All right, turn with me now,
if you would, to Ezra chapter two, the book of Ezra, a few
books before the Psalms. We looked at Ezra chapter one
last Wednesday night, which declared Israel's deliverance
from their 70 year captivity to Babylon. With that deliverance back to
Jerusalem, God charged a king named Cyrus to rebuild the temple. Israel was, carried away captive,
and everything was destroyed. The city was destroyed, temple
was destroyed. And God said that he was gonna
deliver his people, bring them back into Jerusalem. And he charged
this King Cyrus to rebuild the temple. So chapter one told us
that Cyrus made a proclamation. If you want to look at chapter
one, verse three, he said, who is there among you of all his
people, his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which
is in Judah and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He
is the God which is in Jerusalem. Verse five says, then rose up
the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the priest and
the Levites and all with all them whose spirit God had raised
to go up to build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.
Verse 7 says, And also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels
of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth
out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods.
Even those did Cyrus, king of Persia, bring forth by the hand
of Mithradath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Shechebazar,
the Prince of Judah, and this is the number of them, 30 chargers
of gold, 1,000 chargers of silver, 9 and 20 knives, 30 basins of
gold, silver basins of a second sort, 410, and other vessels,
a thousand. All the vessels of gold and of
silver were 5,400. All these did Shesh Bazar bring
up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon
unto Jerusalem." So everything is brought out. Everything is
delivered. Everything that was taken is
restored. And now chapter two, verse one
says, these are the children of the province that went out
of the captivity and 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. And verse two starts naming all
these names. All right, it says, deliverance
came and everything was brought out and the command is given
to rebuild the temple. And everybody came out and these
are the names of the people who came out. Now, if you'll just
skim your eye over chapter two, you will see that there are a
lot of names written. It's a long chapter. I thought
about reading this for our scripture reading, and it's a long chapter. The beginning of verse three
tells us exactly how many people were delivered from each family
name. Verse three says the children
of Perosh, 2,100, 70 and two, it would be like saying
the children of Moody, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. This is how many were delivered
from that family name. So it goes on down and you can
just see right on down. It lists all these names and
exactly how many came out. And then if you look at verse
36, it lists the priests. and how many in their families
came out. Verse 40 lists the Levites and
it lists their children. Verse 41 lists the singers and
the children that came out with them. 42 lists the porters. They were the ones who kept the
sheepfold at night. All the shepherds would bring
all their sheep into this walled pen and a porter would watch
all the sheep while the shepherds slept at night. So it listed
all the porters. Verse 43 lists the Nephilims and all of their
children. Nethanyms were servants that
David gave to the Levites to serve the Levites. Levites were servants of the
temple. Levites were priests. The priests
came from the tribe of Levi and they were servants of the temple.
The Nethanyms were the servants of the Levites. David provided. Slaves more or less to serve
them. All right, now from verse 43 to verse 57, all of those
names and all of those people are Nethanyims. Verse 58 says,
all the Nethanyims and the children of Solomon's servants were 392. And then verse 64 says, the whole
congregation together was 40 and 2,303 score, beside
their servants and their maids, of whom there were 7,337, and there
were among them 200 singing men and singing women, their horses
were 730 and six, their mules 240 and five, their camels 430
and five, their asses 6,720, And some of the chief of the
fathers, when they came to the house of the Lord, which is at
Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up
in his place, They gave after their ability unto the treasure
of the work, three score and 1000 drams of gold and 5,000
pounds of silver and 100 priests garments. So the priest and the
Levites and some of the people and the singers and the porters
and the Nethanyims dwelt in their cities and all Israel in their
cities. Now you look at a chapter like
this and it's almost completely given to a genealogy list of
names. Almost the whole chapter is a
genealogy list of names. At first thought, you think,
what is this here for? Why would God, the words in this
book are so important. Why would God put this genealogy
list of names in his holy eternal word? What would be the reason
for God doing this? Well, the answer is God put this
in his word to point us to Christ. That's the reason he did it.
I know most of you have heard the story of that young man that
the pastor called on. to fill in for him while he was
gonna be gone. And that young man, when the
time came, he got up there in the pulpit and he gave it all
he had. And after the message was over,
he came down and he went up to one of the elders in the church
and he asked him, what did you think of my sermon? And the elder
said, I thought it was a very poor sermon. And he said, poor, did you not
think I studied enough? And the elder said, nope, clearly
you put in the time. And he said, well then did you
think my delivery was lacking? He said, no, your delivery was
fine. He said, well then why did you think my sermon was poor?
