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Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Privileges Of The Priesthood
Ezra 2:61-63
J.A. Macdonald
We are here forcibly reminded -

I. THAT THE PRIESTHOOD HAD ITS PRIVILEGES. These were -

1. They were sanctified to the service of God.

(1) Distinguished from the tribes whose inheritance was in the soil (see Numbers 18:20).

(2) Distinguished among the Levites. They were sons of Aaron. Were served by the Levites. While they served in the holy places, at the altar, within the veil (see Numbers 18:7).

2. They ate of the most holy things.

(1) As Levites, they had tithes from the nation.

(2) As priests, they had tithes from the Levites (Numbers 18:20, 21, 26-28).

(3) They partook of the altar (see Leviticus 6:16, 26; Leviticus 7:6, etc.).

(4) They ate the shew-bread of the Presence, viz., of the Shekinah, the visible glory of God. All this symbolically expressed near fellowship with God.

II. THE LAW PRIESTS WERE TYPES OF TRUE CHRISTIANS.

1. In their birth, as sons of Aaron.

(1) Aaron was a type of Christ. See arguments in Epistle to the Hebrews.

(2) Christians are of the family of Christ (see Ephesians 3:14, 15; Galatians 4:4-7). Have we the spiritual birth?

2. In their office, as priests of God.

(1) Christians are a spiritual priesthood (see Isaiah 61:6; 1 Peter 2:5, 9; Revelation 1:6).

(2) They have a spiritual consecration (see 2 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27).

(3) They offer spiritual sacrifices. Themselves (Romans 12:1). Sacrifices of prayer, of praise, of service (see Hosea 14:2; Hebrews 13:15).

3. In the privileges of their office.

(1) They draw nigh to God. The law priest entered the holy place. We enter the most holy (see Hebrews 10:19-22).

(2) They feast with God. This glorious fellowship is now expressed in the Lord's Supper.

III. THOSE WHO ASPIRE TO THESE PRIVILEGES MUST BE ABLE TO SHOW A VALID TITLE,

1. As to the priesthood under the law.

(1) Case of the children of Habai and Koz. These not elsewhere otherwise mentioned. Here acknowledged as sons of Aaron. Their reputed descendants could not show their genealogy from them.

(2) Case of the children of Barzillai's daughter. Honourable mention made of Barzillai (see 2 Samuel 17:27-29; 2 Samuel 19:31-39). This accounts for descendants of his daughter assuming his name rather than that of their father.

(3) They were therefore excluded (Hebrews, polluted) from the priesthood. Lost the sanctity; also the privileges.

2. As to the priesthood under the gospel.

(1) As with the aspirants through Habai and Koz, the reputation of being of the family of Jesus will not avail. Have you evidence of spiritual birth?

(2) As with the aspirants bearing the honourable name of Barzillai, respectability will not avail in place of a spiritual title. We must be real.

(3) The Tirshatha will scrutinize our claims. We must all pass the scrutiny of the judgment.

3. But is it possible for us to make up a valid title?

(1) What does the Tirshatha say (see ver. 68)?

(2) The Urim and Thummim were wanting then. These were used in the breastplate of the high priest for obtaining responses from the Shekinah of God in the temple. Neither these "lights and perfections" nor the Shekinah to illuminate them were found in the second temple.

(3) We have an High Priest who stands up with these, even Jesus, who ministers in the grander temple. Through his glorious Spirit, the true Shekinah, we have in our breasts the most perfect illuminations. By these we ascertain our spiritual birth with its titles. Have we this most sacred, this most indubitable assurance? - J.A.M.

Biblical Illustrator
These sought their register.
Ezra 2:62
The importance of a clear spiritual pedigree
William Jones.
I. THE DOUBTFUL PEDIGREE AMONGST THE PEOPLE IS AN ILLUSTRATION OF UNCERTAINTY AS TO OUR SPIRITUAL STATE.

1. This uncertainty may consist with association with the people of God (Vers. 59, 60).

2. This uncertainty must involve spiritual loss.

(1)Of spiritual joy.

(2)Of spiritual usefulness.Lacking Christian assurance our testimony for Christ would be likely to be deficient in clearness and attractiveness, in fervour and force; it would especially fail to set forth the joyful character of true religion.

II. THE DOUBTFUL PEDIGREE AMONGST THE PRIESTS IS AN ILLUSTRATION OF UNCERTAINTY AS TO OUR MINISTERIAL CALLING AND CONDITION.

1. A ministerial pedigree may be lost by reason of worldliness.

2. The loss of ministerial pedigree involves a corresponding loss of ministerial power and reward.

3. The final decision as to the standing of a minister of uncertain pedigree must be given by God Himself (ver. 63).

(William Jones.)

