Scripture Reading: Ezra 7:6, 11-12, 21; 8:21-23; Neh. 8:1-9, 11-13; 12:26
Ⅰ
Ezra was a priest and also a scribe; thus, he was not a letter scribe but a priestly scribe—Ezra 7:6, 11-12, 21; Neh. 8:1-2, 8-9, 11-12; 12:26:
A
A priest is one who is mingled with the Lord and saturated with the Lord; Ezra was this kind of person—Ezra 8:21-23.
B
Ezra was a man who trusted in God, who was one with God, who was skilled in the word of God, and who knew God's heart, God's desires, and God's economy—7:6, 11-12, 21.
C
As a priestly scribe, Ezra was one with the Lord by contacting Him continually—Neh. 8:1-2, 8-9, 11-12; 12:26.
D
Ezra spoke nothing new; what he spoke had been spoken by Moses—Ezra 7:6; Neh. 8:14; 2 Pet. 1:12.
E
The priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe in order to gain insight into the words of the law; in Nehemiah 8:13 insight refers to apprehending the intrinsic significance.
Ⅱ
Ezra reconstituted the people of Israel by educating them with the heavenly truths so that Israel could become God's testimony—vv. 1-3, 5-6, 8, 13-18:
A
God's intention with Israel was to have on earth a divinely constituted people to be His testimony—a people reconstituted with the word of God—Isa. 49:6; 60:1-3; Col. 3:16.
B
After the return from captivity, the people of Israel were still unruly, for they had been born and raised in Babylon and had become Babylonian in their constitution:
１
The Babylonian element had been wrought into them and constituted into their being—Zech. 3:3-5.
２
After they returned to the land of their fathers to be citizens of the nation of Israel, they needed to be reconstituted with the word of God—Neh. 8:1-3, 5-6, 8, 13.
C
There was the need of teaching and reconstitution to bring the people of God into a culture that was according to God, a culture that expressed God; this kind of culture requires a great deal of education—v. 8.
D
For the reconstituting of God's people, Ezra was very useful, for he bore the totality of the heavenly and divine constitution and culture, and he was one through whom the people could be reconstituted with the word of God—vv. 1-2.
E
Ezra brought the people back to the Word of God so that they might be re-educated and reconstituted with the heavenly truths in the divine Word.
F
In order to reconstitute the people of God, there was the need to educate them with the word that comes out of the mouth of God and that expresses God—Psa. 119:2, 9, 105, 130, 140:
１
To reconstitute the people of God is to educate them by putting them into the word of God so that they may be saturated with the word—Col. 3:16.
２
As the word of God works within us, the Spirit of God, who is God Himself, through the word spontaneously dispenses God's nature with God's element into our being; in this way we are reconstituted—2 Tim. 3:16-17.
G
As a result of being reconstituted through the ministry of Ezra, Israel (in type) became a particular nation, a nation sanctified and separated unto God, expressing God—Isa. 49:6; 60:1-3; Zech. 4:2:
１
The returned captives were reconstituted personally and corporately to become God's testimony.
２
They were transfused with the thought of God, with the considerations of God, and with all that God is; this made them God's reproduction.
３
By this kind of divine constitution, everyone became God in life and in nature; as a result, they became a divine nation expressing the divine character—1 Pet. 2:9.
Ⅲ
In the Lord's recovery we need Ezras, priestly teachers who contact God, who are saturated with God, who are one with God, who are mingled with God, who are filled with God, and who are skillful in the Word of God; this is the kind of person who is qualified to be a teacher in the recovery—Matt. 13:52; 2 Cor. 3:5-6; 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11:
A
The Lord Jesus taught the people in order to bring them out of the satanic darkness into the divine light—Mark 6:6; cf. Acts 26:18:
１
Man's fall into sin broke his fellowship with God, making all men ignorant of the knowledge of God, with such ignorance issuing in darkness and death—Eph. 4:17-18.
２
The Lord as the light of the world came as a great light to shine on the people who were sitting in the shadow of death—John 8:12; Matt. 4:12-16.
３
The Lord's teaching released the word of light that those in darkness and death might receive the light of life—John 1:4.
B
Teaching equals revelation, which is the opening of the veil—1 Tim. 2:7; Eph. 3:3-4, 9:
１
To teach is to roll away the veil; as we are teaching others, we should be taking away the veil so that they may see something of the Triune God.
２
When we speak something in the church meeting, our speaking should be the rolling away of the veil; this means that our teaching should present a revelation—1 Tim. 4:6.
３
Today's Ezras should labor to constitute God's people by educating them with the truth so that they may be God's testimony, His corporate expression, on the earth—Neh. 8:1-8, 13; 2 Tim. 2:2, 15; 1 Tim. 3:15.
C
The recovery has the highest truth—the truth that is the consummation of the truths recovered during the past centuries—2:4; 2 Tim. 2:2, 15:
１
The greatest need that must be met is to bring the saints in the Lord's recovery into the truth to carry the recovery on—1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:2, 15.
２
We have both the objective truths and the subjective truths in the Holy Scriptures—Luke 24:39; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:34, 10; Col. 3:1; 1:27.
３
In our study of the Bible, we should not pay attention merely to the "branches" but go deeply into the "roots" and the "trunk."
４
We need to see the crystallized significances of the steps of God's economy and of the Body of Christ—John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4-6.
D
To be constituted with the truth is to have the truth wrought into us to become our intrinsic being, our organic constitution—2 John 2:
１
The intrinsic element of the divine revelation must be wrought into and constituted into our being—Col. 3:16.
２
Once the truth gets into us through our understanding, it remains in our memory, and then we retain the truth in our memory, causing us to have an accumulation of the truth—1 Pet. 1:13; 2 Pet. 1:15; 3:1.
３
After the truth gets into our memory, it becomes a constant and long-term nourishment; then we have an accumulation of the truth, and we are under the constant nourishment—Col. 3:16, 4; 1 Tim. 4:6.
E
All the saints in the Lord's recovery should be trained in the divine revelation—2 Tim. 2:2, 15:
１
Nearly all the crucial revelations in the Bible have been covered in the ministry of Brother Nee and Brother Lee; we should pay our attention to these pure and healthy things and not waste our time collecting "poisonous gourds"—2 Kings 4:38-41.
２
We all need to be helped through the Life-studies and the Recovery Version with the footnotes to see the intrinsic significance of the word of the Bible—Neh. 8:8, 13.