff” on the one hand, and then later, in a completely different category, dealing with the mundane, board of trustee stuff. No, it was all a matter of fellowship, koinonia. Understood the right way, all of our lives together are a matter of fellowship. It is not an accident that after the offering is presented to God, our money, our checks, our donations, will be resting on the same table as the wine and bread. We partake together in all these ways.

If we believe in all of Christ for all of life, and we do, this extends to our bank accounts, and our participation in the ministry that our money makes possible elsewhere. Christ is present in all of it.

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Surveying the Text: Ephesians

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Introduction

If Galatians is the great charter of Christian liberty, and the ground of it, Ephesians is the great charter of Christian identity, and what flows from it.

The Text

“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:18-23).

The Classic Pauline Move

Paul loves to move from the indicative to the imperative. He loves to say that this is the truth, therefore live out the truth. The first three chapters of Ephesians contain virtually nothing “to do.” Those chapters are packed with glorious truths, but the only thing you can do with them really is believe. And that is why those chapters can be called the Pauline credenda — things to be believed. The last three chapters are filled with ethical instruction — children obey, servants honor, wives respect, husbands love, while all Christians put on the full armor of God. The last three chapters are the great Pauline agenda — things to be done.

Doctrine and Life

The first part of the book is crammed with high doctrine about great mysteries. The second half is characterized by an exceptional ethical rigor. The first thing to note is that we may not separate them. High doctrine by itself is arid theological intellectualism, and utterly worthless. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love . . . But if I detach a life of ethical rigor from the doctrines of these cosmic mysteries, all I will get is a life of suffocating moralism.

Mix and Match

Others attempt to keep them together, but while trying to alter (reduce) the meaning of at least one. There are those with high doctrine and low living. This is the orthodox libertine. Then there is the man with low doctrine and high living. This is the moralist. Another option is the one with low doctrine and low living. He can’t be bothered to learn or to obey. What we are after is a high sense of Christian identity in Christ, and a life of happy and high gratitude that simply spills out of that.

In Christ

In his letters, Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” (or related phrases) over 170 times. Thirty of those times are found here, in this book. This is the center of his thought. This is what ties everything together

Therefore . . .

It is therefore not enough to sing psalms; we must therefore sing psalms. It is not enough to avoid drunkenness; we must therefore avoid drunkenness. It is not enough to love your wife or respect your husband — you must therefore do so. The key word in this book is oun (Eph. 4:1). Therefore. This and the previous paragraph go together tightly. “In Christ, therefore.”

Back to Our Text

God’s purpose and plan was enter the material universe as a true man, and to do so in a way that would equip Him to be a true head over all things. It is the nature of a covenant head to represent all things over which He is the head, and to do so in such a way as that those things that are in Him fillHim. We were not placed in Christ in order to rattle around there. “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”

We put on the new man, who is Christ. We put on the full armor of God (same word, enduo), and we see from the broader sweep of Scripture that Christ is every piece of that armor. He is our helmet, our salvation. He is our breastplate, our righteousness. He is our truth, our belt, and so on.

Christ is our head, which means that we are His fullness. As we put Him on, we are also filling Him up. This is a great mystery.

Husbands, this is what you are imitating. Wives, this is what you are imitating.

A Life of Imitation

If you are blind, you will have a hard time painting pictures. If you need glasses, you will perhaps become an impressionist. You will paint what you see, so make a point of seeing it correctly. But at the same time make a point of doing so with brush in hand.

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Surveying the Text: Galatians

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Introduction

This Lord’s Day we are commemorating the beginning of the great Reformation of the 16th century. It is fitting, therefore, that we take this opportunity to begin our study of the book of Galatians, that great charter of Christian freedom. We need to stand fast in the liberty Christ brought to us, and we must refuse every form of sinful bondage.

The Text

“Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Gal. 1:1-5).

Background

The letter to the Galatians was written to a collection of churches in the Roman province of Galatia—churches such as Lystra, Iconium, and Derbe. Paul had gone through this area on his first missionary journey, but no sooner had he gotten back to Antioch than he discovered that false teachers were following in his wake and disrupting the churches there. Not only this, but Peter had capitulated to the same error at Antioch, causing a crisis there. All this occurred just before the Jerusalem council (Acts 15), placing the writing of Galatians in the mid to late 40s. This is significant because it makes this classic Pauline statement of the gospel one of the earliest books of the New Testament. The view that Galatians was written to ethnic Galatia up north cannot really be sustained.

Paul, An Apostle

As we consider Paul’s argument throughout this book, we see him answering objections to his position that had been raised by his adversaries. He answers one of them in his first breath. His apostleship was either denied by his adversaries, or it was claimed that his apostleship was secondary and derivative. He was called a “second-generation” apostle, and he meets this head-on in the first verse. He was an apostle in the strongest sense of that word—not by men, not by a man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who had raised Jesus from the dead. Paul was an apostle of resurrection power, an apostle of the liberty that new life gives. He was therefore not going to submit to a “compromise” between life and death.

And All the Brethren

The letter was probably written from Antioch, and it was not just from Paul. Salutations

at the ends of letters are greetings, but people named at the beginning are those who are helping him to speak authoritatively. Paul is writing from the Galatians’ mother church, and there many brothers there who were with Paul on this issue. The letter is addressed to multiple churches, multiple congregations.

Blessing and Doxology

Despite the consternation Paul feels about what the Galatians are doing, he gives his customary blessing—grace and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ (v.3). The glory resulting from the great work of salvation is glory that will be accorded to the Father forever and ever (v. 5). Amen. The controversy at Galatia is crucial, but does not prevent Paul from blessing them, and he does not forget to bless God the Father in faith.

Prologue

Before Paul gets into the particular aspects of the controversy, he sets the stage for a right understanding of that controversy in his comments of verse 4. Grace and peace come from the Lord Jesus, who gave Himself for our sins (v. 4). He did this so that He might deliver us from this present evil age (v. 4), and this was all done in accord with the will of God the Father (v. 4).

All Things New

We need to consider these three things in some detail. First, our salvation was accomplished by the will of the Father. It was not done on a whim, or a last minute thought. When Jesus went to the cross, He was submitting to the will of the Father, and, in doing this, He was securing our salvation in full accordance with that will.

Secondly, “our sins” are a significant part of what is dealt with in the work of redemption, but they are by no means the entire picture. After all, Jesus gave Himself for our sins, as it says here. But it says this was done in order to accomplish something else. That something else is the third point, which was the Father’s intention to deliver us from the present evil age. Now what does this mean? When was it done? Answering these questions rightly help us put the gospel of Jesus Christ in cosmic perspective. In other words, unless there is a new heavens and new earth, there will be no new hearts. The regeneration has entered us because we have entered the Regeneration.

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