Sermon Central
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Ezra Series
Contributed by Rev. Dr. Andrew B Natarajan on Feb 18, 2026 (message contributor)
Summary: Ezra’s Lineage, Leadership and Legacy conveys his past, his present and his future. We can’t do anything with our past generations and their life. But, we can do something noteworthy, noble things during our lifetime, the future is what we are today.
Theme: The Hand of God with Ezra
Text: Ezra 7:1-10
Greetings: The Lord is Good and his love endures forever!
Introduction:
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are ONE BOOK in Jewish Old Testament. But Christian Canon has made them as two separate books. Ezra’s name was given as title to one book and another as Nehemiah. But only Ezra chapter 7 names him.
The arrival of Ezra was in 458 BC, and he carried with him an authentic letter of the King. The traditional view assumes a gap of almost sixty years between the events of chapter 6 and chapter 7. It is historically believed that the events of the book of Esther took place between Ezra 6-7.
He was commissioned by King Artaxerxes to teach and enforce that Law among those who claimed to be loyal servants of YHWH, namely the previous returnees from Babylon and those locals who had united with them in the true worship of YHWH. The hand of God was involved in the life of Ezra. Today, I would like to remind everyone of the following:
The Lineage of Ezra - Ezra 7:1-5
The Leadership of Ezra- Ezra 7:6-9
The Legacy of Ezra - Ezra 7:10
Ezra’s Lineage, Leadership and Legacy conveys his past, his present and his future. The same way our past, present and future teach us a lot of lessons. We can’t do anything with our past generations and their life. But, we can do something noteworthy, noble things during our lifetime, the future is what we are today.
1. The Lineage of Ezra - 7:1-5
“…Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, The son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, The son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest:”
This list doesn’t have all the forefathers of Ezra. Some of the generations are left out. We don’t know the reason why certain names which are found in 1 Chronicles 6 have been omitted in this list. The time between the Exodus and Ezra must have exceeded one thousand years, and cannot have been covered by 16 generations rather 27 generations. There are six names between Meraioth and Azariah mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:7-10. Ezra 7:3 gives a gap between Seraiah and Ezra.
Seraiah appears to be the high priest of Zedekiah, who lived at least 130 years before Ezra. Three or four names are probably missing in this place.
However, one important message is passed on to us that Ezra was a direct descendant both of Aaron and also of Seraiah, who were the High Priests of the First and the last before the Exile. The lineage has a few important personalities namely, Eleazar, and Phinehas, and Zadok.
Eleazar, the third son of Aaron, came to prominence after the deaths of his older brothers, Nadab and Abihu, who died for presenting an unsolicited offering to the Lord, the “unholy fire” (Leviticus 10:1). Eleazar was named chief over the leaders of the Levites (Numbers 3:32). Eleazar received mentoring for decades from Aaron and Moses and worked with Joshua, three of Israel’s greatest leaders. His name was mentioned more than 60 times in the books of Exodus through Joshua.
“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’’(Numbers 25:10-13).
Another notable person in this list is Zadok, who was a priest under David whom Solomon appointed as a chief priest in place of Abiathar, who supported the rebel Adonijah (1 Kings 1:7-8; 2:35). Prophet Ezekiel regarded the Zadokites as free from idolatry (Ezekiel 44:15-16). Zadokites held the office of high priest till 171 B.C. The Sadducees were named after Zadok, and the Qumran community looked for the restoration of the Zadokite priesthood.
2. The Leadership of Ezra – 7:7-9
‘After this’ (v.1), this statement marks an interval of 57 years between Zerubbabel and Ezra. He had a number of associates with him travelling from Babylon (Ezra 7:7). Ezra 7:7 “And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.”(7:13, 27-28).
