The text before us describes a shortage of leadership on Ezra’s ministry team and God’s work in providing the leaders needed to get the job done. The job description was to reform a community of the Word and to beautify the newly rebuilt temple in Jerusalem (7:25 – 27).
Ezra had already sat down with the heads of the 12 families in Babylon and had recruited nearly 1,500 leading men to take the 1,000-mile journey to Jerusalem to execute the mission and vision with the provision that the Lord had given him (7:28 – 8:14). Look at the text with me…
EZRA 8:15 – 20
15I gathered them to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we camped three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests, I found there none of the sons of Levi. 16Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, leading men, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were men of insight, 17and sent them to Iddo, the leading man at the place Casiphia, telling them what to say to Iddo and his brothers and the temple servants at the place Casiphia, namely, to send us ministers for the house of our God. 18And by the good hand of our God on us, they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, son of Israel, namely Sherebiah with his sons and kinsmen, 18; 19also Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, with his kinsmen and their sons, 20; 20besides 220 of the temple servants, whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites. These were all mentioned by name.
Before embarking on the 1,000-mile journey, Ezra gathered his team on the banks of a river to plan and prepare and organize for the journey ahead. As he reviewed the ministry team, he found out that his team was lacking leaders from the family of Levi, known as Levites or Levitical priests (8:15).
What do you do when you do not have the manpower for the job in front of you; especially when the manpower you are lacking is considered a specialty type of manpower? Levites were special kinds of leaders with a specific calling and expectation to administer basic behind the scenes tasks of keeping the temple beautiful, in working order, and protected as well as administering the music ministry of the temple.2 What do you do when you are lacking a specific kind of leader for the mission ahead?
Ezra does what any responsible leader does. After realizing the leadership shortage, he does not sit on his thumbs waiting for God to send the right leaders along, he does not sit in the corner and pout about the shortage, and he also does not run around frantically trying to find the leaders he needs for the mission ahead on his own; he assembles a team of leading men and men of insight and he sends them to the leader of the Levites (Iddo) with a very persuasive recruiting letter (8:16 – 17).
The contents of this persuasive recruiting letter are summed up with the words “send us ministers for the house of our God” (8:17). One commentary notes that Ezra sent “the most significant men in the group as well as two ‘men of insight’”, not to coerce the Levites into joining the team, but to remind them of their God-ordained calling and responsibility to serve as ministers in the newly reformed community in Jerusalem.3
Sometimes, we read things like this and there is a disconnect for those of us who are not in vocational ministry. It is easy to disconnect from this story because it sounds like professional ministers are being recruited for ministry work and if you are not in vocational ministry, it is easy to miss the bigger Biblical picture that God has called every believer to be “ministers for the house of God” (Eph. 4:10 – 16; Rom. 12:3 – 8; 1 Cor. 12).
Imagine what the world would look like if more Christians would catch the vision for every believer being a called and gifted minister for the house of God. Imagine what a community like Hastings South of the tracks would look like if more than 50% of the names on our church attendee/member list began to consistently show up to the basic weekly gatherings of the church family and began to serve consistently and faithfully as ministry leaders.
What would this kind of consistent commitment produce in the neighborhood around us? Wouldn’t a fully engaged church family be a fresh drink of water to a world that is full of divorce, war, poverty, division, polarization, neglect, and broken relationships? How refreshing would it be for the community to witness a group of people leaving the comforts of their personal pursuits to give their lives away in a mission that is bigger than this world in a time where it is popular to isolate behind the TV.
I imagine that Ezra had some of the same dreams for his merry little band of ministry leaders. I can also imagine the disappointment he felt when he realized that the Levites had not yet joined the team. But, true to character, Ezra led forward with the skill of a strategic visionary, and he trusted God with the results and at the end of the day God provided 250 more leaders with 38 Levites included (8:18 – 20).4
APPLICATION…
Once again, God provides extravagantly for the mission ahead. Ezra labored faithfully and he did not give up in the face of short supply. We may never fully understand why the Levites did not join the team until so late in the story. But we do know that the Levites responded to their brothers when they reminded them of their calling and responsibility to be ministers in the house of God.
Sometimes all it takes is the simple faithful words of another human being along with the prompting of the Holy Spirit to get your head in the game or to keep your head in the game when it comes to serving the Lord. I had one of those moments recently with one of my daughters. I was lamenting how difficult, painful, and messy it is to do ministry and she simply said, “It’s for a good reason Dad.”
I imagine someone saying that to Ezra on the banks of the river when he realized there weren’t any Levites in the crew. I imagine someone saying, “This is all for a good reason, Ezra.” I also imagine Jesus saying the same thing to the Father in eternity past when the plan was laid for him to come and suffer horrendously for his enemies. I can just hear Jesus saying, “It’s for a good reason Dad!”
Maybe the Levites heard the same message… “get off your butts, get out of Babylon, travel 1,000 miles over deadly terrain, serve in menial tasks in Jerusalem, help reform a community of the Word and beautify the temple… it’s for a good reason! The Messiah will sit on that throne in that temple! Let’s get ready for him to come!” The only good reason the Levites would leave the comfort of Babylon is if they caught a vision of the Messiah King on the throne.
CONCLUSION…
Why would anyone leave the comforts of American religion (nominal Christianity that barely commits to anything long term) for a lifestyle of messy community, showing up 2 hours early on Sundays, making a consistent effort to be in a midweek gathering, serving in nursery or kids ministry, cleaning the church building throughout the week, mowing the church lawn, helping with all church cleanup days, participating in outreach events, pulling weeds in the front entry, serving coffee, greeting, and even sharing your faith with coworkers and friends?
Why would anyone leave the comfort of the American good life for a life of sacrificial and oftentimes physically and relationally painful service like I just described? Why would anyone take that 1,000-mile journey like the Levites?
The only good reason that will get your head in the game (if it hasn’t been) or keep your head in the game (when the going gets tougher than tough) is if your sacrifice means that a better King with a better letter gets seated on the throne of other people’s hearts.
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Derek W. H. Thomas, Ezra and Nehemiah: Reformed Expository Commentary, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2016), 144 – 146.
3 Ibid., 146 – 147.
4 Ibid., 149.