He said, it was poor because Christ wasn't in it. And the
young man said, well, Christ wasn't in the text. And the elder said, son, in every
portion of scripture, there is a road that leads to Jesus Christ
crucified. Our business is to find that
road and get on it. Now, what do we see in Ezra chapter
two? Where does the road go in Ezra
chapter two? First of all, we can see this,
God has a people. God has a people. God has a particular
people. He gave family names, exact numbers
out of the family names. He listed cities they came from. Are you talking about the, you
know, the Johnsons from this city? No, no, no. I'm talking
about the ones from this city. He has a particular people that
he has chosen to not leave in destruction. People that he has
chosen to call out of bondage, this world is in bondage and
it does not know it. It does not know it. It is in
bondage to the flesh. It is in bondage to everything
that this world has to offer. Bondage to sin, bondage to Satan,
bondage to death. And God has chosen a very particular
people that he will not leave in bondage and will not leave
in destruction. He is going to revive them and
restore them. And it's a people that he made
a promise to. I told you last Wednesday night that Daniel learned
of all this by reading the book of Jeremiah. God revealed to
him this deliverance, that it was time, it was accomplished
through reading Jeremiah. Let me show you where it says
that and let me show you what he was reading. Go with me over
to Daniel chapter nine, just after Ezekiel. Daniel chapter 9, verse 1 says, In the first year
of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which
was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first
year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books. I was reading
a book. I understood by books the number
of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah
the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of
Jerusalem. He said, I was reading Jerusalem
and I just read it, it was right there. This is going to happen
and it's gonna happen for 70 years. Now, my center margin
says he was reading Jeremiah 25. Turn with me over to Jeremiah
25. Jeremiah 25 verse 8 says, Therefore, thus saith the Lord
of hosts, because you have not heard my words, behold, I will
send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord,
and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will
bring them against this land and against the inhabitants thereof
and against all these nations round about and will utterly
destroy them and make them an astonishment and a hissing and
a perpetual desolations. Moreover, I will take from them
the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones
and the light of the candle, and this whole land shall be
a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve
the King of Babylon 70 years. And it shall come to pass when
70 years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon. And that nation, saith the Lord,
for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make
it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land
all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is
written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the
nations, for many nations and great kings shall serve themselves
of them also, and I will recompense them according to their deeds
and according to their works of their own hands." He said,
after 70 years, I'm bringing my people out. I'm changing everything. That is a promise he made to
his people. and He fulfilled His promise. That is what the
Almighty God does. What do we see in Ezra chapter
two? God Almighty fulfills His promise. He said, I will bring
them out and He brought them out. He always fulfills His promise,
whether it's a promise of judgment or a promise of deliverance,
He always fulfills His promise. And He had a particular people
that He made a promise to And the amazing part of the whole
thing is who the people were he made this promise to. All
right, let me show you something about the people back in Ezra
2. Go with me back over there. All of these people represent
God's elect. All right, they represent the
church of God, God's chosen people out of every tribe, nation, kindred,
tongue. But the people here that most
represent the sinners that God chose to save are the Nethanyims
and some priests that are mentioned right after the Nethanyims. Told
you that the Levites were the servants of the temple, all right? The Levites were the ones who
offered the sacrifices. They were the ones who made intercession
on behalf of the people. The people brought something
to be sacrificed and the Levites would offer that intercession. They are the ones who sent up
that sweet smelling incense to God. They are the ones who were
allowed to enter into the holy place without being killed on
sight. They are the ones who sprinkled
the blood. They represent the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. We have a high priest that's
still going on. There is still a temple. It's
not made with hands. but we have a high priest still
making intercession for us. It's an unchanging priesthood.
No one will take his place. He's the final high priest. He
is the one who offered the sacrifice of himself. He offered the incense
of his own prayer. Don't you love reading that prayer
that he prayed on our behalf? that sweet smelling incense of
his own prayer. He entered in once into the holy
place, offering the sprinkling of his own blood. So he is the
servant of God's temple. Christ is. In Isaiah 42, the
father said, behold my servant. I've put my spirit on him. He
is going to bring judgment and justice to my people. And here's
my favorite line. He shall not fail. He shall not
fail. All right. So the Levites, they
picture Christ. They were the servants of the
temple. The Nethanyims were the servants of the Levites. They
represent us. We are the servants of our great
high priest. We serve him, we bow to him. This is what Ezra 2 has to say
about him. Verse 58, all the Nethanims and
the children of Solomon's servants were 390 and two. And these were
they which went up from Telmila, Telarsa, Cherub, Aden, and Emer. But they could not show their
father's house and their seed whether they were of Israel.
