Ezra 7:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Ezra 7:2

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The opening verses give Ezra’s lineage, his descent, all the way from Aaron. It is a very abridged list. There are 16 generations covered, when there were really about 27 to 30 generations, because it was a very considerable time. This is all the way from Moses. But the more obscure priests in the line are left out. So, for example, Ezra is described as the son of Seraiah, but he wasn't the son of Seraiah; he was the great-grandson of Seraiah. Why the jump? In the manner in which these are lists written, it's perfectly legitimate to call him the son. That covers the grandson and the great-grandson also, but several fathers are left out the sequence here because Seraiah is the last famous one. He was the high priest at the time that Nebuchadnezzar invaded and Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was destroyed, and Seraiah was taken into captivity and put to death by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:18). So he’s famous. His successors were somewhere in captivity in Babylon, and we don't read anything particularly of them. So it's natural that this would be an abridged list of his descent. But why is it here at all? Why is it elaborately traced that Ezra was descended from Aaron the high priest? The reason is that it must be demonstrated that his ministry and his appointment is in line with the law of God. He is an authentic priest, so his descent is given. Everything about this return and the blessing they are given and the way God is with them, as with the first returnees, is going to show that it's almost a divine response to their accurate application and obedience to God's word. So it's not any old leader; it is not a leader just, say, democratically arrived at. It is an authentic leader; it's an authentic priest, and therefore his descent is, as fully as you could reasonably expect, mapped out at the very beginning of chapter 7. This is all about the minister’s credentials, and this is part of his calling. Ezra, as the leader of this party and the one who is going to do so much now to spur things forward in Jerusalem, is appointed strictly in accordance with God's law.

Application

That was the Old Testament order. Now in the New Testament you have prescribed a leadership within the church, and teaching ministry, and whoever legitimately and properly teaches a congregation in the church of Jesus Christ, must be appointed or arrived at in line with God's rules. This is often neglected nowadays, but here, they are doing it precisely, even tracing his genealogy, to prove one of his qualifications. He is an authentic priest. In our case, we have the pastoral epistles. We have the 1 Timothy 3, for example, and all rules laid down for the appointment of officer.

As an instance of where people go straight today, someone may say, ‘I'd like to have a Bible study in my home.’ It sounds very noble! ‘We’ll get 20 or 30 people together from the church, and we’ll have a discussion group and somebody will chirp up and we’ll have an unofficial teaching session.’ Well, quite apart from the practical difficulties of this, you could have seven or eight such groups in the church, and all of them could be led by – forgive my language for the moment – some crackpot, somebody who is going to teach wild things, crazy things. Well, says the New Testament, you can't have that. So you have 1 Timothy 3: the qualifications of the teacher, how you know that he is the person you should select, how you appoint him, how you go about it. That is not there for nothing. But somebody says, ‘Well, why can't we? Why can't I go home and organise a home Bible study, with me’ – I rather fancy it – ‘acting as the teacher? I was saved last week, so I'm going to start a Bible study this week and teach.’ Well because you're not conforming to 1 Timothy 3, which has an appointed ministry, a prepared ministry, a properly recognised ministry, to safeguard against all the things that might happen. Why are there so many crazy things being taught at the moment? Because the rules of God are neglected in so many places and ignored. So here, they go to great lengths to establish that Ezra is an authentic priest, and that's only one of a number of qualifications that are listed here.

You can go on the Internet and you’ll get any number of seemingly wholesome, women preachers. Well where are they in the Scripture? This is not to say that women would not be perfectly capable of being preachers. This is not to suggest that. I daresay, if there were women preachers appointed by God, it's arguable that they may be better than men preachers. It is not a matter of capability; it is just that God has designed, he has ordained, and he has distributed the roles and determined what shall take place. It's not for us with our feeble minds to say, ‘That must be because in some ways women aren't up to it.’ That's terrible, to say that, because the Scripture doesn't say that. It gives theological reasons why God has ordered things in this way. But nevertheless there are scores of women ministers, and they are not appointed by God. They are nowhere to be seen in 1 Timothy 3, or anywhere else.

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Ezra 7:2 Commentary and Bible Study