The return of Ezra
Ezra comes to Jerusalem
After these things, during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, 2 the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, 3 the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, 4 the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, 5 the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest—6 this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him. 7 Some of the Israelites, including priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and temple servants, also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.
The book of Ezra resumes in 457 B.C., the seventh year of Artaxerxes, about 55 years after the completion of the temple under Zerubbabel. The events recorded in the book of Esther occurred during this interval. 37
The main purpose of this section is to introduce us to Ezra. His genealogy is given to show that Ezra was a member of the family which provided the high priests for Israel. Like many biblical genealogies, Ezra’s genealogy skips some generations. It omits six names that appear in the corresponding genealogy in 1 Chronicles chapter 6 and may have other gaps as well. In biblical genealogies “son” sometimes means grandson, great-grandson, or an even more remote relationship.
Seraiah was the name of the last high priest in Jerusalem before the Babylonian Captivity (1 Chronicles 6:14). Jeshua, the high priest when the temple was rebuilt, was Seraiah’s grandson. So if the Seraiah in our text is the same Seraiah, we have a time span of over 120 years between Seraiah and his “son” Ezra. Ezra was probably his great-grandson or even great-great-grandson. The point of the genealogy, then, is not to list every ancestor of Ezra but to establish Ezra’s credentials as a member of the family that had supplied Israel’s high priests throughout its history.
Ezra’s ability and character provided even more important credentials for his role as a reformer. He was a well trained, learned teacher of God’s law. He didn’t just study the law as a scholar, but he observed it as a believing child of God. Ezra was a good teacher because his thorough knowledge and devotion to teaching were coupled with his godly life. He taught others by example as well as by words.
Ezra provides a good example for all of us, whether we teach God’s Word as pastors, Christian elementary school teachers, Sunday school teachers, parents teaching our own children, or Christians teaching our neighbors by our example. To be effective teachers or examples, we need a correct and thorough knowledge of God’s Word. This comes only through the regular lifelong reading and studying of God’s Word. We can never graduate from our need to study God’s Word in daily Bible reading and in regular Bible classes. Yet Bible knowledge by itself is not enough. We need faith and love worked by the gospel. Such love motivates us to try to keep God’s law and to share God’s Word with others. Then we are not only hearers of the Word, but like Ezra, we become doers and teachers as well. May God so bless our study of his Word!