They could not find their pedigree, my margin says. They went up
and there was no record of them belonging. There was no record of them having
any right to be there. They were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, foreigners,
heathens by nature. Along with them who were that
way by nature, some were that way by choice. Outcasts by choice,
outcasts by will and desire. Verse 61 says in of the children
of the priest, the children of Habaya, the children of cause
the children of bars Barzillai, which took a wife of the daughters
of Barzillai, the Gileadite and was called after their name. Some of the priests. fell from their priesthood. Verse
62, these sought their register among those that were reckoned
by genealogy, but they were not found. Therefore were they as
polluted put from the priesthood. They lost their priesthood. They
fell from their priesthood. And the reason is because, and
I got this from help. I got this from John Gill and
men like that. But the reason is because One of the priests
married a very famous man and his name was Barzilai of Gilead. We just read it. It was a very
well-known, very famous man. This priest married his daughter
and because he thought it was a more worthy name, He thought
it was a more noble name. He took her name for the family
name instead of his name for the family name. And that's why
he and his children and his grandchildren could find no record of belonging
there. And for that, he was found to
be polluted and cast out of the priesthood. Is that not man's
fall into sin? He had acceptance. He had a place,
he had favor, but he lost it all and he was cast out because
he said, I will not have that man reign over me. I'm going
to, I'm going to choose my own name. I'm going to take the name
of my own choice. Well, verse 62 says. These sought
their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but
they were not found. Therefore, were they as polluted
put from the priesthood and the Tershitha, that means the governor,
said unto them that they should not eat of the most holy things. They were polluted, they were
cast out, they were no longer able to partake of the most holy
things. And that's the condition mankind
fell into. That's the condition that all
of God's people fell into. That's the declaration against
them. Verse 63, and the Tershitha said unto them that they should
not eat of the most holy things until there stood up a priest
with Urim, his name means light, and with Thummim, his name means
perfection. There was no place for these
heathen cast out sinful people until there stood up a priest
with light and perfection, and that's Christ. These outcasts,
they are us by nature. No name, no place, no hope, and
without God in the world. But a faithful high priest for
sinners stood up on their behalf with the light and the perfection
of his blood and his righteousness. And that's why every word in
this chapter points to Christ crucified. Every single word. Now, we could do this with every
name in the chapter. We've done it before. We've done
this before. And I started going through all
the names in this chapter and they are all wonderful. We could
be here till tomorrow and go through every name. For the sake
of time, we're gonna go through the first verse that mentions
these names. Just one verse, okay? Look with
me at verse two. With each name, we're gonna see
the meaning of that name. And every name is gonna point
us to Christ on the cross. Every name in this chapter. All right, verse two, it says
at the end of verse one, these are the children that came out,
they were carried away into Babylon and they came again unto Jerusalem
and Judah, everyone unto his city. Verse two, the first name
mentioned is Zerubbabel. His name means sown in Babylon. Babylon means confusion. It's
where they tried to build the Tower of Babel and that represents
man's works. And because of their sin, God
changed all the languages and created confusion. Babylon represents
man's sins. Zerubbabel means sown in sin. And is that not what Christ made
himself to be on the cross? He made himself to be. He made
him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. All right, the next name here
is Jeshua or Joshua. which is the Hebrew name for
Jesus. It means he will save. Call his name Jesus for he shall
save his people from their sins. The next name is Nehemiah. His name means Jehovah has comforted. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sin. The next name is Sarai. His name means Jehovah has prevailed. He has already accomplished the
work that His Father gave Him to do. What was the work? What
did He do? The next name is Raeliah. His name means the bearer of
Jehovah. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. He bore the grief. He carried
the sorrow. That name also means made to
tremble. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
our Lord was made to tremble for his people. The name Mordecai
means humbled, lowered. He humbled himself. He made himself
of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant. He became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The name
Bilshin means in slander. It means in his humiliation. Oh, our Lord was so mocked. He
was, he was made a derision, a laughing stock. Acts chapter
eight says in his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.
The name Mizpah means numbered. He was numbered with the transgressors.
The name Big Veyi means in my body, in his flesh. That's where he accomplished
this redemption, in the body of his own flesh. The name Rehum
means compassion. It means compassionate, full
of compassion, and it means merciful. That's what Christ on the cross
was for us. Merciful. Oh, how merciful. The
name Bayanna means in affliction. He was merciful in affliction. His affliction. He said, I am
the man that has seen affliction. And the last name in verse two
is Israel. It means God prevails. And it means prince with God. And that's what God's people
are made to be by the redemption that was in Christ Jesus. God
has a people. Christ redeemed those people. And all of them shall be delivered
from their captivity and their bondage to sin. All of them.
Our Lord said in John 17, none of them is lost. None of them
is lost. And that's glory to Him, isn't
it? None of them. All right, let's
all stand together.