Title: Urim and Thummim (Ezra #2)
Text: Ezra 2:59-63
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1. The book of Ezra basically tells the story of one of the most important events in all of Jewish history…
The return of the people of God living in exile in Babylon captivity…
This return has 2 stages, it started under the leadership of Zerubbabel, a descendant of Judah…
It continued under the leadership of Ezra…
Ezra contains the accounts of both of these events…
The first stage comprising the first 6 chapters of the book…
And the second stage comprising the last 4 chapters of the book.
2. There are a lot of similarities between the 2 events…
Both of them start with a decree from the ruling power of the day…
Both of them allow the Israelites to return to their homeland…
Both times, it gives a type of summary of who responds…
And both times, it details precisely the items from the Temple that they are carrying back.
The first journey, under Zerubbabel’s leadership…
Was intended to restore the Temple building…
The 2nd journey, under Ezra was a restoration of the PEOPLE…
Not the building.1
3. Here in Ezra Chapter 2, we see the people who responded to God’s movement…
And they are listed in different ways…
We already know from this morning’s study…
That they are all from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi.
And if I were to read the first 58 verses of Ezra chapter 2…
You would probably find yourself starting to nod off…
Because I would basically be reading just a list of names…
Most of whom you wouldn’t recognize…
But then, we come to the words of our text…
And we find something that certainly bears special attention…
Read Text: Ezra 2:59-63
Body
1. Background
A. Genealogies were very important to the Jewish people…
Still are, in fact.
People all tried to show that they were descendants from Abraham…
And people of the covenant…
If they couldn’t show that they were a descendant of Abraham…
They were not considered a true Jew…
And they would not be able to participate in all parts of the Jewish community…
And furthermore…some tribes had special privileges and honors…
For example, only those who were descended from Levi were allowed to serve in the Temple
B. Here, in Ezra chapter 2, we find a group of people who considered themselves Jewish…
But, for what ever reason, they were unable to properly document it…
Those who claimed to be descended from priests were excluded from the priesthood…
They were excluded from eating sacred food…
And they were considered unclean until a priest could administer what is called in verse 63…
The Urim (YOU rim) and the Thummim (THUMB im)
C. We don’t have a lot of information about the Urim and Thummim…
The work Urim is found 7 times in the Bible…
And the work Thummim is found 5 times…
All 5 of those, Urim and Thummim appear together…
And then, there are 2 other places were Urim is found by itself…
And all of them are found in the Old Testament.
Commentators disagree over what they were…
But I tend to think they were two objects probably shaped like flat stones…
Originally, they were worn by the high priest.
We find additional description in Exodus 28:29-30.
"Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the LORD. 30 Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron’s heart whenever he enters the presence of the LORD. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the LORD”
These flat rocks or whatever they were…
Were evidently used to help make decisions…
They were used to find God’s will…
So they could know what God wanted them to do…
Some commentators think that the Urim represented the “NO” answer…
And the Thummim represented the “Yes” answer.
After a time of prayer for God’s guidance…
The priest would shake out one of the stones…
If the Thummim came out…
Then God’s answer was “no”…
If the Urim came out, then God’s answer was “yes”.
Other commentators feel that each stone had a yes side and a no side…
The priest would pray…
And then shake out both stones…
If they were both on the “yes” side…
Then God had spoken clearly on the “yes” side…
But if they both fell on the “no” side…
Then God’s answer was “no”…
But if one was yes, and one was No…
Then that was considered no answer from God.2
D. With this in mind…
Evidently these people who were unable to prove that they were Jewish…
Or of the priestly line…
They would have to wait until a priest administered the test…
Which, by the power of God, would show what was right and what wasn’t.