Melancholy records
J. Parker, D. D
Here is the picture of men seeking a register, and finding nothing in it; looking up old family papers, and their names are not found in the tender record. A man not known at home! He may have been born there, and have lived a good many years of his early life there; but to-day he has no record on the hearthstone, no place at the table, no portion in the family memory: it would be a breach of courtesy to name his name. Something must have happened. There is an ineffable sadness about this: all nature seems to be violated; instincts have been rooted out; natural affection seems to have been burned down and utterly destroyed. Consider the tremendous possibility of outliving one's natural rights, or forfeiting birthright, inheritance, paternal blessing, all the wealth of home's true love. Talk of falling from grace! What is this but an apostasy from the best grace — a fall from childhood's trust, the wilful obliteration of the name from the scroll whose meaning is nothing but love? Here is a child who is not named in the will. Consider what you have done. How infinite in detestation must have been the character which resulted in this issue! Take more general ground, and the principle still applies. Here is a man who is unknown in the community; his name may be written upon certain official papers, but it is not inscribed on the scroll of the heart, on the memory of gratitude; it is not to be found anywhere put up as a thing most prized and loved. He is but a figure in the community, but a tax-payer, but an occupier of a house; he is not a living presence in any sense of beneficence. When he is buried no one will miss him in the heart. His name is not written upon the register of trust, affection, or benevolent interest. Seeing that all these things are possible, there must be a reason for them: what is it? It is always a moral reason, where it touches any conception of general justice. At the last shall we go to the book of life and not find our names there? The answer is in our own lives. Sad to turn away from the record, saying, "My name is not there!" But, blessed be God, the humblest, least, vilest may, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, the whole mystery of the priesthood of Christ, have their names written in heaven.

(J. Parker, D. D)

People
Akkub, Ami, Asaph, Asnah, Ater, Baanah, Bakbuk, Barkos, Barzillai, Bazluth, Besai, Bigvai, Bilshan, Darkon, Delaiah, Gahar, Gazzam, Giddel, Habaiah, Hagab, Hagabah, Hakkoz, Hakupha, Hanan, Harhur, Harsha, Hasupha, Hatipha, Hatita, Hattil, Hezekiah, Hodaviah, Immer, Israelites, Jaalah, Jedaiah, Jeshua, Joab, Jorah, Kadmiel, Keros, Koz, Lebanah, Mehida, Mehunim, Meunim, Mizpar, Mordecai, Nebuchadnezzar, Nehemiah, Nekoda, Nephusim, Neziah, Padon, Pahathmoab, Parosh, Paseah, Pashur, Peruda, Phaseah, Pochereth, Reaiah, Reelaiah, Rehum, Rezin, Seraiah, Shallum, Shalmai, Shephatiah, Shobai, Siaha, Sisera, Solomon, Sophereth, Sotai, Tabbaoth, Talmon, Thamah, Tobiah, Tobijah, Uzza, Zaccai, Zattu, Zerubbabel, Ziha
Places
Ai, Anathoth, Azmaveth, Babylon, Babylonia, Beeroth, Bethel, Bethlehem, Cherub, Geba, Hadid, Immer, Jericho, Jerusalem, Kiriath-arim, Lod, Michmas, Nebo, Netophah, Ono, Ramah, Tel-harsha, Tel-melah
Topics
42, 360, Congregation, Forty, Forty-two, Hundred, Myriad, Numbered, Sixty, Thousand, Threescore
Outline
1. The number that return of the people
36. of the priests
40. of the Levites
43. of the Nethinims
55. of Solomon's servants
61. of the priests who could not show their pedigree
64. The whole number of them, with their substance
68. Their offerings

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezra 2:1-65

     5249   census

Ezra 2:1-67

     7230   genealogies

Library
Altar and Temple
'And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. 2. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. 3. And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Apocalypse.
On the Lit. and life of John, see §§ 40 and 41 (this vol.); on the authorship of the Apoc. and the time of composition, § 37 (this vol.); § 41 (this vol.); and § 84 (this vol.) 1. Modern Critical, works of German and French scholars on the Apocalypse: Lücke (Voltständige Einleitung, etc., 2d ed., 1852; 1,074 pages of introductory matter, critical and historical; compare with it the review of Bleek in the "Studien and Kritiken" for 1854 and 1855); DeWette Com., 1848, …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

Barzillai
BY REV. GEORGE MILLIGAN, M.A., D.D. "There is nothing," says Socrates to Cephalus in the Republic, "I like better than conversing with aged men. For I regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom it is right to learn the character of the way, whether it is rugged or difficult, or smooth and easy" (p. 328 E.). It is to such an aged traveller that we are introduced in the person of Barzillai the Gileadite. And though he is one of the lesser-known characters …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

The Historical Books.
1. In the Pentateuch we have the establishment of the Theocracy, with the preparatory and accompanying history pertaining to it. The province of the historical books is to unfold its practiced working, and to show how, under the divine superintendence and guidance, it accomplished the end for which it was given. They contain, therefore, primarily, a history of God's dealings with the covenant people under the economy which he had imposed upon them. They look at the course of human events on the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible

And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah
"And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall come forth unto Me (one) [Pg 480] to be Ruler in Israel; and His goings forth are the times of old, the days of eternity." The close connection of this verse with what immediately precedes (Caspari is wrong in considering iv. 9-14 as an episode) is evident, not only from the [Hebrew: v] copulative, and from the analogy of the near relation of the announcement of salvation to the prophecy of disaster …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Ezra-Nehemiah
Some of the most complicated problems in Hebrew history as well as in the literary criticism of the Old Testament gather about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Apart from these books, all that we know of the origin and early history of Judaism is inferential. They are our only historical sources for that period; and if in them we have, as we seem to have, authentic memoirs, fragmentary though they be, written by the two men who, more than any other, gave permanent shape and direction to Judaism, then …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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