Ezra 8:1
OUTLINE:
I. \\#Ezra 1:1-2:70\\ The First Return to Israel
A. \\#Ezra 1:1-4\\ The Command to Return
B. \\#Ezra 1:5-11\\ Preparations for the Journey
C. \\#Ezra 2:1-65\\ The People Who Returned
D. \\#Ezra 2:66-67\\ The Animals That Returned
E. \\#Ezra 2:68-69\\ The People’s Reaction
F. \\#Ezra 2:70\\ Life Begins
II. \\#Ezra 3:1-6:22\\ Construction of the Temple
A. \\#Ezra 3:1-7\\ In the First Year
B. \\#Ezra 3:8-13\\ In the Second Year
C. \\#Ezra 4:1-24\\ The Temple Work Is Stopped
D. \\#Ezra 5:1-6:22\\ The Temple Completed
1. \\#Ezra 5:1-2\\ The Work Begun
2. \\#Ezra 5:3-5\\ The Law Comes
3. \\#Ezra 5:6-17\\ The Official Inquiry Made
4. \\#Ezra 6:1-5\\ The Search Was Done
5. \\#Ezra 6:6-12\\ The Command Given
6. \\#Ezra 6:13-14\\ The Command Obeyed
7. \\#Ezra 6:15-22\\ The Temple Completed
III. \\#Ezra 7:1-8:36\\ The Second Return to Israel
A. \\#Ezra 7:1-28\\ Ezra, the Man
B. \\#Ezra 8:1-36\\ The Journey
IV. \\#Ezra 9:1-10:44\\ Restoration of the People
\\#Ezra 8:1-36\\ The Journey
I. \\#Ezra 8:1-20\\ The Chief of the Fathers
A. \\#Ezra 7:28\\ closed with Ezra setting out to gather
"chief men to go up with me." These are the names of
those men.
B. Notice that Ezra only counted the "males" who went up
with him. That is not to say there were not women and
children, only that Ezra had his eyes primarily on the
men who could help him accomplish his goals of
establishing righteousness in Jerusalem \\#Ezra 7:10\\
and beautifying the temple \\#Ezra 7:27\\.
C. \\#15\\ "found none of the sons of Levi" - Most believe
this is a reference to those of Levi who were not
priests. The Levites served in a variety of duties, all
related to the worship of God such as gatekeepers,
custodians, teachers, and those who handled the
sacrifices. Ezra wanted to have Levites from all the
services.
D. \\#17\\ "to his brethren the Nethinims… that they
should bring unto us ministers for the house of God"
For example, the Nethinims. Some believe the
Nethinims were the Gibeonites who surrendered to be
slaves to the Jews and serve in the temple but
eventually accepted Jehovah and married into the tribe
of Levi. They did much of the manual work around the
temple.
E. \\#20\\ And God brought a total of 220 Nethinims in all
to go with Ezra.
II. \\#21-23\\ A Fast for Protection
A. \\#21\\ "at the river of Ahava" - Ezra left the city with
the Jews and made an encampment by the river for them to
pray and to organize. They would stay there for 11 days
\\#Ezra 8:31\\.
B. "that we might afflict ourselves before God"
(1) The word "afflict" means to cast down, to browbeat,
to put down.
(2) The point of the fast is to put ourselves and our
flesh down.
C. \\#22\\ Ezra was asking God to specifically give them
safety traveling to Israel.
D. \\#23\\ God heard them.
III. \\#24-30\\ The Cargo That Needed to be Protected
A. \\#26\\ "six hundred and fifty talents of silver"
(1) The talent varied in weight but an estimate is 75
pounds.
(2) At todays’ price, a single pound of silver is worth
$236.76.
(3) A whole talent would be worth $17,757.
(4) 650 of those equals $11,542,050.
B. They also had silver vessels that were made of another
100 talents of silver, $1,775,700.
C. They also had 100 talents of gold, worth $138,745,316.11.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talent_(weight)
https://trendshare.org/how-to-invest/the-current-price-of-silver-
today
http://onlygold.com/Info/Value-Your-Weight-In-Gold.asp
D. \\#27\\ They also had 20 bowls made of gold and two
vessels of copper as precious as gold.
E. A dram was a Persian coin worth $347.63 each. (See my
note on Ezra 2:69). That would equal $347,630.
F. In all, converted to our time, they were hauling over
$152,000,000.
G. \\#24\\ To help protect the cargo, Ezra weighed it out to
twelve different men.
IV. \\#31-36\\ The Arrival
A. \\#31\\ "the hand of our God was upon us" - And God
protected the Jews from bandits as they traveled.
B. \\#32-34\\ The Jews rested for three days when they
arrived then gathered the cargo.
C. \\#35\\ Then they offered offerings.
D. \\#36\\ And they prepared to go to work.
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