It’s the clichéd answer on how to spur a church towards corporate unity around a building project: trot out a teaching series on how Ezra and friends rebuilds the temple, or how Nehemiah and friends restore the walls of Jerusalem, and exhort brothers and sisters to unite and do the same. But more than likely, we’re less enamoured by the long lists of names (repeated several times), puzzled by the jumps back and forth in time, and confused by some of the actions of the titular characters (Ezra pulls his beard, while Nehemiah pulls others’ hair?) And where do these books fit in God’s grand story of redemption? At the heart of these books, we see a sovereign God working through human action to make a people for Himself – precisely the same theme that Jesus’s death and resurrection fulfils, and a relevant message for any church of any age, culture or setting.
Our Chinese-heritage church spent much of this year preaching through Ezra & Nehemiah. As part of our church’s biennial theme, “United in Service”, it was fitting to hear closely from this part of God’s Word and learn from a time when God’s rescued people seemed to be at their best. Certain parts of the story hit differently in the context of a cross-cultural, immigrant church: the reverse-immigration from Babylon to Jerusalem; first-generation and second-generation differences in the life of God’s people (e.g. the older men who wept at the temple foundation); the complexities when religious opponents are related to you; and the disappointment felt by Nehemiah when the Israelites had lost their “mother tongue” (hint: he’s not sad because of the Hebrew per se).
Going through this book again reminded me of the difficulty of preaching Old Testament narrative, the value of wise friends who have thought deeply about the rhetorical function of these books (thank you Alex Prentice!), and how much these accounts of God’s Old Covenant people, even at their best, still reveal their desperate need for a greater Priest, Leader and Redeemer to create a transformed people from the inside out. This series was another good opportunity to experience the necessity and power of Old Testament preaching that exalts Christ, rather than burden us with works.
In preparation for the series, I found the following books most helpful:
- Dean Ulrich’s Now and Not Yet: Theology and mission in Ezra-Nehemiah (from the NSBT series) gave some of the most clear and sensible Christ-connections, and helped me to keep returning my sermons back to the missional purpose of God orchestrating Israel’s return to Jerusalem. I was convinced by Ulrich’s argument that, rightly understood, Ezra-Nehemiah lays out a mandate for mission (taking part in God’s purpose for his world) that Jesus later fulfils in his first coming and beyond. There is joy-filled, genuine restoration ‘now’, but hope in God’s promises (‘not yet’) as His people follow His instructions concerning the mission laid out for them.
- The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah (co-written by David Shepherd and Christopher Wright) was also helpful. It goes a bit deeper into the Hebrew and Aramaic text, and helps to answer a few thorny textual questions.
- For Ezra specifically, I found Teaching Ezra by Adrian Reynolds (Proclamation Trust) an excellent guide to preparing sermons from this book. Because Ezra is the more neglected of the two books, I appreciated the range of thoughts on how to connect the events to Christ in helpful ways.
For preachers, teachers and keen Bible readers, here are some more thoughts in no particular order:
- On structuring a series, I’d strongly recommend preaching both Ezra and Nehemiah, rather than taking one and leaving the other out. Although this makes a sermon series longer, it becomes far easier to see how connected they are. In both Ezra and Nehemiah, rebuilding the temple / wall is followed by the necessity of rebuilding the people through God’s revealed Word.
- Ezra-Nehemiah is a story of God’s people at their best who return to worship Yahweh, yet fail and leave us longing for a better Redeemer to come. It’s an opportunity to consider what worship songs support this theme. In particular, songs that use “we” language will support the series more consistently than “I” language. We also want people to see Jesus as the better Israel / Son of God, better Leader, and better Teacher.
- The repeated lists of names are not identical, and so they serve slightly different purposes. One is to emphasise the priorities of the people – in Ezra 2, so much care and attention is devoted to the names of families involved in reestablishing proper worship. The second list of returnees (Ezra 8:1-14) is smaller than the first but is more generous. The detailed list of those who had intermarried sinfully in Ezra 10 emphasises the seriousness they took the situation.
- I think it’s right to portray Ezra (from Ezra 7 onwards) as a 2nd-generation, cross-cultural gospel worker. After all, he’s trained and sent into a foreign land (at least to him), to teach and disciple a subsequent generation of returnees some 58 years after they went on mission. It’s less a church-plant-from-scratch moment but a revitalisation work. For God’s glory to be truly displayed among the nations, it is more than a temple is required – the people themselves need to be rebuilt, and it will have to be done through the Word of God, by someone fully devoted to explaining it and living it out.
- It is very tempting to turn both Ezra and Nehemiah into people to emulate. But a Christ-centred reading will need to show how as noble as they were, they had their flaws and leave us longing for a better Priest, Teacher and Leader. The final chapter of both books are perfect opportunities to reflect on the limitations of these human leaders, the harshness of their actions. Sending wives away and beating up husbands is the antithesis of how Jesus will one day deal with sin and rebellion to God’s Word.
- When the story takes a “we will do this” turn in Nehemiah 10 with the whole country making promises), it’s important to point out the awkwardness of those vows early and often. On first glance it can seem like a wonderful moment of collective solidarity, yet by the end of the book, the side-effects and consequences of this rule-based living comes back to haunt them. I made the comparison that looking back on my wedding vows brings joy and sorrow (joy because of God’s grace towards us, and sorrow because I’ve failed to keep the vows time and time again!) In the same way, we need a bit more skepticism when Israel makes their bold promises because each of them are subsequently forsaken in Nehemiah 13.
Our church considered Ezra & Nehemiah over 25 series (11 in Ezra and 14 in Nehemiah), though we could have certainly combined 1 or 2 sermons. You can check out the entire series here.
