GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
EZRA 8:15-20
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15 I gathered them at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we encamped there for three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests, I found that there were no Levites.
Ezra stopped at one of the “pelegs” or canals (cp. Psalm 1:3) that made irrigation in Mesopotamia such a marvelous achievement of engineering. The city of Ahava has not been uncovered by archaeology or by tradition, but the text makes us understand that it must have been north of the city of Babylon on the east bank of the Euphrates, somewhere between Lake Habbaniyah (near modern Baghdad) and Lake Qadisiyah some 60 miles to the northwest, which is really a widening of the Euphrates not unlike Lake Wisconsin, a widening of the Wisconsin River near the village where I grew up.
Ezra made a count of who was with him– the count we summarized in verses 1-14– and he found that there were no Levites at all. Why not? Consider what they faced. While they were Levites, they had never performed any Levitical duties. Levites served at the temple, and these men had never served that way. They didn’t just sit around in permanent retirement. They had made lives for themselves. These Levites were farmers, harvesters, tradesmen. They were blacksmiths, potters, carpenters, bricklayers, gardeners, farriers, glassworkers, fishermen, sailors, merchants, artists and musicians. Some of them may have become jugglers, actors, iron mongers, accountants, scriveners, arborists, bee keepers, wine makers, painters, and school teachers. Now they were asked to give these things up and go to serve in the temple once again. Perhaps it’s not surprising that few turned up. Few? None at all.
16 So I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, leading men, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were learned men. 17 I sent them to Iddo, the leading man at the place Casiphia, telling them what to say to Iddo and his kinsmen the temple servants in Casiphia, especially to send us ministers for the house of our God. 18 So, since the good hand of our God was upon us, they brought us a man of discretion, Sherebiah of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, son of Israel, along with his sons and brothers, eighteen in all. 19 Also, there was Hashabiah and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, with his brothers and their sons, twenty in all, 20 besides 220 of the temple servants established by David and his officials to be set apart to assist the Levites. These were all registered by name.
Nine leaders and two scholars were chosen by Ezra; that three of them are named “Elnathan,” which is the name as Nathaniel, or “gift of God’ (compare Jonathan, “gift of the Lord”) shows that is was a name growing in popularity. They were given the task of going to a man named Iddo– not the grandfather of the prophet Zechariah, but another Iddo– to ask him to help by sending temple servants and priests. The place called Casiphia was perhaps a Hebrew shrine. Its location remains unknown; many more recently built villages line the Upper Euphrates near the place where the river flows out of modern Syria into Iraq (Shaqaqiyah, Saqlawiyah, Al Obaidy, and so on) that could well have been built on the ruins of older cities. Also, the river has many oxbows in that region that change over the centuries.
Sherebiah the priest was recommended, and he came along with some family members, and another Levite (from the tribe of Merari) called Hashabiah, and some relatives of his as well, also came. Besides them, more than two hundred temple servants were found to accompany them and serve in Jerusalem. Ezra had found his Levites– forty of them– and a couple hundred servants to help. He was almost ready to get started. Almost.
This passage could teach us another lesson in sinful dereliction of duty, with the Levites having to be ordered to come and work in the temple when they preferred to be elsewhere. I might apply that to the sinful habit of people generally avoiding church. But that isn’t quite hitting the nail on the head in this case. Looked at from Ezra’s point of view, and noticing his thought process, and his actions, this is an excellent demonstration of the believer’s life of sanctification.
Sanctification is our word for the life we live knowing that we sinners are forgiven by God through Christ. It is being set apart by God for a holy purpose. It means saying thank you to God for what he has done– thank you with our lives.
Ezra knew his task, and he did it with the kind of diligence that the Persian kings were always talking about (Ezra 5:8; 6:12-13; 7:21,23; Zechariah 6:15). Before Ezra rushed off across the Fertile Crescent, he stopped, took a count, made some changes, and went and found what (or who) else he needed. He shows “forethought and initiative; two excellent attributes” “Those who plan to do good find mercy and truth” (Proverbs 14:22). And again: “Commit what you do to the Lord, and your plans will be established” (Proverbs 16:3).
When you make your plans and try to carry out God’s will in your life, pray about it. You may say, “Bless the Lord God on every occasion; ask him that your ways may be made straight and that all your paths and plans may prosper. For the Lord himself gives all good things.” This is the prayer of an ancient believer, and although it is not written in the Scripture, the words are fine and good, and we are blessed by them.
“Forethought and initiative; two excellent attributes.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Ezra 8:15-20 Forethought and initiative