2. Application
A. How does all this apply to us today?
Well, I see several things that speak to us…
First of all, things have changed somewhat from the Old Testament to the New Testament…
During the Old Testament times, God used different things to speak to His people…
For example, He instituted the burnt offerings to show the people that there is a blood sacrifice that is required to pay the price for our sin…
But we don’t perform animal sacrifices…
Because Christ has come and paid the price once and for all…
At one time, perhaps it was important to show your ancestry to Abraham…
But now, more important that being Jewish…
Paul says, we just be Jew in our heart…
Romans 2:28 & 29 says, “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”
More important that showing if you are a child of Abraham…
Can you show that you are a child of King…Jesus Christ?
And, as far as seeking guidance and direction from God…
We don’t use Urim and Thummim today…
We don’t need to use some sort of divination device…
We don’t need to turn to our “magic 8 ball”…
Do you remember those?
You would ask it a question and shake it…
And it would give you a generic response like…
“maybe”…
Or “we certainly hope so”…etc…
But Scripture tells us that in James 4:8 that we can “Come near to God and he will come near to” us.
We certainly don’t need the Jewish High Priest…
We have a new High Priest…
His name is Jesus…
Hebrews 5:10 says that Jesus “was designated by God to be high priest”
So we can turn to Jesus…
And by the power of His Holy Spirit…
He will draw near…
And He will guide us and direct us.
B. Our Scripture tells us that some of the people couldn’t prove that they were descendants of Israel…
They hadn’t kept up the documentation…
Perhaps they had treated these important records with disregard…
And when the time came…
They weren’t able to enjoy the benefits that comes with being a child of Abraham…
There is coming another time where documentation will be very important…
Jesus will open up a very important book…
Called the Book of Life…
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Rev 20:11-15
There is no important document that you can show Jesus…
It’s not something that you can put in the safe for safe keeping…
This is your salvation…
If you treat your salvation with disregard…
If you are sloppy with regards to your relationship to Jesus…
If you flirt with temptation…
And yield to sin…
Your documentation will not be in order…
And you will be unable to enter heaven…
Just like these descendants from among the priests…
You will be excluded from the priesthood…
You will be labeled unclean…
You will be refused admittance…
And you will not be able to eat the sacred food.
C. Jesus says, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of” John 4:32…
His disciples said…”hey, who brought Him a Big Mac”?...
Jesus said, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work”
Don’t worry, like the descendants of Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai…
Don’t worry about if you get to partake of the sacred meat…
Don’t think that once you get saved…
You sit back and enjoy all the spiritual feedings from the Holy Spirit…
Until all Christians are so “fatly” blessed…
But they are so spiritually malnourished…
Like Christ, our “meat” is to do God’s will and finish His work.
Again, as Christ said, we “must be about our Father’s business”…
Conclusion
1. As I read this short passage of Scripture…
I kinda felt sorry for them…
I wondered if perhaps they were properly descended…
But because of whatever problems…
They were unable to prove it..
Our Scripture says, they “searched for their family records, but they could no find them, and so were excluded”…
They searched in vain…
2. For the moment, you don’t have to be that way…
We have this window of opportunity where we can be sure that if we will honestly and truly search…
We will find…
God says, “if you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul” deut. 4:29
You won’t be disappointed.
3. So…are you descended from a long line of Nazarenes?...
Did you parents and grandparents and their parents all serve the Lord?...
That’s certainly great if you can say that…
But it won’t get you into heaven…
Your family pedigree is not what is important…
It is the situation in your heart.
You can make deals all you want…
“God, if you will only do this…
Then I will serve you”…
If you don’t like what you get, shake that 8 ball again…
God, if you will let me win the lottery, I will give 50% to the church”…
4. In the past, God may have worked in certain ways…
But some things have changed…
Animal sacrifices…
Urim and Thummim…
And others…
But we see how they were intended to help us in our relationship with God…
Urim and Thummim helped the Children of Israel find their direction from God…
Tonight, you don’t need Urim and Thummim…
You don’t need me to pull out some special rocks to pray to God on your behalf…
You don’t need to invent a special way to come to God…
Certain magically words or phrases…
You can turn to God yourself…
You can find your strength in Him.
