We have not checked in with Lawrence Boadt for a while. Now that we
are beginning a brief study of our next book of the Bible, Ezra, let us see
what Boadt offers as an introduction….
Ezra
can be divided into two major parts: chapters 1-6 and 7-10. Ezra 1-6 gives us
some valuable information about the first two groups of returning exiles—those
under Sheshbazzar, and those under Zerubbabel…. This first part of the Book of
Ezra reaches a climax in the rebuilding of the temple in 516.
The
scene shifts to many years later in chapters 7-10. Under the Persian king
Artaxerxes, Ezra, a priest of the highest rank, a descendant of Aaron and
Zadok, is sent from Persia to restore the practice of Israelite faith according
to the instructions in the “law of God” (see Ezr 7:10, 14, 25-26). Ezra faces
two major problems. Many Israelites have married Gentiles, and this prevents
them from keeping the law. Secondly, there was a general disregard for the
regulations about sacrifice, worship, purity and special Jewish customs. He
tackled both of these head-on. First, he acted forcefully to invalidate all
marriages to pagans. This was not an easy task, for no doubt most of these
marriages had been made in good faith and there were children to think of. Ezra
called a great assembly of the people and they made public confession of their
sins and faults. As a result, the men agreed to give up their foreign wives.
They also agreed to observe the weekly Sabbath day of rest and to support the
temple with a yearly tax.
Ezra
followed this policy because any religious reform, especially one which
demanded that the people practice the unique requirements of their covenant law
at home, would have been impossible if a large part of the people had different
faiths and practices in their homes. There was the special stress not only on
Israel’s election by God as a chosen people, but on the need to be holy and set
apart as a community to give witness to other nations. Unity of faith and
practice was essential to achieve this goal.
The
second problem was to re-establish the whole range of practices that most
characterized Israel’s special way of life. To this end, Ezra brought out the
book of the law of God and had it read to the people in a second great
assembly. Once again they celebrated a penance service and a renewal of the
promise to obey the covenant in everything. As Ezra read the words, the people
wept. At the same time, levites and priests helped to explain the meaning of
each passage to the people. And Ezra himself took the priests and leaders aside
and instructed them in the central points of the law. At the conclusion of this
ceremony, the people celebrated the seven-day feast of Tabernacles in its pure
form as the law had prescribed.
This
whole scene is told not in the Book of Ezra but in chapters 8-9 of Nehemiah. It
was put there to link Ezra’s renewal of the covenant with Nehemiah’s completion
of the city walls to make Jerusalem a safe home for the temple. It seems almost
certain that the law of God that Ezra read was an early version of the present
five books of the Torah/Pentateuch. The events described in Nehemiah 8-9 fit
very closely the Priestly source regulations on the priests, the feast-day
observances, and the manner of accepting a covenant found in the Pentateuch,
even though Ezra-Nehemiah never quote it directly.
Ezra’s
role was decisive. Every audience we have seen up to this time showed a Judah
with little cohesion, having trouble getting itself together and with dashed
hopes of a glorious new day after the exile. Ezra was able to restore the spirit
of the people and set the underpinnings for the ideals of holiness, sense of
election, and a worship-centered community of faith. He gave a new charter for
a new Israel—the authentic traditions of the past were now written down forever
in the Pentateuch as a normative guidebook for the future. And most important
of all, the final priestly character of the Pentateuch showed a concrete way to
put these traditions into daily practice for ordinary believers.[1]
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